Japanese Textbooks in Beijing?

[calif90071]

I know this is a really random question, but I was just curious whether anyone knew a bookstore in Beijing that sells books in English that teach Japanese (or a bookstore that has good books for any language for English speakers)

[Flying Pigeon]

こんにちは。

Try this for bookstores in Wangfujing.

I imagine both stores have Japanese textbooks for English speakers. The Foreign Languages Bookstore has lots of Japanese textbooks (I only saw the Chinese versions), manga, novels, etc. on the 2nd or 3rd floor (can't remember exactly).

Hope this helps.

[gougou]

I'm not sure they'll have books for English speakers... I tried finding a Japanese-English dictionary there, but was disappointed.

There's plenty of good Chinese material for learning Japanese out there though, so if your Chinese is up to it, you could consider that. I used 标准日本语 for a while and was quite happy with it.

[carlo]

If you're looking for English textbooks, it'd be easiest to get them from Amazon. I can't remember ever seeing an English-language Japanese textbook for sale in Beijing. What you find is likely to be overpriced and/or not very good. There's also amazon.jp.

If you can read Chinese, though, I'd try some good Chinese textbooks. They're cheaper, progress faster and don't teach you Kanji all over again. 日语教程 (华东理工大学) and 新版标准日本语 are both ok I think.

[Glenn]

I agree with the idea of using a Chinese-language book to learn Japanese. Even if your Chinese isn't quite up to snuff, the book should help, so you'd be improving your Chinese as you worked on Japanese.

I have no idea about Beijing, unfortunately (from what the others are saying there isn't much there), but I'd suggest to you some English books if you'd rather go that route, via Amazon: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar and A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar. It seems they've finally come out with A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar as well (I waited so long for that thing, too...), which I'm sure is just as great as the other two. It looks like Amazon doesn't stock them, actually, but they have links to other sellers. They're a bit expensive, but they're very in-depth, showing differences between similar grammar points, and have loads of example sentences. Although, they aren't quite textbooks. They're in dictionary format, so each point has its own entry (for instance, an entry for 〜に対する, for 〜そうだ (1), for 〜そうだ (2), for 〜ようだ, etc.), and there are no exercises. But I just read straight through them (the first two), and they did a pretty good job of explaining all sorts of things I had been seeing/hearing but didn't quite understand, and introducing me to lots of new grammar patterns and expressions.

[roddy]

Foreign languages bookstore on Wangfujing might have some stuff in the imported books section, but even if so I'd imagine it'll be limited to Teach Yourself and phrasebooks. And pricey. Might be worth a look though.

Then there are the more ex-pat orientated booksellers - Chaterhouse, Garden Books - wouldn't expect to hit paydirt, but you never know.

As above though - you're better off sourcing from abroad or if you've got the Chinese using local materials. Even if you do find stuff in Beijing it's going to be a limited selection, and pricey.

[zhuhao]

I went on this exact search at the beginning of this year for myself, and most people here have got it right: even the foreign-language bookshops in Wangfujing DON'T have any non-Chinese foreign language learning materials in English (um, you know what I'm saying). The only English & Japanese dictionary I could find was technically Japanese <-> Chinese, but the Chinese had English.

Since my Chinese is reasonable (or, at least, years ahead of my ドラマ- and バラエティー-learned Japanese), I got a Chinese girl who had studied Japanese at university to tutor me and we went through the textbook she had used - 新编日语. They have online materials that match the older versions of the books, but you'll need the book.

However, while that worked for a while, Japanese gets into fiddly grammar that's difficult to explain in English half the time. Even if you do go the "learning Japanese in Chinese" route (which is suggested, if you can; it stretches your brain but it's worth it), you'll end up needing some English materials to make sense of it all. My suggestion (which comes from my sister, who has studied Japanese almost as long as I have Chinese) is the same as Glenn's: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. It's pricy in RMB, but totally worth it.