しあわせ

Naoko Chino, (Kondansha International)

This is a small book describing 69 different particles.

The entries are roughly in order of how frequent they appear in speech and are loosely grouped by usage. Each entry lists the different usages of a particle and gives clear examples. Different usage by men and women is also given.

As verbs, nouns and adjectives are relatively straightforward perhaps particles (and counters) are the difficult part of Japanese that requires study. They usually aren’t listed in dictionaries in a way that will help you use them. For example my starter dictionary has 2 pages of a quick overview of 17 particles with no examples. よ is given as adding emphasis to a statement. Compare that to the 4 usages and 8 examples of a page and a half in this book.

Jack Halpern, (Kondansha International)

Although I prefer an electronic dictionary, a paper version can sometimes be more useful; not least in that it’s easier to search for something that you’re not quite sure about and more satisfying to browse.

This dictionary has several methods of searching. The traditional Radical lookup method; an On Kun index, so if you know the pronunciation you can find the kanji (of course the number of homonyms is amazing); and the method by which the dictionary is organised — the SKIP method. The SKIP method classifies Kanji by pattern and stroke count of the subpatterns. So its fairly easy to break down an unknown kanji and find it. Common mistakes are listed at the end of some entries to point you at the correct entry. There’s also an interesting listing of characters based on their frequency of use in newspapers.

The entries all have a stroke by stroke order diagram to help you learn to write it. The pronunciation entries are in romaji not kana. Meanings are in English. With each kanji there are several compounds with the kanji entry in different positions in the compound not just as the first character.

Mitamura, (Kondansha International)

This book takes a more scholarly approach to kanji. The first half of the book concentrates on components, radicals and strokes, with an emphasis on reading and deriving meanings by educated guesses from the structure. The second half teaches writing introducing 250 kanji in order of their stroke counts.
Not as immediate as Basic kanji but it probably gives a more solid foundation to learning and understanding kanji.

Chieko Kano et al. (Bonjinsha Co. Ltd.)

To be literate in Japanese you need to know kanji. And to read at university level you need to know about 2000 of them. This is where to begin with a first 250.
This text takes a similar approach to Self Study Kana Workbook. It introduces about 10 related kanji per lesson and you learn them by copying model forms. Then use them in reading and writing exercises.
I like this books approach.

by AJTS

THE textbook. Its probably best to bite the bullet and get the kana version from the start.
Recently, AJTS has revised this series of textbooks, so it’s best to look for the 3rd edition. They now integrate more workbook content and come with a CD of all the dialogues. The structure of the course is also better with 4 chapters comprising a Unit based around a single theme.

My only complaint would be that Biji-san has gone and the drawings have lost a little of their humour as a result.