Tobira Gateway To Advanced Japanese Learning Through Content And Multimedia

[Rocki Eibl]

Thisbook is designed to practice four different languages skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. It is perfect for students who have already studied the Japanese language with another Japanese textbook, somewhere between 250 and 300 hours.

What makes this book unique is that you can learn Japanese using multimedia content besides the textbook, including audio files, videos, kanji flashcards, grammar and writing practice. Most of this content is on the Internet, more specifically on Tobira's website. For this reason, It's more fun to learn Japanese with Tobira.

There are 15 chapters in this book. They cover up many aspects of the Japanese language: reading, vocabulary lists, conversations, grammar notes, kanji lists, and also cultural notes. Most of this content is available as audio material as well.

After you worked through and internalized this workbook carefully, your skills will have improved noticeably. You will have mastered the intermediate level and be ready for moving on to the advanced level. This book has been used for Japanese classes at many Universities.

This textbook is designed to help students increase their kanji fluency. It contains 800 kanji - 297 that are generally introduced in beginning-level textbooks - and 503 kanji introduced in Tobira. These kanji are mainly those that appear on the JLPT N2. It features a kanji chart on the inside covers and an answer key in the back.

The aim of this book is not just memorization, but also helping students learn how to study kanji effectively. It also aims to provide them with the kanji knowledge required to continue their studies at the advanced level.

This workbook is designed to master the grammar notes you have learned from the corresponding chapters in Tobira (main textbook). Each chapter is composed of three sections (Foundation, Application and Expansion) which aim to check your acquired grammar skills, and to serve as a foundation in studying more advanced grammar points.

Click here to get access to the online resources

Tobira Gateway to Advance Japanese is a book for intermediate level students (JLPT 3). The book is mainly targeted for those who have completed the beginners level and they are seeking consolidate the intermediate level and by doing so, get ready for approach the high level of Japanese language (JLPT 2 and 1). For this reason, this book is focused in the practice of grammar, reading comprehension, listening, writing and intermediate level vocabulary, so it is presumed students have completed the beginners level and they already have a strong grammar base.

The book is divided in 15 units, each focused in a certain topic. The structure of each unit is different but they all have the following contents:

- An introduction with a series of contents, so students start getting familiar with readings and texts of each unit. For example, unit 1 is focused in Japan and its different zones, so this introduction contains vocabulary about geography.

- An extensive reading. All complex vocabulary is written in hiragana, kanji and English.

- The next section is focused in conversation. There is a dialogue between 2 people whose linguistic register changes if we compare it with the previous reading. Again, the most complex vocabulary is translated. After reading this dialogue, there are a series of questions of reading comprehension.

- After, there are explanations about grammar. They are all written in English and they all contain many examples in Japanese.

- At the end of each unit, there is a section named "language notes" which is focused in curious information about Japanese language.

This book can be complemented with lots of online resources such as videos, vocabulary lists or kanji lists. These contents are available by entering in the website that is written in all book or through the link on top of this file.

Since this book is mainly targeted to intermediate level students, all elementary level kanji do not contain furigana Tobira is a book series whose main goal is to teach Japanese and at the same time show new aspects about Japan and its culture, so units have a wide variety of topics: technology, sports, food or popular culture.

Description by the publishers

The "Tobira" textbook combines the practice of all four language skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) and is designed for use by students who have completed a beginning Japanese textbook or, in terms of classroom time, somewhere from 250 to 300 hours of Japanese study.

The primary goals with this textbook are, to solidify the grammar, vocabulary and kanji foundation studied during the beginner level and to develop all 4 language skills. What makes this book unique is that you can learn Japanese using multimedia besides the textbook.

The book holds 15 chapters, covering up everything from reading, vocabulary list, dialogues, conversation practice, grammar notes, kanji list to culture notes. The chapter matches with the ones who are provided on the website. Reading, dialogs, conversations and vocabularies from the book are all available as audio material as well. After you worked through and internalized this workbook carefully, your skills will have improved noticeably. You will have mastered the intermediate level and be ready for moving on to the advanced level. English translation is provided to the grammar notes and vocabulary lists. This book has been used for Japanese classes at many Universities.

This is where Quartet comes in. Like Genki, it's a two-volume set of Japanese textbooks published by The Japan Times, but unlike Genki I and II, Quartet is designed for intermediate learners. Previously, the most common recommendation for students after finishing Genki was to jump into Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese Learning Through Content and Multimedia. However, many have noted the steep difficulty increase this presented, as that book is intended for advanced learners. The Japan Times also publishes An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese, though it was last revised in 2008. In this way, Quartet could be seen as almost a spiritual successor to An Integrated Approach, providing students a smoother transition from the beginner level Genki series into intermediate study than what was previously offered.

The textbook also contains a removable "supplementary text" in the back, which lists the vocabulary and kanji used in each lesson. Audio is provided via an app called OTO Navi which can be downloaded onto either iOS or Android devices. Finally, there is a separate Workbook available for both volumes that focuses on writing practice, but includes expanded practice beyond the textbook in all four domains.

Unlike Genki, there's no central storyline similar to Mary's journey, and aside from occasional instructive diagrams, no illustrations (though there are occasionally images accompanying the reading or other sections). Each lesson leads with two readings, which vary in format and tone, followed by the writing section (which includes an example to guide your own work), a speaking section (which similarly offers a model conversation), and a listening section.

As you might be able to tell by this expansive aim, Quartet is really best suited for studying in either a classroom setting, with a teacher, or in a study group. Of course, you'd need someone to help check your writing and to converse with, but that's not to say that Quartet has nothing to offer self-learners. I take lessons weekly with a teacher where we do conversation and writing practice, so I focused my time on the reading sections. In this way, I felt Quartet served as almost a soft introduction into the popular immersion-style learning, where learners study primarily through consistent exposure to native content in their target language. Through Quartet, I was able to engage with native material while still getting a helping hand with some new grammar and vocabulary.

Through this range of different sources and voices, Quartet not only has readings that may interest many different learners, but also exposes you to styles of writing you may not usually come across in your language journey. I think this sets a learner up well for building their confidence, and preparing them to dive into other native texts they may find interesting in the future.

Similar to Genki, there's a heavy emphasis placed on grammar in Quartet. Following the reading section, there are usually about ten different grammar points that appear in the text explained in more detail. The explanations are often fairly slim, but do a good job of not only conveying how the grammar structure was employed in the text, but other uses for it. This is done through the usage of multiple example sentences, all of which help to build a thorough understanding of the point discussed. Additionally, these explanations are some of the only places in the textbook where English is used.

One small quibble I have with the grammar sections is that they tend to focus just as heavily on expressions or turns of phrase as they do on more conventional grammar structures, but this is due in large part to the intermediate nature of the resource. Nevertheless, these expressions are also important to learn, and explained thoroughly.

Quartet also does a great job of building on grammar points introduced in previous lessons, as well as offering common pairings, common mistakes, or similar structures and explaining the nuance behind them. In the workbooks, there are questions to test your comprehension of the readings.

Next are the writing sections. These build on the texts presented in the reading sections for some nice continuity. For example, given the first section's focus on famous Japanese people, the first writing section offers a model essay on the baseball player Suzuki Ichiro.

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