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Hello all.
I was stalking through older forums when I stumbled across one asking for resources to further their Japanese grammar knowledge. As I was reading the responses it suddenly occurred to me that I have no idea which direction to go after I finish TextFugu! Some people were talking about other textbooks like Nakama, Tobira, Japanese for Busy People, Genki…I’m starting to become really nervous over this now. I don’t want to get stuck because I’ve already committed to this!
Please, does anyone have any advice on what should happen after “graduating” from the TextFugu course? Which textbook do I pick up after this one?
I would love some guidance. D:
Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.Nakama, Genki and Japanese for Busy People are all roughly equivalent to TextFugu, in that they’re intended for someone with no knowledge of Japan, though I think they may go a little further than TextFugu – not too sure of that, though. Regardless, they can be helpful for another viewpoint anyway – the only one of those four I don’t own is Genki. Japanese for Busy People is slightly geared towards business-related Japanese, incidentally.
Tobira is the next level up – intermediate to upper intermediate. Maybe even lower advanced. It’s written almost entirely in Japanese – English is only used to explain new vocab and grammar. Honestly, I’ve actually never finished TextFugu, so I couldn’t tell you whether TextFugu on its own will raise your level high enough to be able to use Tobira.
Alternately, Koichi’s working on more advanced sections of TextFugu, which might be finished before the start of the next geological era…
Lol! Thanks Joel for replying.
Since you never made it all the way through TF, what got you to the level of continuing your studies through Tobira?Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.Just finished a three-year Diploma of Language Studies in Japanese. =) We used Nakama for the first two years, and Tobira for the third. Or rather, two-thirds of Tobira, and sometime I need to make sure I study the remaining third we didn’t have the time for in class. To a certain degree, Tobira was written with students continuing on from Nakama or Genki in mind – Tobira’s website has a list of kanji that are assumed knowledge, and it also includes handy lists of which kanji on that list aren’t covered in Nakama or Genki.
P.S. From the United Kingdom, I’m looking for him, I’m going to Californiaaa. =P
Oh my! No wonder you didn’t need Textfugu, you had the ability to go beyond self-learning. Congratulations on your degree, the hard work is worth it, no?
Ok. So, from what I’m feeling now, maybe TextFugu will get me to the point where I can at least pick up Nakama afterward. Then, with time and patience and diligence, I can make my way toward Tobira. All the while I can be using WaniKani (I’m soooo excited that I got the beta key last night!). I can also be tuning my listening ears with Japanese radio…maybe even try to get some speech practice in by mumbling about “This is a door”/”You are a dog”/”I am crazy” in Japanese under my breath while walking around the house. I don’t really have anyone to practice with but I tend to try and answer questions people ask me with Japanese quickly followed up by English so they aren’t like “What the heck…?” I guess that’s the best I can do for now.…it was the only thing I could think of for my signature XD
Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.mumbling about “This is a door”/”You are a dog”/”I am crazy” in Japanese under my breath while walking around the house. I don’t really have anyone to practice with
LOL! I do the same thing. My favourite is when I’m making coffee… “This is coffee… sugar is sugar (because this is perhaps the most real-world use of language)… this is not milk (because I don’t know the word for cream)” lol.
Glad I’m not the only one who could conceivably be accused of mild insanity ;)
I haz a blog http://maninjapanchannel.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQzB-1u-dgCongratulations on your degree, the hard work is worth it, no?
I hope so. To be honest, while the class gave us plenty of listening and speaking practice – and the lecturers and tutors were native Japanese speakers who could help with pronounciation, I still suck at listening, and I clean forget everything when I’m actually speaking to people, sooo… That’s probably just me, though. One of my classmates is in Japan at the moment, and she says she’s using Japanese 95% of the time.
(because I don’t know the word for cream)
クリーム =P
Tobira is pretty good, but yeah, there’s no way you’d be able to tackle after only doing TextFugu. Maybe have a look at Tae Kim’s guide? It covers stuff TF covers plus lots more.
guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
Glad I’m not the only one who could conceivably be accused of mild insanity ;)
We all have to be a liiittle insane in order to try and learn an entirely new language without a whole lot of guidance. :D But it’s a good insanity.
Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.Tobira is pretty good, but yeah, there’s no way you’d be able to tackle after only doing TextFugu. Maybe have a look at Tae Kim’s guide? It covers stuff TF covers plus lots more.
guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
Thank you for this link, Michael. At least I’ll be able to tie any loose ends at the close of TF chapters with it. See what I’m missing, see what I still need to cover, ect. This is very useful!
Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.クリーム =P
Well… that… yeah. Lol. That makes an awful lot of sense. Thanks! :P
I haz a blog http://maninjapanchannel.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQzB-1u-dgOh, also…how long has Kouichi been saying that an update is going to happen on the site? On his updates page he said something about starting back in March working on it. I can understand how long it would take to update such a big website/textbook, so I’m not very concerned that it’s July and it still hasn’t happened. But had he been talking about it even BEFORE his February trip? Is this a case of terrible procrastination on the author’s part?
Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.Okay, focus, relax. There is no wrong way to learn Japanese. As long as you are surrounding yourself with Japanese learning and Japanese in general as much as you can, you will be learning. I know the situation you are in right now where you struggle to find the perfect syllabus and your path. I was there not long ago.
Nakama, Tobira, Japanese for Busy People, Genki.
These are all /great/ books that you can learn a lot from. Which one is best? Of course there is no best, you are the only one who can answer whether or not a certain pair of pants suit you. What I can tell you is that Genki is a very good book for someone who wants to go at a slow pace, with easy explanations. JfBP is as the title suggests concise and fast. If you want to blaze through and become somewhat conversational, use that book. Nakama goes further than Genki and has a different way of explaning things. It’s also a little bit faster paced. Tobira is, as far as I know, an intermediate book. Don’t bother thinking about that right now.
To be honest, I’m an indecisive guy. As I said I was where you are now not long ago. Then I found out that, maybe, if I just get one book and stick with it, I’ll learn. So I did. I’m on Genki II now. I’m enjoying the journey. Genki I served as a good refresher on basic grammar. I’m doing them with a teacher from italki. Genki is expensive. Genki is good. You can start from Genki 2 or Genki 1 depending on if you want to repeat or not.
Thank you so much for replying! Now that I’m clear of mind, I know you’re right…there’s no wrong way to learn. I was concerned that I would get stuck. But the truth is that there are tons of resources out there to help me continue on the path, so it’s impossible to become stuck. I just need to know what will work best for me. Trial and error. Right now, TextFugu is working for me. Whatever comes after that I should only worry about when I actually get there.
Thank you for smacking some sense into me haha. Really helpful!Excalibuuuuur. Excalibuuuuur.Try http://www.imabi.net . It covers not just beginner but also advanced levels for more knowledgeable users. I think it only has about ~200 lessons IIRC but even with a textfugu “graduation” it WILL take you a while to get through them all.
It is very comprehensive and in-depth so I highly recommend it.
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