Hello!
I’ve been learning Japanese for a while primarily using flash cards, online readers, and DuoLingo, and I feel like I’ve reached the point where the latter is starting to plateau in its ability to teach me anything other than vocabulary. So I wanted a new source to regularly introduce new vocabulary and grammar to add into my regimen. I looked at the wiki and I suspect the Tobira textbooks are probably where I want to be, but because my proficiencies are weird, I was hoping for some more specific recommendations. If Tobira *is* right, should I also skip the first book or would that still provide something for me?
1.) Online tests place me at roughly the N3 level, but I don’t trust this much because some of my skills are below or above (plus, yaknow, online tests).
2.) I can read better than I can write, speak, and listen. Speaking/listening is where I think I need the most help; a textbook with associated audio lessons would be fantastic.
3.) I can read NHK’s Easy Japanese news with a little help.
4.) My kanji vocabulary is probably my strongest proficiency, around the N2 level, so I don’t necessarily need a resource with strong kanji teaching because I’m assuming most textbooks that can teach me vocabulary/grammar will teach kanji I already know but the ones that are at my kanji level will be too advanced for me otherwise.
TL;DR: Is Tobira a good resource for my level? If so, should I start with the first book or skip to the second?
7 comments
Start active immersion – anime, series, movies, light novels and visual novels. The last one is the best at improving vocab.
I think 上級へのとびら (which is the intermediate book) would be a good fit for you from what you’ve written here. Might be a bit of a jump in difficulty, but that’s how you know you’re getting better.
For your level I think Satori Reader is good. Engaging stories with grammar explanations and translations. And everything’s read by professional voice actors who don’t mix up onyomi and kunyomi like the duo voices tend to do.
Tobira or Quartet 1 would be very on-level
Listen to podcasts, watch YouTube, all that stuff. You need input, not more textbooks
Watch YouTube with JP subtitles or everything with JP subtitles. You can leverage your reading ability to boost everything else. Not only will it improve your listening but your reading speed too. On top of learning new words and kanji with subtitles and voices. Narrated books are also a great source to read along with, VNs do this too. Don’t worry about targetting for your level that much just get out there and watch/listen to things with text accompaniment. Pick stuff you’re interested in over “for your level” so you actually care about it and want to stick with it to understand it.
Immersion as mentioned before with a good grammar book (I used 日本語総まとめ only grammar all the way to N1) and a good kanji srs app (I used iKanji up to n1).
If you haven’t done immersion before, I suggest you do simpler immersion before visual novels..maybe satori reader or playing games or simple news like you already do.
Don’t forget to use anki while learning 🙂