Re: Please recommend books for Intermediate+ Japanese

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:08:35 -0700, jim101 wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently teaching myself Japanese. A couple of months ago I
completed the Japanese for Busy People III (the final edition in the
series). Since then I also purchased "How to Sound Intelligent in
Japanese", "Breaking into Japanese Literature" and "13 Secrets to
Speaking fluent Japanese". I've also listened to all the intermediate
podcasts on japanesepod101 and various other listening materials.

While sites such as japanesepod101 have been very useful I find they
are more suited to improving listening comprehension as they lack
exercises for drilling in grammar. Can anyone recommend me a text book
that goes beyond JFBP III that includes advanced grammar drills and
exercises to test yourself rather than just explanations. Any help
would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

To answer your specific question, I would recommend "Images Of Japan: For
Pre-advanced And Advanced Learners Of Japanese" by Atsuko Kondoh and Chika
Maruyama takes an innovative approach to improving the language proficiency
of intermediate to advanced students. It introduces more sophisticated
vocabulary and grammatical structures in the context of Japanese Society.

The text comes in two volumes. One provides the readings, the other
provides drills, vocabulary, sentence patterns, etc. Additionally, there
is an optional set of three CDs with voice recordings of the readings.

Since language proficiency entails analytical abilities in the language and
cultural awareness, this text provides the means for the student to acquire
this knowledge.

Two versions of the readings are provided. The first is similar to how the
material appears in its original source (book, magazine, newspaper). The
second, provides furigana with the text so a less advanced student who has
not yet learned all the kanji can improve reading proficiency.

If you're interested in improving your proficiency in reading newspapers
(and watching TV news), "Reading Japanese Financial Newspapers" is a good
text. It's done by the same people who did "Japanese for Busy People" -
AJALT - and dovetails nicely with that text.

The books you are working on are all excellent texts. I would recommend at
some point that you spend more time on normal publications and less on
texts. If you've finished Japanese for Busy People III you have a good
foundation. The important thing is to build vocabulary and see your
existing vocabulary and grammatical constructs in context.

A popular author that I like whom I think writes at the intermediate level
is Akagawa Jiro. He is a very prolific author. If you start with 名探偵、大集合
(2006), this will give you an idea about him. It is a collection of five
short novels that are representative of some of his series.

I also recommend Japanese DVDs (region 2). Pick a movie that you like and
get the DVD with English and Japanese subtitles. You can work on your
reading and listening while entertaining yourself. I like to listen to
Japanese versions of US movies with Japanese voice tracks and subtitles.
However, Japanese movies will provide better exposure to Japanese culture
and also better context for the language you are learning.

Phil Yff
.

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