My First Level 2 Textbook

spurrymoses · Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:50 pm Post subject: My First Level 2 Textbook

Well, as reading and study material gets slightly harder to find, I'd like to let you know what I'm using at the moment. My friend has loaned me a book called (An Integrated Approach to) Intermediate Japanese by Japan Times. I can't find it on Amazon (although it's here - http://www.languagebooks.com.au/items.asp?id=128081)

No, this is not an ad, but I just wanted to make it clear what it is. Anyway, I love it. It's similar enough to my old Genki books, I suppose but with more readings and a better Practice section after each lesson. Most of the readings are dialogs but there's quite a few letters/diary type readings as well, which I prefer because I can read them to my Teacher. I hate reading dialogues out aloud, as they require various 'acting', which is too much effort.

There's lots of useful grammar that I'm learning which allows me to more fine tunely express myself and I'm quite enjoying it.

rohan · JLPT Starter Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 18

Hey there Spurry. Haven't posted for a while, things have been busy. Yeah my friend had that book too. I think it's pretty good as it gives a lot of further detail on expressions and certain grammar. Smile

I personally like bombarding the grammar with a "multi-track attack" lol. What I mean is I'll get different books on it and then use them all together as some explanations are better in certain books.

So in this (not so organised) system the books I've used for level 2 grammar:

A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar - This is a really great book for learning grammar. Not watered down, and not exactly thrilling but solid and lots of good examples. The one weak point of it is that it doesn't specify what level the grammar is at ands some of it is never used I've heard (e.g. 知らぬ). Oh yeah, get the basic one too - I used that when I was starting Japanese to great effect.

I bought the official level 2 grammar book (with the green cover) - it's good for practicing stuff once you've reviewed it before, but is Japanese only (with furigana). The advantage of this is that it's what you're supposed to know; no more and no less.

I've got some other stuff, but not really worth recommending anyway. Smile

spurrymoses · Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 10:37 am Post subject:

Thanks, yes I'll have to get the offical green one too. I might as well say the rest in Japanese...

二つ目の教科書を　つまのお父さんが　たんじょうびのために　買ってくれた。よかったね。　;－）

タイトルは　「日本語中級Ｊ301 」。

http://www.3anet.co.jp/nihongo/text_cz_j301.html

rohan · JLPT Starter Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 18

(笑）義父と仲良くできってよかったね！つまは日本人だろう？

本は面白そうなー今まで見た事ないけど！どう？

spurrymoses · Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:52 pm Post subject:

rohan · JLPT Starter Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 18

あはは。気にしないで！教えてよ！ Very Happy

I've learned most of my Japanese from young people who probably don't teach me the best expressions! Those people also never ever correct me because they're too shy. Tell your wife to go ahead! It's what I'm always asking people to do; if a native speaker says something's wrong then I'll listen and learn!

ってかさ今はどこに住んでる？日本？I'm in England as a uni student but I miss Japan so much.. Sad

spurrymoses · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:09 pm Post subject:

rohan · JLPT Starter Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 18

Cheers for the feedback. Very Happy

Interesting about when Japanese use/don't use a particular kanji in different words. You're definitely right about the 仲よく and こと　- those were mistakes. I think writing on the computer isn't necessarily that great for kanji knowledge as it's easy to become really lazy!

With おもしろい　however, I think (as with many) it depends on the person. My girlfriend always uses the kanji 面白い　even in written letters. She's from Tokyo so I don't think it's a regional thing necessarily. Thing I've found is that many Japanese don't really know their language that well! My Japanese questions are often met with a chorus of ”えー？”、”分かんない！” etc. So maybe I'll ask a few other Japanese about this to gather a wider opinion!

Incidentally I'm up to about 700 kanji in Heisig's book...not the readings just the meanings. Damn it's tough going. 頑張る！

rohan · JLPT Starter Joined: 02 Sep 2005 Posts: 18

Correction: actually looking in the dictionary it does seem like 面白い　is written in hiragana. That must be the standard obviously.

spurrymoses · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:37 pm Post subject:

Yeah, no worries.

Even the おもしろそうな could be totally right. It just caught me for a bit because it sounded like different grammar as in 面白そうな...本.
That is, the な at the end sounds like your going on to describe a noun - and there was no full stop at the end so I had to reread it. Prompting me to ask my partner what the 'ー’was for. Which turned out to be a dumb question Wink

From where I realise that my text book usually repeats the hiragana rather than writing the katakana 'ー'. So we discussed what 'might' be usual but it was all 'um' and 'ahhh' and 'mostly' so yeah, don't take it that I think it's a rule that you've disobeyed.

Gee, it's surprising how many points of 'usage' are in your sentence. Because actually, I've seen 'ー' used in text books as well. Personally, I don't like because it's like suddently writing katakana to me, so as a pedant, I make my own rule not to use it Wink

But yes, exactly. Japanese people sometimes don't know any better some of the time, so do you what you like the best and stick to it Wink

Can I also add, a very funny thing happened when I was going through my textbook on passive/causative-passive and so on, with my partner. She, a couple of times got the answer wrong! To my great amusement. The exercises were so academic and 'technical' that she had as much trouble getting the answer right as I did (well, not quite).

That is, we were doing exercises of taking a base verb and converting it. No sentences, or natural usage. It really took her out of the comfort zone of just 'feeling' the right word.

spurrymoses · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 5:38 pm Post subject:

Yeah, no worries.

Even the おもしろそうな could be totally right. It just caught me for a bit because it sounded like different grammar as in 面白そうな...本.
That is, the な at the end sounds like it's going on to describe a noun - and there was no full stop at the end so I had to reread it. Prompting me to ask my partner what the 'ー’was for. Which turned out to be a dumb question Wink

From where I realise that my text book usually repeats the hiragana rather than writing the katakana 'ー'. So we discussed what 'might' be usual but it was all 'um' and 'ahhh' and 'mostly' so yeah, don't take it that I think it's a rule that you've disobeyed.

Gee, it's surprising how many points of 'usage' are in your sentence. Because actually, I've seen 'ー' used in text books as well. Personally, I don't like because it's like suddently writing katakana to me, so as a pedant, I make my own rule not to use it Wink

But yes, exactly. Japanese people sometimes don't know any better some of the time, so do you what you like the best and stick to it Wink

Can I also add, a very funny thing happened when I was going through my textbook on passive/causative-passive and so on, with my partner. She, a couple of times got the answer wrong! To my great amusement. The exercises were so academic and 'technical' that she had as much trouble getting the answer right as I did (well, not quite).

That is, we were doing exercises of taking a base verb and converting it. No sentences, or natural usage. It really took her out of the comfort zone of just 'feeling' the right word.

JanneM · JLPT Helper Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 313 Location: Osaka

あの「な」という部分は関西弁だと思う。大阪にみんなはいつでも、どこでも「な」とか「なあ」を使っています。

Sorry for the grammar; I'm not that far along to level 2 yet. But basically, there seems to be no physical limit around here as to how many 「な」、「や」(instead of 「だ」) or「ねん」 you can inflict on a perfectly innocent sentence. It's a lot of fun to listen to, though it doesn't help my understanding Smile