I just got minna no nihongo elementery level 2nd edition.
I was wondering how to use the book. I don’t own the translation and grammatical notes book that comes with it. After going through it and searching it up I still didn’t seem to find how to use it. Do I need additional books, do I simply don’t understand something? Would love to get some help 
This?
I’m sure both books have grammar notes in various languages, I used one of them before. You need either a teacher or the grammar explanations book to follow it properly.
So basically, it is intented to use with both books, the japanese one, and the one in your native language. As for Minna 1, the japanese one is white with a red stripe, and the translation and grammar explanation book is white with a green stripe (that’s the german book though, I don’t know if the colors change with the language)
For every chapter, the translation book contains vocab, sentence translations and grammar explanations for the chapter in the japanese book.
I went through the book chapter by chapter, first looking at the grammar explanations, and then working through the japanese book’s chapter together with the other book’s translations, using the vocab table as reference.
It’s works alright for self-study.
Typed that out in a rush I hope its somewhat understandable have a great day
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Yeah I got everything thanks!
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We are using Minna no Nihongo in class and teacher explains some grammatical parts, so it is easier.
I always thought that the point of fully native textbook is to get the hang of the language as quickly as possible, but now I am doing a review of several lessons and seriously, I am looking at those A examples and thinking: cool, I can inflect (is this an English word for that? not sure…) verbs, but I have no idea what is the difference or in which context should I use what form. 
Maybe I should look for the ‘grammar companion’ book…
I feel damned (and the test is coming…).
The Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar might help with that. A lot of us here highly recommend the books from this series because it spends a lot of time going over the nuance of various forms.
Yes. You need the companion book with grammatical explanations in your native language. Minna is used throughout Japan teaching schools because it has a large number of translations so they can stuff multinational students in a single classroom and no matter where you are from there’s likely to be a native language translation book for you. The students can’t talk to each other, the teacher is Japanese exclusive, the translation books are how students figure out what the teacher is trying to teach.
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