TRY! JAPANESE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST N3 REVISED EDITION(JAPONAIS, ANGLAIS)

This textbook seems fairly well known in Japan but is largely ignored by English speakers as best I can tell. I bought it because a Japanese friend recommended it and I wasn't disappointed.It follows the standard textbook format where each chapter will begin with a bit of text (a few paragraphs from some people talking about climbing Mount Fuji, a man talking about his dog, to give two examples) and then there will be a series of little explanations and exercises that break down some of the grammar and phrases used in that text. What is particularly useful if you're trying to pass the JLPT N3 exam is there are some questions given in the same format as the exam uses. The answers are at the back so unlike some textbooks you don't need to buy them separately. It's by no means only a textbook for passing the exam though - I didn't sit this exam and just read it to learn the language at my own pace.Some words of warning: this textbook has English, but it's fairly limited in terms of the English content. For a typical grammar point it will have a sentence in Japanese explaining how you use a given phrase and an English translation of this explanation. It will then give you say four example sentences in Japanese that use that grammar point/phrase, but there will be no English translation of these - if you don't know the vocabulary you'll have to look it up in a dictionary.In other words, it's a textbook that's been put together entirely in Japanese and then they've added some English translations in certain sections (rather than say a textbook that's been specifically put together with English speaking students in mind). None of that bothered me much as it's a nice step between easy English-oriented textbooks (e.g. the Genki series) and Japanese content, but it doesn't baby step you in the way other textbooks do so it's worth keeping that in mind.I learned a fair bit from it, though I'd highly recommend getting most of your grammar from reading the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series and reading that cover to cover. For me, this was good reading/grammar practice and I think you could definitely do worse than read through it if you're at a kind of high beginner/low intermediate level.