37 new cards and 4 new kanji until I’ve completed Basic Kanji Book Vol. 2. I was reluctant to use this book (and its counterpart Vol. 1) to learn kanji because they’re old (published in 1989!) and not very flashy (not to mention expensive and somewhat hard to find).

I’m glad I put aside my dislike of its boring cover and set to mastering its contents. With an average of four examples per kanji, the book helped me to get a firm grasp on the “on” and “kun” readings.

I find now that with new pairings, I can often read them even if I’ve never seen them before. Although I may not know what they mean I can at least look them up more easily. 😉

Last weekend I found the next book Intermediate Kanji Book 漢字１０００＋ Vol. 1 at Kinokuniya in San Jose for 50% off, so I snatched it up. And after having glanced through it I’m afraid to start it. It’s almost entirely in Japanese (which should be a plus, but scares me of course), and gone are the familiarities from Vol. 1 and 2 of the first books: the squares in which to write new kanji and compounds, the sentences to write in the kanji from hiragana, the cultural blurbs and street signs. This book looks like it means business.

There’s a part of me that says “bring it on!” and another part that says “am I ready for this? maybe I should wait…”　I may take a week or two off in between books. I’ve earned a brief respite in adding new kanji to my repertoire. And I should be studying more for the JLPT. I’ve already learned all the kanji for it. That’s the only section I am completely confident about.

Speaking of the JLPT, I have found that the bits that confuse me the most are the weird passives “So and so #1 was made to do such and such by so and so #2”, and its counterpart “so and so #2 made so and so #1 do such and such” and any time I have to pick a conjunction. I cannot remember the differences between それで、それに、すると etc. to save my soul. And I haven’t found a good book with examples and practice either. Anyone know if one exists? 助けてくれませんか？