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Just yesterday someone asked about intermediates textbooks over on RevTK, so I’m going to be lazy and copy over my answer :p
“I will add another recommendation for Tobira. I prefer it to Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese as it covers quite a lot more grammar and for most of the book the reading exercises are longer, more varied and better structured in my opinion. I just enjoyed reading them more (though I’ll note that I haven’t finished Tobira yet and don’t know if that will be true all the way through).
I found Integrated Approach became more interesting once it starts using real Japanese newspaper article and book samples as the reading exercises, but that’s only in the last few chapters.”
So yeah, I recommend Tobira.
Haha, it’s because of the RevTK forums that I was leaning that way. I was just seeing what the people over here had to say about it. Guess I should have expected some overlap, no? Thanks.
I would have thought the best intermediate “textbook” would be just any Japanese literature (novel, newspaper, etc.) accompanied by some kind of grammar dictionary. Once I’ve finished JBP III and Core 2000 (possibly Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication too), I’m gonna start reading Harry Potter. Not just on it’s own, but with the English version, like a parallel text but not… parallel…
Oh and the audio book too.I guess the structure given by a textbook can be pretty useful sometimes, but I wanna get stuck in :P May find it too difficult in the end and resort to another textbook though, we’ll see ;)
OT: Started listening to/watching Fuji New Network videos every day, just in the background. The video playlist is from the FNN website (though found the link through beelinetv.com), updated each day; lasts about 1/2 hour to an hour I think. I try watching it at least once a day if not twice.
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/playlist/video/wmv/news_300.asxWhy exactly would Japanese literature be “best” right after finishing a beginner textbook? I think that approach suits some people well, but I don’t see why it would universally be the best option for everyone.
Personally when I read native material that’s too far above me then I just find it ineffecient, tedious and it does little to improve my comprehension. I’d rather have material that’s challenging but not so difficult that it’s frustrating, which is why I moved on to intermediate textbooks that build up to using native material in a structured manner.
Reading Harry Potter with a vocabulary of only 2000 words just sounds painful to me, but if you enjoy that and it works for you then more power to you :)
Reading native material asap is a good idea in my opinion so I fully support you on your decision to try and read Harry Potter. In fact, I’ve been trying to do a similar thing with Spiderwick Chronicles. However, I noticed the same problem with my reading as with my listening: it’s too easy. It’s not that hard to be able to pull the meaning out of the sentences while filtering out what you don’t completely understand. Then you stop progressing when you reach a “good enough” point. That’s the point of the textbook.
If you don’t completely understand something then that doesn’t really sound like a case of the material being “too easy” to me :)
I’ve experienced the same thing too. But I’ve had countless times where I’ve been reading something and believed I understood the “meaning of the sentence” without fully understanding the grammar, but later discovered that my understanding was actually completely wrong. I think it’s something that happens to a lot of learners (though I’m not saying that’s happening in your case).
In regards to Harry Potter, I don’t think grammar would be particularly difficult (from the samples I’ve seen). But my concern would be vocab. Michael only knows 2000 words and having to look up more than half the words on every page just seems inefficient to me. Some people learn well through that, I’m just not one of them I guess.
Lol bro, I finished my first novel which was 300 pages and a 携帯小説 so it wasn’t THAT hard to read but needless to say, it was a definite challenge so I’d recommend that one to anyone. The next one I’m attempting is much harder than the one I completed and it’s a legit novel this time . Granted I haven’t seen how Harry Potter actually looks like in Japanese, it sounds pretty scary lol.
Missing, how much vocab do you know? And haven’t you been studying for a couple of years now? Are you comparing your current ability with people who have been studying for much less time than you? Would that 300 page 携帯小説 still have been so easy if you did it after your first year of learning? (I have no idea what that book is like, so I’m just wondering)
Also I’m not saying Harry Potter is a difficult text, I’m saying that for me it would have been frustratingly slow and inefficient back when I still had little vocab. It probably wouldn’t be now, but back when I only knew 2000 words it would have been.
I’m not saying that anyone shouldn’t read native material, I think it’s important to do so. Indeed much of the stuff contained in good intermediate textbooks is native material, it’s just picked out and structured for specific levels of ability. I was just responding to Michael’s statement that jumping into Japanese literature and newspapers(!) is “best” right after beginner grammar, as I don’t necessarily agree.
I’m getting close to finishing RTK which is great because I’m boring myself to death with it.
haha, I know how you feel:P
I just Finished RTK & the supplement kanji added in 2010. I am happy to finally be done :P
Now I just have to solidify them all, but that will come with time :) Back to focusing on actually learning Japanese instead of the damn kanji.Congrats Mark! Now the real fun starts :)
So envious!
Thanks Elenkis ^^
@Yggbert You will get there eventually, but if you expected balloons at kanji.koohi then you will be disappointed :(
石の上にも三年Given all the stories about parades and floats I’d expect one of those to be honest!
Nah, I was trying to say that Harry Potter seems really hard to read even if I were to attempt it now so I’m saying Harry Potter probably shouldn’t be the first thing a person should try to read. On the other hand, if Mister really wants to do it, then he should do it.
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