I want to see your study stuff!

[Jade]

May 10, 2016 12:27:21 GMT Jembru said:

What do you think of Soumatome btw? I see you have a fair few books. I only have the grammar one for N2. I really like the layout but I find the explanations sometimes lack important details about the nuance of expressions I've previously studied. It makes me worry that the structures that I didn't know before using soumatome have a greater depth or are unique to specific situations but I don't know because that kind of information is missing. It's putting me off wanting to buy other books from the series.

I don't mind it so much, sometimes the explanations seem a little lacking, but the examples are good. I like how it actually has a thing to say whether or not it's something that's in speech a lot or written only, etc, though.

[Jembru]

Thanks for the reply Jade. I guess I'm being pretty unreasonable because considering the fact that Soumatome had to cram an entire exam worth of grammar into one volume, it has done an impressive job. I'm trying to compare the depth of information to a 20+ minute lesson on Jpod101, where they can focus on just one or two structures at their leisure. It's not a fair comparison.

I like to think I've come a long way in developing a more carefree attitude towards accuracy, but I guess there's still a stubborn part of me that clings to the idea that 'knowing every detail' is both possible and necessary. In practice I already use things incorrectly every single day.. and it's fine. Either I'm understood anyway, or I'm offered correction. It hasn't killed me yet, and I can't imagine it will ever cause an Earth shattering calamity.

So is the N1 grammar all in one volume too? For the time being I'm happy just looking up n1 structures as I come by them, but it would probably take years to learn them all at this pace. I also probably miss a lot of them because they resemble grammar I already know. Sooner or later I should just sit down and learn n1 material.

[Bokusenou]

Jembru
Oh, really? Wow, Somehow I thought high school stuff would be harder vocabulary-wise or something. I feel I should have given them a try sooner then.

Also, yeah, the NHK educational shows are really awesome, aren't they? It's like they have just the right mix of entertaining and educational content.

On JLPT books, I agree that they usually only go over the bare minimum when it comes to grammar. I tended to Google around or use a kokugo dictionary to get more info on grammar points when I studied JLPT grammar.