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Thread: Recommend me japanese books! ( learning )

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    Cloud13's Clown Reputation: 128
    supersonix9's Avatar
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    This is currently what I'm using in my 3rd year of Japanese. It's decent.

    I must stress though that it is important that you learn more than just polite forms (Most Japanese people use the casual/conversational forms)

    する <--- plain/casual
    します <--- polite/formal

    Also, get a Kanji dictionary! Kanji is VERY important if you plan on reading the language.






    http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-***...6450785&sr=8-2

    Not saying that these are THE BEST, but I've certainly learned quite a bit from these over the years.

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    Raiyne's Rock Band Reputation: 92
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    Genki and a pocket dictionary are going to be your best friends. A teacher would be nice too.

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    Genki lacks a bit on the kanji-part imho, but it's easy from what I've studied in it so far.

    Getting a teacher, as Klaime says, would be a lot easier as you might get lost with the new stuff in the beginning. It sure took me a couple of hours to understand 'ni' and 'he'. ><


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    Quote Originally Posted by SnOwBunZz View Post
    It sure took me a couple of hours to understand 'ni' and 'he'. ><
    Same here. Particles are a pain when learning Japanese.

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    Marineking's Minion Reputation: 372
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    Learning particles was so much easier for me, when I stopped studying Japanese at university, and rather just learned it by using it as it is, and just accepting the way the particles are used in certain setphrases.

    In any case, for learning Japanese, I'd recommend Genki 1+2, followed By Intermediate Japanese, made by the same people.

    Then supplement by buying childrens/simple fiction books(mange will do too, if you're into that, but for authenticity, try to stick to "slife of life" genres, and the ones that don't provide furigana if your goal is to improve reading), and force yourself to read through it. In doing so, you should really have a electric dictionary(denshi jisho, 電子辞書), or acquire one of those softwares for the nintendo DS that does the same job(emulator ftw, if you're poor or don't have a DS) - Maybe there are aps for smartphones that do the same job as well.

    Don't waste time on the paper kanji dictionaires as they are slow and tedious to work with. Also, they don't contain a fraction of the information and examples etc, that you'll have when working with an electric.

    In any case - if you can finish a book or two, you should get a good sense of how the Japanese language is used, and then everything you studied(and study from that point on), will make that much more sense to you. Furthermore, your language will probably develope much more naturally, which is a pluss if you don't have the comfort of having native speakers around you.

    Most of all though:
    If you're serious about Japanese, you should find a book on Japanese phrases/catchphrases and sayings, as the Japanese language are littered with them.
    Most of these phrases make little sense when translated, many don't appear in common western dictionaries, and they make you're Japanese so much richer when you know how to use them.

    じゃ、頑張れ!
    日本語出来るようになったら、日本に来て楽しい思い出をたくさん作ってね

    Last notes, google translator is your friend. And Kanji is much easier to remember to read through the use of computers/cellphones, than it is to remember how to write by hand(which you probably want have that much use for anyways, unless you plan on living in Japan, in which case, you'll have ample time to improve that skill once you get over here anyways), so a good way to learn is to write as much as you can in Japanese on your computer(as you then only have to remember how the word is pronounced, hiragana style, in order to write it out).
    Doing this, and reading out Kanji you've forgotten, using tools like your electric dictionary and google translator, you'll remember a lot in a very short amount of time.

    Again, good luck, and all the best!
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