Japanese text book suggestions

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Japanese text book suggestions

Postby Mangafanatic » Thu May 27, 2004 10:46 am

Hi! Does anyone have any suggestions of some good text books or software that I can use to teach myself Japanese? I'd really appreciate any help y'all can give. Thanks a million.
Every year in Uganda, innumerable children simply. . . disappear. These children all stolen under the cover of darkness from their homes and impressed into the guerilla armies of the LRA [Lord's Resistance Army]. In the deserts of Uganda, they are forced to witness the mindless slaughter of other children until they themselves can do nothing but kill. Kill. These children, generally ranging from ages 5-12, are brainwashed into murdering in the name of the resistance and into stealing other children from their beds to suffer the same fate.

Because of this genocide of innocence, hundred and hundreds of children live every night sleeping in public places miles from their homes, because they know that if the do not-- they will disappear. They will become just another number in this genocide to which the international community has chosen to turn a blind eye. They will become, in affect, invisible-- Invisible Children.

But there are those who are trying to fight against this slaughter of Uganda's children. They fight to protect these "invisible children." Please, help them help a country full of children who know nothing by fear. Help save the innocence. For more information concerning how you can help and how you can get an incredible video about this horrific reality, visit the Invisible Children home page.
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Postby SwordSkill » Thu May 27, 2004 6:57 pm

I use Berlitz's Essential Japanese. Quite satisfying. Comes with dialogue, structure/grammar usage, exercises, and sectional reviews. It uses romanji to teach you, though, so it's meant to teach you how to speak the language, not exactly to write it in the traditional way.
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Postby Saint Kevin » Thu May 27, 2004 11:27 pm

I have a Yookoso textbook, but I really can't say if it's good or not, and I really have nothing to compare it to.
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Postby shooraijin » Fri May 28, 2004 12:16 am

I used Barron's Japanese The Easy Way and the Pimsleur eight CD audio set myself. Once you know some basic Japanese, the Manga-Jin Basic Japanese Through Comics series is an excellent next step. Yes, it teaches you Japanese grammar, vocabulary, kanji and even/especially culture using scenarios from manga! The series is a little dated (the most recent manga it references is Ranma 1/2), but it's really, really good.
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Postby Zedian » Sun May 30, 2004 11:29 pm

I just have the Yookoso book lying around in wait for when I need to start taking the class in Fall...I'm sometimes just too lazy to read. The audio CDs are somewhat nice to have, problem is if you don't have the book in hand there is no English voice-over to compliment the Japanese counterpart, which is what I really hoped for. It's good I suppose, I mean right around the mid-section, Romanization is gone and replaced heavily by pure Hiragana, Katakan and Kanji.
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Postby Megami Tsunami » Mon May 31, 2004 12:46 am

If you have a Japanese bookstore in your area, they should have a good variety of language learning books to choose from. Honestly, the way I practice my Japanese is listening to plenty of Japanese music, practicing reading Japanese in some manga and some shoujo magazines I have (once you nail hiragana and katakana...and possibly some kanji, you'll most likely be able to do this), watch Japanese drama and music shows on tv, and talk to my mom and grandma (they speak fluent). We also have a few Japanese dictionaries in our house, so that helps as well. This method is really just my own way when I'm not able to go to school for it, so I don't really recommend it to anyone ^^' Sorry, I just thought I would share it with you... lol
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