[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-article-local-tae-kim-japanese-grammar-guide":3,"$fHZsWYl_LcdVZ5GxKwtR-ZqvCZbbUdo2_Fi6R_GQKiQM":994,"blog-article-cms-tae-kim-japanese-grammar-guide":996,"article-hreflang-tae-kim-japanese-grammar-guide":997,"blog-article-related-tae-kim-japanese-grammar-guide":1593},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"description":972,"extension":973,"meta":974,"navigation":987,"path":988,"rawbody":989,"seo":990,"stem":991,"__hash__":992,"timestampUnix":975,"slug":976,"h1":977,"image":978,"tags":984,"timestamp":993,"locale":-1},"content\u002Farticle\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-textbooks-taekim.md","Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar: Is It the Right Resource for You?",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":935},"minimark",[9,19,22,25,30,33,40,43,46,51,54,61,64,67,72,75,88,91,106,109,113,116,120,123,147,150,156,161,177,182,186,189,200,206,212,215,229,243,247,250,258,263,266,270,273,280,283,287,290,294,297,304,322,325,337,344,347,349,353,356,360,368,374,387,390,393,396,400,403,410,413,416,422,425,428,431,435,449,452,454,458,461,464,467,471,474,485,488,491,494,497,502,509,516,520,523,526,529,535,542,547,550,555,558,561,568,575,581,588,591,593,597,600,603,607,610,640,643,655,659,662,685,688,690,694,697,701,709,723,726,730,739,742,748,751,758,762,770,777,780,786,789,792,796,799,822,825,831,834,837,844,848,857,860,865,875,879,887,890,893,899,906,908,912,915,918,932],[10,11,12,13,18],"p",{},"Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese—a totally free textbook written for beginners learning Japanese. You don't need to enter your email to use it and Tae Kim doesn't try to upsell you anything—he's literally just dropping knowledge for free, trying to help you ",[14,15,17],"a",{"href":16},"\u002Flearn-japanese","learn Japanese"," out of the goodness of his heart.",[10,20,21],{},"It sounds too good to be true.",[10,23,24],{},"It's not.",[26,27],"prose-button",{"href":28,"text":29},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fgrammar_guide.pdf","Click here to read Tae Kim's textbook",[10,31,32],{},"The guide offers an accessible introduction to Japanese grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structures. It's well-known for a reason. It's pretty cool.",[10,34,35,39],{},[36,37,38],"em",{},"This"," guide will help you decide if it's the right Japanese textbook for you to start with, and will cover:",[41,42],"toc",{},[44,45],"hr",{},[47,48,50],"h2",{"id":49},"what-is-tae-kims-guide-to-learning-japanese","What is Tae Kim’s guide to learning Japanese?",[10,52,53],{},"Well, for starters, it looks like this:",[55,56],"img",{"src":57,"width":58,"height":59,"alt":60},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-textbook.jpeg",2880,1798,"A screenshot of the cover of Tae Kim's Japanese textbook",[10,62,63],{},"It's a 353-page .pdf that introduces you to the basics of Japanese grammar, and then some.",[10,65,66],{},"More specifically, the guide is broken into six sections:",[68,69,71],"h3",{"id":70},"_1-introduction","1. Introduction",[10,73,74],{},"Tae Kim explains why he doesn't like \"traditional\" textbooks:",[76,77,78,82,85],"ol",{},[79,80,81],"li",{},"They focus on polite Japanese",[79,83,84],{},"They hold your hand and make you wait to learn kanji, which he feels is detrimental",[79,86,87],{},"They teach you how to express English ideas in Japanese, instead of just focusing on how Japanese works",[10,89,90],{},"And Tae Kim, in his guide to Japanese grammar, will be taking a different approach. He says:",[92,93,94],"blockquote",{},[10,95,96],{},[36,97,98,99,102,103,105],{},"The solution to this problem is to explain Japanese from a Japanese point of view. Take",[100,101],"br",{},"\nJapanese and explain how it works and forget about trying to force what you want to say in",[100,104],{},"\nEnglish into Japanese.",[10,107,108],{},"At Migaku, we can get behind that. We've actually got an entire video on the problems with traditional approaches to language learning:",[110,111],"custom-iframe",{"src":112},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FVcfrinKCvC4?si=mLn_I_4QrmvjtgVo",[10,114,115],{},"The rest of Tae Kim's introduction explains how to use the book and how he thinks you should go about learning Japanese.",[68,117,119],{"id":118},"_2-the-japanese-writing-systems","2. The Japanese writing systems",[10,121,122],{},"Japanese has three writing systems:",[124,125,126,133,140],"ul",{},[79,127,128,132],{},[14,129,131],{"href":130},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fthe-japanese-language-hiragana","Hiragana",", which are used (mostly) in grammatical structures and alongside kanji to make words",[79,134,135,139],{},[14,136,138],{"href":137},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fthe-japanese-language-katakana","Katakana",", which are used (mostly) to write foreign words and sometimes for emphasis",[79,141,142,146],{},[14,143,145],{"href":144},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fhow-to-learn-kanji","Kanji",", literally \"Chinese Characters\", which are used to write Japanese words",[10,148,149],{},"And he introduces them like this:",[55,151],{"src":152,"width":153,"height":154,"alt":155},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-hiragana.jpeg",1482,990,"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing a table and introduction to the hiragana",[10,157,158],{},[36,159,160],{},"(And then this is followed by further sections where he breaks the table down, but I'm not going to print the entire book here, am I?)",[10,162,163,164,170,171,176],{},"After introducing each script and how they work, he directs you to a ",[14,165,169],{"href":166,"rel":167},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fpdf\u002Fhiragana_trace_sheet.pdf",[168],"nofollow","hiragana practice sheet"," and ",[14,172,175],{"href":173,"rel":174},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fpdf\u002Fkatakana_trace_sheet.pdf",[168],"katakana practice sheet",".",[92,178,179],{},[10,180,181],{},"As early as this chapter, you get a feel for what sort of resource Tae Kim is: practical, to the point, and expecting that you'll figure things out yourself. Some people hate that, others love it.",[68,183,185],{"id":184},"_3-basic-japanese-grammar","3. Basic Japanese Grammar",[10,187,188],{},"Here you can see the basic format of all of Tae Kim's lesssons:",[124,190,191,194,197],{},[79,192,193],{},"First, you'll get a list of new Japanese vocabulary words",[79,195,196],{},"Next, you'll see a concise explanation of a grammar point or concept",[79,198,199],{},"Finally, you'll see a few example sentences combining those vocabulary words and grammar points",[55,201],{"src":202,"width":203,"height":204,"alt":205},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-basic-grammar2.jpeg",1704,1364,"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing how he teaches grammar",[55,207],{"src":208,"width":209,"height":210,"alt":211},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-basic-grammar.jpeg",1496,462,"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing his example sentences",[10,213,214],{},"True to the goals Tae Kim stated in the introduction:",[124,216,217,220,226],{},[79,218,219],{},"You start off with casual Japanese",[79,221,222,223],{},"You see sentences wth a mix of hiragana (and katakana, if I recall) right from the first lesson—absolutely no romaji ",[36,224,225],{},"(writing Japanese with the English alphabet)",[79,227,228],{},"You work with some pretty literal translations—Tae Kim doesn't over-translate his sentences to sound nice in English",[10,230,231,232,237,238,242],{},"The basic Japanese grammar section consists of 12 units that are broken up into about 50 sections, starting with だ (",[14,233,236],{"href":234,"rel":235},"https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FCopula_(linguistics)",[168],"the Japanese copula","), moving onto ",[14,239,241],{"href":240},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-particles-guide","a few basic Japanese particles",", then covering the basics of Japanese verbs and sentence structure.",[68,244,246],{"id":245},"_4-essential-japanese-grammar","4. Essential Japanese Grammar",[10,248,249],{},"The essential Japanese grammar section is a continuation of the basic Japanese grammar section. Here, you'll continue learning important Japanese grammatical structures, like the polite form of verbs or how numbers work, in the same \"vocabulary→explanation→example sentences\" structure as before.",[10,251,252,253,257],{},"Below you can see Tae Kim's explanation of ",[14,254,256],{"href":255},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-verb-volitional-form","the volitional form of verbs",":",[55,259],{"src":260,"width":58,"height":261,"alt":262},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-volitional.jpeg",1800,"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing his explanation of Japanese volitional verbs",[10,264,265],{},"This section is by far the longest of the book, consisting of 18 units that are broken up into about 100 sections over nearly 150 pages.",[68,267,269],{"id":268},"_5-special-expressions","5. Special expressions",[10,271,272],{},"This section of the book introduces stuff that—well, I'll just let Tae Kim explain it himself:",[92,274,275],{},[10,276,277],{},[36,278,279],{},"I have decided to call this next section \"Special Expressions\" only because with the exception of the first few lessons, most of the grammar here applies to more specific areas than the grammar we have covered so far. These special expressions, while individually not vital, are, as a collection, necessary for regular everyday conversations.",[10,281,282],{},"It's still pretty much the same stuff as the previous two grammar sections—you're now just seeing stuff that's slightly rarer. Stuff you'll come across in every episode of anime you watch or every chapter of a book you read, but not necessarily in every other sentence, like much of the stuff Tae Kim has covered so far.",[68,284,286],{"id":285},"_6-advanced-topics","6. Advanced topics",[10,288,289],{},"This section is short enough that I can actually just include screenshot of what it covers:",[55,291],{"src":292,"width":58,"height":261,"alt":293},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-advanced-topics.jpeg","A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing what he's dubbed the 'advanced topics' section",[10,295,296],{},"And, honestly, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It's an eclectic mix of stuff.",[10,298,299,300,303],{},"Some of the stuff is very much ",[36,301,302],{},"not"," advanced:",[124,305,306,314],{},[79,307,308,309],{},"Using 「はず」to describe an expectation → ",[14,310,313],{"href":311,"rel":312},"https:\u002F\u002Fjlptsensei.com\u002Flearn-japanese-grammar\u002F%E3%81%AF%E3%81%9A%E3%81%A0-hazu-da-meaning\u002F",[168],"this is an N4 grammar point",[79,315,316,317],{},"Using 「べき」to describe actions one should do → ",[14,318,321],{"href":319,"rel":320},"https:\u002F\u002Fjlptsensei.com\u002Flearn-japanese-grammar\u002F%E3%81%B9%E3%81%8D%E3%81%A0-beki-da-meaning\u002F",[168],"this is an N3 grammar point",[10,323,324],{},"Some of the stuff, like べからず, I pretty much only see in signs with messages like this:",[124,326,327],{},[79,328,329,334,336],{},[330,331],"typo",{"lang":332,"syntax":333},"ja","芝生[しばふ] に 入[はい]る べから[,べから]ず{。}",[100,335],{},"\n Keep off the grass!\n",[10,338,339,340,176],{},"And some of the stuff, like そばから, I've literally only ever seen in the materials I used while preparing for ",[14,341,343],{"href":342},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjlpt-n1-overview","the JLPT N1, the highest level proficiency test of Japanese",[10,345,346],{},"I don't necessarily think that all of these grammar points belong in the same section (N4 to N1 is a pretty big range!), but they're indeed all things that would be good to at least be aware of.",[44,348],{},[47,350,352],{"id":351},"why-learners-like-tae-kims-guide","Why learners like Tae Kim’s guide",[10,354,355],{},"I think that seeing the book laid out above should give you a pretty good idea of if Tae Kim is right for you or not, but if you're still on the fence, here's what people like about Tae Kim:",[68,357,359],{"id":358},"its-free-duh","It's free, duh",[10,361,362,363,367],{},"I'm not sure how I can put this more clearly—Tae Kim is free. Like just literally ",[14,364,366],{"href":28,"rel":365},[168],"click here"," and the .pdf file will open in your browser.",[10,369,370,371,176],{},"And, you know, that's kind of incredible. There's no subscription. You don't need to enter an email, give away your phone number, or sign away the wages of your first born child. You just click the link and get the book and can even download it if you want to. It covers basically the same stuff as you'd see in Genki I and Genki II... ",[36,372,373],{},"for free",[10,375,376,377,380,381,386],{},"Tae Kim's textbook ",[36,378,379],{},"is"," available ",[14,382,385],{"href":383,"rel":384},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.amazon.com\u002FGuide-Japanese-Grammar-approach-learning\u002Fdp\u002F1495238962",[168],"on Amazon"," as a $5.00 Kindle purchase or a ~$20.00 physical book, but you won't see that mentioned in the guide. He has a blog, but doesn't do affiliate marketing or sponsorships or anything like that.",[10,388,389],{},"Everything Tae Kim offers, he offers for free.",[10,391,392],{},"If you find it helpful, you can choose to support him.",[10,394,395],{},"Naturally, people like that.",[68,397,399],{"id":398},"simple-to-the-point-explanations","Simple, to-the-point explanations",[10,401,402],{},"Most textbooks are written by academics and, for lack of better words, the way they think language stuff should be explained sometimes just isn't how us normal folk need stuff to be explained to us.",[10,404,405,406,409],{},"As a more advanced learner, I now realize that textbook authors tended to go into way too much detail in some places and brush straight over stuff they thought was common sense (which wasn't) in others. As a beginner, that frustrated me to no end—I thought I was too stupid to understand how a certain Japanese grammar point worked, and I didn't realize that the ",[36,407,408],{},"real"," issue was simply that the Genki explanation of that grammar point wasn't super great.",[10,411,412],{},"So, yeah. You know what to expect from textbooks, and you probably expect that when you open up Tae Kim for the first time.",[10,414,415],{},"And then you see stuff like this:",[55,417],{"src":418,"width":419,"height":420,"alt":421},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-to-be.jpeg",1154,660,"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing his explanation of the Japanese copula",[10,423,424],{},"\"Use だ to declare that something is so and so\".",[10,426,427],{},"Yeah.",[10,429,430],{},"Tae Kim isn't winning any literary prose awards—but, in the world of textbooks, that's a plus. His explanations are intuitive. Easy to follow. It feels like he's talking to you. It's really just kinda nice.",[68,432,434],{"id":433},"the-community-generally-approves-of-tae-kim","The community generally approves of Tae Kim",[10,436,437,438,443,444,448],{},"The internet is full of haters, but if you spend a few days hanging out on ",[14,439,442],{"href":440,"rel":441},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FLearnJapanese\u002F",[168],"Reddit's r\u002FLearnJapanese",", a ",[14,445,447],{"href":446},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fmigaku-japanese-learning-discord","Japanese learning discord",", or pretty much anywhere else Japanese learners congregate—you're probably going to see at least one person recommend Tae Kim.",[10,450,451],{},"Now, the reception isn't totally positive. We'll get to that in the next section. At the end of the day, though, Tae Kim has been online for like 20 years; it hasn't been abandoned or pillaged, and people still recommend it. How many other resources can you say that about?",[44,453],{},[47,455,457],{"id":456},"where-tae-kims-guide-falls-short","Where Tae Kim’s Guide falls short",[10,459,460],{},"I personally like Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide.",[10,462,463],{},"...but it's not perfect.",[10,465,466],{},"We've been pretty positive so far, so now let's take the gloves off and talk about why Japanese learning guides don't unanimously begin with \"First, go do Tae Kim.\"",[68,468,470],{"id":469},"its-literally-just-a-book-of-grammar-explanations","It's literally just a book of grammar explanations",[10,472,473],{},"As mentioned up in the third bullet point of \"What is Tae Kim's guide to learning Japanese\", every unit of Tae Kim follows the same format:",[124,475,476,479,482],{},[79,477,478],{},"List of vocabulary words",[79,480,481],{},"Brief explanation of a grammar point",[79,483,484],{},"Example sentences",[10,486,487],{},"And then you move on.",[10,489,490],{},"There's no interactive elements, no quizzes, no media, no audio, no sample dialogues or reading material. It's literally just a compilation of brief textual explanations.",[10,492,493],{},"And, oftentimes, that's not quite enough.",[10,495,496],{},"Now, to be clear:",[92,498,499],{},[10,500,501],{},"We learn languages by interacting with them, not by reading a textbook. If you consume media in Japanese, and understand the sentences within that media, you will make progress. Period.",[10,503,504,505,508],{},"So I don't necessarily think it's Tae Kim's job to do ",[36,506,507],{},"everything"," for you, but I agree with the general Internet concensus: to learn Japanese, you're going to need more than Tae Kim.",[10,510,511,512,515],{},"Bookmark Tae Kim's guide as a quick and dirty grammar reference, but understand that it's really ",[36,513,514],{},"just"," a quick and dirty grammar reference.",[68,517,519],{"id":518},"some-of-tae-kims-takes-arent-so-great","Some of Tae Kim's takes aren't so great",[10,521,522],{},"So, Tae Kim is a Korean learner of Japanese. He's not Japanese, nor a Japanese teacher. According to lore, Tae Kim's guide to Japanese was initially just his personal notes about Japanese grammar points. They got pretty extensive, and he decided to polish them up a bit and make them available to other learners. I have no idea if that's true or not, but having gone through the textbook, I'd believe it.",[10,524,525],{},"On one hand, and I want to stress this, I absolutely admire people who put themselves out there and make something for the good of others.",[10,527,528],{},"On the other hand, this—let's call it an intentional lack of polish—sometimes leads to things like this showing up in Tae Kim's book:",[55,530],{"src":531,"width":532,"height":533,"alt":534},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-japanese-uhhtake.jpeg",1174,1144,"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing a discussion about Japanese sentence structure",[10,536,537,538,541],{},"And I mean that's ",[36,539,540],{},"technically"," true, but like—well:",[92,543,544],{},[10,545,546],{},"Like this an English sentence I could, too, write.",[10,548,549],{},"Grammatically speaking, that's a valid English sentence!",[10,551,552],{},[36,553,554],{},"But people don't talk like that.",[10,556,557],{},"I don't want to dwell on negativity, so I'll simply say that there are a number of sections like this throughout the book—some takes that are kind of weird, some where he's overly abstracted or simplified a concept, and some where he's kinda just wrong.",[10,559,560],{},"Unfortunately, as a beginner, you likely won't be able to tell when Tae Kim is being brilliantly intuitive and when he is missing the mark.",[68,562,564,565],{"id":563},"it-doesnt-hold-your-hand-at-all","It doesn't hold your hand ",[36,566,567],{},"at all",[10,569,570,571,574],{},"I'm looking at page 47 right now—Tae Kim just dumps 23 new vocab words on you and is like ",[36,572,573],{},"here remember this stuff",". The next unit begins on page 50, we get 7 new words, and it's just assumed that you remember those words from page 47—they start appearing in example sentences.",[10,576,577,578,580],{},"So, in addition to Tae Kim, you're going to need to be using a tool or practicing on the side in order to keep up with Tae Kim. You won't be able to learn Japanese ",[36,579,514],{}," by reading through the guide.",[10,582,583,584,587],{},"This is true for most textbooks, of course, but most textbooks also include things like dialogues so that you at least get ",[36,585,586],{},"some"," practice with vocab words and grammar points before moving on. With Tae Kim, if you don't put in the legwork to keep up, you'll be left behind. Fast.",[10,589,590],{},"Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you have a vocab-learning system that works for you, you might even like Tae Kim's hands-off-ness. It's just something you should be aware of, and something that I think a lot of beginners might not be ready for.",[44,592],{},[47,594,596],{"id":595},"ok-fine-but-if-i-want-to-learn-japanese-should-i-use-tae-kim","Ok, fine, but if I want to learn Japanese, should I use Tae Kim?",[10,598,599],{},"As a blanket statement, Tae Kim is an excellent tool to have in your tool box, but I don't think it's what most people should use as their primary Japanese resource.",[10,601,602],{},"But, to be more specific:",[68,604,606],{"id":605},"yes-use-tae-kim-to-learn-japanese-if","Yes, use Tae Kim to learn Japanese if...",[10,608,609],{},"I feel totally comfortable recommending Tae Kim to a few sorts of people:",[124,611,612,619,634],{},[79,613,614,618],{},[615,616,617],"strong",{},"Total beginers",", as the book is totally free, meaning you can get started with Japanese without having anything to spend anything but time",[79,620,621,624,625],{},[615,622,623],{},"Independent learners"," who don't mind using additional technologies and putting in legwork to make up for some of Tae Kim's weaknesses ",[36,626,627,628,633],{},"(for example, if you're using Tae Kim, you probably want to use ",[14,629,632],{"href":630,"rel":631},"https:\u002F\u002Fankiweb.net\u002Fshared\u002Finfo\u002F911122782",[168],"this Anki deck",")",[79,635,636,639],{},[615,637,638],{},"People who are already using a mix of resources",", as Tae Kim is a great tool to pull out when the grammar explanations you're seeing elsewhere are just a bit too dense\u002Fscholarly and you want to see something explained in everyday English",[10,641,642],{},"Basically, I think Tae Kim is great to use as a \"trial\" resource:",[124,644,645,648],{},[79,646,647],{},"If you're not sure you want to commit to Japanese, try Tae Kim! It will get you going and has enough content to keep you busy for awhile",[79,649,650,651,654],{},"Once you decide that you really ",[36,652,653],{},"do"," want to learn Japanese, and it isn't just a passing impulse, you're probably going to want to move on to a different resource",[68,656,658],{"id":657},"no-dont-use-tae-kim-to-learn-japanese-if","No, don't use Tae Kim to learn Japanese if...",[10,660,661],{},"I would not recommend Tae Kim to a few sorts of people:",[124,663,664,670,679],{},[79,665,666,669],{},[615,667,668],{},"New language learners",", as Tae Kim expects you to manage a lot of the learning process on your own, and that adds a lot of additional stress\u002Fchallenges if you don't already know what you're doing",[79,671,672,675,676],{},[615,673,674],{},"Super anal people",", as Tae Kim's grammar explanations focus on intuitiveness above all else, including accuracy, and may often leave you going, ",[36,677,678],{},"\"yes, but...\"",[79,680,681,684],{},[615,682,683],{},"People expecting an all-in-one resource",", as Tae Kim simply isn't that",[10,686,687],{},"Basically, Tae Kim was designed to do one thing—provide brief but intuitive explanations of grammar points. It does that pretty well, but learning a language is much more than making sense of grammar points. If you don't feel comfortable juggling Tae Kim with other resources, I wouldn't recommend using it.",[44,689],{},[47,691,693],{"id":692},"a-few-tae-kim-alternatives","A few Tae Kim alternatives",[10,695,696],{},"If you like the idea of a practical grammar reference as opposed to a traditional textbook, but don't quite think Tae Kim is for you, you might prefer one of these alternatives:",[68,698,700],{"id":699},"a-few-japanese-textbooks-for-beginners","A few Japanese textbooks for beginners",[10,702,703,704,708],{},"This article is already getting kind of long, so I'm not going to talk about it here, but we've actually got an entire article devoted to ",[14,705,707],{"href":706},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fbest-japanese-textbooks","the best Japanese textbooks for beginners",". In it, we talk about:",[124,710,711,714,717,720],{},[79,712,713],{},"Genki",[79,715,716],{},"Minna no Nihongo",[79,718,719],{},"Japanese from Zero",[79,721,722],{},"More!",[10,724,725],{},"So if you've read this far and decided that you need a bit more than \"just\" a grammar reference book, head over to that blog post and see which textbook would be a better fit for you 💪",[68,727,729],{"id":728},"imabi-a-super-comprehensive-japanese-reference","Imabi, a super comprehensive Japanese reference",[10,731,732,733,738],{},"If Tae Kim's strength is in its concise and casual explanations, ",[14,734,737],{"href":735,"rel":736},"https:\u002F\u002Fimabi.org\u002F",[168],"Imabi"," is exactly the opposite: it goes into incredible detail and most of its ~500 entries contain literally dozens of example sentences.",[10,740,741],{},"Like Tae Kim, Imabi is totally free and can be accessed online. Here's how Imabi goes about explaining the volitional form of Japanese verbs:",[55,743],{"src":744,"width":745,"height":746,"alt":747},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-imabi-volitional.jpeg",1890,1670,"A screenshot of the Imabi Japanese grammar reference, showing an explanation of the Japanese volitional form",[10,749,750],{},"This entry is 2,000 words long... and it's only the first of three parts.",[10,752,753,754,757],{},"Generally speaking, I'd recommend that you first look up a grammar point in Tae Kim. If you feel like you need more information, ",[36,755,756],{},"then"," look up the same grammar point in Imabi. You'll get all the information you ever wanted... and more.",[68,759,761],{"id":760},"maggie-sensei-or-japanese-grammar-points-explained-via-cute-dog-memes","Maggie Sensei, or Japanese grammar points explained via (cute) dog memes",[10,763,764,769],{},[14,765,768],{"href":766,"rel":767},"https:\u002F\u002Fmaggiesensei.com\u002F",[168],"Maggie Sensei"," is ran by Yukari, a Japanese language teacher, and Maggie, her French pit bull. They describe their approach to teaching with this introduction to why they didn't like the current (then 2008) world of Japanese-language education:",[92,771,772],{},[10,773,774],{},[36,775,776],{},"The books were full of difficult explanations and grammatical terms. And they weren’t just difficult. They were also really boring. Every time we opened a textbook, we would fall asleep.",[10,778,779],{},"So they decided to change that by creating simple and fun Japanese lessons (full of dog photos), such as the below explanation of the volitional form:",[55,781],{"src":782,"width":783,"height":784,"alt":785},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-japanese-tae-kim-maggie-sensei-volitional-form.jpeg",1848,1646,"A screenshot of Maggie Sensei's website about Japanese grammar, showing her explanation of the Japanese volitional form",[10,787,788],{},"As you can see, the lessons are heavily based around example sentences. The formatting of the explanations aren't great, but Maggie always goes out of her way to make sure that they're accessible even to total beginners.",[10,790,791],{},"If you like the brevity of Tae Kim but want something that's been vetted by a Japanese person, try Maggie Sensei!",[68,793,795],{"id":794},"migaku-a-flashcard-based-course-to-learn-essential-japanese-grammar-and-vocabulary","Migaku, a flashcard-based course to learn essential Japanese grammar and vocabulary",[10,797,798],{},"Migaku offers the same kind of practical, to-the-point explanations as you'd see in Tae Kim's grammar guide, but we've also patched over many of Tae Kim's weaknesses:",[124,800,801,809,816,819],{},[79,802,803,804,808],{},"The course is flashcard-based and ",[14,805,807],{"href":806},"\u002Fblog\u002Flanguage-fun\u002Fspaced-repetition-language-learning","powered by spaced repetition",", so we solve the problem of figuring out what to learn and review when",[79,810,811,812,815],{},"All of our content has been reviewed by native Japanese speakers and been updated in accordance feedback from many learners, so our explanations are intuitive ",[36,813,814],{},"and"," accurate",[79,817,818],{},"All of our flashcards feature audio recordings of native speakers reading natural Japanese sentences",[79,820,821],{},"Each \"next\" flashcard contains only one new word or grammar point, so our learning curve is super smooth",[10,823,824],{},"As is tradition, here's a peek at how we go about explaining the volitional form of Japanese verbs:",[55,826],{"src":827,"width":828,"height":829,"alt":830},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-volitional-verbs-2.jpeg",1206,844,"A screenshot of Migaku's Japanese Academy course, showing the volitional form.",[10,832,833],{},"So if you love Tae Kim but wish it had kept up with more modern resources, give Migaku a shot!",[26,835],{"href":16,"text":836},"Learn Japanese with Migaku",[10,838,839,840,176],{},"We're pretty sure that you'll be able to understand 80% of all Japanese media within ~6 months of using Migaku. ",[14,841,843],{"href":842},"\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fhow-to-learn-japanese-vocabulary","Here's why we're so confident",[68,845,847],{"id":846},"pomax-another-super-long-pdf-about-japanese-grammar","Pomax, another super long .pdf about Japanese grammar",[10,849,850,851,856],{},"Pomax is another independent Japanese grammar guide in .pdf format that you can read in your browser ",[14,852,855],{"href":853,"rel":854},"https:\u002F\u002Fpomax.github.io\u002FnrGrammar\u002F",[168],"by clicking this link",". It's better formatted, and, unlike Tae Kim, doesn't shy away from using more technical language when describing Japanese grammar points. On the contrary, it gravitates toward it.",[10,858,859],{},"For reference, here's Pomax's explanation of the Japanese volitional form of verbs:",[55,861],{"src":862,"width":863,"height":746,"alt":864},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-pomax-volitional.jpeg",2018,"A screenshot of the Pomax textbook of Japanese grammar, showing an explanation of the Japanese volitional form",[10,866,867,868,170,871,874],{},"So, uhh, yeah. We get words like ",[36,869,870],{},"cohortative",[330,872],{"lang":332,"syntax":873},"未然形[みぜんけい]"," that I'm honestly not even going to try to explain. If you've got some formal knowledge of linguistics, you'll probably like Pomax. If not, you probably won't.",[68,876,878],{"id":877},"wasabi-an-online-japanese-magazine-for-learners-with-a-decently-robust-grammar-dictionary","Wasabi, an online Japanese magazine for learners with a decently robust grammar dictionary",[10,880,881,886],{},[14,882,885],{"href":883,"rel":884},"https:\u002F\u002Fmy.wasabi-jpn.com\u002Fmagazine\u002Fjapanese-grammar\u002Fwasabis-online-japanese-grammar-reference\u002F",[168],"Wasabi"," is a kind of interesting mix of Tae Kim, Imabi, and Maggie Sensei. The Wasabi team consists of professional Japanese teachers, so their posts go into some detail and include many example sentences, but they've worked with enough students to know that more information isn't necessarily better.",[10,888,889],{},"Their grammar posts are quite thorough, in that they cover many usages, but each individual section is quite concise and dominated by helpful tables and practical example sentences.",[10,891,892],{},"Once again, here's the beginning of Wasabi's explanation of the Japanese volitional form:",[55,894],{"src":895,"width":896,"height":897,"alt":898},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-wasabi-volitional-form.jpeg",1888,1666,"A screenshot of the Wasabi's explanation of the Japanese volitional form",[10,900,901,902,905],{},"Wasabi's website is a bit outdated, and their table of concents is ",[36,903,904],{},"significantly"," shorter than all of the other alternatives we've listed—but if they have a listing for the grammar point you're looking up, it's worth checking out.",[44,907],{},[47,909,911],{"id":910},"tae-kim-japanese-textbook-worth-using","Tae Kim Japanese textbook: Worth using?",[10,913,914],{},"So, there you go! Tae Kim is a free resource that covers an impressive amount of information about Japanese grammar.",[10,916,917],{},"My personal stance as to if you should use it:",[124,919,920,926],{},[79,921,922,925],{},[615,923,924],{},"Do"," check it out if you're just now thinking about learning Japanese; it's a great resource to get your feet wet and see how committed you are, and is also worth referencing when you stumble into new grammar points",[79,927,928,931],{},[615,929,930],{},"Don't"," make it your main resource if you decide that you really want to learn Japanese; you can probably find a better option that better suits your needs",[10,933,934],{},"Good luck!",{"title":936,"searchDepth":937,"depth":937,"links":938},"",2,[939,948,953,959,963,971],{"id":49,"depth":937,"text":50,"children":940},[941,943,944,945,946,947],{"id":70,"depth":942,"text":71},3,{"id":118,"depth":942,"text":119},{"id":184,"depth":942,"text":185},{"id":245,"depth":942,"text":246},{"id":268,"depth":942,"text":269},{"id":285,"depth":942,"text":286},{"id":351,"depth":937,"text":352,"children":949},[950,951,952],{"id":358,"depth":942,"text":359},{"id":398,"depth":942,"text":399},{"id":433,"depth":942,"text":434},{"id":456,"depth":937,"text":457,"children":954},[955,956,957],{"id":469,"depth":942,"text":470},{"id":518,"depth":942,"text":519},{"id":563,"depth":942,"text":958},"It doesn't hold your hand at all",{"id":595,"depth":937,"text":596,"children":960},[961,962],{"id":605,"depth":942,"text":606},{"id":657,"depth":942,"text":658},{"id":692,"depth":937,"text":693,"children":964},[965,966,967,968,969,970],{"id":699,"depth":942,"text":700},{"id":728,"depth":942,"text":729},{"id":760,"depth":942,"text":761},{"id":794,"depth":942,"text":795},{"id":846,"depth":942,"text":847},{"id":877,"depth":942,"text":878},{"id":910,"depth":937,"text":911},"Discover the pros and cons of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar, one of the most popular tools for learning Japanese. Find out who it’s best suited for and how it can fit into your language-learning journey.","md",{"timestampUnix":975,"slug":976,"h1":977,"image":978,"tags":984},1736494829682,"tae-kim-japanese-grammar-guide","Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar: A Comprehensive Review",{"src":979,"width":980,"height":981,"alt":982,"position":983},"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-header2.jpeg",7360,4912,"A photo of the front cover of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar.","top",[985,986],"fundamentals","resources",true,"\u002Farticle\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-textbooks-taekim","---\ntitle: \"Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar: Is It the Right Resource for You?\"\ndescription: \"Discover the pros and cons of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar, one of the most popular tools for learning Japanese. Find out who it’s best suited for and how it can fit into your language-learning journey.\"\ntimestampUnix: 1736494829682\nslug: 'tae-kim-japanese-grammar-guide'\nh1: \"Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar: A Comprehensive Review\"\nimage:\n  src: '\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-header2.jpeg'\n  width: 7360\n  height: 4912\n  alt: \"A photo of the front cover of Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar.\"\n  position: 'top'\ntags:\n  - fundamentals\n  - resources\n---\n\nTae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese—a totally free textbook written for beginners learning Japanese. You don't need to enter your email to use it and Tae Kim doesn't try to upsell you anything—he's literally just dropping knowledge for free, trying to help you [learn Japanese](\u002Flearn-japanese) out of the goodness of his heart.\n\nIt sounds too good to be true.\n\nIt's not.\n\n\u003Cprose-button href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fgrammar_guide.pdf\" text=\"Click here to read Tae Kim's textbook\">\u003C\u002Fprose-button>\n\nThe guide offers an accessible introduction to Japanese grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structures. It's well-known for a reason. It's pretty cool.\n\n_This_ guide will help you decide if it's the right Japanese textbook for you to start with, and will cover:\n\n\u003Ctoc>\u003C\u002Ftoc>\n\n---\n\n## What is Tae Kim’s guide to learning Japanese?\n\nWell, for starters, it looks like this:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-textbook.jpeg\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1798\" alt=\"A screenshot of the cover of Tae Kim's Japanese textbook\" \u002F>\n\nIt's a 353-page .pdf that introduces you to the basics of Japanese grammar, and then some.\n\nMore specifically, the guide is broken into six sections:\n\n### 1. Introduction\n\nTae Kim explains why he doesn't like \"traditional\" textbooks:\n\n1. They focus on polite Japanese\n2. They hold your hand and make you wait to learn kanji, which he feels is detrimental\n3. They teach you how to express English ideas in Japanese, instead of just focusing on how Japanese works\n\nAnd Tae Kim, in his guide to Japanese grammar, will be taking a different approach. He says:\n\n> _The solution to this problem is to explain Japanese from a Japanese point of view. Take\n> Japanese and explain how it works and forget about trying to force what you want to say in\n> English into Japanese._\n\nAt Migaku, we can get behind that. We've actually got an entire video on the problems with traditional approaches to language learning:\n\n\u003Ccustom-iframe src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fembed\u002FVcfrinKCvC4?si=mLn_I_4QrmvjtgVo\">\u003C\u002Fcustom-iframe>\n\nThe rest of Tae Kim's introduction explains how to use the book and how he thinks you should go about learning Japanese.\n\n### 2. The Japanese writing systems\n\nJapanese has three writing systems:\n\n- [Hiragana](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fthe-japanese-language-hiragana), which are used (mostly) in grammatical structures and alongside kanji to make words\n- [Katakana](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fthe-japanese-language-katakana), which are used (mostly) to write foreign words and sometimes for emphasis\n- [Kanji](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fhow-to-learn-kanji), literally \"Chinese Characters\", which are used to write Japanese words\n\nAnd he introduces them like this:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-hiragana.jpeg\" width=\"1482\" height=\"990\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing a table and introduction to the hiragana\" \u002F>\n\n_(And then this is followed by further sections where he breaks the table down, but I'm not going to print the entire book here, am I?)_\n\nAfter introducing each script and how they work, he directs you to a [hiragana practice sheet](http:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fpdf\u002Fhiragana_trace_sheet.pdf) and [katakana practice sheet](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fpdf\u002Fkatakana_trace_sheet.pdf).\n\n> As early as this chapter, you get a feel for what sort of resource Tae Kim is: practical, to the point, and expecting that you'll figure things out yourself. Some people hate that, others love it.\n\n### 3. Basic Japanese Grammar\n\nHere you can see the basic format of all of Tae Kim's lesssons:\n\n- First, you'll get a list of new Japanese vocabulary words\n- Next, you'll see a concise explanation of a grammar point or concept\n- Finally, you'll see a few example sentences combining those vocabulary words and grammar points\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-basic-grammar2.jpeg\" width=\"1704\" height=\"1364\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing how he teaches grammar\" \u002F>\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-basic-grammar.jpeg\" width=\"1496\" height=\"462\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing his example sentences\" \u002F>\n\nTrue to the goals Tae Kim stated in the introduction:\n\n- You start off with casual Japanese\n- You see sentences wth a mix of hiragana (and katakana, if I recall) right from the first lesson—absolutely no romaji _(writing Japanese with the English alphabet)_\n- You work with some pretty literal translations—Tae Kim doesn't over-translate his sentences to sound nice in English\n\nThe basic Japanese grammar section consists of 12 units that are broken up into about 50 sections, starting with だ ([the Japanese copula](\u003Chttps:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FCopula_(linguistics)>)), moving onto [a few basic Japanese particles](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-particles-guide), then covering the basics of Japanese verbs and sentence structure.\n\n### 4. Essential Japanese Grammar\n\nThe essential Japanese grammar section is a continuation of the basic Japanese grammar section. Here, you'll continue learning important Japanese grammatical structures, like the polite form of verbs or how numbers work, in the same \"vocabulary→explanation→example sentences\" structure as before.\n\nBelow you can see Tae Kim's explanation of [the volitional form of verbs](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-verb-volitional-form):\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-volitional.jpeg\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1800\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing his explanation of Japanese volitional verbs\" \u002F>\n\nThis section is by far the longest of the book, consisting of 18 units that are broken up into about 100 sections over nearly 150 pages.\n\n### 5. Special expressions\n\nThis section of the book introduces stuff that—well, I'll just let Tae Kim explain it himself:\n\n> _I have decided to call this next section \"Special Expressions\" only because with the exception of the first few lessons, most of the grammar here applies to more specific areas than the grammar we have covered so far. These special expressions, while individually not vital, are, as a collection, necessary for regular everyday conversations._\n\nIt's still pretty much the same stuff as the previous two grammar sections—you're now just seeing stuff that's slightly rarer. Stuff you'll come across in every episode of anime you watch or every chapter of a book you read, but not necessarily in every other sentence, like much of the stuff Tae Kim has covered so far.\n\n### 6. Advanced topics\n\nThis section is short enough that I can actually just include screenshot of what it covers:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-advanced-topics.jpeg\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1800\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing what he's dubbed the 'advanced topics' section\" \u002F>\n\nAnd, honestly, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It's an eclectic mix of stuff.\n\nSome of the stuff is very much _not_ advanced:\n\n- Using 「はず」to describe an expectation → [this is an N4 grammar point](https:\u002F\u002Fjlptsensei.com\u002Flearn-japanese-grammar\u002F%E3%81%AF%E3%81%9A%E3%81%A0-hazu-da-meaning\u002F)\n- Using 「べき」to describe actions one should do → [this is an N3 grammar point](https:\u002F\u002Fjlptsensei.com\u002Flearn-japanese-grammar\u002F%E3%81%B9%E3%81%8D%E3%81%A0-beki-da-meaning\u002F)\n\nSome of the stuff, like べからず, I pretty much only see in signs with messages like this:\n\n- \u003Ctypo lang=\"ja\" syntax=\"芝生[しばふ] に 入[はい]る べから[,べから]ず{。}\">\u003C\u002Ftypo>\u003Cbr> Keep off the grass!\n\nAnd some of the stuff, like そばから, I've literally only ever seen in the materials I used while preparing for [the JLPT N1, the highest level proficiency test of Japanese](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjlpt-n1-overview).\n\nI don't necessarily think that all of these grammar points belong in the same section (N4 to N1 is a pretty big range!), but they're indeed all things that would be good to at least be aware of.\n\n---\n\n## Why learners like Tae Kim’s guide\n\nI think that seeing the book laid out above should give you a pretty good idea of if Tae Kim is right for you or not, but if you're still on the fence, here's what people like about Tae Kim:\n\n### It's free, duh\n\nI'm not sure how I can put this more clearly—Tae Kim is free. Like just literally [click here](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.guidetojapanese.org\u002Fgrammar_guide.pdf) and the .pdf file will open in your browser.\n\nAnd, you know, that's kind of incredible. There's no subscription. You don't need to enter an email, give away your phone number, or sign away the wages of your first born child. You just click the link and get the book and can even download it if you want to. It covers basically the same stuff as you'd see in Genki I and Genki II... _for free_.\n\nTae Kim's textbook _is_ available [on Amazon](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.amazon.com\u002FGuide-Japanese-Grammar-approach-learning\u002Fdp\u002F1495238962) as a $5.00 Kindle purchase or a ~$20.00 physical book, but you won't see that mentioned in the guide. He has a blog, but doesn't do affiliate marketing or sponsorships or anything like that.\n\nEverything Tae Kim offers, he offers for free.\n\nIf you find it helpful, you can choose to support him.\n\nNaturally, people like that.\n\n### Simple, to-the-point explanations\n\nMost textbooks are written by academics and, for lack of better words, the way they think language stuff should be explained sometimes just isn't how us normal folk need stuff to be explained to us.\n\nAs a more advanced learner, I now realize that textbook authors tended to go into way too much detail in some places and brush straight over stuff they thought was common sense (which wasn't) in others. As a beginner, that frustrated me to no end—I thought I was too stupid to understand how a certain Japanese grammar point worked, and I didn't realize that the _real_ issue was simply that the Genki explanation of that grammar point wasn't super great.\n\nSo, yeah. You know what to expect from textbooks, and you probably expect that when you open up Tae Kim for the first time.\n\nAnd then you see stuff like this:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-to-be.jpeg\" width=\"1154\" height=\"660\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing his explanation of the Japanese copula\" \u002F>\n\n\"Use だ to declare that something is so and so\".\n\nYeah.\n\nTae Kim isn't winning any literary prose awards—but, in the world of textbooks, that's a plus. His explanations are intuitive. Easy to follow. It feels like he's talking to you. It's really just kinda nice.\n\n### The community generally approves of Tae Kim\n\nThe internet is full of haters, but if you spend a few days hanging out on [Reddit's r\u002FLearnJapanese](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.reddit.com\u002Fr\u002FLearnJapanese\u002F), a [Japanese learning discord](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fmigaku-japanese-learning-discord), or pretty much anywhere else Japanese learners congregate—you're probably going to see at least one person recommend Tae Kim.\n\nNow, the reception isn't totally positive. We'll get to that in the next section. At the end of the day, though, Tae Kim has been online for like 20 years; it hasn't been abandoned or pillaged, and people still recommend it. How many other resources can you say that about?\n\n---\n\n## Where Tae Kim’s Guide falls short\n\nI personally like Tae Kim's Japanese Grammar Guide.\n\n...but it's not perfect.\n\nWe've been pretty positive so far, so now let's take the gloves off and talk about why Japanese learning guides don't unanimously begin with \"First, go do Tae Kim.\"\n\n### It's literally just a book of grammar explanations\n\nAs mentioned up in the third bullet point of \"What is Tae Kim's guide to learning Japanese\", every unit of Tae Kim follows the same format:\n\n- List of vocabulary words\n- Brief explanation of a grammar point\n- Example sentences\n\nAnd then you move on.\n\nThere's no interactive elements, no quizzes, no media, no audio, no sample dialogues or reading material. It's literally just a compilation of brief textual explanations.\n\nAnd, oftentimes, that's not quite enough.\n\nNow, to be clear:\n\n> We learn languages by interacting with them, not by reading a textbook. If you consume media in Japanese, and understand the sentences within that media, you will make progress. Period.\n\nSo I don't necessarily think it's Tae Kim's job to do _everything_ for you, but I agree with the general Internet concensus: to learn Japanese, you're going to need more than Tae Kim.\n\nBookmark Tae Kim's guide as a quick and dirty grammar reference, but understand that it's really _just_ a quick and dirty grammar reference.\n\n### Some of Tae Kim's takes aren't so great\n\nSo, Tae Kim is a Korean learner of Japanese. He's not Japanese, nor a Japanese teacher. According to lore, Tae Kim's guide to Japanese was initially just his personal notes about Japanese grammar points. They got pretty extensive, and he decided to polish them up a bit and make them available to other learners. I have no idea if that's true or not, but having gone through the textbook, I'd believe it.\n\nOn one hand, and I want to stress this, I absolutely admire people who put themselves out there and make something for the good of others.\n\nOn the other hand, this—let's call it an intentional lack of polish—sometimes leads to things like this showing up in Tae Kim's book:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-japanese-uhhtake.jpeg\" width=\"1174\" height=\"1144\" alt=\"A screenshot from Tae Kim's Japanese textbook, showing a discussion about Japanese sentence structure\" \u002F>\n\nAnd I mean that's _technically_ true, but like—well:\n\n> Like this an English sentence I could, too, write.\n\nGrammatically speaking, that's a valid English sentence!\n\n_But people don't talk like that._\n\nI don't want to dwell on negativity, so I'll simply say that there are a number of sections like this throughout the book—some takes that are kind of weird, some where he's overly abstracted or simplified a concept, and some where he's kinda just wrong.\n\nUnfortunately, as a beginner, you likely won't be able to tell when Tae Kim is being brilliantly intuitive and when he is missing the mark.\n\n### It doesn't hold your hand _at all_\n\nI'm looking at page 47 right now—Tae Kim just dumps 23 new vocab words on you and is like _here remember this stuff_. The next unit begins on page 50, we get 7 new words, and it's just assumed that you remember those words from page 47—they start appearing in example sentences.\n\nSo, in addition to Tae Kim, you're going to need to be using a tool or practicing on the side in order to keep up with Tae Kim. You won't be able to learn Japanese _just_ by reading through the guide.\n\nThis is true for most textbooks, of course, but most textbooks also include things like dialogues so that you at least get _some_ practice with vocab words and grammar points before moving on. With Tae Kim, if you don't put in the legwork to keep up, you'll be left behind. Fast.\n\nAgain, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you have a vocab-learning system that works for you, you might even like Tae Kim's hands-off-ness. It's just something you should be aware of, and something that I think a lot of beginners might not be ready for.\n\n---\n\n## Ok, fine, but if I want to learn Japanese, should I use Tae Kim?\n\nAs a blanket statement, Tae Kim is an excellent tool to have in your tool box, but I don't think it's what most people should use as their primary Japanese resource.\n\nBut, to be more specific:\n\n### Yes, use Tae Kim to learn Japanese if...\n\nI feel totally comfortable recommending Tae Kim to a few sorts of people:\n\n- **Total beginers**, as the book is totally free, meaning you can get started with Japanese without having anything to spend anything but time\n- **Independent learners** who don't mind using additional technologies and putting in legwork to make up for some of Tae Kim's weaknesses _(for example, if you're using Tae Kim, you probably want to use [this Anki deck](https:\u002F\u002Fankiweb.net\u002Fshared\u002Finfo\u002F911122782))_\n- **People who are already using a mix of resources**, as Tae Kim is a great tool to pull out when the grammar explanations you're seeing elsewhere are just a bit too dense\u002Fscholarly and you want to see something explained in everyday English\n\nBasically, I think Tae Kim is great to use as a \"trial\" resource:\n\n- If you're not sure you want to commit to Japanese, try Tae Kim! It will get you going and has enough content to keep you busy for awhile\n- Once you decide that you really _do_ want to learn Japanese, and it isn't just a passing impulse, you're probably going to want to move on to a different resource\n\n### No, don't use Tae Kim to learn Japanese if...\n\nI would not recommend Tae Kim to a few sorts of people:\n\n- **New language learners**, as Tae Kim expects you to manage a lot of the learning process on your own, and that adds a lot of additional stress\u002Fchallenges if you don't already know what you're doing\n- **Super anal people**, as Tae Kim's grammar explanations focus on intuitiveness above all else, including accuracy, and may often leave you going, _\"yes, but...\"_\n- **People expecting an all-in-one resource**, as Tae Kim simply isn't that\n\nBasically, Tae Kim was designed to do one thing—provide brief but intuitive explanations of grammar points. It does that pretty well, but learning a language is much more than making sense of grammar points. If you don't feel comfortable juggling Tae Kim with other resources, I wouldn't recommend using it.\n\n---\n\n## A few Tae Kim alternatives\n\nIf you like the idea of a practical grammar reference as opposed to a traditional textbook, but don't quite think Tae Kim is for you, you might prefer one of these alternatives:\n\n### A few Japanese textbooks for beginners\n\nThis article is already getting kind of long, so I'm not going to talk about it here, but we've actually got an entire article devoted to [the best Japanese textbooks for beginners](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fbest-japanese-textbooks). In it, we talk about:\n\n- Genki\n- Minna no Nihongo\n- Japanese from Zero\n- More!\n\nSo if you've read this far and decided that you need a bit more than \"just\" a grammar reference book, head over to that blog post and see which textbook would be a better fit for you 💪\n\n### Imabi, a super comprehensive Japanese reference\n\nIf Tae Kim's strength is in its concise and casual explanations, [Imabi](https:\u002F\u002Fimabi.org\u002F) is exactly the opposite: it goes into incredible detail and most of its ~500 entries contain literally dozens of example sentences.\n\nLike Tae Kim, Imabi is totally free and can be accessed online. Here's how Imabi goes about explaining the volitional form of Japanese verbs:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-imabi-volitional.jpeg\" width=\"1890\" height=\"1670\" alt=\"A screenshot of the Imabi Japanese grammar reference, showing an explanation of the Japanese volitional form\" \u002F>\n\nThis entry is 2,000 words long... and it's only the first of three parts.\n\nGenerally speaking, I'd recommend that you first look up a grammar point in Tae Kim. If you feel like you need more information, _then_ look up the same grammar point in Imabi. You'll get all the information you ever wanted... and more.\n\n### Maggie Sensei, or Japanese grammar points explained via (cute) dog memes\n\n[Maggie Sensei](https:\u002F\u002Fmaggiesensei.com\u002F) is ran by Yukari, a Japanese language teacher, and Maggie, her French pit bull. They describe their approach to teaching with this introduction to why they didn't like the current (then 2008) world of Japanese-language education:\n\n> _The books were full of difficult explanations and grammatical terms. And they weren’t just difficult. They were also really boring. Every time we opened a textbook, we would fall asleep._\n\nSo they decided to change that by creating simple and fun Japanese lessons (full of dog photos), such as the below explanation of the volitional form:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-japanese-tae-kim-maggie-sensei-volitional-form.jpeg\" width=\"1848\" height=\"1646\" alt=\"A screenshot of Maggie Sensei's website about Japanese grammar, showing her explanation of the Japanese volitional form\" \u002F>\n\nAs you can see, the lessons are heavily based around example sentences. The formatting of the explanations aren't great, but Maggie always goes out of her way to make sure that they're accessible even to total beginners.\n\nIf you like the brevity of Tae Kim but want something that's been vetted by a Japanese person, try Maggie Sensei!\n\n### Migaku, a flashcard-based course to learn essential Japanese grammar and vocabulary\n\nMigaku offers the same kind of practical, to-the-point explanations as you'd see in Tae Kim's grammar guide, but we've also patched over many of Tae Kim's weaknesses:\n\n- The course is flashcard-based and [powered by spaced repetition](\u002Fblog\u002Flanguage-fun\u002Fspaced-repetition-language-learning), so we solve the problem of figuring out what to learn and review when\n- All of our content has been reviewed by native Japanese speakers and been updated in accordance feedback from many learners, so our explanations are intuitive _and_ accurate\n- All of our flashcards feature audio recordings of native speakers reading natural Japanese sentences\n- Each \"next\" flashcard contains only one new word or grammar point, so our learning curve is super smooth\n\nAs is tradition, here's a peek at how we go about explaining the volitional form of Japanese verbs:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-volitional-verbs-2.jpeg\" width=\"1206\" height=\"844\" alt=\"A screenshot of Migaku's Japanese Academy course, showing the volitional form.\" \u002F>\n\nSo if you love Tae Kim but wish it had kept up with more modern resources, give Migaku a shot!\n\n\u003Cprose-button href=\"\u002Flearn-japanese\" text=\"Learn Japanese with Migaku\">\u003C\u002Fprose-button>\n\nWe're pretty sure that you'll be able to understand 80% of all Japanese media within ~6 months of using Migaku. [Here's why we're so confident](\u002Fblog\u002Fjapanese\u002Fhow-to-learn-japanese-vocabulary).\n\n### Pomax, another super long .pdf about Japanese grammar\n\nPomax is another independent Japanese grammar guide in .pdf format that you can read in your browser [by clicking this link](https:\u002F\u002Fpomax.github.io\u002FnrGrammar\u002F). It's better formatted, and, unlike Tae Kim, doesn't shy away from using more technical language when describing Japanese grammar points. On the contrary, it gravitates toward it.\n\nFor reference, here's Pomax's explanation of the Japanese volitional form of verbs:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-pomax-volitional.jpeg\" width=\"2018\" height=\"1670\" alt=\"A screenshot of the Pomax textbook of Japanese grammar, showing an explanation of the Japanese volitional form\" \u002F>\n\nSo, uhh, yeah. We get words like _cohortative_ and \u003Ctypo lang=\"ja\" syntax=\"未然形[みぜんけい]\">\u003C\u002Ftypo> that I'm honestly not even going to try to explain. If you've got some formal knowledge of linguistics, you'll probably like Pomax. If not, you probably won't.\n\n### Wasabi, an online Japanese magazine for learners with a decently robust grammar dictionary\n\n[Wasabi](https:\u002F\u002Fmy.wasabi-jpn.com\u002Fmagazine\u002Fjapanese-grammar\u002Fwasabis-online-japanese-grammar-reference\u002F) is a kind of interesting mix of Tae Kim, Imabi, and Maggie Sensei. The Wasabi team consists of professional Japanese teachers, so their posts go into some detail and include many example sentences, but they've worked with enough students to know that more information isn't necessarily better.\n\nTheir grammar posts are quite thorough, in that they cover many usages, but each individual section is quite concise and dominated by helpful tables and practical example sentences.\n\nOnce again, here's the beginning of Wasabi's explanation of the Japanese volitional form:\n\n\u003Cimg src=\"\u002Fassets\u002Fblog\u002Fmigaku-tae-kim-wasabi-volitional-form.jpeg\" width=\"1888\" height=\"1666\" alt=\"A screenshot of the Wasabi's explanation of the Japanese volitional form\" \u002F>\n\nWasabi's website is a bit outdated, and their table of concents is _significantly_ shorter than all of the other alternatives we've listed—but if they have a listing for the grammar point you're looking up, it's worth checking out.\n\n---\n\n## Tae Kim Japanese textbook: Worth using?\n\nSo, there you go! Tae Kim is a free resource that covers an impressive amount of information about Japanese grammar.\n\nMy personal stance as to if you should use it:\n\n- **Do** check it out if you're just now thinking about learning Japanese; it's a great resource to get your feet wet and see how committed you are, and is also worth referencing when you stumble into new grammar points\n- **Don't** make it your main resource if you decide that you really want to learn Japanese; you can probably find a better option that better suits your needs\n\nGood luck!\n",{"title":5,"description":972},"article\u002Fjapanese\u002Fjapanese-textbooks-taekim","_zS6XHHVJhcstyiVxyqK_Fi4AcUtEgSe27bRbhdkWi8","January 10, 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Writing Systems Explained: Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji","Learn the three Japanese writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. 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