How did you go through Tobira?

8 comments

1. It’s fairly simple, read Vocab, read grammar points with examples, read the text given, rinse and repeat, feel confident or bored move onto to the next lesson. It really doesn’t matter how you approach learning grammar or how frequently you do it, the only thing that matters is not giving up and being consistent with your study.

2. I’ve tried to adapt textbooks for my learning style and busy schedule. So I don’t read any of the dialogue or exercises and mainly just read the grammar section as a source of a new grammar points which I then use to write a few sentences and sometimes get HelloTalk to check them. Then I’ll come back to it next week and write a few more. In fact I added the grammar points to an anki deck so it keeps telling me which grammar to revise. I’m yet to see if this is a good idea.

   I find this easy for me because tobira is quite complicated so i need a much simpler way of working through it in short bursts. Those three little example sentences at the bottom of the grammar section are usually enough for me to understand how to use it in a basic sense.

3. Day 1 of a new chapter: I did the readings first with no references to see what vocab and grammar I already knew or could learn from context. The first time through the reading was much slower, but then I went through the vocab and grammar and analyzed pieces of the text I didn’t understand. To cap it off I’d listen to it with the audio one last time.

   Day 2-3 of a new chapter: I listened to the audio for the readings again, then wrote the answers to all the reading-based questions in a notebook. Then I went back and read the readings out loud to myself once or twice, attempting to get my reading speed and speaking to a natural, confident speed.

   Day 3-4 of a new chapter: I listened to the audio for the readings again, then read them out loud myself again. Sometimes I would also review the example sentences from the grammar section and read those out loud. Then I would do the speaking activities either by speaking to myself, or I would write them out as dialogues and have them corrected by my tutor.

   Day 4-8: More re-reading and reading aloud, and I would start putting any words into anki that I either was not retaining from this daily practice, or any words with new kanji or kanji readings. During this time I would be doing the practice questions in the grammar exercises book and writing them down in my notebook or just saying them out loud. I would also have a meeting with my tutor once a week and around this time I would sometimes ask him to do the speaking/conversation exercises again with me so I could do them properly.

   Day 9-10: I would do writing activities for the chapter in the grammar book and send those to my tutor for corrections. (So we ended up alternating 1 week writing corrections and discussion on writing natural Japanese, and 1 week conversation practice).

   Day 11-ish: By this time I was about done with the chapter, but I would read the passages aloud again, this time challenging myself to keep the same pace as the book audio. If I failed at this, I’d try it again a few times until I was satisfied I’d wrung everything I could out of the chapter’s content.

   Then I’d move on to the next chapter. This was not a specific routine I set up and followed strictly, it’s just more or less how I ended up using the book once I got into a groove with it.

   The reason for all the reading aloud is because one of my goals is being able to speak Japanese naturally and I found reading familiar passages was a very safe “training ground” to drill my speaking ability. I had a lot of trouble speaking without stumbling all over myself so really attacked the problem while I was using Tobira and by the end I had massively improved to the point where I could have comfortable conversations finally.

4. Since reading has always been my strong point I try to read the chapters first and then go over the grammer (Kanzen Master is better tho, so I don’t stress on Grammar and Exercises much). I usually go and find related articles on the internet and try reading them . Then there is the Tobira site which is quite helpful, I’d suggest going over the online stuff at a glance first and then read, go through it again if you feel like it. Tobira is simpler and better structured than most 中上級 texts I’ve seen around. Steer clear of SRS and all that for now.

5. I just finished chapter 1 of Tobira today!

   Going forward I plan on doing the grammar first by reading that section and adding each new grammar point to an anki deck, then going back and reading the rest of the chapter, then doing the workbook. Kanji and vocab are not an issue for me because I do Wanikani and Ringotan daily.

6. I worked through an entire chapter in the order it appears in the textbook, then worked through the sections corresponding to that chapter in the workbooks. Of course, since the readings had grammar and vocabulary I didn’t know, I usually had to read each reading at least twice to really get the full picture, and I consulted the grammar explanations without much restraint when doing the exercises. A few times I had to stop reading and read the grammar explanation for certain sentences, but usually you can sort of get the meaning by context, which is ok for a first reading.

7. My reply isn’t going to be helpful, but I didn’t use Tobira at all. Heck, I didn’t even use Genki, at least not until it was too late for me to get any practical use out of it.

   After I thumbed through Genki (I found perfect condition copy at a book store for $2), I thought it was well put together, and about the right length. But when I looked through some previews of Tobira, it looked mind-numbingly boring and I just did a big nope.

   Also to quote another user from this post:

   >It really doesn’t matter how you approach learning grammar or how frequently you do it, the only thing that matters is not giving up and being consistent with your study.

   Pretty much this. Most of the well-known resources out there are good enough, and all that matters is your consistency and finding a way to keep your journey interesting for yourself.

8. It’s not an exact science. I would usually spend a few days at most on a chapter, which consisted of reading the articles, confirming my understanding with the vocab list, cross-checking grammar points until I was confident or bored enough to move on. I didn’t bother with memorisation, or with exercises (which I personally find to be a waste of time)