I chose a few textbooks. Which textbooks do you recommend?

Just to add to the Tobira discussion, I don’t think studying with Genki beforehand changes its usability at all. The book is solid enough that you can jump in as long as you have a decent N4 background. I primarily used it for the grammar points and reading passages, and didn’t actually do any writing exercises (because by this point there are way too many grammar points to do exercises for everything, frankly).

Its grammar explanations aren’t always wonderfully thorough like Genki’s, or like other beginner books, so that’s one thing to get used to. The reading passages don’t screw around either, and really require your basic grammar foundation to be solid and for you to study the book’s vocab (or look up words as you go).

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I’m planning on finishing Tobira by this weekend and I can’t recommend it enough. I skipped the exercises but I got a lot out of it. I remember when I first opened it up and I was like ‘I have no idea what any of this means’, and now I look at the previous chapter and I go ‘yeah, I can read this alright’.

About to make the jump to Kanzen N2, I glanced at it and it seems a bit scary, I hope it goes as well as Tobira did.

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Why did you skip all exercises?

Because I don’t have anybody who will correct them for me, so I think it’s wiser to admit that I can read but I’ll have to practice writing later than to think I can write and end up reinforcing mistakes.

Just throwing this out there but have you tried Lang 8? You can submit writing whatever language you are learning and people check it for you. You check other people’s writing in your own language to earn points to “pay” for the corrections.

I think registrations to Lang8 have been closed for a few years now, no?

I do occasionally ask questions on Hello Talk and r/learnjapanese, but getting someone to correct textbook exercises isn’t that simple, especially when they concern the interpretation of text that is 2 pages long.

Shall I not practice writing in some way? What about internet chatting with japanese people? What about posting on japanese forums? What about leaving a comment on a japanese blog?

Try HelloTalk. You can have actual conversations with Japanese people, and you can ask them to correct you. Of course, you’ll have to help them with English as well. Lang8 seems great if you have an account too.

When you want to practice writing or speaking, if you can’t attend classes, be sure to have someone to check your mistakes and give you pointers. Just writing stuff by yourself is not studying. You’re obviously making mistakes, but no one’s correcting them, so what are you learning?

I’m learning japanese to gain access to japanese culture and create japanese contents.

Can I practice writing and speaking in japanese on HelloTalk for free?

I don’t know about HelloTalk because I’ve never used it, but italki.com is another site where you can post writing in a language you are learning, receive corrections from native speakers, and correct the writings of people who are learning your native language. (This function on italki is free.)

I don’t know which one, because I’ve never used any of those books. I studied with The Basic Kanji Book before using WaniKani. If you’re choosing a curriculum it should show you radicals, kanji, and vocab. It should Show you how to write each character and of course, have tips and tricks on how to memorize each character, radical, and vocab word well.

I took a few years of Japanese classes, but a number of years ago, and accumulated a collection of Japanese For Busy People vols. 1 - 3 (the recommended books for the courses). I’d taken a break from learning and WK’s my first step to getting back into it - will JFBP still stand me in good stead for grammar, or should I replace them with something newer?

I only have a N4 Kanzen Master. I liked it other than the English explanations were not concise. In other words, they never provided an English equivalent and I would often cross reference other books to simplify the grammar point. I’m studying N3 material now but I’ve never seen a N3 Kanzen sample. Did you run into this same issue by any chance?

Hmm I don’t know. I’ve never used N4 but the Kanzen Master books generally sum up the grammar point in a single sentence or a paragraph at most. I can’t imagine how you’d write it shorter.

There aren’t really English equivalents in Japanese, especially as you get to the higher levels, where the grammar is focused on conveying the same information but with different nuances.

Thanks, I was just curious. I still like the content and Kanzen series is always highly recommended. I’m using the Somatome N3 series which I like alot however it seems less popular than Kanzen when I search out italki teachers who share the same books.

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Oh, I didn’t realise that. Guess I must have signed up well before then.

I’ve not reached the N2/N1 stuff yet, but through my Japanese minor program we followed Genki → Tobira up to N3 level. I HIGHLY recommend this path. I loved all the text books and still reference them often. Tobira is great reading practice too, but is especially handy for the grammar— it covers a lot of ground and does so in a digestible way for intermediate learners imo, despite being a tad dry.

I think I will check both italki and HelloTalk for writing and speaking in japanese.

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