Integrated Approach or Tobira? (Or both?)

[TJack]

Hello all, another topic for book suggestions for the forums!

I'm looking between purchasing either "An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese" or "Tobira: Gateway to Advanced Japanese", or both. I had the idea of buying both of them, starting with Integrated Approach and moving on to Tobira but I don't know if a lot of the grammar overlaps or as the chart shows at the JPShop that Tobira is more advanced than IATIP and there's different grammar points in each book and would be worthwhile buying both.

I'm asking mostly because I've heard lukewarm responses to IATIP while I've heard many good things about Tobira, and if the grammar points are similar, I'll just jump into Tobira.

Oh and I'm coming off of Genki II and practicing the grammar in the "A Dictionary of Basic Grammar" book if it helps.

Thanks!

[Shiroisan]

I would love to know this as well... Is Tobira too big of a jump?

[leonl]

I have both of these books, havent' really gone too deep with either one, but here's my impression from skimming thorugh them.

Tobira.
Has more activities.
Online resources
More Kanji
Grammar is slightly more advanced, but shouldn't be a problem if you did well wtih your beginner books.
I am working through chapter one of this book, lots of stuff to do, including pre activties to help introduce you to the subject of the chapter.

IAIJ
More college oriented
Really useful for those comming straight from genki
Easier to get into.
I took a culture and language class in college, where the professor taught two chapters out of this book as part of a languge learning requirement. Lots of useful grammar points, though I already knew some from Yookoso

[TJack]

Thanks leonl for the review! Is it worth then getting both books, or is there one book you feel better than the other one? It looks like Tobira is the winner from yours and other reviews I have read.