I finished みんなの日本語 and now Jumped into 「上級へのとびら」, currently starting chapter 3.
The problem I’ve been having is not having any answer key. I don’t want to ask reddit for every question I have, or checking my answers. I’ve been doing all exercises I can, but no good way to check if I’m correct, and there are also a lot of classroom-focussed excercises I can’t really do.
I mostly stick to re-writing every 読み方 and 会話練習 in Word, writing down every word I don’t know, putting them into Anki (and a glossary), and re-reading the text until I can read it without needing furigana, and having a full comprehension of the text.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I HAVE been feeling that I’ve learned a ton of stuff, but I feel like there’s no real verification of what I’ve been doing
TL;DR – How have other people found using Tobira for self-study? Because my way of using it seems a bit off from what the book actually wants you to do. It still seems pretty classroom-focused, and without an answer key I remain insecure about whether I’ve actually done the assignments correctly. (Just like A.I. Chat-GPT I’ll be very confidently wrong about things, lol)
2 comments
This was shared here the other day and I think it could help you going through the exercises and checking if your answers are correct. It’s an incredible tool.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/znlk3v/made_a_free_website_for_practicing_whats_taught/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
**Reading sections:**
**+** They actually use the vocab they introduce
**+** More interesting then Genki
**+** Each chapter follows some topic (e.g. food, geography, technology)
**Vocab:**
**+** More info about vocab then Genki (formality, more consistent about telling you what type of word it is, etc)
**+** Nice compact vocab lists make for easy memorization. Just cover the English column with a piece of paper and try it out.
**Grammar:**
**-** The grammar section is very cramped feeling
**-** The grammar section uses a weird notation reminiscent of the discrete math courses I took (setbuilder notation) but while I liked it in math, I don’t like it here
**-** The grammar section feels more like a list of grammar info, than a actual textbook leading you through grammar. You may as well just use some list online.
**+** I like how they tie the reading section to the grammar
I only did a few chapters and decided to just read books. But anyway, that’s what I can remember.