It has been easily 2 years since my high school Japanese lessons, which unfortunately only left me with scattered bits of knowledge. Over the past few days I happened to read "The Art and Science of Learning Languages " by Amorey Gethin and Erik V. Gunnemark as well as "How to Learn any Language" by Barry Farber. These two books have given new birth to my desire to learn this language.
My main goal is the reading of Japanese more so than fluent-natural speaking. Of course the problem comes from the fact that most books are geared towards speaking more than reading comprehension. I do want to learn to speak the language, but lack of Japanese acquaintances and the fact that it will be years before I can live my dream of traveling to Japan make fluency and accuracy of speech a long term goal that I don't mind learning over a longer period of time. Basically the current me would gain no joy from being able to converse -beyond the basics- in Japanese if I couldn't even read a newspaper article. I love reading a lot more than talking to people.
Now that the opening ramblings are done with, I present the information I do have. I still retain a lot of memory from my classes. I can read most of my kana, though not perfectly though do to lack of ability of practice. I do have basic grammar skills and still retain a good bit of vocab in passive memory even if I can't actively call it all up. I also know a small number of complete phrases.
Now for the things that I hope some of the helpful members of this forum can provide. There are so many different books out there that It's very hard to choose without insight from what text have been helpful to others.. I would like to know if there are any books that lean more towards reading comprehension. A little clarification, I'm looking for books that actually combine the learning of the Kyōiku and Jōyō kanji with vocabulary -if such books are available-, as well as good books on grammar and vocabulary in general. I would of course like books that concentrated on the more common words. I want a good basis for reading from which I can then start slowly building up a more advanced vocabulary by reading things like newspapers and non-fiction works like history and geography books.
Please forgive me for my long winded post. I felt it best to try to be as specific as possible to what my desires were.
My main goal is the reading of Japanese more so than fluent-natural speaking. Of course the problem comes from the fact that most books are geared towards speaking more than reading comprehension. I do want to learn to speak the language, but lack of Japanese acquaintances and the fact that it will be years before I can live my dream of traveling to Japan make fluency and accuracy of speech a long term goal that I don't mind learning over a longer period of time. Basically the current me would gain no joy from being able to converse -beyond the basics- in Japanese if I couldn't even read a newspaper article. I love reading a lot more than talking to people.
Now that the opening ramblings are done with, I present the information I do have. I still retain a lot of memory from my classes. I can read most of my kana, though not perfectly though do to lack of ability of practice. I do have basic grammar skills and still retain a good bit of vocab in passive memory even if I can't actively call it all up. I also know a small number of complete phrases.
Now for the things that I hope some of the helpful members of this forum can provide. There are so many different books out there that It's very hard to choose without insight from what text have been helpful to others.. I would like to know if there are any books that lean more towards reading comprehension. A little clarification, I'm looking for books that actually combine the learning of the Kyōiku and Jōyō kanji with vocabulary -if such books are available-, as well as good books on grammar and vocabulary in general. I would of course like books that concentrated on the more common words. I want a good basis for reading from which I can then start slowly building up a more advanced vocabulary by reading things like newspapers and non-fiction works like history and geography books.
Please forgive me for my long winded post. I felt it best to try to be as specific as possible to what my desires were.
