Best Grammar Textbooks?

[AllHailTheCrabigator]

Hey guys, quick question for ya’ll!

I’m sure this has been asked in the past, but the future means newer books, so some may not have been mentioned since. Do ya’ll know any good reference books that are extremely helpful for beginners?

I’m already aware of the list from Tofugu, and will buy accordingly there. With that said, I already own Genki, Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, the online version of Tae Kim, and will probably be buying All About Particles in the near future.

With that said, are there any specialty books, reference works, dictionaries, etc that you would recommend?

[wynterphoenyx]

I think that if you are a beginner, buying anything beyond your list would fall under “collecting”.

[GrumpyPanda]

@msennholz

With that said, I already own Genki, Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, the online version of Tae Kim

It’s always nice to look for ever more efficient study tools, but we have to remember, at some point studying is the most efficient thing to do
I’m gonna second @wynterphoenyx and say you’re plenty equipped with textbooks.

[AllHailTheCrabigator]

Something wrong that?

[BIsTheAnswer]

I own Genki and the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar myself, and grammar-wise that seems to be a good start. I mainly go through the Genki chapters to learn new grammar points as they show up, then use the Dictionary to look up anything I encounter when reading. Until you get to more advanced grammar that basically covers everything you need.

[CoffeeFuel]

I wasn’t a fan of Genki and much prefer Human Japanese, but aside from that, I think you’re set for now when it comes to the more theoretical side and should maybe focus on getting more and varied exercise tools instead.

What I would maybe recommend is Dogen’s Phonetics course on Patreon down the line.

[AllHailTheCrabigator]

Any additional exercise tools you’d recommend?

[jonmoxley]

I think the reference books that you have are already sufficient. Don’t spend on books that you know you’re gonna use once or twice before they sit on the shelf for years like me lmao

[MinTako]

I really liked Genki but I feel like I saw somewhere that Tobira will be releasing a beginners book sometime in 2021? If that’s true it could be worth checking out. At least for their current intermediate textbook I really like it! By far one of my favorite textbooks I’ve ever used.

[AllHailTheCrabigator]

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

[CoffeeFuel]

Some of the ones I like/used are:

• Irodori (TOP | IRODORI Japanese for Life in Japan) for some extra listening/speaking practice,
• Kanji Study app (https://mindtwisted.com/) to further cement kanji studied on here if needed and ones found outside of Wanikani,
• Wasabi’s pronunciation lessons/exercises (https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-lessons/materials-for-wasabi-japanese-pronunciation-lessons/#P-table),
• Steven Kraft’s extra drills on a number of grammatical points (https://steven-kraft.com/projects/japanese/)
• Further testing divided according to JLPT levels: (Free Japanese Quizzes – Marshall's Site)

As well as other useful tools for your input method of choice, some of mine are:

• A site that adds furigana to any Japanese online text: (NIHONGO eな - Portal for Learning Japanese). It’s obviously going to occasionally make some mistakes due to it being an automated process, but it’s pretty reliable.
• An extension that customizes and gives you a lot of useful extra information for Netflix subs: (https://languagelearningwithnetflix.com/)