Questions about books

[Aemelia]

Hello.

I'm currently in my first quarter of Japanese in my university, however I plan to change universities in the near future. The other university works on a semester system, so I will have to do some self-study to make up for the lost time. I have all summer, so I want to try to get into the intermediate level class in fall. So, I need books. I've searched around the forums but still have a few questions.

I currently have Genki I and will be buying Japanese For Everyone since that's what my new class will use. For the kanji, I was planning to buy Heisig's book since his method helped me with the kana. Should I get another book for the kanji that explains the different readings/pronunciation? I've also seen the Basic Kanji Book recommended. Does that cover more than Heisig's book?

I saw that A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar was recommended in several topics. Is there a certain year that I should be looking for? I think the ones I found are from 1991.

Also, could anyone recommend a good dictionary? At this point I prefer paper ones over electronic.

Any other recommendations are welcome too. Thank you for your time.
~Aemelia

 

[Touhoushinki]

For paper dictionary, can't go wrong with Kodansha's Kanji Learners Dictionary for kanji. For general words there is the English -> Japanese and Japanese -> English Kodansha dictionaries...though if you're going for an intermediate level, electric dictionaries make things a lot more convenient.

Basic Japanese Grammar dictionary is pretty old but you should look for later editions that contain more examples and contain kana as well...anything in the 2000's is good.

Basic Kanji books are good for writing practice I suppose since they offer space and they systematically go through the kanji with frequent tests along the way. It's not a bad accompaniment with Heisigs (though personally I havent used Heisig's system before).

 

[avicus]

Minna no Nihongo is an excellent series for elementary up to intermediate level study.

As for dictionaries, I'm using a Kodansha Japanese-English one.

 

[sumaiya]

i will recommend Minna no Nihongo to you

 

[Aemelia]

Thank you all. I will definitely try to find the books suggested.