みなさん、おはよう！お元気ですか？
This could be an odd request. I have a bachelor degree in japanese that provided a N3 level. Thing is, I decided to do my master in history and I didn’t actually practice my japanese in the last two years. I went to one of the best uni for this language in Europe, therefore most of the grammar is still stuck in my brain but unfortunately kanji reading and speaking/writing level went downhill. As of now, I think I’m at a N5 level.
I really want to get back and finally make this language my own once and for all, but I don’t want to study it on school grammar books anymore. I need suggestions for books (whether it’s an exercise book or novels) , youtube channels, series, movies that can help me improve my kanji/vocabulary, something that could help me improve and make me fluent with a “everyday” japanese and not an academic one.
Thank you and happy holidays!
2 comments
Honestly I would not skip on the grammar. You’re welcome to also immerse in any native media, but book learning is not going to prohibit you from some kind of mythical casual fluency. You still need grammar and sentence patterns and that’s what you get from books more efficiently than absorbing media that may or may not repeat those patterns enough to pick up on them. If you think you’re back at n5 I’d refresh yourself looking at all your old material first and then split your time between media immersion of your choice and also continuing to move forwards with grammar and patterns and vocab.
Happy holidays to you as well!
As much as I empathize with your aversion towards dry, boring school grammar books, I feel the need to advise you first take a JLPT mock exam. To be precise, a series of **full-length** mock exams. You can find past exam questions online, and each level only takes a few hours. A close alternative is to take the actual “J-test”.
the benefit for taking the tests now is so that you have a quantified measure of your strengths and weaknesses, and then we can go in and give more fine-tailored advices.
Its similar to going to a doctor, would you trust a doctor who just pushed pills without asking you any questions or running any tests, or a doctor who properly examine your lab results, run a full diagnosis of your symptoms, and base his prescriptions on pragmatic evidences?
Do you want us to base our recommendations on “I guess” “I suppose”s, or on actual test scores of each section?