Minna no Nihongo I - How to Study - Asking for Advice

[elariah]

Hi

I've been doing a Japanese course for a few months now, and it's going well and I can read basic hiragana/katakana (albeit with limited Vocabulary)

My partner (who is Japanese) and myself have just purchased the Minna no Nihongo I set of books so that I can advance my studies outside of my class (which is only 1 night a week).

However I am a little confused on how to study with it.

Can anyone offer any advice on how to study using this series?

Should my partner read a task/exercise and tell me what to do? Or should I read a task/exercise in the Japanese version, and then compare that with what is in the English Translation version.

Thanks for any help on this.

[untmdsprt]

I use this series in my mixed class of students (Nepal, Peru, Chinese) and the grammar translation book is just for your info only while the teacher uses the main book. The teacher will only speak Japanese, and it's up to us to read our grammar books to understand everything in our own language.

How I personally use it is I input all vocab into Anki for constant review to keep the words in my memory. I also have the audio so I can listen to native speakers read to me and try to get their timing and pronunciation correct. The grammar book is only used for vocab input, and reading the new grammar points. I really don't use the translations unless I just can't get the meaning.

The sentences are actually better to read out loud or with a partner since they're designed more for speaking. The 練習B section is good for writing. I have a notebook in which I'll write out everything.

[mieth]

If you have a native speaker to help you then I would recommend you get a copy of rosetta stone turn off the volume and let them get to work explaining the pictures to you in Japanese and having you repeat what you can. While I was in Japan I was teaching a 10 year old with this method and they were improving really really quickly.

It is just a personal opinion of mine but I absolutely hate the minna no nihongo books. It was the first book that I studied with and I didn't find it effective. I suggest you buy the beginner and intermediate Japanese grammar dictionaries. The yellow and blue books. The red book is the advanced one. Start going through the grammar in there and go to town. Those two books alone will easily get you to above jlpt level 2.

Then again it all depends how serious you are and what your goals are. Good luck !