Hello! I am looking to take the N2 this December after having passed N3 last December, however by far my biggest weakness is grammar. I feel like I only understand grammar by hearing it and being able to reproduce it myself, and I already attend an in person class 2x a week that’s covering N3 material, but I need something to supplement that (and that covers N2 content).
I cannot seem to absorb information from textbooks simply by reading it in my head, and I sadly do not vibe with Bunpro despite trying to approach it 3 different times. I am attempting to use the Nihongo no Mori N2 and N3 videos, but I end up binging too many videos in a short period of time and getting overwhelmed/burnt out.
Does anyone have recs for anything they think might be suitable?
most of bunpro’s N2 cards (not that i’m suggesting taking them as gospel) are a bit more about specific little common phrases than anything else. i guess the other main thing is things that use the archaic -ず form, and one that can use -ぬ
i’m studying alongside you (i passed N3 last december and i’m taking N1 this december), so who knows what i know, but i think the thing that’s made it click for me is being able to match a new concept to stuff i’ve encountered in my reading or listening. it also sounds like you could use something that’s more “chill” than “study” based on what you said about Nihongo no Mori.
For the bingeing problem with Nihongo no Mori, capping it at one video per session and then doing something with that grammar point before moving on is probably the fix, writing a few sentences using it, finding examples in something you’re already watching, anything that forces a second pass before the next video loads. The content itself is good but the format makes it really easy to just consume without anything sticking.
The learning style detail is actually the more useful thing to pay attention to here. Shadowing resources work well for people who need the auditory loop to internalize grammar, because you’re not just hearing the pattern, you’re physically reproducing it and getting a sense of whether it felt natural. I went through a shadowing phase during my second year before i burned myself out trying to do too many things at once and the grammar patterns I picked up through that stuck better than anything I got from a textbook, even when I wasn’t specifically targeting grammar. The tricky part is finding material pitched at N2 level that isn’t too dense to shadow comfortably.
If you want to start somewhere gentle, ミラーさん is all in all pretty boring but might feel nice to realize you know a lot.
If you’re up for a bit more adventure, I’d suggest the Japanese translation of a book you already know quite well in another language. for me, for better or worse, that was Harry Potter. The Japanese translation (similar to the English) is both written for kids and contains some bits that are literary and advanced. For me, knowing the plot well enough to recognize where we were in the story helped me go “ok, yeah, we’re reading the inscriptions at Gringotts, it’s using very archaic Japanese here on purpose, I’m gonna just let that slide for now” and keep going.
The best novel, though, is invariably the one you want to read, even if it’s a reach.
I agree about this, but also if you have several books that all seem like you want to read them you might be able to use the level ratings at https://learnnatively.com/ to see which of your candidate reads is likely to be an easier option.
