みなさん、こんにちは！
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Two weeks ago I started a new job, but the problem is that it’s a bit far away from where I live. I’m commuting 4 hours each day (2 hours each way), so I figured that I might as well use that time constructively and start working on some grammar.
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Where I’m at with Japanese:
* I have memorized Hiragana and I’m more or less halfway through memorizing Katakana.
* Almost every day, I’m listening to some of my favourite Japanese artists such as Keyakizaka46 / Sakurazaka46, Polkadot Stingray, LiSA, and Kana-Boon.
* I regularly watch old episodes of Haromoni and Keyakitte Kakenai (looking forward to starting Soko Magattara, Sakurazaka) and make notes of commonly used words and phrases.
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I’m planning to visit an old college friend in Tokyo next Winter, and I cannot be more excited to see Japan for the first time! I’d love to be able to hold my own in a conversation, ask for directions, or even just order food.
So yes, any book recommendations on grammar would be immensely appreciated. Preferably light and easy to carry books would be beneficial because I tend to travel light as I also walk in between bus stops.
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ありがとうございます！
5 comments
download tae kim’s guide online, you can get a full pdf download, then read thru it even without a connection.
No offense, but honestly your priorities seem a little bit off if you’re trying to seriously learn the language.
If you haven’t even finished learning the kana and don’t know any (or barely any) grammar, how much do you actually understand listening to all that music and watching all those idol shows? Just jotting down random words or phrases when (one would assume) the vast majority of what you’re hearing is going over your head doesn’t seem like a very efficient way to learn.
I’d suggest putting aside at least some of that watching/listening time to work through a decent beginner’s textbook at home. There’s nothing wrong with using your commute to learn grammar, but it just seems kind of backward– at your current level, at least — to save your serious study for the commute (forcing you to limit yourself to “light and easy to carry” texts) while you spend all your time at home listening hours at home just watching/listening to stuff you like. Wouldn’t it make more sense to do it the other way around?
>I’d love to be able to hold my own in a conversation, ask for directions, or even just order food.
The first is going to take a lot of work, but the latter two can be easily accomplished just by picking up and studying a phrase book for travelers/tourists.
The Genki textbooks are what I’d call portable; the workbooks even more so. If you go through both books and do some vocabulary grinding you’ll have much more fun doing immersion learning on your commute. If you intend to be doing this commute for a long time the effort of getting through the boring grindy stuff at the beginning when you’re excited it’ll make the harder days (mentally/physically that is) just a little bit easier, ya know? Anyway, just my $.02 🙂
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My commute is one hour on the train and then thirty minute walk so I can empathise! If you can utilise that time for studying, that’s great, although I personally found that carrying around books with all my other daily junk was too much and tended to mostly uses apps.
I’d suggest you try the Japanese for Busy People book 1. I found it to be a really good, gentle introduction to grammar; it’s also designed for self-study. Make sure you get the kana version and not the romaji one. I had my second trip to japan just after finishing the first book and really noticed the difference from my first trip when I spoke no Japanese. It will get you to a point where you can ask for directions, check if it’s ok to take photographs, understand basic signs, order food etc.