The following question was asked by BK2<\/p>\n\n\n
Sure, kanji and vocab are important, but you need to have a really solid understanding of the particles (grammar particles \/ \u3058\u3087\u3057 = \u52a9\u8a5e ) How come? In order to think like a Japanese person<\/strong> you must master the segmentation of concepts and the bends in the river of a conversation. Joshi (grammar particles) are different than prepositions in English. You’ve probably noticed that you say \u300c\u6771\u4eac\u306b\u884c\u304d\u307e\u3059\u3002\u300dbut if we were to remove all the Japanese words and leave the indivisible smallest grammatical unit in the sentence (the particle \u306b = ni) then we have Tokyo \u306b go.<\/p>\n\n\n Generally, every single sentence in Japanese, unless surrounded by abundant contextual phrases or other speakers’ words and sentences, will require some set of the word+particle blocks and a sentence-final verb like so:<\/p>\n\n\n [ _____ \u306f] [ _____\u306b] [_____\u3067] [ _____\u3092] verb.<\/p>\n\n\n The order can be totally mixed up:<\/p>\n\n\n [ _____\u3092] [ _____\u306b] [ _____ \u306f] [_____\u3067] verb.<\/p>\n\n\n And the meaning will stay intact 100% because the particles [and verb] are what gives japanese grammar it’s scaffolding, not the phrase order.<\/p>\n\n\n Anticipatory Language Training<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n Since every Japanese sentence needs a verb at the end, you’re always waiting on that sentence-final verb to tell if you the sentence is true or false, if the ball got kicked or popped, if it was delicious or not delicious at all, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n Thus, Anticipatory training is really important. What is anticipatory training? When I say in English “I’ve been holding this basket for…”<\/p>\n\n\n You can “autocomplete” it with such phrases as: for a long time, for a friend, for 2 minutes, for no reason whatsoever.<\/p>\n\n\n You can see that you can already anticipate a lot of what might come: maybe a time-duration or maybe a reason (or lack of one) like doing it for a buddy.<\/p>\n\n\n In the same way, when you hear [ _____ \u306f]<\/p>\n\n\n You must train yourself to think “With regards to ____”<\/p>\n\n\n “In the general orbit of ___”<\/p>\n\n\n “Regarding ____ (with some vagueness)”<\/p>\n\n\n Now this particle will slowly become more and more automatic for you (wa [topic particle]).<\/p>\n\n\n Same for things like [_____\u3067] (de) the setting particle<\/p>\n\n\n Cafe \u3067 Book \u3092 read.<\/p>\n\n\n In English this reads beginning with “At the cafe…” or “With the Cafe as my primary location…”<\/p>\n\n\n Cafe \u3067 …<\/p>\n\n\n Cafe \u3067 …<\/p>\n\n\n Japanese speakers can anticipate the same context. This gives you something to aim for. Once you make your understanding of particles and particles + sentence-final-verb automatic, you will be crafting your own Japanese sentences with ease.<\/p>\n\n\n By far the best way to get good at speaking Japanese is to go to a language program where only japanese is spoken for the duration of the program (by rule and\/or agreement).<\/p>\n\n\n The best way is immersion (but you might still rely on your mothertongue avidly, and that will take discipline to avoid using).<\/p>\n\n\n For people who are able to shirk using their mother tongue and are patient with themselves when trying to explain things, their Japanese ability improves dramatically.<\/p>\n\n\n Textbooks after Genki I and II include:<\/p>\n\n\n Tobira (Intermediate Japanese)<\/p>\n\n\n Kanji in Context (Has an accompanying workbook, great for Kanji study)<\/p>\n\n\n However, there are very few resources designed to take one all the way from beginner, through intermediate, and into the advanced levels. One potential reason is that a lot of domain-knowledge and jargon can be learned later as you need them, but a stronger reason might be the lack of curriculum-long organization targeting advanced fluency.<\/p>\n\n\n That’s why we’re working on Japanese Complete<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\nBooks after Genki I and II<\/h3>\n\n\n