Rapid Reading Japanese (Chu Jokyu Sha No Tame No Sokudoku No Nihongo)

Speed Reading Japanese (for intermediate and advanced) by Mayumi Oka

Mayumi Oka's popular book for intermediate and advanced students of Japanese language has certainly held up over time. It is meant for people who have a couple years (university level) studying, and it's main purpose is to help your speed reading skills, as the title states. These are very important for learning a language, because you don't always have time to thoroughly translate signs and other things in practical situations (this will never happen!). Although it is about 10 years old, it is still one of the most practical books to learn Japanese from.

It is divided into three sections, scanning, skimming, and scanning&skimming. Then at the end of the book, there are some longer and more complicated texts for more challenge. Scanning helps you find what you are looking for in an article or chart. Skimming gives you the ability to read over an article quickly, but retain the most content. And I haven't gotten to the last part, but it looks like it will combine those two skills.

This book is great for a lot of different types of students. The casual/practical learner will find very useful and interesting examples. The academic student will feel refreshed at it's practical style, and enjoy the challenge of longer texts at the end of the book. This book is probably a good companion with other studies, for example you could learn Kanji along with it. It does not assume that you know too much Kanji, as most medium and above level kanji have hiragana written above them.

You can finish this book in one semester, or a couple months if you study regular (as Oka sensei suggests… a little bit of studying every day is the best method for learning a language!). It is not too long, but there is a lot to learn here. Highly recommended. You will have to buy used (this is what I did), or find a specialty Japanese learning site to buy.