(Part 3) Top products from r/LearnJapanese

It's useful to distinguish strata when talking about phonology in Japanese and Korean. You'll find that one set of rules is useful for describing native Japanese vocabulary. You'll find another that is useful for describing Sino-Japanese vocabulary. And you'll find that yet another set work when talking about onomatopoeic vocabulary.

Here, we're talking about Sino-Japanese words, and it gets a little complicated. Japanese borrowed in Chinese words and coined pseudo-Chinese words at several different time periods. It's one of the reasons you often find more than one Chinese reading for a given character (like how 赤 'red' can be read as seki in 赤外 sekigai 'infrared' but as shaku in 赤銅 shakudou 'an alloy of copper and bronze'.

So originally in Japanese, here was no sound /h/. Instead, linguists have reconstructed, based on internal evidence from Japanese and related languages like Okinawan, and from external evidence like reconstructions of how Chinese characters were supposed to sound in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese historically, that what is today /h/ was originally /p/. So 'flower', which is modern Japanese [hana], would have been Old Japanese (around 800 CE) [pana].

Over time, initial p- became f-. We have really good written evidence for this, because it was still the case when the Jesuit missionaries got to Japan (we can call this Late Middle Japanese or Early Modern Japanese, depending on who you ask). It has since gone from initial f- to initial h-. So fully, 'flower' would have gone from OJ pana to MJ fana to ModJ hana.

Medial -p- has a much more complicated history. It tended to also follow a similar path of -p- > -w- > -∅- (that is, nothing), but there are a number of wrinkles. To give an example of the first, we could look at the Japanese word for 'big'. In OJ, we have opo-. In MJ, we have owo-. This finally deleted the consonant, so we have the modern form of oo-, like in ookii.

There are a number of environments where this is blocked. We only really need to talk about two to deal with the examples OP gives above. First is where we have a geminate consonant (that is, a sequence of /pp/), such as in modern appare 'splendid'. /p/ was also retained after /n/. For instance, in 門派 monpa 'a religious sect'.

It's a little more complicated still, as sometimes Chinese characters like 百 or 表 are treated as ending with a final vowel, like when it appears by itself or at the end of a word (hyaku, hatsu, etc.), but other times, they are treated as having a final consonant, like when they are in the middle of a compound (hyak-, hat-). There's then an additional rule that a consonant cluster in Japanese cannot have consonants which are made at different places of articulation, so that while pp and nt are fine, tp and nk don't work. These are "fixed" by the first consonant taking on the place of articulation of the second one.

And there's yet one more rule where if a compound is easily identifable as a compound, like 朝日 asahi 'morning sun', each word is treated independently, so that the h in 'sun' doesn't act like it is between vowels, even though it really is.

Bjarke Frellesvig's book A History of the Japanese Language covers this in a lot more depth.

For books or series we should all know about, I have some personal recommendations although as said before it depends heavily on your needs as a learner.
These are:

Dictionaries

• Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary
  Excellent bilingual dictionary with furigana throughout.
  
  
• Kodansha's Communicative English-Japanese Dictionary
  Likely one of the best En-Jp dictionaries that's also very easy to carry and use.
  
  Grammar
  
  
• どんなときどう使う 日本語表現文型辞典
  Essential Japanese Expression Dictionary: A Guide to Correct Usage of Key Sentence Patterns
  Contains various fundamental and common grammar patterns from N5 to N1. Translations in English, Chinese and Korean also.
  
  
• Kodansha's (formerly named) Power Japanese series
  Various useful supplimentary volumes such as All about particles, Basic Connections, Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication, Common Japanese Collocations etc.
  Mainly aimed at beginner/intermediate but contains gems that can be used well into advanced study.
  
  
• Japanese A Comprehensive Grammar
  
  Kanji
  
  
• Kanji in Context
  Textbook that contains all the Jōyō (common use) Kanji, in natural sentences and commonly used vocab, not isolated. Aimed at intermediate level upwards although does start from basic Kanji.
  
  
• Basic Kanji Book
  Kanji book series that takes you from absolute beginner. Memorable kanji illustrations and etymology.
  
  
• The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji
  A much more 'academic' kanji guide with detailed etymologies, kanji history as well as coherent pneumonics to remember them.
  
  Textbooks
  
  
• みんなの日本語 Minna no Nihongo
  
  
• Japanese for Everyone
  
  
• Genki
  
  
• Japanese for Busy People
  
  
• 学ぼう！にほんご Manabo Nihongo
  
  
• ニューアプローチ 日本語 New Approach Japanese
  
  
• An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
  
  In terms of buying textbooks, I've had good luck with http://www.gettextbooks.com/ which pools many sites to find the cheapest deal.

I heard Rosetta Stone is quite poor and expensive, but of course, naturally, I am not an expert :)
Here's what I bought on Amazon so far, still waiting for it to all ship to me:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/4805311444/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M3STG9N/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/4789014479/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am under the impression that it's a good use of time to first learn the Kana (Hiragana + Katakana.) As such, I am currently learning to recognize them by playing https://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/. Once I learn to recognize them I will move to "Japanase Hiragana and Katakana for Beginners" and drill them so I am able to write them and recognize them more seamlessly, while still continue playing the game to review. I think by the end of next weekend I should be able to recognize the Kana, and hopefully after another 2-4 weeks of drilling I can write them too (I'm not sure if this is realistic at all).

Once I am comfortable with Kana I am going to move to the Genki books, which seem to be highly recommended. I think I will do the workbooks and make Anki decks to memorize Kanji/vocabularly. I think this is approximately 2-3 years of University classes but hopefully this process takes 1-1.5 years of dedicated work? Again, not sure what timelines are reasonable.

Ahhh... nothing special at all, then. I'm highlighting them simply to help myself remember what the radical for each character is, and they're in red because I carry black, blue, and red pens and blue was already taken for various other purposes, as you can see. Ha ha.

More importantly, for your own sake, please stop using Heisig's system immediately. He literally made up a bunch of random crap that's largely divorced from the "real" radical system used by actual Japanese scholars. And while that's fine in a short-term sense if the mnemonics he invented help you out... in the long term they'll mess you up because your brain will be stuffed with lies, while at the same time his little stories tend to leave out a lot of vital information, such as how each character is pronounced.

For example, as I said, 貝 is a radical for "shellfish." Heisig implies that it's a combination of an eye plus "animal legs," and tells us to "imagine a freakish shellfish with a single, gigantic eye roaming
the beaches on its slender little legs."

But looking at the actual history of the "eye" character 目 and the "shellfish" character 貝, you can see that they're entirely distinct, and that the latter has nothing to do with any goddamn legs; it's just a matter of simplification and stylization over the centuries. So yeah, I strongly recommend that you skip Heisig's shortcuts and stick to learning meaningful, true information about the kanji!

Edit: You asked "which dictionary has [pronunciation] information." To be honest, pretty much every kanji reference book that wasn't written by Heisig has pronunciation information! I'll go ahead and recommend Hadamitzky and Spahn's Japanese Kanji and Kana; I used it for a few years and it worked very nicely for me!

nhk came out with an accent dictionary here

they had an app for the older version of the accent dictionary, complete with voice clips, cost about $30, but they stopped servicing it so you can't download it anymore (you might be in luck if you find an apk for it though)

i have no experience with dogen's pitch accent dictionary since i never bothered to look for another one beyond nhk's (so i can't compare the two)

i am one of those people who is obsessed with pitch accent so it was a good help to me, but by the time i developed an interest in it, i was already fluent and just wanted to improve more. i dont think i would recommend it for a beginner because trying to improve pitch accent when you're still trying to put solid sentences together on a consistent basis is putting the cart before the horse i feel

I've never used Japanese for Dummies, so I don't know how far it takes you and how well it allows you to transition to more advanced learning materials. As has already been mentioned, the easiest method is to exhaust all the grammar your current book can teach. The most popular alternatives to JfD are Genki and Japanese from Zero. If you asked anyone who studied Japanese for a while, if they used either book or at least heard about them, they'll most likely say yes. On top of that, it's easy to build up on your knowledge after you finished the textbook. After Genki 1, you can use Genki 2 and after you finished that as well you'll be quite good at Japanese.

If you want to practise natural speaking and writing, I'd recommend to take a look at an app called HelloTalk. It basically lets you chat with native speakers of a language of your choice for free. It might feel like it's still a little too early to try that but when I look back at how I learnt Japanese, I wish that I would have used that app much, much sooner. It's never to early to start speaking/ writing!

Agreed there. For day-to-day use, electronic dictionaries (that is, online dictionaries like Jisho.org, apps, Yomichan, etc. - not just one of these) trump paper dictionaries completely. Looking things up in a paper dictionary is incredibly time-consuming, and can also be frustrating because you will often forget something right after you look it up, especially if you're a beginner.

However! I think paper dictionaries can be great if you just go through them randomly, and for fun. I own a few Japanese dictionaries (namely this and this), and do just that, flipping through them, reading example sentences, making new connections, and occasionally having new vocab randomly stick by accident.

If I used my dictionaries to actually look things up every time I needed to, I'd go crazy pretty quickly, I think. But if I treat them like Wikipedia (ie, hopping all over the damn place because something new catches my interest every 30 seconds), then that's where I think their value is -- and I would argue that that experience with a physical book in your hands is hard to replicate in an electronic dictionary.

Though, to anyone who's new to Japanese, I'd still recommend going 100%-electronic and saving yourself some dosh. I'd only recommend the above if you like the "nostalgic" feeling of flipping through a book in your hands.

The back section of the workbook has writing practice but honestly if you don’t know how to write the kana I would put Genki aside and go through a dedicated kana workbook first. I used this one which was pretty good- https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/4805312270/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GN2CDb2Q1D277

Well first let me tell you how much i appreciate the very thorough and helpful reply! I think i pretty much have it, the textbook i am currently using is this one. http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Hiragana-Katakana-Beginners-Mastering/dp/4805311444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416891998&sr=8-1&keywords=japanese+book

I think the book mainly focuses on this type of characters 教科書体 which is pretty much impossible for me to imitate lol but you're saying as long as i use this font while writing 明朝体 then i am not doing anything incorrect? As long as i can tell the difference between the characters with serifs or without then ill be fine? i can see those websites being extremely helpful but how can i type in a kana or kanji on an american keyboard? as you can see i am very new and clueless lol sorry!

You seem to have a good grasp on things. It looks like some of the linked threads follow a similar path, and I'll probably be following a very similar path myself. Nice books, too. I have quite a few myself. I'm not quite sure which of these are good (since they all had great Amazon reviews). I have the following:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014RTDPBA/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078G5P6Q4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4789014401/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/478901441X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4805312270/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572229195/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GW5KTDK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976998122/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0658014900/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(Although Genki I and the Genki workbook, plus the Kata/Hira quick guide looks good)

Useful, sure, but not as useful as something that doesn't use romaji. It's not like you will have to un-learn anything...it just isn't teaching you enough. I'd go ahead and read through it, but supplement it with a free online guide like imabi.net (which does NOT use romaji, except at the very beginning).

EDIT: Actually, you could probably use it as good kana practice, if you write out the romaji words and example sentences in kana. Just be aware that your book uses ō to mean おう...ā is ああ, and ū is うう, but ō is NOT おお, except in some specific circumstances like おおきい "ookii" and ほのお "honoo". (This is just one of the many reasons not to use romaji...is there any way to exchange it for the kana version of the same book?)

It was good practice for me too. I absolutely do advise that you refine your translations, though. Whether or not you have an editor, it's a good idea to know how to make decisions about where and how to depart a literal translation.


If you can spare the forty bucks, I totally recommend the textbook Hasegawa's Routledge Course in Translation Not only is it very, very good for learning the basic strategies of translation, it's also a lot of fun. It has tons of translation exercises and translations in the back for you to compare.

You need grammar drill exercises. Stuff I found helpful:

• Schaum's Outline of Japanese Grammar has tons of useful exercises. Japanese is in kanji/kana and romaji; the romaji is full of mistakes but that's actually a plus because it will force you to focus on the kanji.
  
• Japanese Particle Workbook is awesome.
  
• Get past JLPT tests and go over the grammar sections (not really legal but you can download them from some Chinese sites).
  
  日本語総まとめ is also supposed to be good, never tried it personally though.

These dictionaries used by newscasters (be sure to check for an older version to save some cash! might be what you're looking for! I don't believe they have any English, but you could combine them with a J-E dictionary to find the word you want then cross-reference for the pitch accent.

Keep in mind that pitch accent of a word can change depending on its location in the sentence, but maybe it has that included too?

Good luck with your studies!

> Is there something more valuable I could be doing instead of this?

You could buy Totsuba! in Japanese, and try to read it to get a feeling of which directions it's useful to improve your Japanese.

You could create an account on lang-8, and try to find something to say about your day every day.

It was a couple thousand bucks for you? I bought it off Amazon.co.jp. Here's the textbook, and here's the workbook. I didn't get the CDs, but those are just another ￥5000. Anyway, I'm pretty sure these would be a fair bit beneath your level, given the stuff I've seen you translate.

So I recently found out about these books called Japanese From Zero. He has an entire Youtube channel dedicated to the books and questions from people. IMO he's been a great teacher and provided tons of free content in addition to the books. There are currently 4 JFZ books. https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Zero-Techniques-Students-Professionals/dp/0976998122/

Get books with grammar drill exercises. I found these helpful:

• Schaum's Outline of Japanese Grammar - level goes up to maybe JLPT N4 or so. Hundreds of drill exercises. Text is kanji/kana and romaji but, at least in the edition I have, the romaji is full of typos (this is actually a plus, because it forces you to focus on the kanji/kana).
  
• Japanese Particle Workbook - also very useful, but focus is only on particles.
  
• 日本語チャレンジ・N4文法と読む練習 - preparation book for the JLPT.
  
• 日本語総まとめN3・文法 - preparation book for the JLPT.
  
  You can also look for past JLPT exams on the net, even if you don't plan on taking the exam they can be a good source of drill exercises.

Have a look at Outlier Japanese Dictionary.

Also, The World of Kanji by Alan Adler (and his website) might provide some info, and The Key to Kanji by Noriko Kurosawa Williams might be helpful. You'd probably enjoy her website Kanji Portraits as well. This Japanese SE question has some good info.

EDIT: typo

I had a similar problem with the "Japanese for Busy People" series, which I found to be dead boring.

When I was a complete beginner, I found this book to be really useful and interesting: https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Verbs-Saying-What-Mean/dp/4938236923/

Japanese verbs convey even more information than verbs in English, so by focusing mostly on the verbs (though the book also goes over some particles), you really learn a lot.

I would supplement that book with this dictionary of Japanese particles: https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Japanese-Particles-Sue-Kawashima/dp/156836542X/

And possible the "Japanese the Manga Way" program if you want additional practice with dialogues and vocab.

When you finish the verb book I linked you to, I would recommend jumping off the deep end and start consuming Japanese music, movies/dramas/anime, and reading stuff as soon as possible, looking up any words you don't know in a dictionary. It will be difficult and overwhelming at first, but

1. You will learn quickly, and
   
   
2. Grammar-wise, you will have had a very good start if you use the book I recommended.
   
   I see little reason to be studying fake, made-up dialogue when you get to an intermediate level. Our ultimate goal is to learn real Japanese, so I'm a firm believer in immersion sooner rather than later.
   
   I hope that helps.

I found it easier for a physical book for the kanas as well. This book was good for me and cheap enough to justify the purchase.

Maybe we should get the mods to put instructions on how to do this in the sidebar.

I also use Tadashii Kakitori supplemented with the JPLT list.

I'd love to have a digital version of something like 1016 Kanji in context as learning 2, 3 and 4 kanji strings are necessary for basic literacy.

If you find that you remember better with a physical component, like writing, you can try a book (I'm using this one and my handwriting is terrible but I get a better memory result if I am writing it and saying it at the same time. There is not enough room in the book to copy a character enough times to memorize it, so use notebook paper once you have the idea, and do them in groups of five.

The Anki (or AnkiApp for iOS if you can't afford to donate $25) is also a very useful and important tool. SRS is a magical thing.

The third thing to try is drag & drop hiragana or real kana which you can also use for Katakana (and learn different font recognition, which is very difficult at first, but very important!!)

> apanese for Busy People

Hey, I have found there is a Kana version and a romaji version: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Busy-People-Kana-Audio/dp/1568363850/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526630064&sr=8-1&keywords=japanese+for+busy+people

In the reviews someone wrote there is no Kanji in this book at all? Maybe just using Kana is a good starting point then I can try switch over to something like LingQ after for adding Kanji?

Thanks a lot for your comment

http://www.wanikani.com is pretty popular. I personally am learning kanji from context (not just hammering a bunch of characters, though I may begin to do that now).

Some books that might interest you:

Remembering the Kanji

The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course (probably the one I would use)
The Key to Kanji: A Visual History of 1100 Characters <- I think most of the pictographs in this one are made up but they don't seem half bad.

As for apps, I don't really know of any/use any.

Well as far as etymology goes, you can't beat the Henshall text (most recent version here): https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Japanese-Kanji-Understanding/dp/4805311703/

But if you actually want to learn Kanji I recommend using KLC: https://www.amazon.com/Kodansha-Kanji-Learners-Course-Step/dp/1568365268/

This has a lot of Anki and Memrize decks to help you study.

There are loads of apps if you have a smartphone. This and this are usually recommended.

Definitely make flashcards! And learning to write them will help recognition too.

Get yourself a particle dictionary. Something like this won't solve all the problems you will eventually encounter, but it should help a lot for this basic kind of question.

As others have pointed out, most of your questions can be resolved just by knowing the number and type of arguments that each use of と requires. A particle dictionary will give you an organized overview of most of the uses in one place. Ideally it would be "all the uses", but I've never found a single resource that wasn't deficient in some way.

For yotsubato. You can try to read through a sample here http://yotuba.com/yotu_comics.html

I personally find them really enjoyable and a nice break from my anki reps. If you like it heres an amazon link. Its cheap but you have to pay shipping as well

This book covers は and が in some detail: https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Japanese-Language-Current-Linguistics/dp/0262519283

For some reason a lot of people studying Japanese seem to be very dismissive of this type of question. However, because you don't really need to understand all the intricacies of は vs が to read/listen to Japanese text or to be mostly understood when you speak, I think it is pretty easy to get to a fairly advanced level without understanding it completely. (In other words, I think people underestimate this issue and assume that just by reading native materials you'll master it even if you don't work on it specifically, but I'm not sure that this is the case.)

After reading about it, I recommend trying to think more about why は or が was used as you are reading.

Something like this?: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Japanese-Hiragana-Katakana-Self-Study/dp/4805312270/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522956920&sr=8-1&keywords=Learning+Japanese+Hiragana+and+Katakana

I have it and really like it.

I strongly suggest you take this time to learn how to search your library/use your inter-library loan system for introductory books, and to speak with your professors for references. I don't say this to be patronizing; finding resources on your own and getting in touch with professors are valuable skills to develop in college.

Wiley and Oxford each have "handbooks," collections of overviews by researchers, on Japanese linguistics. They should be readable as an undergraduate if you've already taken some linguistics courses. Routledge has a three-volume compilation of seminal research articles on Japanese linguistics, but this may be too advanced and narrow in scope. There's an introductory book by Tsujimura and a recent book on historical Japanese linguistics by Frellesvig. Each will consistently reference a handful of researchers (e.g., Ito & Mester and Kawahara for the phonetics/phonology of Japanese) whose websites you can search for more.

What u/Laniur said. Shadowing can help as well.

If you want to go all out, NHK puts out a pronounciation dictionary which is for standard (broadcast) Japanese.

Someone recommended this book: https://www.amazon.com/Routledge-Course-Japanese-Translation/dp/0415486866 :)

Here's a link for you.

Incidentally, Danboard (the series' cardboard-box robot you may have seen around the Internet) is something like Amazon Japan's unofficial mascot.

I posted this in one of the other threads but I think it was too late for anyone to notice it there: Although not a word frequency list, may I suggest Tuttle's Japanese Kanji and Kana. It lists the kanji in order of frequency. And, the vocabulary used for each kanji are words solely made up of kanji that appear before said kanji in the book.

It would probably be much easier/faster to learn new words when you know all the kanji that they are comprised of. Although you're learning the kanji by frequency, I imagine the vocabulary for the kanji include the common/frequent words as well. I am in the process of finishing up some vocabulary cards I made based on this book.

Addendum: I also plan on collecting sentences that build off the previously seen kanji once Tatoeba is back up.

If you can directly import from Amazon Japan, the prices aren't that bad. They are currently ￥3,780 each for the textbooks, ￥1,728 each for the workbooks, and ￥864 for the answer key (note these prices have tax included so if you are ordering and shipping them outside Japan they may remove the tax--I paid ￥3,500, ￥1,600, and ￥800).

Links:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014436

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/478901441X

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Elementary-Japanese-Workbook/dp/4789014444

http://www.amazon.co.jp/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014479

Anyone know if the Japanese From Zero will take you farther, shorter, or if its comparable? Getting close to finishing book 1 and kinda curious.

When using は as a substitute for を, you can kind of also consider it more an overarching assertion (in addition to the contrasting usage others have pointed out). This pretty much answers question number one (and the parentheses/brackets answers Q2 in that you can have multiple はs since they have different nuanced functions):

• （私は）ご飯を食べません: I won't eat rice (for this meal, today, etc.). 95% of the time you'll have the "contraster" marked with は (e.g. 今日はご飯を食べません、朝ごはんはご飯を食べません、etc.), but there are rare instances where people may just drop that.
  
• （私は）ご飯は食べません: I don't eat rice (in general).
  
  I bought this book a while back, and only recently started looking at it again. I would say it's a 90% exhaustive list of the various particles and their uses. It doesn't directly compare は and を if I recall correctly, but functions as much like a dictionary of sorts (with practice areas!).

The updated version covers 1945 characters (pre-2010 list) while the first version only covers the primary school characters. Anyway, Amazon.com carries it for a cheaper price than eBay.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XCPSFW

I have updated my original post with this link since many people live outside Japan.

You can purchase the book and audio cd.

Please note:
> #7. The following will result in post removal:

> Requests for, or links to copyrighted content

Hmm, you might want to try buying those from the amazon.co.jp sites instead. I bought them for $130 (GENKI 1 & 2 costed me $69) and the workbooks too + a dictionary. I think you could buy them for ￥６４００ which equals to $55 shipping included.
Here the links:
Workbook 1 ||
Genki 1 ||
Genki 2 ||
Workbook 2

here's the updated version of that first book




The second book is often recommended here and there are a lot of threads with tips and recommendations on how to use the book if you don't mind browsing for a while.

While I personally do not know any, as I am a beginner (for like, 4 or six years due to my lack of studying :D )
u/overactive-bladder had shown me some.

• short stories in japanese: https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/0143118331/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  
• read real japanese: https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_qp_0_2/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365292&pd_rd_r=8c5f99d9-2bc8-4db6-bfd2-bdddd29633d3&pd_rd_w=jWAij&pd_rd_wg=hH6jb&psc=1&refRID=5E58M7B8QYFHW89NYBEN
  
  https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=pd_sim_14_1/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568364148&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
  
  
• breaking into japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568365896/ref=pd_sim_14_3/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365896&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
  
  exploring japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/1568365411/ref=pd_sim_14_5/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365411&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8

I like The Routledge Course in Japanese Translation. It's designed for Japanese<>English, so it covers a lot of specific things that you might find tough to translate, and there are a lot of exercises where it has you translate a paragraph and then provides an example translation.

Pricey, though.

Well, there is this game for the Nintendo DS, but it's only in Japanese...

Otherwise I've always used Anki with my own scratchpad in order to test writing.

Not to de-necro an old thread, but some here might be interested in the book "A History of the Japanese Language" by Bjarke Frellesvig, where he goes into a big section on old Japanese. Among a few highlights are eight vowels, no vowel length, and many words beginning with "h" began with "p". So many homonyms today were not in OJ. Interesting reading, a bit thick though, and not cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Japanese-Language-Bjarke-Frellesvig/dp/1107404096/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419784277&sr=8-1&keywords=Frellesvig

Learn to Read in Japanese (Roger Lake / Noriko Ura)

Vol. 1 (beginner to intermediate)

Vol. 2 (building on Vol. 1, intermediate to advanced)

And of course:

Breaking into Japanese Literature

Exploring Japanese Literature

Alternatively, just buy (or "buy") this old DS game that does kana and kanji writing practice:

https://www.amazon.com/Kageyama-Method-Tadashii-Kakitori-Kun-Nintendo-DS/dp/B000XCPSFW

By the way, a new revised edition is coming soon, which seems to be a bit more explicit about the sources in the entries.

In my 400-level classes, we used Authentic Japanese: Progressing from Intermediate to Advanced.

That seems more of a vocabulary dictionary. If I was going to get a vocabulary dictionary I would probably get this one instead.

https://www.amazon.com/Kodanshas-Furigana-Japanese-Dictionary-Dictionaries/dp/1568364571/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487446957&sr=8-2&keywords=kodansha+dictionary

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/4789009181

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568364911/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=7a8f5654-37f5-4688-a266-a74309cad748&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=4770027982&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=R7H4PF3Y9A71JYZ5TBJX&pf_rd_r=R7H4PF3Y9A71JYZ5TBJX&pf_rd_p=7a8f5654-37f5-4688-a266-a74309cad748

That's The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook from Kodansha. It also comes with a CD.

Textbook part 1 This is the main textbook that you need, includes the mp3 cd.

Optional workbook part 1 Extra practice for the textbook.

Textbook part 2 You move onto this book when finished with part 1, also has a cd

Optional workbook pt 2 extra practice that accompanies the second part

These are all the 2nd ed.

Lots. Lots and lots.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/156836542X/

If all else fails, Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Japanese-Language-Current-Linguistics/dp/0262519283

I'll quote you the exact relevant portions when I get home tonight (although it's not like I memorized the text or anything. 辞書がある just sounded really wrong to me for OP's usage.)

there are many graded readers out there with exactly what you're describing though.

• short stories in japanese: https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/0143118331/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  
• read real japanese: https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Fiction-Contemporary/dp/1568365292/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_qp_0_2/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365292&pd_rd_r=8c5f99d9-2bc8-4db6-bfd2-bdddd29633d3&pd_rd_w=jWAij&pd_rd_wg=hH6jb&psc=1&refRID=5E58M7B8QYFHW89NYBEN
  
  https://www.amazon.fr/Read-Real-Japanese-Essays-Contemporary/dp/1568364148/ref=pd_sim_14_1/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568364148&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
  
  
• breaking into japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Breaking-into-Japanese-Literature-Classics/dp/1568365896/ref=pd_sim_14_3/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365896&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
  
  exploring japanese literature: https://www.amazon.fr/Exploring-Japanese-Literature-Tanizaki-Kawabata/dp/1568365411/ref=pd_sim_14_5/259-4279497-3692713?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1568365411&pd_rd_r=d172be83-a0ea-11e9-a0e7-ff5133ca3569&pd_rd_w=0Ju56&pd_rd_wg=onHm2&pf_rd_p=7e133c34-2a2a-4f4f-8372-6a26c70ca073&pf_rd_r=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8&psc=1&refRID=47RS5KNR1PN2A3V66MX8
  
  also, i am a native middle eastern and i studied arabic there. now that i moved away (thank god) i am anxious of losing my dialect and the written language. i have been looking into getting back into kawa3ed for the harakat part. even natives mess up a LOT. i still remember my arabic teacher saying "i always cringe when i hear a news reporter screw up the kawa3ed lmfao.

Check out pages 7-8 in the "look inside" for The Structure of the Japanese Language for a discussion of "John owned a cat that killed a rat that ate cheese that was rotten."