Even though my formal Japanese education ended years ago, I continue to learn and study Japanese in my daily life here, as the language surrounds my whole existence. You get to a point however, when conversational Japanese is second nature, and you start to plateau. You're at the point you were aiming for when you first started learning the language.
Well, it's time to take your language to the next step, and that means going back to the basics: focusing on grammar, reading, and writing. In a previous post, you've read about the Kanji in Context series that I love. Now it's time to check out my current text, one that I was using here in a community class.
I'm currently working on the New Approach Japanese Pre-Advanced Course. If you're beginning to study Japanese, this text is not for you. The interesting thing about this book is it is completely in Japanese, not biased towards non-speakers of English :-), there isn't even a forward by some renowned professor or anything. Also note that most of the sections do not contain any furigana. The text is divided into 12 chapters, and according to my teachers, if you're comfortable (know all the kanji and grammar) with the first six chapters you should be ready to take the JLPT 2-kyu, and after you're comfortable with whole book, you should be able to pass the JLPT 1-kyu. There is definitely a lot of material covered.
The text is basically broken down into several sections (click on the images for bigger pictures).
The reading:
Here we have a short text containing all the grammar and vocab we're learning in the lesson. Again, no furigana. The accompanying CDs will come in handy, if your kanji is as bad as mine ;-) There are a few questions to answer at the end.
Vocabulary and exercises:
After the reading, is a vocab list broken out into parts of speech. We have some furigana here, so you can look up words you don't know. I recommend going over the list before the reading.
Grammar explanations:
Here is the main body of the text, grammar point after grammar point. Notice all explanations are in Japanese, lovely isn't it? The bottom of the page contains additional vocabulary contained in the example sentences.
Grammar exercises:
If you managed to get through the grammar, on to the exercises. You can make your own sentences, here. I recommend copying the sentences in a notebook for writing practice. Also, try and make funny examples to keep your teacher laughing and your classmates awake.
Other activities:
Next you'll find additional activities, related vocab, topics for essays, etc. My class rarely went into this section as we didn't have enough time, however in a 5 credit class, you should have plenty of time to work on these sections.
Listening exercises:
Finally, there's the listening section. You can play the reading off the CD, and answer the questions. Loads of fun for the whole family! There are also other miscellaneous sections, but I'll leave those for you to find out about.
In talking with the teachers, they were debating whether to change the text or not, however there are not a whole lot of advanced textbooks to choose from on the market. Over the course of many years, students were complaining that this text was too difficult and boring. My opinion was quite the opposite. While the readings were definitely dated and could use a little updating, they were adequate for presenting the grammar, and suited my learning needs quite well. I needed to focus on learning kanji and high level grammar. I think the main reason that kept me interested was during the course of the day, I would constantly hear the grammar I was learning on TV dramas and the news. While most of this stuff you wouldn't encounter during a daily conversation, it definitely is in use.
beNippon has New Approach Japanese Pre-Advanced Course in stock and tons of material available to order for your Japanese studies. With EMS shipping you can have your books before your next exam.
Well, it's time to take your language to the next step, and that means going back to the basics: focusing on grammar, reading, and writing. In a previous post, you've read about the Kanji in Context series that I love. Now it's time to check out my current text, one that I was using here in a community class.
I'm currently working on the New Approach Japanese Pre-Advanced Course. If you're beginning to study Japanese, this text is not for you. The interesting thing about this book is it is completely in Japanese, not biased towards non-speakers of English :-), there isn't even a forward by some renowned professor or anything. Also note that most of the sections do not contain any furigana. The text is divided into 12 chapters, and according to my teachers, if you're comfortable (know all the kanji and grammar) with the first six chapters you should be ready to take the JLPT 2-kyu, and after you're comfortable with whole book, you should be able to pass the JLPT 1-kyu. There is definitely a lot of material covered.
The text is basically broken down into several sections (click on the images for bigger pictures).
The reading:
Here we have a short text containing all the grammar and vocab we're learning in the lesson. Again, no furigana. The accompanying CDs will come in handy, if your kanji is as bad as mine ;-) There are a few questions to answer at the end.
Vocabulary and exercises:
After the reading, is a vocab list broken out into parts of speech. We have some furigana here, so you can look up words you don't know. I recommend going over the list before the reading.
Grammar explanations:
Here is the main body of the text, grammar point after grammar point. Notice all explanations are in Japanese, lovely isn't it? The bottom of the page contains additional vocabulary contained in the example sentences.
Grammar exercises:
If you managed to get through the grammar, on to the exercises. You can make your own sentences, here. I recommend copying the sentences in a notebook for writing practice. Also, try and make funny examples to keep your teacher laughing and your classmates awake.
Other activities:
Next you'll find additional activities, related vocab, topics for essays, etc. My class rarely went into this section as we didn't have enough time, however in a 5 credit class, you should have plenty of time to work on these sections.
Listening exercises:
Finally, there's the listening section. You can play the reading off the CD, and answer the questions. Loads of fun for the whole family! There are also other miscellaneous sections, but I'll leave those for you to find out about.
In talking with the teachers, they were debating whether to change the text or not, however there are not a whole lot of advanced textbooks to choose from on the market. Over the course of many years, students were complaining that this text was too difficult and boring. My opinion was quite the opposite. While the readings were definitely dated and could use a little updating, they were adequate for presenting the grammar, and suited my learning needs quite well. I needed to focus on learning kanji and high level grammar. I think the main reason that kept me interested was during the course of the day, I would constantly hear the grammar I was learning on TV dramas and the news. While most of this stuff you wouldn't encounter during a daily conversation, it definitely is in use.
beNippon has New Approach Japanese Pre-Advanced Course in stock and tons of material available to order for your Japanese studies. With EMS shipping you can have your books before your next exam.
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