I just started learning Japanese and finished Volume 1 of Japanese from Zero (German edition). Until Volume 2 wil be published in German I want to study with another book (in english).
Which books would you recommend for which Niveau?
A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2
N5 till N1
My goal isn’t taking the tests but to get better at Japanese. If preparation books for JLPT are also good for more than just preparing you for the test I wouldn’t be against using them.
What do you think about Genki, Quartet, Tobira, Shinkanzen Master, Sou Matome, Marugoto, Try! ?
Honestly, any. At the beginning stages, it really isn’t about what book you get, but actually keeping up the study. Pick the one you like the look of. Genki is for example a nice pick only because it’s so common, that there are tons and tons of additional resources for it. Also consider Tae Kim’s guide, that’s at the very least free.
I took this exact path! Found it to be a well-paced path to an intermediate level, where you can really get into reading and making Anki sentence cards from your reading.
As for the JLPT books, yeah if you’re not taking the test then there are probably faster ways to learn than methodically going through them all. That said, I’ve found some incredibly helpful in overcoming the so-called “intermediate plateau,” where the feeling of rapid progress can dissipate around N2-N1 and complacency can set in, still eons away from native-level fluency. The pure density of some JLPT study books can really help pick up the pace.
For example, on like the first page of the Shin Kanzen Master vocab book I’m reviewing now, it puts the words 人柄 and 個性 (two words that could both be translated as “personality”) into two columns, and below listed a bunch of commonly used adjective and verb pairings with each like:
謙虚な人柄、真摯な人柄、気さくな人柄、人柄がにじみ出る
vs
強烈な個性、独特の個性、個性が表れる、個性を重んじる
Now, reading naturally over the course of months, I could’ve probably intuited the nuances of each word when they came up and noticed some of the patterns. Instead, within a day, I’m already better and more natural at talking about people’s personalities in my own daily life. Having all this stuff listed out for me with a little quiz after (with example sentences perfect for making flashcards) was a massive shortcut, and I wouldn’t want to miss out on it even if I wasn’t taking the JLPT. Not something you have to worry about yet at a beginner level, but for the future and for anyone else reading as well, I wouldn’t categorically avoid JLPT books.
The Shin Kanzen Master series is great. I’ve used one of their JLPT Grammar books back when Lang-8 was still a thing (rest in peace, Lang-8, you are still dearly missed [1]) and would make some posts trying to utilize each of the terms I was learning—and getting immediate corrections of my (sometimes subtle) mistakes by natives, which was very helpful for me.
I’d say that’ll come down to how well you grasp the material after you finish the regular textbooks. If you moved through them slowly and really absorbed all the material, you might not need any extra review. I raced through as fast as possible and found the JLPT books with their sheer density to be good for quick and comprehensive review + patching any gaps I had. But for other learners that might not be at all necessary. I wouldn’t worry about crossing that bridge until you get there though, you’ll have a much better idea of what will be useful to you then.
https://www.irodori-online.jpf.go.jp/ is good for A1, A2 (Elementary levels) and about N5, N4 JLPT.
It’s a free on-line course and has downloadable books/material.
It is ‘Use Case’ focused.
JLPT is good for measuring progress and for ability level structure.
A lot of people recommend immersion or native content based learning but that is very hard with Japanese from a non-kanji mother tongue, so getting any ‘basics’ to get you there, is a good approach.
So it can be good to not be too JLPT-focused but still to use some JLPT resources (as long as you find them okay - doable and not too boring).
I’m thinking about Genki - Quartet as the main textbooks. And Testing my abilities after Genki 2 with Sou Matome (the whole Set for N5 + N4) and Shinkanzen Master (N4).
I will also buy the dictionary series.
I found out that I can reach N2 with Quartet. Maybe after that I know which books of the Sou Matome and Shinkanzen Master Series aren’t suitable for me.
Do you know how to get the New Kanzen Master 2020 Edition and Not the one from 2014? On Amazon someone wrote that he got the wrong edition. But it is advertized as the edition from 2020.