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Post by LittleGaijin on May 3, 2014 7:54:53 GMT
Yep! I want to see pictures of your textbooks, notebooks, study area, pen of choice, whatever! Whenever I'm sitting at the library at my local university, I realized that won't feel the urge to study until someone at a nearby table pops out their huge pile of books and starts, well, studying. They make studying seem almost cool, and then a kind of peer pressure kicks in. Do you ever feel like this too? Although I mainly want to be the resident weirdo and look at all the books, and count the number of notebooks you guys use... I thought that maybe if we saw pictures of each others' study stuff—we might feel the urge to study more too! That's the idea anyway, so let's start sharing pictures! (Explanations too please!)
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Post by LittleGaijin on May 3, 2014 8:00:38 GMT
Okay, I'll go first! First, I've got my markers at the very top left. I like color-coding my notes to make it easier for me to find certain things, and it also makes my notes look a tad less boring. To the right of my markers, I have my diary that I bought from Daiso. Nothing special. Bottom left, my sexy clownfish composition notebook. I'll use use composition notebooks (one at a time) until I fill out all the pages, or until it's the book gets too beat up. This is the 4th one in 2 years. I keep all my recent notes in this book. To the right of that, I have my kanji writing book that my best friend Hitomi gave me. Any new vocab (with kanji) that I see, or use online, is recorded in this book. It usually takes me 3-4 rows to effectively remember one though... Oh the photo bombing sumo wrestler's name is Larry. I squish him, and throw him at walls when I get frustrated. Larry's smile is obnoxious. Picture of all the same books above, closed. These are all the textbooks that I'm currently using! You guys probably already know "New Penguin's Parallel Text Short Stories in Japanese" and "Yookoso", so I won't talk about those books. Top right next to Larry is my Japanese Bible. I'm not religious, but a student gave it to me, and it has parallel English which is cool. Below that is my copy of "Game of Thrones" (book 1) in Japanese that a friend brought me from Okinawa. I read it for fun. To the right of that is a TOEIC test book that I got from a student. The one at the very bottom is TOEIC too (from the same student). What I love about these books is that they both have very complicated English words and phrases/sentences with direct AND natural translations in Japanese. The one I'm holding has dictionary sections too, and it's my favorite textbook at the moment. It's set up in a "70 day challenge" way (1-2 pages is recommended to study once a day), with 10 "chapters" or sections. It's really reader-friendly, and has a cute gaijin teacher character who'll appear every few pages with witty comments about whether or not the student is actually taking breaks. It's really cute. Usually I never know when to stop studying, so it's a really good book for me.
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Post by naitorii on May 3, 2014 14:37:53 GMT
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Post by 魔 on May 3, 2014 18:06:35 GMT
Here's a screenshot of my memrise dashboard. These are the only books I use at the moment. The Kanji one I write in sometimes and the minna no nihongo is for a weekly Japanese class I go to. His name's NOMURA, because it's written on his belly. He sits on top of my desktop.
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Post by Jembru on May 3, 2014 20:07:17 GMT
You just knew I'd be all for sharing pictures!! I love seeing what everyone is using to study Japanese! Of course, I already shared photos of my notebooks and weekly ticky chart (all of which I'm still using; I've just added 2 notebooks since then, which I think I confessed to in that thread), so I'll show you my textbooks here I guess. I recently sorted out a proper study space for myself so that I can finally have my textbooks next to me while I study. It was such a chore having to keep leaving my study area whenever I wanted to look something up, and tidying away after myself was even more tiresome! For a while, I just sat at the dining table to study, but then one day skype deleted itself form my laptop and I couldn't get it back, so JP cleared out the spare room, where my minecraft PC is, so that I could start studying on that machine. At that time, it looked like this; Kinda cramped, but I at least had SOME space for a textbook or two. So I had the idea to spend some money and get a new bookcase so that all my textbooks could live together right next to my desk. So now I have this; I've reorganised things since this was taken, but you get the general idea. So my books then. I haven't been big on buying textbooks since I started using the Internet to study, but I often dip into the textbooks I do have, to check things, and there are some I still study from now and then as a break from my usual routine (such as 'Read Real Japanese' and 'Essential Kanji', and I'm actively using 'Shadowing' as part of my regular routine). This first shelf (besides a few language learning reference books and my zombie apocalypse survival guide in case they come while I'm studying, on the far right), is my authentic material and then the books I studied from when I was a beginner, or just don't find use in now. I keep them for nostalgia, but never refer to them anymore (and most are pretty poor to be honest). Then the next shelf along is mainly the books I currently use as reference from time to time. There is just one book missing because it's in my bag to take to work. That's the shadowing book Chocopie recommended to me (which I adore btw). I also used to have mina no nihongo II but it went missing. It is most likely at my mum's, but maybe fallen down somewhere out of sight. So hopefully when she sells her flat, it will turn up! I never actually used Japanese for Busy People I btw, I bought that (and the book on the far right) for JP in an attempt to encourage him to study. I just keep it there because it's nice to have them all together. Oh and you can see my file on there too. This is what I use to plan my 'study courses'. It contains my current week-by-week plan and then a series of basic lesson outlines depending on the type of material I'm using. It's great for keeping me focused! So that's it really. Nothing interesting. I think the real magic is the part we can't share photos of.. the constant changes that are happening right inside our fabulous brains!
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AlanP
New Member
Posts: 31
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Post by AlanP on May 4, 2014 12:27:23 GMT
My current study books. Japanese For Busy People 1 and workbook both Kana version and my dictionary. This is Let's learn Hiragana which I've just finished. I'm not going to get the katakana version as it's covered in JFBP workbook. Also I've found ISO apps Dr Moku's Hiragana and Katakana apps were very helpful as they use mnemonics. Anki and Real Kana as well were brilliant. Next is my general reading book. Rough Guide to Japan. I also listen to various podcasts Japanofiles, Let's talk Japan and SBS which I use to try and listen to the language spoken by native speakers. (even though I understand almost none of it, though I'm starting to recognise words)
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Post by chocopie on May 4, 2014 22:10:47 GMT
I'm at my Mum's for the weekend so these are the books that I don't currently use... This is my textbook shelf, I think my favourite is Comprehending Technical Japanese. It takes you through how scientific Japanese is written. The green textbook Living Japanese is also very good. There's another textbook (I'm not sure it shows up well in the photo but it's the second to the right from Japanese for Professionals) which is to teach foreign students at university in Japan how to write and structure formal essays. This is my non-textbook shelf. I have a lot of ebooks but a picture of my kindle would be a bit boring... I got 超ひも理論入門 (Super String Theory Introduction) from my friend about five years ago although I've never read it. I probably should give it a go now actually!
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Post by LittleGaijin on May 5, 2014 3:08:01 GMT
Oh wow, this thread took off! Thanks so much for sharing your books, programs, and study areas with me, everyone! Haha, I already feel like studying. Feel free to come back and post more pictures! Jembru haha this thread was actually inspired by some of your recent pictures here and on Facebook, and I think you had a similar thread on our old site and I was really missing it! I love seeing these kinds of pictures! 魔 you have a sumo too! I like "Nomura" much better than mine! Where did you get him? Is he a squishy stress reliever type-thing too? I also really like your workbooks. I might look for them on ebay. Actually, AlanP and chocopie's too! I think you guys all live in the UK? I can't get these kinds of books where I live in the US...
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Post by Jembru on May 5, 2014 3:46:47 GMT
I tend to get my books online, or I get them lovingly donated by Japanese friends. Good books are hard to find in Newcastle too, although you can get decent textbooks at the bookshop next to the university. It seems students studying Japanese in Newcastle used to study from Genki, but in recent years it must have switched to Mina No Nihongo, as you rarely see new copies of Genki. You can find second hand textbooks at a discount if you're very lucky too!
Other than that, if you don't care what it's about, you can sometimes find (very expensive) magazines imported from Japan in Travelling Man (a manga/role play store), but otherwise, we're not hugely catered for up here.
There are some decent bookstores in London though, which is why I'm taking a spare £100 with me in July! Lol
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Post by LittleGaijin on May 5, 2014 5:15:24 GMT
Jembru, in the US, most the Japanese books that I can find are all the same... Genki, Rosetta, 10 Minutes a Day, For Busy People, Elementary Language, For Dummies, Yookoso, books like these. I've given up shopping for textbooks here because I rarely find any books I've never seen before! That's why the main books I study from these days are my TOEIC books that my students left me when they returned for Japan. I want textbooks with less English, more Japanese. Books here don't do that because most of them are part of large franchises that do all kinds of other languages as well. (U____U)
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Post by chocopie on May 5, 2014 9:04:59 GMT
All the books to the left of J-Bridge I got in the UK from the Japan Centre in London. I think they operate through jpbooks which imports books from Japan. On amazon they have a lot of the books I think but finding them on there is a lot harder as you have to wade through all the standard Japanese textbooks to find them. Maybe you could browse jpbooks to find textbooks you like and then try and find them in the US?
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AlanP
New Member
Posts: 31
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Post by AlanP on May 5, 2014 9:41:05 GMT
Bookshops where I live are useless for books other than general phrasebooks etc.
I usually buy all my stuff on Amazon but as chocopie says, it can be a bit of browse.
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Post by Bokusenou on May 5, 2014 18:12:25 GMT
I think you guys all live in the UK? I can't get these kinds of books where I live in the US... I haven't bought that many study books recently, but I used to use The Japan Shop and White Rabbit for browsing, and then went to Kinokuniya's US site to buy them, as they tend to be a little cheaper there. Kinokuniya will even order items from Japan if they don't have it in stock. Also, check out Kinokuniya US's location list. They're all pretty far away from me, but I try to visit the nearest one every few years or so.
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Post by 魔 on May 5, 2014 20:37:00 GMT
I found him in a box at a car boot sale. Not sure how he ended up in this country, Maybe a stressed out Japanese salaryman brought him over.
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Post by LittleGaijin on May 6, 2014 1:32:04 GMT
chocopie AlanP Bokusenou oh wow, thank you guys so much for all the links and advice! I mainly shop on ebay, so I never thought to try other sites like Amazon or the Japan Shop. I'm also really interested in Jpbooks, I never heard of them before! I know Kinokuniya though, but the closest one (Seattle; 7-8 hour drive) insists that I pick up orders in shop... Will be ordering some new books soon, thanks so much guys! 魔 maybe your sumo was an omiyage present from a friend visiting Japan, haha! Either way, one man's loss is another man's gain...? (^_~)
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