Japanese Learning Resources #2: 中級へ行こう！！ 

I used many textbooks during my beginner stages of Japanese. I'll list all of them: - Yookoso 1 and 2 - These books are extremely mediocre for the price. A lot of the information seems kind of dated, though if one is serious with their studies, they can use these books to acquire a good base of grammatical knowledge to build upon. - Complete Japanese - This was the first book I used, and I bought it used for 5 bucks on ebay. The major fault of this book is the use of romaji, but the grammatical concepts are the same as any other beginner level book you'll find, so for those with a budget, this book is good to begin with. During my transition from beginner to intermediate, I used the textbooks: - 上級へのとびら I like this book because it begins to expose beginner level learners to basic Japanese texts, and is structured in a nice way to learn the new words through various articles on different topics. - みんなの日本語中級１本冊 This book isn't amazing, but it can be good for some light learning. Most of the grammar concepts found in this book are found in the aforementioned beginner level books. - 中級から上級への日本語の会話 To bridge the gap between intermediate and advance, I've been using the 新完全マスター books. Lately, I have been going through the following: - 新完全マスタN3読解 I like this book for reading practice, as it helps one learn more vocabulary through reading. - 新完全マスタN3文法 Honestly, I don't think the grammar book is necessary, but it can shed light on grammar for those not confident with it. - 新完全マスタN3漢字 I also don't think this book is necessary, as one learns a lot of the kanji of N3 throughout the use of the intermediate and beginner books, and through the readings of the N3読解。 - 新完全マスタN2語彙 One can go with or without this book. For me, learning new words is the most essential part of a language, so this is good in aiding one in learning new words. - 新完全マスタN2読解 The N2 reading book is good because it exposes the learner to more complicated texts, which is essential for anybody wanting to reach a level of proficient fluency, in my opinion. With everything being said, when I was a beginner wanting to break into the intermediate level of Japanese proficiency, what helped me most was interacting with native speakers online. I would use the website interpals to communicate with Japanese people through text. When I didn't know a word, I would put it in a notepad file to study later. I never told anybody my kanji level and I would request they speak to me normally. Through the constant of looking up new words, my vocabulary level and kanji level increased. I think one should always communicate with natives at any level, to aid their book word. A good app to communicate with natives is hellotalk, and a good website is interpals. Sorry for the long message! I just wanted to express my thoughts, and I always want to help those attempting to learn Japanese because I love the language~

"not as invested in it if you don't spend money on it" ....I can feel my collection of textbooks staring at the back of my head right now.

I'm glad I subbed:) You're interesting and passionate, and you have the charisma necessary to be a successful youtuber. Keep it up dude!

thanks for the recommendation chad!!! I'm a super beginner and I need all the help I can get

Great vid

Sorry about the late upload everyone! I set this guy up uploading and when I came back there was an error halfway through :/ But teeeeeechnically it's still Wednesday soooooo Anyways, thanks for watching and thanks for your patience :P See you on Saturday!

Hey Chad! Was so excited to see this video; your videos are always fun to watch. Just wanna say keep doing what you're doing and your hard work is really admirable! Moving to Naha this July, so this is always good prep, and fun to watch! Thanks! (new subscriber)

Hey Chad. Kind off topic of the video but I was coming home from school and was surprised to see that One Ok Rock came on the radio. It was awesome

You should review the genki plus textbook and workbook (which I really love for kanji, especially the fact that kanji that you learned in f.ex. chapter 1 reappear throughout the workbook's exercises) and also the Nihongo Daichi (which to me is wayyy better than minna no nihongo) Keep up the good work!

Great vid Chad! I used this book in my last term at my language school here in Japan. I was surprised when you mentioned that it's from the same people as minna no nihongo. I never really liked minna, always thought it was sooo boring but I actually quite enjoyed this one (compared to minna lol). I do agree that it is not a book that's good for self studying. Also, by using it in class the lack of new vocabulary isn't such a big deal cause you learn a ton of extra vocabulary by just being in class. I'd give it like a 6.5 out of 10 haha. ;-)

I'm digging this textbook review series. Thanks for the review. Was this the bridge book that you used after Genki? Or does Genki have their own bridge/intermediate books? Looking forward to more reviews.

Thought it may be difficult I bet it’s not impossible to self study!

I got half way through Tobira but found I was starting to forget some of the basics. Is this book good for revision?

Hi! Been watching your videos recently and I very much like them. I recently passed N4 level and I'm having trouble with the beginning of N3 (Intermediate) so I'm looking for a good book that will help me bridge that "gap" from N4 to N3. I'll keep on watching your vids hoping you'll have a video that will recommend a good book for such. More power!

Lol my language school uses this book!

For some reason i could never get though genki i dont like the layout much. somehow i got ropped into studying from mina no nihongo i guess since my japanese teacher gave us handsouts pffttt, this book looks good for a mid tier learner like me eyyy

i need that weeaboo body pillow in my life.