Hi,
I'm starting a master's program in Taiwan history this fall. Since Taiwan was ruled by the Japanese for 50 years, the program requires all students to learn Japanese--you have to pass the Level 2 JLPT before you can graduate. I know Mandarin, which means kanji are pretty easy for me, but verbs and grammar are difficult.
I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good textbook that focuses on written Japanese. I've been using Genki I, but I find it hard to memorize the vocabulary when there are so few sample sentences and so little dialogue. The ideal textbook would have two or three sample sentences for every new word introduced, and lots of dialogue and text passages that would help me retain what I learn. (If anyone has read any of John DeFrancis's Character Text for Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Chinese books, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.) With a book like that, I'd get more of a feel for how the written language works--right now I feel like I'm just memorizing inefficiently.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Arigatou gozaimasu!
Nick
I'm starting a master's program in Taiwan history this fall. Since Taiwan was ruled by the Japanese for 50 years, the program requires all students to learn Japanese--you have to pass the Level 2 JLPT before you can graduate. I know Mandarin, which means kanji are pretty easy for me, but verbs and grammar are difficult.
I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good textbook that focuses on written Japanese. I've been using Genki I, but I find it hard to memorize the vocabulary when there are so few sample sentences and so little dialogue. The ideal textbook would have two or three sample sentences for every new word introduced, and lots of dialogue and text passages that would help me retain what I learn. (If anyone has read any of John DeFrancis's Character Text for Beginning/Intermediate/Advanced Chinese books, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.) With a book like that, I'd get more of a feel for how the written language works--right now I feel like I'm just memorizing inefficiently.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Arigatou gozaimasu!
Nick