Best gifts for Japanese learner!
Holiday is near and it’s the month of love & gifts! If you have someone special who love Japan stuff and currently doing their best to study Japanese language, these items below will be a very wonderful gifts (and a great study booster) for them!
Of if you’re planning to buy one for yourself, this is a great month to do that with all the special discounts and sales! Happy learning!
1. Japanese Electronic Dictionary (Denshi Jisho)
Price: $$$$$
Perfect gift for: Above beginner learners
This one is a bit pricey but it’s a precious treasure for every serious Japanese learner. Even a local Japanese teacher have one in their pocket.
Powered by 2 AA battery which can hold up to 3 – 6 months depend on the usage, this handy tool is a must have! Not to mention that this stuff has a great life expectancy. Some report around 5 years of usage in general and some report up to 10 years of usage.
If you are unsure about the model to buy or if they need it or not, you can read about it here: Do I need a denshi jisho?
Links to get them below! :
• Casio XD-K9800 (Model K)
• Casio XD-G9800 (Model G)
Equipped with kenkyusha (the only Japanese - English dictionary you need). G model is the latest. But older model works great as well~ You often able to get a great used one with lower price!
2. Japanese picture books!
Price: $$
Perfect for: Beginners to intermediate learners. Not all Japanese picture books are made equal. Some has so few page with high price (12 pages!). Some doesn’t have furigana (reading helper for Japanese beginner learner) . And some are not interesting at all.
But… all these below has a lot of page (over 150 pages!), furigana and interesting! (especially for Ghibli lover). Ghibli Japanese picture books are one of the best gifts! And if you know their favorite movie, you can always pick that up to give them one of the best gift of the year! yay!
These are the links to get them! :
• Tonari no Totoro
• Ponyo by the Cliff
• Princess Mononoke part 1
• Princess Mononoke part 2 (continuation)
• Kiki Delivery Service
• Laputa Castle in the sky
• Arrietty
• The wind rises (Kaze Tachinu)
• The Tale of Princess Kaguya
• Nausicaa part 1
• Nausicaa part 2 (continuation)
These are the perfect gifts for Japanese learner who love to do self study and who didn’t know what book to get.
[Link] : Foreigner First HandBook
Easy & fun to read. Packed with essential material for survival conversation & basic Japanese grammar pattern.
Perfect gift for: Japanese beginner learners and people who want to go & live in Japan.
Perfect for: Beginner who can’t read Japanese alphabet (hiragana/katakana) yet.
Genki set is one of the most popular books around for beginner – intermediate learners. The lessons in these books are written in English so it help to comprehend the lessons much easier compared to the other popular Minna no Nihongo set, which is a fully immersive learning with no English at all.
The workbook is less important, but the core book questions doesn’t have any answer sheet. The answer is sold separately as an answer book for the core book and all workbook.
[Link] : Genki 1
Easier to read than Minna series. If you do self-study, make sure to get the answer book too.
[Link] : Genki 1 (Workbook)
Workbook for Genki 1. If you do self-study, make sure to get the answer book too.
[Link] : Genki 2
Workbook for Genki 1. If you do self-study, make sure to get the answer book too.
[Link] : Genki 2 (Workbook)
Workbook for Genki 2. If you do self-study, make sure to get the answer book too.
[Link] : Genki Answer Key
Answer key for all questions in all Genki 1 & 2 and their workbooks. You need this if you’re going to do self-study.
Perfect for: Japanese learner who already able to read Japanese alphabet (hiragana/katakana) and want to start learning Japanese grammar. Try! is the grammar lessons book with simple but effective English explanation. The shin500mon is a review & practice book. The yellow Japanese grammar dictionary provide thorough explanations of basic grammar. They are wonderful when used together as a whole!
TRY! is less popular than Genki or Minna no Nihongo outside Japan, but most Japanese teacher would agree that these books content are great (or even better) for studying Japanese. Be careful though since this series are also provided in Thai & Chinese. These links below are links for English version.
[Link] : Try N5
[Link] : Try N4
Recommended Japanese textbook based on JLPT material.
N5 & N4 are beginner levels
[Link] : Shin 500 Mon JLPT N5 & N4
Recommended practice book to be used together with TRY series.
[Link] : Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
Great supplementary for self study. Written technically, filled with lots of example & thorough description.
Conversation Practice Set:
Perfect for: Japanese learner who want to hone their speaking & conversation skill.
These book below is perfect for practicing Japanese speaking skill. The sentences written are very practical in real life. The green one is simple stuff for beginner while the blue one is advance conversation for intermediate learners.
[Link] : Shadowing (Basic to Intermediate)
[Link] : Shadowing (Intermediate to Advance)
Wishing you all a productive holiday! Yay~
titsay
romaincrisis
stormborns
ellievsbear
izzy806
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
