I really liked the reading one, probably my favourite JLPT book that I've tried. I struggled a lot when I started it, and I was very noticeably getting better as I progressed through the book. Very motivating. I agree with you about the listening one, I feel like maybe it's not a great book for self study 🤔 The grammar one was pretty good I'd say, it had a lot of examples for a lot of grammar points. I missed some more English and more in depth explanations though. I feel like neither of these books are great as standalone Japanese learning books. They're great for preparing for the exam, but I think you need to have studied the materials included in the books beforehand, so you can use them for cementing the knowledge and reviewing. E.g. in my case, they were great after finishing Genki 2
The reading book is probably the best in all levels of the Shinkanzen Master. I find that the Grammar book is fine but it lacks in-depth explanation. About the listening book I feel the same way about it, it's not worth it. For me the biggest help for listening was actually doing mock tests (Tanki master, the official JLPT test book and some online past exams). Also in class we study with Minna no Nihongo which have pretty difficult and fast listening sections, so I guess that helped too. I'm on the look for a good listening resource 👀👀
I found the grammar and reading books to be very helpful for N2. I made Anki cards for all the grammar exercises and pretty much learned the book by heart. Unfortunately I don't think I finished the reading book. I only did part of it. My thinking was that if I knew the grammar and my vocabulary/kanji were strong then the rest would fall into place. It was enough to pass N2 but my reading ability was my weakest part on the test. I would recommend finishing the reading book lol. Maybe even get another reading book from another publisher too. I'm a slow reader so maybe it wouldn't help me anyway though. One weird thing is their vocabulary book for the N1... it doesn't have any translations or definitions really. It just lists the words by topic, gives some example sentences, and their opposites.. it's weird. I didn't know how they wanted me to use the book.
Maybe it would also help if you read more outside of the JLPT practice tests? Maybe a little short story every day and you could track you time you need for each story and can work on getting faster by practicing skimming, etc.? Oh, that's weird (the vocab book) 🤔 Maybe they expect you to understand the meaning of the words by the context of the example sentences 😅
@@Seriinudesu I read tons. As best I could at least. Kanji are hard so it didn’t feel super immersive. I’m sure it helped a little but my takeaway, at least for me, is do the 読解 books. Essay writing just isn’t the same as other writing styles.
@@Seriinudesu oh and the vocabulary book. It’s weird! I am such a fan of the series I keep thinking I’m not doing it right somehow. I look online for other people to see if they used the book effectively and explain how but I haven’t found anything.
@@paulwalther5237Hi! You’re really supposed to look up the definition by yourself. I was also a bit surprised when I first opened my N2 book but then I realized I had no other choice if I wanted to use it lmao It’s a great book anyway even if it’s a bit time consuming to look everything up on the internet
Thank you for the advice! I really liked the reading book and it helped me prepare for the JLPT exam next week. I haven't tried the listening book, but if I have to believe this video, then 2.5 out of 5 is not that good 😅 Do you have any recommendations for N4 listening material that can be found on RUclips?
Hi Nora, that's a very broad question and I don’t think that I can help a lot with this since I'm a native speaker and never really studied from textbooks for language learners 😅
I studied German on my own way back in the day. I bought a lot of light novels (mystery/fantasy novels etc) and just read them. Combine this with a smallish grammar book (back in the day Oxford had a great one that was mass market paperback and cheap) with listening practice and you should do well. For listening I listened to the Deutche Welle broadcast which is still around and a great option but no longer the only one. RUclips is amazing for language learners. The Oxford Grammar paperback was the only "textbook" I used and for me it was perfect.
Super hilfreiche Review. Danke dafür. Bei mir dauert es zwar noch ein bisschen bis die Serie für mich interessant würde, da es ja keine Bücher für N5 gibt. Aber irgendwann hoffe ich ja auch über das Level hinaus zu kommen 😅 und dann ist die Reihe ja eine Option. Ist schließlich sehr bekannt, wobei die Community da ja wirklich sehr zwiegespalten ist. Das Lesebuch werde ich mir auf jeden Fall mal ansehen, wenn es soweit ist. Hast du eigentlich eine Alternative zum Hörverständnisbuch schon gefunden? Wäre da die sou matome Reihe eine Option? Wobei ich bei denen immer den Eindruck hatte, dass die oberflächlicher sind und Shinkansen Master detaillierter. Aber wenn Shinkansen Master beim hörverständnis schon nicht so gut ist, dann wird es wohl schwierig 🤷🏼♀️
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Please leave me your recommendations for other listening exercises books/websites/apps below! 🤗🎧
I really liked the reading one, probably my favourite JLPT book that I've tried. I struggled a lot when I started it, and I was very noticeably getting better as I progressed through the book. Very motivating.
I agree with you about the listening one, I feel like maybe it's not a great book for self study 🤔
The grammar one was pretty good I'd say, it had a lot of examples for a lot of grammar points. I missed some more English and more in depth explanations though.
I feel like neither of these books are great as standalone Japanese learning books. They're great for preparing for the exam, but I think you need to have studied the materials included in the books beforehand, so you can use them for cementing the knowledge and reviewing. E.g. in my case, they were great after finishing Genki 2
Yes, I definetly agree with you on the last point!
Yea. I also think that standalone genki+tobira+try n2 textbooks are the best for me.
Nice that you found your favorite mix of books 😊
The reading book is probably the best in all levels of the Shinkanzen Master. I find that the Grammar book is fine but it lacks in-depth explanation.
About the listening book I feel the same way about it, it's not worth it. For me the biggest help for listening was actually doing mock tests (Tanki master, the official JLPT test book and some online past exams). Also in class we study with Minna no Nihongo which have pretty difficult and fast listening sections, so I guess that helped too.
I'm on the look for a good listening resource 👀👀
Thank you for the recommendations 😊 I didn't know about the Tanki master. I'll look it up.
I found the grammar and reading books to be very helpful for N2. I made Anki cards for all the grammar exercises and pretty much learned the book by heart. Unfortunately I don't think I finished the reading book. I only did part of it. My thinking was that if I knew the grammar and my vocabulary/kanji were strong then the rest would fall into place. It was enough to pass N2 but my reading ability was my weakest part on the test. I would recommend finishing the reading book lol. Maybe even get another reading book from another publisher too. I'm a slow reader so maybe it wouldn't help me anyway though. One weird thing is their vocabulary book for the N1... it doesn't have any translations or definitions really. It just lists the words by topic, gives some example sentences, and their opposites.. it's weird. I didn't know how they wanted me to use the book.
Maybe it would also help if you read more outside of the JLPT practice tests? Maybe a little short story every day and you could track you time you need for each story and can work on getting faster by practicing skimming, etc.?
Oh, that's weird (the vocab book) 🤔 Maybe they expect you to understand the meaning of the words by the context of the example sentences 😅
@@Seriinudesu I read tons. As best I could at least. Kanji are hard so it didn’t feel super immersive. I’m sure it helped a little but my takeaway, at least for me, is do the 読解 books. Essay writing just isn’t the same as other writing styles.
@@Seriinudesu oh and the vocabulary book. It’s weird! I am such a fan of the series I keep thinking I’m not doing it right somehow. I look online for other people to see if they used the book effectively and explain how but I haven’t found anything.
@@paulwalther5237Hi! You’re really supposed to look up the definition by yourself. I was also a bit surprised when I first opened my N2 book but then I realized I had no other choice if I wanted to use it lmao
It’s a great book anyway even if it’s a bit time consuming to look everything up on the internet
@@emmapiedipalumbo218 what do we pay them for 😆
Same for me and listening. Once you use RUclips and past papers, it's not necessary.
Tomorrow is result day online...頑張りましょう🎉
So exciting, right? It will be the first thing that I'll check tomorrow morning 😄
Hello. I'm using Nihongo Challenge for N4 test in December as well. Good luck for us and thks to share this video.
Nice! Good luck, you can do it :)
Thank you for the advice! I really liked the reading book and it helped me prepare for the JLPT exam next week. I haven't tried the listening book, but if I have to believe this video, then 2.5 out of 5 is not that good 😅 Do you have any recommendations for N4 listening material that can be found on RUclips?
Sorry if the answer is already too late but I just typed in "JLPT N4 listening" into RUclips and went through the results that showed up.
@@Seriinudesu No problem! I did the same, I found lots of N4 Japanese "vlog-style" videos.
@Xerion That's great! Sounds like fun 😊
@@Seriinudesu It was a lot of fun, especially when you realize that you can understand a lot of it 😁
Would you tell us about German language since I'm learning German on my own 😊✨
Hi Nora, that's a very broad question and I don’t think that I can help a lot with this since I'm a native speaker and never really studied from textbooks for language learners 😅
I studied German on my own way back in the day. I bought a lot of light novels (mystery/fantasy novels etc) and just read them. Combine this with a smallish grammar book (back in the day Oxford had a great one that was mass market paperback and cheap) with listening practice and you should do well. For listening I listened to the Deutche Welle broadcast which is still around and a great option but no longer the only one. RUclips is amazing for language learners. The Oxford Grammar paperback was the only "textbook" I used and for me it was perfect.
@@paulwalther5237 Thank you :p
Super hilfreiche Review. Danke dafür. Bei mir dauert es zwar noch ein bisschen bis die Serie für mich interessant würde, da es ja keine Bücher für N5 gibt. Aber irgendwann hoffe ich ja auch über das Level hinaus zu kommen 😅 und dann ist die Reihe ja eine Option. Ist schließlich sehr bekannt, wobei die Community da ja wirklich sehr zwiegespalten ist. Das Lesebuch werde ich mir auf jeden Fall mal ansehen, wenn es soweit ist. Hast du eigentlich eine Alternative zum Hörverständnisbuch schon gefunden? Wäre da die sou matome Reihe eine Option? Wobei ich bei denen immer den Eindruck hatte, dass die oberflächlicher sind und Shinkansen Master detaillierter. Aber wenn Shinkansen Master beim hörverständnis schon nicht so gut ist, dann wird es wohl schwierig 🤷🏼♀️
Freut mich das es dir gefällt. Bisher habe ich leider keine Alternative gefunden 😅