Thursday, 25 October 2007

Continuing My Japanese

Since deciding to aim for the Level 2 Japanese Fluency Test, I've kicked my Japanese studying into overdrive and am finally about to finish my Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese book which has been a godsend. If you're thinking of starting Japanese this book is brilliant. It teaches you the basics but still challenges you at the same time and by the end of the book you can get by in most basic situations using the Japanese you have learnt.

I've already purchased the follow-up book in the series, Teach Yourself Japanese book which has been sitting in my bookcase unused for over a year now and I'll finally be ripping that open the week after next as I finish Beginner's! I can't wait to get started on this one as it covers speculation and making longer, more natural sentences.

I also have the Teach Yourself Beginner's Japanese Script book and used that to teach myself the Katakana and Hiragana (only about thirty letters or so in each alphabet) but since deciding to take the Level 2 test which requires knowledge 2000 kanji I've been looking for a faster and more comprehensive approach and luckily came across this post in a blog that I just subscribed to last week!

The author is starting to study the kanji herself and has recommended James W. Heisig's Remembering the Kanji I which looked so amazing that I ordered my copy last night! The whole book will teach me the meanings and stroke order of about 2000 kanji... and that's it. It doesn't teach the sounds (Onyomi & Kunyomi) at all! Ah, but that's the charm! You see once those 2000 kanji actually mean something to me in English (after I've learnt their meanings) then I use the second book, James W. Heisig's Remembering the Kanji II to teach me the Chinese and Japanese readings and how to really use them.

This process is apparently controversial but said by a lot of people to be incredibly fast and completely possible to do within a year (or maybe less!). I'm very excited about this and can't wait to get started!

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Labels: japan, Japanese