Translation Whitepaper - Japanese Textbooks

Translation Whitepaper > Japanese Textbooks

There are quite a number of textbooks out there for learning Japanese. Some are great, some are good, and some are not so good. The ones below are all ones that I have used personally and think are at least worth a look. Some of these books are good only for English speakers, but others are written in Japanese or have helper books in many different languages.

Japanese for Busy People

As the title suggests, this is a good book for people who don't have much time to study the language. For example, someone who plans on taking a vacation in Japan or will just be going on business for a few months.

The focus is on everyday, spoken language, introducing phrases like greetings and travel conversation right away without getting caught up in grammar or the written language. However, this strength is also a weakness, as people who plan on reaching a higher level of Japanese will probably want to build these fundamentals first. The book is written in English.

Buy at Amazon.com: Japanese for Busy People I: Romanized Version includes CD (Japanese for Busy People)
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: Japanese for Busy People [Revised 3rd Edition] I Romanized Version

Minna no Nihongo (みんなの日本語)

This is perhaps the first book that a beginner who wants to learn Japanese seriously should pick up. It is split into two books, a Japanese workbook and an explanation of the grammar written in the speaker's native language (English, of course, as well as Chinese, Korean, French, Tagalog, and many others).

Minna no Nihongo introduces the writing system and grammar points in a systematic manner, allowing a student to make day by day practice and review their skills with dialogs. I found this to be the best book on the beginner level out of the ones I used.

Buy at Amazon.com: Minna No Nihongo Book 1
Buy at Amazon.com: Minna No Nihongo Book 2
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: みんなの日本語―初級1本冊
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: みんなの日本語―初級2本冊

Authentic Japanese: Progressing from Intermediate to Advanced

Published by the Japan Times, one of the English newspapers in Japan, it is full of real-life Japanese resources and easy-to-understand grammar explanations in English. Depending on how much Japanese you picked up on the way, it may still be a little difficult for those who have finished both of the Minna no Nihongo books, in which case an intermediate book will also be necessary.

Buy at Amazon.com: Authentic Japanese
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: 生きた� 材で学ぶ中級から上級への日本語

Kanzen Master JLPT Series (完全マスター)

If you are aiming to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 1 or level 2, this book is a fantastic way to review the grammar. Because the grammar and reading section is worth half the points on the test it's especially important that you master the grammar properly. This is especially true for level 1, as there are many esoteric grammar points that don't come up often in normal Japanese.

The Kanzen Master books go through all the grammar points on the test one by one, explaining them in more simple Japanese and giving examples. Using these books it is possible to cover all the grammar points on the test in one or two weeks of intense study, and boost your grades on the grammar section significantly.

Buy at Amazon.com: Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level Two Grammar (Kanzen masutaa 2 kyuu: Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken Bunpou Mondai Taisaku) (in Japanese)
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: 完全マスター2級 日本語能力試験文法問題対策
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: 完全マスター1級 日本語能力試験文法問題対策

Remembering the Kanji

This book teaches the meaning and writing of Japanese Kanji by teaching "stories" for each Kanji. This allows you to pursue Kanji learning by a divide-and-conquer method, splitting difficult Kanji into simpler parts, and combining the meanings together to get the new meaning of the more difficult Kanji.

The book is a great way to remember the meanings of Kanji, but it intentionally skips over teaching pronunciation and use of the Kanji. The merits and disadvantages of this are debatable, but I would personally recommend using a separate Kanji dictionary to look up the pronounciations and some usage examples when you learn the Kanji as well.

Buy at Amazon.com: Remembering the Kanji: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters (Manoa)
Buy at Amazon.co.jp: Remembering the Kanji 1 : A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters