The first volume of Tobira: Beginning Japanese, a textbook for beginner-level students with no previous knowledge of Japanese. Tobira offers integral preparation and all units include sections of grammar, reading, conversation, listening, vocabulary, and kanji.
This volume includes 10 units and a 0 lesson in which students will learn hiragana and katakana and the basics of grammar and pronunciation in Japanese. The structure of each unit of the book is the following:
- Introduction: in this part, students will see the goals and the abilities that they will acquire once they have finished each chapter. This section also includes strategies to study.
- Conversation: two or more people have a conversation that includes the vocabulary and the grammar of each unit. The audio files are available on the Tobira website.
- Vocabulary: Each unit includes around 70 new words. Vocabulary is presented in 2 different ways: in tables with words written in kanji, hiragana, and English and also through images. The audio files with all words read are available on the Tobira website.
- Kanji: This section starts on the third unit. Each lesson includes 14 to 18 kanjis and, in total, this book includes 139 characters. Kanjis are presented in tables that include order of strokes, all possible readings and, most common words. Once students have studied a certain kanji, furigana disappears in the following units.
- Grammar: Each unit is focused on one part of Japanese grammar. In this section, there are some QR codes that give access to the Tobira website with extra and useful information to review the grammar.
- Activities: This section includes exercises to practice everything that has been learned. There are different types of activities: verbs and adjectives conjugations, speak with classmates or role-play, among others.
- Reading: There is a text with reading comprehension questions. The most difficult words are translated right by each text.
- Listening: Includes listening comprehension exercises. The audio files are available on the Tobira website.
Through a QR code located on the cover of the book, you can get access to a website entirely focused on the Tobira method that includes a wide variety of resources including all audio files.
At the end of the book, there is an index with all vocabulary words ordered and written in Kanji, hiragana, and English.
The answer key of the exercises is available through the Tobira website, but it requires registration to get access. This material is mainly targeted at teachers and since this book does not include the answer key of the exercises we do not recommend it for self-taught learners.