Has anyone used 日本語の森 Nihongo no mori?

Japanese
#1

I have a few questions about it, I checked out Reddit but annoyingly I can’t post in Learn Japanese because I don’t have any karma in that subreddit - and all the previous posts about it are archived and I can’t comment (so, not exactly useful).

I’m debating buying the Nihongo No Mori N3 book. I see that there is also a subscription, and talk of videos etc.
If I buy the book - I don’t get access to the videos for the lessons?
What about the videos on their YouTube channel, do they cover all of the content there?
If I get the subscription, do I not get access to a PDF or something I could use to do written practice?

Should I get the book? Get a subscription? Would it be best to get both?

Anyone have experience with both the books and the subscription?

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#2

No experience with the subscription or book, but their older videos N5 through N1 are pretty good and are still searchable.

Here are some other channels that might be of interest:

The most complete set of grammar videos is from 出口, who has really good explanations, examples, and practice test questions

Also really good but not as complete:

Other teachers worth checking out

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#3

No personal experience, but I read this a few days ago on the jlpt reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/jlpt/comments/1finq04/nihongo_no_mori_questions/

It mentions the extra app and some stuff being behind an additional paywall even if you bought the book. They have grammar and other videos on YouTube you could check out for free, though.

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#4

It’s changed a lot over the years. Originally it was a YouTube channel started by a group of students at a university in Japan (I want to say Waseda but I really can’t remember) and they made several video series going through all levels of the JLPT. The channel was essentially complete and for a good long while was often recommended as being a great resource. Unfortunately at some point I’m not entirely sure what happened but the group of students who started the channel either sold the channel or formed a company (it’s not entirely clear). When that happened it went in full-force as a business and all of the old videos and playlists were removed because they gave great material for free and they are now a for-profit business. There’s nothing wrong with being a for-profit business, and the website you and I are currently communicating through is also a for-profit business, it just means that the videos were removed due to a change in focus.

All of that being said, they still seem to have a good reputation after all these years. I personally have no experience with their subscription but it seems like something that’s mostly aimed at Vietnamese students in Japan? I would recommend double-checking that before signing up because you may or may not like the experience if you do not fit into that demographic. The experience of learning a language can be very different depending on your native language and if your native language is English it is possible you might have a rough time with a curriculum that was originally designed for Vietnamese speakers (even if it has been translated into English). This is because learners will struggle with different aspects of the target language depending on what their native language is. I say this with experience as a native English speaker who spent a year taking Japanese classes in a program that wasn’t designed for English speakers (in fact, I was the only English speaker in the whole school). I wasted a lot of time and money on that one.

As for the books, they seem quite good. I have two books written by Yuka Sensei and I would absolutely recommend them to anyone. One is a book on keigo and the other is a book or common mistakes that foreigners make in Japanese. Both books get my stamp of approval. I’m aware that they also have some extremely thick books available that have a title along the lines of “the only book you need for the JLPT”, I don’t doubt the claim that’s made in the title but I wanr to point out that you should probably only consider that specific series if the JLPT is specifically your goal. The JLPT is legit and it’s a great goal, but studying for a test and studying to be good at cinversing or writing essays or something along those lines are two different things, so just understand that while that book may be all you need for the JLPT it most certainly isn’t all you need for Japanese. I did peek through one of them and it seemed pretty thorough.

TLDR - there’s nothing really wrong with Nihongo no Mori, but there’s a few things to consider before pulling out your wallet.

By the way, I believe that all of their old videos have been ripped from YouTube and are floating around in learning communities. If you ask around you should be able to find them for download.

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#5

Maybe mention that this is a resource for Chinese-speakers, not English-speakers.

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#6

Sorry for the delay in reply, I didn’t get any notifications and therefore just assumed that no one had commented on the post. Thanks for the recommendations, there are a few on there that I’ve never heard of before.
Love Sambon Juku, Onomappu is also really good. They have a similar 易しい日本語 way of speaking.

#7

Thanks for that. I’m surprised I didn’t find that considering that I was looking around on Reddit for an answer.

#8

Yeah, I understand what you mean. It is kind of a shame sometimes how capitalism wins the day again.

#9

I used it a lot back when they only had N1 video content and nothing else. Then kept it until they changed payment methods and I didn’t care enough to maintain my subscription (since I didn’t really need it anymore after passing N1…). When I started using it, the videos were really good. This is still the case. In fact, they have much improved because they’ve added more types of lessons, mock tests, and so on.

Initially, when they released the books, subscribers were able to download them at no additional charge, so I did look at them. To me they seemed inferior to basically everything else in every possible way. They basically made checklists of items to learn into the most boring JLPT drill course possible. So I would not recommend the books at all, there are much better options elsewhere.

That being said, the videos were really helpful. The way I see it, the videos for N3, N2, and N1 are basically comprehensible input with topics that are probably relevant to you (they’re all about Japanese). Highly recommended and well worth the money in my opinion.

(The videos below N3 are a bit of a different story, those are in English and follow the Minna no Nihongo text books. So not very useful, basically there are better videos in English for better text books on better video platforms elsewhere…)

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#10

@rururun quite interested the second one of those; could you give a bit more detail or a link ideally. thanks

#11

I decided to just get the online subscription as you can find PDFs of the books floating around online. The quality of the videos is really good. Easy explanations that are easy to follow and understand.
Nekoyama mention comprehensible input and they’re really good for that. Even if it’s a grammar point you already understand, it’s good to listen to them explain it. I would say that I would recommend the online subscription. Maybe I’ll come back and add an updated reply in 6 months to say how I feel about it at that time.

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#12
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