TL;DR: Any textbook recommendations to learn to *read* Japanese with more focus on grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure than phrases or cogently speaking.
Hello, I know full well how difficult Japanese is to learn to a proper degree so I’m not particularly interested in a challenge that big ATM. Nonetheless I’ve always had a great love for Japanese poetry and especially Noh plays.
I was wondering if anyone knows any good textbooks that take a more literary and grammatical approach?
I’ve learnt Latin to a good level and have done some Ancient Greek in the past and though both the languages are very complex certainly learning to read with a dictionary and grammar at hand is much nicer.
In my mind something like this would be perfect for Japanese as the tidbits I hear from my friends studying it at university make the grammar sound super interesting. Not sure if this exists but if anyone knows what I’m getting at please offer up any recommendations you can think of :))
3 comments
Most Japanese textbooks emphasize proper grammatical structure and vocabulary, to the point that people focusing on everyday speech usually supplement with YouTube videos, podcasts, etc. The Genki series will give you a solid foundation, and there are lots of supporting materials for it available on the internet.
I also recommend picking up [A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar](https://amzn.asia/d/dixu3sa). It’s the first in a series of exhaustive grammar dictionaries, and the trio of them make excellent reference material.
Once you’ve finished the first Genki book (or equivalent), take a look at [Satori Reader](https://www.satorireader.com/). They teach grammar through a Japanese story collection that scales in difficulty based on the number of kanji you know.
Also, if you’re not up for “a challenge that big”… reading is considered one of the more challenging parts of Japanese. You’ll still be biting off quite a lot. I personally think it’s worth it, but be aware this isn’t a shortcut to easier studying.
I second the recommendation for Genki. It’s worked really well for me with how it is structured. After finishing both, and moving on to Quartet, reading is my strongest skill, followed by writing, speaking, and listening.
I studied Latin in high school and there are actually a lot of similarities between the basic structure of both languages. They both, unlike English, do not particularly depend on word order, and the role of a word is determined by its ending or particle. A lot of the things you learn in Latin work similarly to Japanese as well. (Nominative case is very similar to は／が particles, genetive case is very similar to の particles, etc). Japanese doesn’t have any subject-verb agreements, and you only have to deal with eight basic verb endings that repeat across different tenses of verbs.
The grammar-translation method of language learning is still king in Japan, and by extention among resources made for Japanese learners. You basically have your pick of the litter. I think the Marugoto series is the only textbook I’m aware of that used a communicative approach rather than grammar-translation