Hey there, serdaigle !

Hmm. It do look scary, but after you finished your textbook, and get through the questions one by one,and practice a few mock up test, it might not seems that scary at all. So don’t look at the test, but just working on learning the point one by one ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

Suggestion on how to work towards JLPT N5

First you need to learn Hiragana (you can use our ultimate guide for hiragana to help you with it.) Then you move on to search for a text book reference to guide you. But what book you need to get?

Genki and Minna no Nihongo seems to be a very popular book recommended by most people.

Here’s the link if you’re interested to check them out and buy them:
• Genki I
• Genki 1 Workbook for Practice
• Minna no Nihongo (Beginners) 1 

Don’t get me wrong, I do think they are a good book, but Genki is best for group/academic learner while Minna no Nihongo complexity disencourage me to use it… Also, they are not especially geared for JLPT test.

I’ve check through almost all the Japanese reference books available at Tokyo’s most complete bookstore Shinjuku’s Kinokuniya .

After I scanned and analyze dozens of books, I’ve found a better book which focus on grammar points of each JLPT and simplify the explanations of grammar as a bite size with examples and practice. These book focus on JLPT so it would be great for someone who’s working toward JLPT.

Note that all this book is written in Japanese and only have little English explanations for each grammar. You will need to see dictionary often to work through the book. But what makes it unique is how they give description for the grammar in a natural way and don’t try to give English equivalent for the grammar. It makes the learning process more logical and make sense. 

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Here’s the link to buy them:
• TRY! Japanese JLPT N5 grammar with CD (For JLPT N5 lessons)
• TRY! Japanese JLPT N4 grammar with CD (For JLPT N4 lessons)
• A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (For thorough grammar explanations)
• Shin Nihongo 500 Mon JLPT N5 – N4 (For exercise)

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And here’s a detail about them:

The TRY book is a book to learn grammar points of each JLPT, give a very descriptive explanations, some tips, and practice for each points.

Below, in grammar point 31. It’s teaching about how to use V-て + から , some sentence sample and practice! The sample sentence helps to explain how to use the grammar point and the context.

In here it explains that (Action A てから Action B), means that Action B performed right after Action A or to make emphasis on Action A (something that is important to do before doing action B).

There’s also a mock up test in the end of the book that you can take. Have I mentioned that it also come with CD for listening practice and test? A complete package!!

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The Shin Nihongo 500 mon is a question book that is tougher than JLPT N5 test. And the book actually rehearse points from N5 - N4. So if you wanna give it a go, I recommend to also get the TRY N4 to help you with the grammar.

The book gives simple yet effective explanations for each questions. If you finished this book, I bet JLPT test will not look as scary anymore.

The best point about this book is how they divided 3 type of questions.
1. To learn vocabulary & kanji reading
2. To learn phrases, and
3. To learn grammar. 

Here are the questions. Most questions are harder than actual JLPT test. There are actually 3 type of the questions as described above. But I only manage to capture 2 of them or it would be so small that you cannot take a good look at them.

The answer with additional information & explanation is right in the back!

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The dictionary of Japanese grammar is actually a complimentary. It’s not necessary, but if you’re looking for a book like this, this book is one of the best you can find.

It helps to give detailed explanations regarding grammar such as particles. Below, it’s explaining about particle NI (it have 7 detailed explanations about how particle NI behaves, completed with sample sentence and explanations)

By the end of explanations, it will give you summary of the behaviours of NI particles. Very Neat!

Hope it helps! If you don’t want to buy a book, as alternative, you can check out our easy japanese lessons on www.crunchynihongo.com . Our lessons are based on JLPT. Although we’re currently not have that much, but we will keep adding it. So please stay tuned and let us know what you think about them ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

If you’re interested, you can read more tips for learning Japanese with this link here: [Is Japanese hard? What is the best way to learn Japanese for beginner ?]

Good luck with your journey to study Japanese!
｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

We have checked out the book you mentioned and kyouryuu daitanken was not an easy book. Although yes, it was a book for a grade schooler, but it consist of scientific material about the life of dinosaurs so there are a lot of scientific vocabularies. So don’t be disheartened!

About the moji kazu book, it is high likely that the sentence you can’t read is written for the parents to explain to their kids, since the contents of that kind of book are mostly activities.

If you want to read doraemon, read the manga instead, it should be easier to read. And try to read it side by side with the English version! ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡

Minna no Nihongo’s tips

Regarding Minna no Nihongo’s book, there is a chance that you only read it up to the JLPT level of N5/N4. While to start reading manga or other material, you will atleast need to be on N3 level _:(´□`」 ∠):_

This could be why you didn’t recognize the sentence pattern. But there is also a chance that you haven’t familiar with casual/informal Japanese. Try to read easier book such as Gibli’s story book or Shirokuma’s cafe manga (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Note that Minna no Nihongo’s book consist of a lot of set (but they have a more or less a very SIMILAR cover). Here’s the list of Minna no Nihongo’s main text book and comparison to JLPT level.

Shokyu 2nd edition (JLPT N5 - N4 level)
Minna Nihongo Shokyu part 1 – English Translation
Minna Nihongo Shokyu part 2 – English Translation

*2nd edition is better looking, but more or less the content is the same with 1st edition*.

**Minna no Nihongo Books are all written in Japanese, so if you do self-learning, you might need the English translation of each to help with your learning.

Chukyu 1st edition (JLPT N4 - N3 level)
Minna Nihongo Chukyu part 1 – English Translation
Minna Nihongo Chukyu part 2 – English Translation

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If you would like to skip the Minna’s book and would like to learn only the grammar pattern, you can use book such as “Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar” instead. This book only cover basic’s though. It might not be useful for someone who already finished Shokyu’s edition/ JLPT N5-N4 textbook.

For a more complete grammar patterns, you will require “Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar“ and “Dictionary of intermediate Japanese Grammar”

Anyway, don’t get discouraged and keep moving on!!
Happy learning ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡