Just how good did it make your Japanese? I’m planning to start it next month. I’m wondering specifically how easy it is to read Japanese manga after Tobira. Also, do you still have to read stuff like NHK easy news or can you read actual Japanese news?
2 comments
I really worked through tobrira for the grammar rather than the vocab(I use [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io)).
I was reading satori reader during that time and then transitioned into novels.
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If you’re looking for grammar to transition to native material, tobira is great. I don’t really read news or manga, but i’d bet that not a lot of vocab from tobira is in manga so you’d probably need something else for vocab.
Roughly after a year I finished Tobira and… it’s quite hard to answer your question. There were so many grammar points taught that it just washed over me. Like, I cannot tell you the exact rules of a grammar point but I can immediately recognize and understand them when I encountered them (also, context helps a lot). If anything, it gave me the confidence to read native material as I was able to prove to myself that I can read something that’s mostly in Japanese. I guess it’s good to keep as a reference book that you may review (or use with a tutor) when you’re aiming for JLPT but googling grammar points is just so much faster and convenient.
As for reading news and manga, it’s more dependent on your tolerance to your lack of vocabulary and Kanji. There will be that rare N2/N1 grammar point here and there but it’s just one google search away.
Even if you finished Tobira, you have to be be prepared to keep looking up words and Kanji, a lot! It’ll feel like drowning in words for awhile but if you keep on going you’ll be able to fill in more gaps. The more gaps you fill, the more it’ll be comfy down the line.