I just finished the long and arduous RTK deck and want to move on to vocabulary and grammar. I’ve seen people talk about JLPT Tengo N5, but I’m not sure if I’ll get the same mileage compared to ordering the book and studying with it. Does the book have an advantage over the Anki deck or does it just come down to what’s more convenient or what fits my learning style better?
6 comments
Congrats on finishing RTK!
Well actually, to get the official deck from nukemarine you would need to buy the book, but nowadays there are many free alternatives around that are really well made (or perhaps even straight copys from the official, idk).
If anything though, the Anki deck is leagues better than the book because you review it more optimally due to the SRS. Also, text, audio etc. are all in the same place unlike the book. With the right deck you have also pitch accent info which the book doesn’t have. So all in all, wheter you buy the book or not, use the deck is what I would suggest.
Not familiar with that book, but there is a lot to be said for structured learning.
The Anki deck in question is all in the polite form so not necessarily ideal. I studied with it and found the different conjugations confusing with no grammar explanation (thus needing to reference Tae Kim separately). Also remembering Kanji readings was really difficult.
More recently I’ve been using the DJT (Daily Japanese Thread) Core 2k/6k deck, and it would have been more beneficial in hindsight to have done this deck immediately after RTK. The words are grouped as a mix of frequency, subject matter, and common kanji, so you get to make the connections between the kanji keywords (still fresh in your mind) and the vocabulary.
Grind that out with some separate grammar study (textbook or otherwise) and in a few months you’ll have a really good arsenal to start reading subtitles, visual novels etc for basic conversations.
I bought the book, but I mostly just used the anki deck. I did consult the book a few times, when I had doubts about a few specific sentences. The version of the deck I used had a few transcription errors. Also, when I had jury duty, I took the book to study during downtime.
The book might be useful, depending on your study style. The target word is printed in an orange-red color, and the book comes with a clear red plastic sheet, which hides the target word. So you can read the sentence and try to guess the word from context, then move the red sheet and check your guess.
You can download the audio from the publisher’s website. They have various files, including files for each section (e.g., chapter 1 section 1), which have the target word and the context sentence, with or without a pause between sentences (in case you want to repeat the sentence). I loaded up the section audio files on my phone and used to listen to them for extra practice.
I would highly recommend the physical book.
I think the physical book is more helpful for memorizing words initially. The plastic red card masks the red vocabulary so you can test with the sentences. Then consider using an SRS like Anki or SuperMemo for future reviews.
The N5 sentences are decent. You can imagine it is difficult to develop sentences for students that lack vocabulary. The sentences seem to be based on some frequency of use. One downside is that the sentences are not in “context” (e.g. of a story) so not especially memorable. Sentences N4 forward generally are better. AFAIK, all vocab books have these issues.
Another kettle of fish is the learning vocab vs leaning kanji vocab.
JLABs anki deck. Vocab and grammar. You don’t need books for N5. Plenty of beginner resources.
For vocab I just recommend immersion, not to use any premade decks or vocab books…just pure immersion.
For grammar I recommend 日本語総まとめ series as that gives you a generalized overview on grammar that will help you recognize grammar structures fairly easily. It also has the best structure I’ve ever seen in terms of how they present the content. 2 pages a day will get you to be done with each book in 2 months. from N3 on, there is a book dedicated to grammar only. Like I said, for vocab I don’t recommend any premade decks or books…i only bought the grammar books for そうまとめ and don’t regret it. Good luck 🙂