(Update: I've just written a post on my other blog specifically about the different N2 grammar textbooks I've used - most of them not reviewed on this page.)
テーマ別中級から学ぶ日本語
This book is not specifically designed for JLPT study, but it is a good book for bridging the gap between N3 and N2, as it begins at a lower intermediate sort of level and gradually gets more challenging, with longer and more complex reading passages.
I like this book a lot. Most Japanese textbooks I've seen have been very dry and contain lots of example sentences and questions, and every chapter contains more and more of the same. They are dull to work through by yourself and even duller to work through with a teacher.
That's why I like this book. Although not wildly exciting, it's the first book I've been able to stick with without getting sick of. Each chapter begins with a list of vocab that will be in that chapter, some discussion questions loosely related to the theme of the chapter, a reading passage with comprehension questions, a few grammar points from the reading, etc. The readings are quite interesting and lend themselves to conversation.
I currently work through this book in private lessons with my Japanese teacher. I think the book is very well suited to a private teacher, because you can check your understanding of everything as you go along, read the passages and have them confirm your answers, etc. Going through each unit makes for a structured lesson that still has a bit of variety to it.
Another good point is that the grammar comes directly from the reading passages, so you can go back and see them in context. Also, the passages gradually get longer and more complex. The early ones are a good level for someone coming out of N3, unlike some N2 textbooks that pitch their level a bit high for someone who is only just starting to study for N2. This book was a good level for me.
The book's not perfect; for example there are no review units, no explanations of grammar and no answers to the questions in the book. It's important to note that this book is not designed for self-study but for class use.
短期マスター 日本語能力試験ドリル N2
This is not exactly a study resource, in that it's not designed to teach you per se; it's just practice test questions so you can get an idea of what to expect in N2. Such a resource is really useful as a measure of progress, and particularly useful if you've never taken a JLPT test before. There's no doubt you will get an advantage from not going in blind - you'll better know how you need to manage your time, you'll know what sections to expect on a listening test, etc.
Reading Japanese with a Smile
This small book, which has more English in it than Japanese, contains nine short stories from the Shuukan Asahi, with detailed explanations of the language in them. Each story is a bit quirky or funny. Each chapter begins with the magazine story in Japanese, and a straight translation into English on the adjacent page. After that, the story is dissected sentence-by-sentence, with further explanations of the vocab and grammar used in them.
This is a nice bit of extra reading material and good for three main reasons:
- sometimes you get sick of reading meh JLPT-style passages and want something more fun
- sometimes you get sick of reading everything purely in Japanese and want a break
- sometimes it can be really helpful to get into the nitty-gritty of what you read and thus build your understanding in general. As a Japanese student, you probably often read passages you mostly understand but you're kind of guessing 'what does this particle mean?' 'does this phrase change the meaning of the sentence?' 'what is this word referring to?' etc. This book makes those things very clear.
U-CANの日本語能力試験N2これだけ！
I grabbed this book because it was quite small (though it has around 350 pages); it's easy to carry around in a handbag. This book focuses on the kanji/vocabulary section of the JLPT and just consists of loads and loads of questions to practise on. The book is divided into the sections you'd find on the test (eg, in the first section, you have to give the hiragana reading of an underlined kanji, or vice versa). The answers include a brief 'explanation' - for example, giving you the readings of the incorrect kanji, or showing how you'd use each of the vocabulary words in a sentence. There are also a few pages for review, that have loads of kanji/words and you have to test your memory.
This book is good for drilling yourself. It's easy to use because you don't have to flick to the back of the book to check your answers - the questions are on the left-hand page, the answers on the adjoining right-hand page. Another neat thing about this book is that it gives the answers in red - and provides a red plastic sheet. This means you can cover the answers and reveal them as you like; furigana is also provided in red so you can try to read words without help first, then check the furigana if you can't get them.
Good to dip into for a bit of quick drilling and practice; not good for extended periods of study or (despite the cheery name of the book) as your only resource for learning new vocab/kanji.
Anki (kyouiku kanji deck)
This is not a book, but a free piece of software that a lot of people use for language learning. Basically, it's a flashcard program that shows you flashcards at intervals, depending on how well you know the information on the cards. I really recommend it. You can make your own deck or download other people's flashcard sets to study with.
Kanji has always been a weak area of mine, so I decided to download a kyouiku kanji deck (all 1000-odd characters learned by primary school children in Japan) and go through every one of them until I could read and write all of them. It took me over six months, but I did it. I think it helped having this kyouiku kanji deck. That is, it was a clearly defined deck, with a finite number of cards and a definite goal. The way Anki works gives an incentive to study every day (if you leave it a couple of days, the number of cards you have to review increases).
I tried to really learn kanji using radicals; ie by learning the meaning of some common radicals and mentally tying them together to learn the kanji, rather than just trying to remember how to write all the different strokes. Inspired by Tofugu's article 'The 5 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Kanji', I used sites like Jisho's radical look-up and Tofugu's kanji radicals cheat sheet.
Update: I have finally updated and added JLPT N2 study materials (part 2).
No comments:
Post a Comment