Particles are a prick. They are a very different way to organise a grammar for an English speaker. The classic is “what is the difference between は and が?”, and to a lesser extent “when should I use に or で?”
As far as は and が go there are various explanations on their differences. The […]
05.26
Animelab Kanji Guide
Kanji gets a lot simpler when you start thinking about them in their component parts I think. For me that is the case anyway. On this theme, Salvatore-John has a book called “Easy Kanji” which groups kanji according to common components. It is good for low-intermediates and people who already have a couple of hundred […]
05.21
乞食
Yesterday I came across the sentence 慌てる乞食はもらいが少ない。 In doing so, I had to find out how the hell to read 乞食 (こじき) which is a composite of 請う・乞う (こう - does anyone know if there is a difference in these two kanji? I suspect that 請う is less desperate? Like ask for or request. Whereas 乞う […]
05.14
JLPT 1 & 2 textbooks
Hi all.
On the subject of textbooks, I found the Kanzen Master series pretty helpful for level 2 and then again at for level 1 of the JLPT. I can’t vouch for how useful they are at other levels. There’s one book at each level for each section of the test: grammar, reading exercises, etc.
They’re all […]
05.09
Kanji Practice
Viv, SJ and I all use (and recommend) these kanji workbooks. They are well-organised and with space to practice writing each one a few times. Every time you learn a new character they use compounds of kanji you have already covered and so you can expand your vocabulary as well.
