Buying Gifts for an Aspiring Japanese Learner. Help!
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 8:28 am
I am buying books for a friend who has always had an interest in Japanese culture, but is a total beginner in learning the language. There will be no classroom learning, so I am only looking to gift things that are good for the self-learner.
It seems romaji can be skipped since many see it as a crutch long-term, but the Japanese With Ease series from Assimil has all three of romaji, kanji, and kana and includes a Japanse Kanji Writing book, which teaches the strokes for the 926 kanji in the two volumes. Would Japanese With Ease volumes I & II along with the writing book be a good resource collectively? I can only seem to find the usual comments of "the audio is slow," but any feedback beyond that would be appreciated.
Or would I be better off just getting him:
Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners
and
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course
Does the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary add anything to KLC that'd make it worthwhile, or is just the KLC good without the dictionary?
I am happy to get all of the above, some of the above, or none of the above. I'd just like to get him something useful and I don't know much about learning Japanese. I think the KLC and Hiragana/Katakana might be a nice enough starting off gift, but it just struck me as odd to not have anything involving audio, so that is why I thought even the slow Assimil course was a good start for that. Thanks in advance!
It seems romaji can be skipped since many see it as a crutch long-term, but the Japanese With Ease series from Assimil has all three of romaji, kanji, and kana and includes a Japanse Kanji Writing book, which teaches the strokes for the 926 kanji in the two volumes. Would Japanese With Ease volumes I & II along with the writing book be a good resource collectively? I can only seem to find the usual comments of "the audio is slow," but any feedback beyond that would be appreciated.
Or would I be better off just getting him:
Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners
and
The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course
Does the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary add anything to KLC that'd make it worthwhile, or is just the KLC good without the dictionary?
I am happy to get all of the above, some of the above, or none of the above. I'd just like to get him something useful and I don't know much about learning Japanese. I think the KLC and Hiragana/Katakana might be a nice enough starting off gift, but it just struck me as odd to not have anything involving audio, so that is why I thought even the slow Assimil course was a good start for that. Thanks in advance!