Kinda just what it says in the title.
I’ve been looking at textbooks recently (in particular the ones here) and I’d be able to get both of the Elementary Japanese textbooks for free through my university store. But I when I finish them, could I start looking at N4 level stuff?
I’m the person who asked for christmas gift ideas (thanks for everyone’s kind suggestions gave me a lot of good ideas!)
and I’d feel bad if I asked my parents for something I could get for free myself, so I was thinking I’d get these, then ask my parents for a slightly more advanced book I could use afterwards!
(specifically I was looking at the Try! N4 book but if someone here has used Elementary Japanese and knows a better follow on, feel free to make suggestions!)
I just checked the table of contents, and the two volumes of Elementary Japanese seem to me to cover the same ground as the two volumes of MnN. I think @coicoy 's point is that you want to do both books of whatever series you choose, not just volume 1. Sticking to the same series for volume 1 and 2 is probably also a good idea unless you really don’t get along with that textbook, because it’s unlikely the different publishers split the topics between volumes exactly identically.
If you can get Elementary Japanese for free then I’d go with that – it seems to get decent reviews saying it works well for self-study. I don’t think there’s any benefit in paying for Genki or MnN instead unless you for some reason find you really hate EJ’s style, or you’re part of some study group that’s using a different book.
Edit: oh, re the christmas gift, if you’re getting these textbooks through the university, my suggestion would be to ask for the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar as the gift. It’s something you’ll be able to use right away rather than sitting on the shelf until you eventually finish the basic level textbooks, and it’ll continue to be useful for a long time into the future (I still consult mine sometimes and it’s been over 15 years since I bought it). It will give you a helpful second perspective and examples for a lot of the stuff the basic textbooks teach you.
There is also an Anki deck (8547 Japanese Sentences…) where someone has collected all the example sentences from all 3 volumes of this Basic, Inter, Advanced, which along with the books is the best grammar resource I’ve used.
Yes, it was my main point. I also initially forgot that the Tuttle publication is called Elementary Japanese… because Beginner textbooks could also be called Elementary (haha!).
I used the Tuttle publication for Korean. I liked it enough and bought the Elementary Japanese book… but it was too bulky and heavy to bring on the plane, so I went another route when I moved to Japan. But yeah, the format and lesson-style is good if you can stick with one series. I’m not sure if Elementary Japanese (Tuttle) has enough practice, but it should give you a nice foundation. It’s a big book! So, see how it goes for you. You definitely could be ready to do Try! N4, etc.
I don’t use anki but thank you for the suggestion. I’ll keep it on mind if I start using anki in the future (I tried looking into it once and got too confused but I probably just missed something obvious)
Minor update: I ordered the Elementary Japanese textbooks from my uni and I’m not sure when they’ll arrive (there’s postal strikes [which my mum’s a part of! ] and I’m just not used to ordering stuff in general) but hopefully they’ll be here soon!
I think I can track them once they get dispatched today or tomorrow
You definitely could be ready to do Try! N4, etc.
] and I’m just not used to ordering stuff in general) but hopefully they’ll be here soon!
