Japanese textbook curse
April 11th, 2007 by quaisiIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I’m trying to better myself by studying Japanese further past level three and I’ve come across a big hurdle.
When I studied for level three, all the grammar textbooks had English explanations. Now for level 2, every single textbook I can find has EVERYTHING in Japanese. This includes meanings and explanations.
This seems crazy to me. Why are the meanings of phrases and grammar points I don’t understand, in a language I don’t fully understand?
I studied two Modern Languages at University. If one of them had been Japanese, it would have been immensely helpful in my present life but I didn’t. I studied French and German. I never came across a textbook which had explanations in those languages. They were always in English.
My present study setup involves the grammar textbook and my mac on the kotatsu connected to Jim Breen’s outstanding Japanese dictionary site. This is so I can look up every single word I don’t understand.
But it’s a slow and laborious process when you don’t understand most of them.
When I was at University my friend told me a story of his guitar teacher. He didn’t know whether to buy a guitar that was new with a low fret action or an older one which was cheaper but harder to play. His guitar teacher told him he should buy the expensive one as there was no point in putting up hurdles between you and your goals.
I feel the same way here.
Posted in Japan, Japanese, Life in Japan |
April 11th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
That’s language learning through immersion, yo! At this point, there should be no filthy English words holding you back from learning Japanese.
That’s a little deranged that you have to use a dictionary to look up the definitions of words you don’t understand in a textbook, because you don’t understand the words in the textbook. I’m surprised the dictionary has words in English.
Learning immersion? More like learning drowning…
April 22nd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
ditch WWWJDIC
checkout JEdict: http://www.jedict.com/
it’ll change your life
April 29th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
you could always learn the kanji
April 29th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Yes. And I am. But the textbooks assume a complete knowledge of kanji before studying the grammar.
That seems a bit fair doesn’t it?
June 13th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Seriously, if you are studying towards level 2 then you should be getting used to learning Japanese via Japanese.
Yes it means that understanding the specifc grammer point you are studying takes longer, but it greatly deepens your overall grasp of the language.
Furthermore, on the actual test itself there will be numerous explanitory notes- in Japanese, so it pays you to be able to understand those.
And aside from all that, doesn’t it give you a sense of acheivement to have come far enough that the texts pitched at your level are written in Japanese?
Just keep plugging away, it’s the only way.