sharing my Japanese journey one coffee at a time
Hello August again. Exactly a year ago, I started learning N2. 365 days have already flown by since then, so I wanted to talk a little bit more about my experience learning N2. Hopefully it might be helpful to those starting out. When I started N2, I still wasn’t super confident in my N3 ability,… Continue reading JLPT N2 One Year Study Anniversary
Ease of Use: It is pretty simple. Content: There are 30 practice tests that are supposed to be 10 min each. There are 2 3min mini practice tests between every 5 regular tests. Structure: The first part is fill-in-the-blank sentence with the correct grammar. The second part is arrange parts the sentences correctly. The third… Continue reading 日本語パワードリル N2 文法 (Nihongo Power Drill N2 Grammar) Textbook Review
Ease of Use: It is relatively straightforward until the end. You read the grammar rules/tips and answer the questions. These can either be multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, complete the sentence, starred word in a sentence, etc. Content: The content is extremely detailed and thorough, and will take a very long time to finish. I spent 4-5 months… Continue reading 新完全マスターN２文法 (Shin Kanzen Master N2 Grammar) Textbook Review
My main resources I am using to study for the JLPT N2 are the 新完全マスター N2 series. I am using the 文法 (grammar), 語彙 (vocabulary), and 読解 (reading) textbooks. I have also used the N3 読解 last year. These are very dense textbooks and not easy to get through, but I feel that the information… Continue reading N2 Studies: 新完全マスター (Shin Kanzen Master) Textbooks
Happy holidays. Do you feel in the holiday spirit yet? I always love to read during the holidays, so I’m starting to create my TBR list for this break! But I thought it’d be a good time to talk about learning to read more again in Japanese today! At the beginning of this year I… Continue reading How To Read in Japanese Tips
Ease of Use: Definitely confusing at first since I’ve never used this series before, but I got the hang of it after the first section. Content: Very good. There are a lot of passages and a variety of topics. I heard the passages were dry, but honestly they were fine to me. Plus these are… Continue reading Shin Kanzen Master N3 Dokkai (Reading) Textbook Review
Currently it is the 紅葉 (こうよう) season in Japan, and I hear it’s a beautiful time to visit. Lately I have been pretty busy, so I would share some tips that helped me the most with staying on track with studying when I’m busy with other things such as work. *have a set number of… Continue reading Just a Little Bit of Balancing Life and Productivity Advice
Grammar Playlists by JLPT Level 日本と旅 / Nihongo to Tabi N4 N3 N2 N1 日本語の森 / Nihongo no Mori N3 N2 (shorter videos) N2 (longer videos) N1 Riki Nihongo Dayo N2
Here is a brief overview of these textbooks and my random thoughts on them. Beginners Genki 1: *simple, but better to learn in a classroom setting because there’s a lot of group exercises*a lot of random words; starts off with really difficult kanji for some reason*Mary and Takeshi (enough said) Marugoto A2: *conversation/speaking focused *simple… Continue reading All the Japanese Textbooks I’ve Used Over the Past 4+ Years
Film pictured: 秒速5センチメートル (5 CM per Second) Today’s topic is improving those listening skills through keyword repetition and breaking down long words, getting the gist, and using different listening materials. *Keyword Repetition: When you first start listening to Japanese speech, I’m sure it all sounds like a big jumble. You don’t know when the sentence… Continue reading Improving Listening Tips
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