How I Use Textbooks (w/o Letting Them Use Me)

So, I use textbooks. Yeah, I said the dirty word. I agree wholeheartedly with the camp that believes we actually learn grammar by example, not by studying rules. It is true we cannot parse rules like a computer as we read, listen, speak or write. Textbooks often have stiff, boring, unnatural examples. They can sometimes succeed at leaving us even more confused about the language than we were before we consulted them. And most importantly, in general, it isn’t much fun to use them.
And yet I do, nearly daily. I manage to avoid all the above pitfalls (I even enjoy working with them), and I get a lot out of it. First, I have three simple rules that I use when selecting a textbook:

1. All example sentences in the book must be written by a native speaker, preferably taken from native media.

2. All grammar explanations in the book must be clear, concise and accurate (I specifically mention “accurate” because many books are not. For example, some textbooks, when trying to explain the difference between “Wa” and “Ga” come up with the most ridiculous and esoteric theories, when it’s actually relatively simple and requires exposure to get a feel for it more than anything else).

3. It must be interesting (the writing style, the examples chosen and the explanations themselves). Challenging enough that I don’t feel like I’m not just reviewing material I already know but not so far beyond my current level that I’m hopelessly lost. And systematically work through any aspect of the language it tackles, even if it covers a random selection of material, it should work through each of those selections thoroughly and in logical order.

So far, I’ve found three books which meet those criteria and my current needs. Mangajin’s Basic Japanese Through Comics Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Drawn from a column that ran in the magazine Mangajin, each chapter of this two volume book covers a specific word, phrase or grammatical concept that is usually elusive to Japanese learners. Starting from its most basic, generic usage, it branches out to work through all the nuances and variations that show up in native speech and media. Each point is accompanied by a panel from real native manga. While the topics explored in this book are somewhat random, it more than makes up for it by how thoroughly it explores each topic.

Inspired by Mangajin, Japanese the Manga Way follows the exact same format, uses the same kinds of real manga examples, and is written and edited by one of the staff from Mangajin but provides a structured and thorough (if fairly basic) guide to the grammar and structure of the Japanese Language. While the examples at the beginning of the book are really basic, by the end of the book it is covering fairly in-depth aspects of the language.

Finally, my favorite book of all, Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow. Basic Connections is anything but basic. This slim book covers how Japanese brings words, phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs together. It is written by a native speaker who has taught Japanese at the University of Hawaii for many years. Her example sentences, though not drawn from actual media, are realistic, natural, dynamic and most importantly interesting. Her explanations make sense of some of the most difficult aspects of the language learners grapple with. The kinds of things native speakers use intuitively and have difficulty explaining how or why, the author of this book manages to make sense of. When I first bought the book several years ago, it was way over my head, but I just kept picking it up every so often, as my skill progressed, and recently I was at a level sufficient to understand it and stretch just ever so slightly beyond my comfort zone.

I use these three books in three ways. First, I use them as reference books. When I encounter a word, phrase or sentence that I’m having trouble understanding I look to the indexes of these books and try to find an explanation. The examples and clear explanations help me make better sense of that all-important exposure to native sources. We definitely require exposure to truly understand how to parse and use grammar, but if we can’t understand what we are being exposed to, and can’t figure it out, it is definitely going to take longer, be more frustrating, and generally be less fun than if we quickly look to the proper resource for help.

Second, I mine these books for sentences to study in my SRS. All three books come with wonderful example sentences, complete with pronunciation/readings, and translations. These make SRS fodder that is extremely easy to input and learn from. The trick is to not attempt to mine the books systematically or completely thoroughly but to skim, pick and choose sentences that attract us to them because we desire to learn something from them, be it a grammatical concept, a vocabulary word, or an interesting turn of phrase.

Finally, I have to admit something else. Some of you know this, but I am a smoker. Yes, yes, it’s a dirty, filthy nasty habit. If you come preach at me on my blog about it, your comment will die a slow and painful death. Anyways, because it is a dirty, filthy habit, I smoke outside. When I am outside, of course I bring my iPod with me, and maintain immersion. However, I don’t own an iPhone. My notebook has a fried battery and cannot be unplugged and I don’t have a large enough vocabulary to do much reading in native materials without a dictionary handy, which I only have on my computer through webservices like Sanseido and Denshi Jisho. So, what do I do during all that time I spend sitting outside smoking? Well, I pick one of these grammar books and take it with me. And I read through them, cover to cover, skipping over anything boring, too easy (frequent these days) or too difficult (doesn’t happen too often anymore). So, for five minutes at a time, multiple times a day, during time that would otherwise be pretty much wasted, I read textbooks, work the exercises in my head, pore over the example sentences until I understand them, and before I can get bored, tired or irritated my cigarette is out and I am going back inside to all the other more organic, immersive and/or efficient study methods I have at my disposal when I am reconnected to my keyboard.

Where do you have small segments of dead time during your day when you might benefit from reading through a good grammar guide or textbook?

Do you use textbooks? Are you used by them? Avoid them altogether? Or do you have uses for them outside of what I’ve mentioned here? I’d love to hear from you.