After Japanese For Busy People 1...

[davefox]

Hey guys,

I've just finished JFBP1 and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a followup book. The first thought would obviously be JFBP2 but I've heard good things about Mina no Nihongo although the problem is I'm wondering if JFBP1 goes as far as MNN1. I.e. could I get MNN2 or would it be too advanced for me?

I'm not limiting myself to these two books though, anyone who has any good advice on a next step from JFBP1 who would care to spare a few minutes to give me some advice would be really appreciated.

ありがとう！
デービッド

[spinozza]

I would continue with the JFBP series.

When I first started my teacher used this series of books and I was sort of so-so on my opinion of them. The first book was in romaji (the one provided by the instructor)...I bought the next two in the series in the hiragana/katakana/kanji format and have finished all three now.

If you are using these books in conjunction with some instruction from a native Japanese, then I think they are probably some of the better books available. You could always go with the Genki series which is also great.

If you stick with JFBP series though and learn everything in them well, then you are very well prepared to step up to an intermediate level text that has fewer English explanations and more Japanese.

The only drawback I can see to the JFBP series is that they seem to be less conducive to self learning. There were many times I was sort of scratching my head with explanations given in the text.

With that being said, I didn't only use the JFBP text. I used a lot of online resources and other intermediate level texts while I was working in the JFBP 3 book. By doing this, a lot of the time I already understood the grammar points in book 3, and I found it was more of an excercise of practicing what I already knew and learning some new vocabulary.

Sorry for the rambling post, its kind of early for me.

[Robato]

Best to continue it but use others too and this pod is amazing.

[Ulver_684]

Hey guys,

I've just finished JFBP1 and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a followup book. The first thought would obviously be JFBP2 but I've heard good things about Mina no Nihongo although the problem is I'm wondering if JFBP1 goes as far as MNN1. I.e. could I get MNN2 or would it be too advanced for me?

I'm not limiting myself to these two books though, anyone who has any good advice on a next step from JFBP1 who would care to spare a few minutes to give me some advice would be really appreciated.

ありがとう！
デービッド

Davefox-san!

There is also a Mixi community on those books too and they are great!!

[kichigaijin]

The books I had back in high school are my favorite. Think they were called "Ima kara Nihongo" (今から日本語), but I can't find them anywhere. The books were ancient in 1995.

After those i can't decide if I like Nakama or JBP as a textbook (with english anyway).

One of the top japanese teachers at one of the biggest universities in the area recommended Nakama (over Genki, JBP, Minnanonihongo, and JSL)- especially knowing that i was shooting for JLPT in the near future.

Nakama's a bit more dry, but I'd say neither is a page turner.

There's a pretty big jump between JBP 1 and 2, #1 I finished in an hour or 2, #2 is going a bit slower - going through it on my own time whenever I have free time.
Also, the intro lesson in JBP 2 is much harder than the first 10 chapters, so don't freak out when you see it.

My textbook for my current Japanese class is pretty awesome- it's all in Japanese.
With textbooks in English, I'm usually skimming through loads of stuff I already know, for the occasional nugget of information I don't know. The nice thing about the all Japanese textbook is that I'm working in the language the whole time and don't feel like I have to "skim" so much.

My current school goes from JBP 1, to Japanese for everyone, to the all-japanese text I listed above.

Japanese for Everyone is another book you might want to take a look at.
As a single volume, it dives pretty far into the language at one shot.
Also I don't know that the topics of conversation in JFE are as dry as for JBP 2- which seem to mostly be about business terms (branch offices, managers, etc) and train terms (ticket office, losing a bag on a train, etc). Admittedly, I've only flipped through JFE once, so I'm not an authority on what it covers, but the people I know studying it like it.

as a free option try: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

[Ulver_684]

The books I had back in high school are my favorite. Think they were called "Ima kara Nihongo" (今から日本語), but I can't find them anywhere. The books were ancient in 1995.

After those i can't decide if I like Nakama or JBP as a textbook (with english anyway).

One of the top japanese teachers at one of the biggest universities in the area recommended Nakama (over Genki, JBP, Minnanonihongo, and JSL)- especially knowing that i was shooting for JLPT in the near future.

Nakama's a bit more dry, but I'd say neither is a page turner.

There's a pretty big jump between JBP 1 and 2, #1 I finished in an hour or 2, #2 is going a bit slower - going through it on my own time whenever I have free time.
Also, the intro lesson in JBP 2 is much harder than the first 10 chapters, so don't freak out when you see it.

My textbook for my current Japanese class is pretty awesome- it's all in Japanese.
With textbooks in English, I'm usually skimming through loads of stuff I already know, for the occasional nugget of information I don't know. The nice thing about the all Japanese textbook is that I'm working in the language the whole time and don't feel like I have to "skim" so much.

My current school goes from JBP 1, to Japanese for everyone, to the all-japanese text I listed above.

Japanese for Everyone is another book you might want to take a look at.
As a single volume, it dives pretty far into the language at one shot.
Also I don't know that the topics of conversation in JFE are as dry as for JBP 2- which seem to mostly be about business terms (branch offices, managers, etc) and train terms (ticket office, losing a bag on a train, etc). Admittedly, I've only flipped through JFE once, so I'm not an authority on what it covers, but the people I know studying it like it.

as a free option try: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

Kichigaijin-san!

Thank you for that useful link and information!