Text books for studying Japanese

Here is a list of textbooks that I have used or currently using to study Japanese. I will post "mini reviews" of some of them in separate posts.

• Dr Yuriko Kitaoji & Dr Hironobu Kitaoji, Japanese for Bilingualism (日本語の参考書), Book 1 Volumes 1 and 2 (4th Edition), published by the Japan Seminar House, Inc., Melbourne, Australia (you can download Volume 1 by visiting http://www.japansh.com/ and creating a User ID and password)
• Association for Japanese-Language Teaching, Japanese for Busy People I (Kana Version, Revised Edition 1994), Kodansha International ISBN4-7700-1987-4 (there is now a Revised 3rd Edition of this book)
• Association for Japanese-Language Teaching, Japanese for Busy People II (First Edition, 1990), Kodansha International ISBN4-7700-1419-8 (later editions split the content into Volumes II and III, this is the original First Edition)
• Osamu Mizutani and Nobuko Mizutani, An Introduction to Modern Japanese (57th Printing, 1995), The Japan Times ISBN4-7890-0058-3
• Eri Banno et al, 『げんき』 Genki I: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (First Edition 1999), The Japan Times ISBN4-7890-0963-7 (for more information, go to the Genki Online web site)
• Eri Banno et al, 『げんき』 Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (First Edition 1999), The Japan Times ISBN4-7890-0982-3
• 「文化初級日本語Ⅰ」I (ＣＤ付) (2000), Bunka Institute of Language 文化外国語専門学校 学(for more information, go to the Bunka Institute of Language web page, then click on the textbook link)
• みんなの日本語初級I　本冊 (Main Textbook), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-102-8 (for more information, refer to the 3A Corporate Minna no nihongo site)
• みんなの日本語初級I　翻訳・文法解説英語版 (Translation & Grammatical Notes in English), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-107-9
• みんなの日本語初級I　教え方の手引き (Teacher's Manual), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-160-5
• みんなの日本語初級I　標準問題集 (Basic Workbook), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-135-4
• みんなの日本語初級I　漢字英語版 (Kanji I - English Edition), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-147-8
• みんなの日本語初級I　漢字練習帳 (Kanji Exercise Book I), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-291-1
• みんなの日本語初級I　書いて覚える文型練習帳 (Sentence Pattern Workbook I), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-171-0
• みんなの日本語初級I　初級で読めるトピック25 (Reading Comprehension Text I), 3A Corporation ISBN4-88319-168-0

Why so many textbooks? Well, to be honest it started more or less by accident. Japanese for Bilingualism and 「文化初級日本語Ⅰ」are used as textbooks by the Japan Seminar House and I have attended a few classes there, 「みんなの日本語初級I」is used as a textbook in the Japan Foundation beginner's class, I picked up Japanese For Busy People I & II from a Lifeline book sale, the other books I have borrowed from various libraries.

I quite like learning from multiple textbooks, I learn something new from each and every one of them. I also hate reviewing the same material over and over again, so reading from different text books allow me to essentially cover the same material multiple times but from different perspectives. I found the 「みんなの日本語」 workbooks particularly useful for reviewing and consolidating my knowledge.

My personal opinion on these books? Here are some quick bullet points, until I have time to post reviews:

• Japanese for Bilingualism: my first exposure to Japanese textbooks (I initially started learning Japanese by attending the free lessons given by the Japan Seminar House which covered Lessons 1-5 of Volume I). Lots of vocabulary, very detailed explanations on grammar and pronunciation, has stuff that no other textbook has ie. rules for converting between Chinese Pinyin and Japanese readings). I found the explanations very dense and hard to follow, at least initially, but the books are worth rereading and as I progress the explanations make more sense.
• Japanese for Busy People: Volume I was very easy, I breezed through it. Unfortunately, there is a big jump between Volume I and II. I picked up Volume II straight after Volume I and found it really tough.
• An Introduction to Modern Japanese: this is a relatively old textbook, written in the 1970s. Covers material not typically taught by modern textbooks which are more closely alignede to JLPT levels.
• Genki: has excellent grammar explanations and good reading material. The practice exercises really need to be done in a classroom with other students however, so I skipped them.
• 「文化初級日本語Ⅰ」- this textbook is completely written in Japanese (no English whatsover) so is best learnt in a classroom situation or as an adjunct to other books. There is a companion book available which translates the material to English but not worth buying in my opinion.
• 「みんなの日本語初級I」 - also completely in Japanese (there is a separate book providing grammar explanations and translation to English which is surprisingly useful). Quite comprehensive, but as the material is separated over several textbooks, buying the whole set is quite expensive. I only bought the main textbook and the teacher's manual, and borrowed the rest from a library. Incidentally, I found the teacher's manual quite useful in providing additional dialogue.