Textbooks
The textbooks we have used during our courses at the Osaka YMCA Nihongo Gakuin (in Osaka, Japan) are the following. The textbooks are all in Japanese.
Beginning course (shokyū)
- 日本語初歩 (Nihongo shoho)
Published by the Japan Foundation
ISBN 978-4-89358-045-0
Textbook - 漢字練習帳１ (Kanji renshū-chō 1)
Published by the Japan Foundation
Series title: 日本語初歩 (Nihongo shoho)
ISBN 978-4-89358-104-4
Workbook (keyed to accompanying textbook) - 日本語初歩文法ノート (Nihongo shoho grammar notebook)
Published by Osaka YMCA Nihongo Gakuin
No ISBN (locally published; not available commercially)
Pre-Intermediate course (chūkyū mae)
- 初級日本語文法 総まとめ２０ポイント
(Crash course in Japanese grammar: 20 most basic points)
Published by スリーエー・ネットワーク (3A corporation)
ISBN 978-4-88319-328-8
Workbook - ジェイ・ブリッジ (J Bridge to Intermediate Japanese)
Published by 凡人社 (Bonjinsha)
ISBN 978-4-89358-497-7
Textbook and workbook
(Audio companion CD is ISBN 4-89358-499-5)
Note: There are two other J Bridge books that precede “J Bridge to Intermediate Japanese”. These are called “ジェイ・ブリッジ for Beginners” (Volume I & II). The ISBN for Volume I is 978-4-89358-631-5 and the ISBN for Volume II is 978-4-89358-679-7. I have not used these books myself, although I own a copy of Volume II. These are textbook/workbooks appear to be structured just like J Bridge to Intermediate Japanese, and each volume includes useful audio CDs.
Intermediate course (chūkyū)
- 中級から学ぶ日本語 (Chūkyū kara manabu nihongo)
Published by Kenkyusha
ISBN 978-4-327-38443-2
Textbook - 中級から学ぶ日本語ワークブック (Chūkyū kara manabu nihongo workbook)
Published by Kenkyusha
ISBN 978-4-327-38445-6
Workbook - 小論文への１２のステップ (12 steps to Japanese short essays)
Published by スリーエー・ネットワーク (3A corporation)
ISBN 978-4-88319-488-9
Textbook and workbook
Note: The “12 steps” book is used in the Practical Japanese course and is an excellent resource for both writing and reading Japanese short essays. Although the book is best used in a classroom situation, where a qualified instructor can review the short essays written at the end of each chapter, the book also stands alone as a useful reference on both style and structure. It would be a useful adjunct for anyone who might need to write an essay in Japanese or who might move to preparing University-level writings.
In addition to the above texts, I have used a variety of external resource books during my studies. This is not an exhaustive list, but is representative of what I have found to be helpful.
Note that I use both English language grammar guides (Makino and Tsutsui’s) and Japanese language grammar guides (日本語文法ハンドブック). I hope to move exclusively to Japanese language guides, but for now I am using both.
In addition, the Japanese phrase pattern dictionary (日本語表現文型辞典) is exceptionally useful for JLPT exam preparation (the JLPT level of each grammar point is clearly labelled. Even if you’re not studying for a language competency exam, this book is a gem because it provides a very concise definition of a wide variety of Japanese expressions and multiple examples of each. Every entry is translated into English, Korean and Chinese.
- A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (DBJG)
日本語基本文法辞典
By Makino and Tsutsui
Published by The Japan Times
ISBN 4-7890-0454-6 - A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar (DIJG)
日本語文法辞典（中級編）
By Makino and Tsutsui
Published by The Japan Times
ISBN 4-7890-0775-8 - A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammer (DAJG)
日本語文法辞典（上級編）
By Makino and Tsutsui
Published by The Japan Times
ISBN 978-4-7890-1295-9 - 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック
(Basic Japanese instructor’s Japanese grammar handbook)
Published by スリーエー・ネットワーク (3A corporation)
ISBN 978-4-88319-155-0 - 中上級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック
(Intermediate and advanced level Japanese grammar handbook)
Published by スリーエー・ネットワーク (3A corporation)
ISBN 978-4-88319-201-4 - The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary [Japanese-English] (KLD)
講談社漢英学習字典
Edited by Jack Halpern
Published by Kodansha
ISBN 4-7700-2855-5 - Japanese phrase pattern dictionary
日本語表現文型辞典
By Tomomatsu, Miyamoto and Wakuri
Published by ALC
ISBN 978-4-7574-1235-4
