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Tobira I: Beginning Japanese
First volume of Beginning Japanese, a textbook aimed at beginning-level students with no prior knowledge of Japanese. The Tobira method offers a comprehensive learning of the language and all units include sections dedicated to grammar, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, conversation, vocabulary and kanji.This volume is divided into 10 units and a 0 lesson in which the student will learn the syllabaries hiragana and katakana and the basic principles of grammar and pronunciation in This section indicates the objectives and skills that the student will achieve once each unit has been completed. Strategies that can be used when studying are also offered. a series of characters have a conversation in which the grammar and vocabulary of the unit are reflected. The audios of the conversations are available on Tobira's website . about 70 new words are introduced in each unit . The vocabulary is presented in two in tables, with the words written in kanji, hiragana and English and through pictures that help to better memorize the terms. The audios with the words read are available on Tobira's website . this section starts from the third unit. Each lesson includes the learning of 14 to 18 kanjis and in total, this volume includes 139. The kanjis are presented in tables that include their possible readings, order of strokes, meanings and most frequent words. Once the kanjis have been studied, the furigana disappears when a kanji reappears in the book. each unit focuses on a grammatical aspect of the language. QR codes are included that give access to the Tobira website that includes additional information that will help consolidate grammar. this section includes different exercises with which to practice what has been learned in each unit. The proposed activities have different conjugating verbs or adjectives, talking with classmates, doing a role-play, etc. a text is included to read with reading comprehension questions. The most complex words appear translated next to each text.Listening comprehension- An audio-focused exercise section that includes various types of activities. The audios are available on Tobira's website . Through a QR code located on the cover of the book, you can access a website dedicated to the Tobira method that includes different resources, as well as the audios of all the units.
- GenresJapanJapanese Literature
384 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2021
12 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
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September 5, 2024
The short story: This is the best Beginners Japanese textbook on the market right now
The long story: Each section will be broken down with my opinion on the dialogue, vocabulary, exercises, etc. Please keep in mind that because this is another beginners textbook in Japanese, I can't help but compare it to Genki. I've completed 2/3 of the textbook for both Tobira 1 and Genki 1 and I must say, in every single way Tobira blows Genki out of the water. Not that Genki is necessarily bad, but it isn't Tobira. That being said, I recommend spending the amount of time you personably need getting really comfortable with Hiragana and begin Katakana (this could take a few weeks, and that's okay! I personally used Marshall's Site and took the alphabet quizzes until I didn't stumble or hesitate). The reason I'm recommending this is because Tobira is much more difficult to get into then Genki. If you can begin the textbook being comfortable reading hiragana, then Tobira will be incredibly rewarding .
General: I took a semester of Japanese in university. We used Genki I (chapters 1-7) and the teacher supplemented material which wasn't presented in the Genki textbook. I changed to Tobira on my own after I finished the course and what a pleasant surprise was it that everything that the teacher had to supplement because Genki decided to omit was kept in Tobira?
Tobira also has a Japanese market price lower than that of Genki: 3,850 yen vs. 3960 yen. Yet, somehow Tobira has more detail for every grammar structure presented, longer dialogue, more challenging readings, better end of chapter exercises, instructional videos online for extra support, and Tobira 1 and 2 are fully in color. No more 3 different shades of orange.
There is also a section on how to set up a Japanese keyboard and how to use shortcuts when typing in Japanese, which is incredibly useful in this day and age.
Chapter 0: Tobira has an introductory chapter with useful information on greetings and basic phrases for the classroom. Likewise, they have a few useful points on how to pronounce some vowels/sounds correctly (i,e. aspiration/rounding/long vowels/etc.). Very beneficial chapter that I would recommend going over.
Dialouge: I must thank Genki's dialogue for making me switch to Tobira. I am not fluent in Japanese (clearly), but at around chapter 7 I began noticing how stale, rigid, basic, and unnatural Genki dialogue was presented (me, a BEGINNER in Japanese noticing unnatural dialogue!!).
Tobira has three relatively long dialogues (compared to 2 in Genki) and notes at the end on how to speak more fluently (filler words, how to respond to interest or surprise, etc.). The dialogue is fun and it also tries to implement previously taught grammar points, which for some strange reason, Genki tends not to.
The one issue I have is that the voice acting for one of the characters is kind of annoying. I'm not sure why they gave Riemann such an irritating voice, but alas.
Vocabulary: Tobira presents vocabulary in two ways. On one spread, there are cute drawings to help you envision the vocabulary. On the next page, there is another spread where the words are written in a basic list. All vocabulary comes with pitch accents marked (pitch accents are not marked in Genki). I love that the audio only says the Japanese word and not the English translation (e.g. In Genki the audio for vocabulary looks like this: Japanese [pause]...English translation [pause]...next Japanese word [pause]....English translation....etc.). I really didn't like to listen to the English translation because it was unnecessary. The Tobira audio looks like: Japanese word [pause]....next Japanese word [pause]....etc. As the Tobira audio simply states the Japanese word, it allows me to play the audio on repeat to practice listening to it in full Japanese. I don't know if other people might feel differently about it, but I prefer this method much more.
The vocabulary is also presented in a way that makes sense. Nearly all vocabulary first shown in a chapter is used within the chapter and the vocabulary words are chosen in a way that makes sense. For example, in the chapter that teaches you about introducing yourself, you have words for your year in school, your major, your nationality, your phone number, and your hobbies and interests. All of this makes sense in the context of introducing yourself. Genki doesn't introduce hobbies and interests until later, even when the very first introduction chapter is about self-introduction. This is unfortunate as you kinda want to talk about your interests when you first meet someone?
Another issue is that Genki sticks in random words like "zoo" or "textbook" in random chapters, making them hard to remember and difficult to know how to use within context. No the words are not used within the chapter they are listed in. No the context for which the word occurs does not fit the general theme of the chapter. For example, the word for "textbook" could have been taught in chapter 2, where one of the exercises was to talk about things within the classroom and ask how much they cost. But they decided to introduce "textbook" in chapter 6 instead, a chapter which is talking about one of the character's life. Why? I don't know. Make it make sense.
Kanji: Next, Tobira presents Kanji characters and related words. The Kanji is shown with two different computer fonts and then is also handwritten. This is handy as the way it is written is not always a one-to-one reflection on how it is typed (for example, in English this is seen with the letter 'a' on keyboards, but 'ɑ' when handwritten). Tobira also has a page or two with Kanji exercises and a little kanji reading portion, which is much appreciated.
Genki has a Kanji section too. It's at the back of the book. Most people don't even know it's there. Why is it all the way there? Couldn't tell you.
Grammar: Again, Tobira's grammar is presented in a very structured way. For example, when learning about the grammar points for invitation and suggestion (ましょう vs. ましょうか), it was all presented in one chapter within Tobira. This was nice as they used the grammar description to state the nuance and slight difference between the two, giving examples of how each are used. Genki decides to split these two grammar points into two separate chapters. And both of said grammar points barely had any explanation in Genki, making the grammar points incredibly vauge....so off to the teacher I went.
Tobira's grammar descriptions are dense, with even more notes online (more advanced and nuanced ways to use the newly taught grammar points). I find myself not needing to search online for more information on grammar points because it's all there.
NOTE: I've heard people complain about the text font being too small in Tobira. Not an issue for me, but I can maybe understand where other people are coming from. However, the book is already thicker than Genki. If the text became bigger, more pages would be used, which would be more costly, and then you would have people complaining about how now it just costs too much to use. Or they could cut down on the description of grammar structures but that would suck. I personally prefer more information over less, and I really don't think the text was even small? Like compared to Genki it's like 12 point font vs. 11 lol?
Exercises: The same downside in Tobira is the same downside in Genki: classroom group work. It's unfortunate but I guess a great way to practice is pretend you're talking to someone. I find the exercises to be more fun, creative, and challenging in Tobira however.
Reading: Tobira has a pretty long and intensive reading section. It is my absolute favorite section. I love to read and my goal in Japanese is to be able to real novels and video games and anything else there is to read. The reading portion is difficult yet fun. It's also insanely rewarding going back to a reading you struggled with and being able to understand it more quickly. Many pervious grammar, kanji, and vocabulary are used making it easier to memorize and solidify old information.
Genki's reading portion is at the end of the textbook (something many people, again, don't know about) and it's a complete joke. It's anger inducing. Easy, short, and just a boring slog of nothing new gained.
Listening: Tobira finally ends the chapter with a listening practice. This is difficult and you will not be able to understand everything that is being said. However, I think the point of it is that you're not supposed to be able to understand what is being said. Rather, it is practice on still being able to pick out important information given context. Genki does not even have a listening practice section so there is nothing to be said about that.
Workbooks:I did not use the Tobira workbook because it wasn't out at the time I used the textbook. But I have used the Genki workbook and I must say, I have become better of a listener, reader, writer, and speaker of Japanese with only the Tobira textbook than when I used both the Genki textbook and workbook. EDIT: I have used the workbooks for Beginning Tobira I and I've written a review for workbook 1.
Conclusion: BUY TOBIRA. I have no doubt that the people who finished Tobira 1 would surpass Genki 1 users in all tests for fluency. It will challenge you but that is what will help you learn. If you're looking for an 'easy' way to become fluent in Japanese, then you will never learn Japanese. Language learning takes hard work. If you're a French/Spanish/English/etc native speaker, then Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn. If you are fluent in Korean, Chinese Mandarin, or other similarly related languages, then pick up a textbook written in those languages instead as Japanese will be relatively easy for you to grasp.
Best of luck to everyone's learning journey!
The long story: Each section will be broken down with my opinion on the dialogue, vocabulary, exercises, etc. Please keep in mind that because this is another beginners textbook in Japanese, I can't help but compare it to Genki. I've completed 2/3 of the textbook for both Tobira 1 and Genki 1 and I must say, in every single way Tobira blows Genki out of the water. Not that Genki is necessarily bad, but it isn't Tobira. That being said, I recommend spending the amount of time you personably need getting really comfortable with Hiragana and begin Katakana (this could take a few weeks, and that's okay! I personally used Marshall's Site and took the alphabet quizzes until I didn't stumble or hesitate). The reason I'm recommending this is because Tobira is much more difficult to get into then Genki. If you can begin the textbook being comfortable reading hiragana, then Tobira will be incredibly rewarding .
General: I took a semester of Japanese in university. We used Genki I (chapters 1-7) and the teacher supplemented material which wasn't presented in the Genki textbook. I changed to Tobira on my own after I finished the course and what a pleasant surprise was it that everything that the teacher had to supplement because Genki decided to omit was kept in Tobira?
Tobira also has a Japanese market price lower than that of Genki: 3,850 yen vs. 3960 yen. Yet, somehow Tobira has more detail for every grammar structure presented, longer dialogue, more challenging readings, better end of chapter exercises, instructional videos online for extra support, and Tobira 1 and 2 are fully in color. No more 3 different shades of orange.
There is also a section on how to set up a Japanese keyboard and how to use shortcuts when typing in Japanese, which is incredibly useful in this day and age.
Chapter 0: Tobira has an introductory chapter with useful information on greetings and basic phrases for the classroom. Likewise, they have a few useful points on how to pronounce some vowels/sounds correctly (i,e. aspiration/rounding/long vowels/etc.). Very beneficial chapter that I would recommend going over.
Dialouge: I must thank Genki's dialogue for making me switch to Tobira. I am not fluent in Japanese (clearly), but at around chapter 7 I began noticing how stale, rigid, basic, and unnatural Genki dialogue was presented (me, a BEGINNER in Japanese noticing unnatural dialogue!!).
Tobira has three relatively long dialogues (compared to 2 in Genki) and notes at the end on how to speak more fluently (filler words, how to respond to interest or surprise, etc.). The dialogue is fun and it also tries to implement previously taught grammar points, which for some strange reason, Genki tends not to.
The one issue I have is that the voice acting for one of the characters is kind of annoying. I'm not sure why they gave Riemann such an irritating voice, but alas.
Vocabulary: Tobira presents vocabulary in two ways. On one spread, there are cute drawings to help you envision the vocabulary. On the next page, there is another spread where the words are written in a basic list. All vocabulary comes with pitch accents marked (pitch accents are not marked in Genki). I love that the audio only says the Japanese word and not the English translation (e.g. In Genki the audio for vocabulary looks like this: Japanese [pause]...English translation [pause]...next Japanese word [pause]....English translation....etc.). I really didn't like to listen to the English translation because it was unnecessary. The Tobira audio looks like: Japanese word [pause]....next Japanese word [pause]....etc. As the Tobira audio simply states the Japanese word, it allows me to play the audio on repeat to practice listening to it in full Japanese. I don't know if other people might feel differently about it, but I prefer this method much more.
The vocabulary is also presented in a way that makes sense. Nearly all vocabulary first shown in a chapter is used within the chapter and the vocabulary words are chosen in a way that makes sense. For example, in the chapter that teaches you about introducing yourself, you have words for your year in school, your major, your nationality, your phone number, and your hobbies and interests. All of this makes sense in the context of introducing yourself. Genki doesn't introduce hobbies and interests until later, even when the very first introduction chapter is about self-introduction. This is unfortunate as you kinda want to talk about your interests when you first meet someone?
Another issue is that Genki sticks in random words like "zoo" or "textbook" in random chapters, making them hard to remember and difficult to know how to use within context. No the words are not used within the chapter they are listed in. No the context for which the word occurs does not fit the general theme of the chapter. For example, the word for "textbook" could have been taught in chapter 2, where one of the exercises was to talk about things within the classroom and ask how much they cost. But they decided to introduce "textbook" in chapter 6 instead, a chapter which is talking about one of the character's life. Why? I don't know. Make it make sense.
Kanji: Next, Tobira presents Kanji characters and related words. The Kanji is shown with two different computer fonts and then is also handwritten. This is handy as the way it is written is not always a one-to-one reflection on how it is typed (for example, in English this is seen with the letter 'a' on keyboards, but 'ɑ' when handwritten). Tobira also has a page or two with Kanji exercises and a little kanji reading portion, which is much appreciated.
Genki has a Kanji section too. It's at the back of the book. Most people don't even know it's there. Why is it all the way there? Couldn't tell you.
Grammar: Again, Tobira's grammar is presented in a very structured way. For example, when learning about the grammar points for invitation and suggestion (ましょう vs. ましょうか), it was all presented in one chapter within Tobira. This was nice as they used the grammar description to state the nuance and slight difference between the two, giving examples of how each are used. Genki decides to split these two grammar points into two separate chapters. And both of said grammar points barely had any explanation in Genki, making the grammar points incredibly vauge....so off to the teacher I went.
Tobira's grammar descriptions are dense, with even more notes online (more advanced and nuanced ways to use the newly taught grammar points). I find myself not needing to search online for more information on grammar points because it's all there.
NOTE: I've heard people complain about the text font being too small in Tobira. Not an issue for me, but I can maybe understand where other people are coming from. However, the book is already thicker than Genki. If the text became bigger, more pages would be used, which would be more costly, and then you would have people complaining about how now it just costs too much to use. Or they could cut down on the description of grammar structures but that would suck. I personally prefer more information over less, and I really don't think the text was even small? Like compared to Genki it's like 12 point font vs. 11 lol?
Exercises: The same downside in Tobira is the same downside in Genki: classroom group work. It's unfortunate but I guess a great way to practice is pretend you're talking to someone. I find the exercises to be more fun, creative, and challenging in Tobira however.
Reading: Tobira has a pretty long and intensive reading section. It is my absolute favorite section. I love to read and my goal in Japanese is to be able to real novels and video games and anything else there is to read. The reading portion is difficult yet fun. It's also insanely rewarding going back to a reading you struggled with and being able to understand it more quickly. Many pervious grammar, kanji, and vocabulary are used making it easier to memorize and solidify old information.
Genki's reading portion is at the end of the textbook (something many people, again, don't know about) and it's a complete joke. It's anger inducing. Easy, short, and just a boring slog of nothing new gained.
Listening: Tobira finally ends the chapter with a listening practice. This is difficult and you will not be able to understand everything that is being said. However, I think the point of it is that you're not supposed to be able to understand what is being said. Rather, it is practice on still being able to pick out important information given context. Genki does not even have a listening practice section so there is nothing to be said about that.
Workbooks:
Conclusion: BUY TOBIRA. I have no doubt that the people who finished Tobira 1 would surpass Genki 1 users in all tests for fluency. It will challenge you but that is what will help you learn. If you're looking for an 'easy' way to become fluent in Japanese, then you will never learn Japanese. Language learning takes hard work. If you're a French/Spanish/English/etc native speaker, then Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn. If you are fluent in Korean, Chinese Mandarin, or other similarly related languages, then pick up a textbook written in those languages instead as Japanese will be relatively easy for you to grasp.
Best of luck to everyone's learning journey!
Displaying 1 of 1 review