3000 Essential Vocabulary for the Jlpt N1[english/Vietnamese Edition] (Japanese Edition)

This is the main book to buy learning Japanese in my opinion. This book is a teacher not a dictionary or reference manual.

The “単語3000” book was great. It divides vocab by subject, so you learn about 30 related words together in each sub-section. It helped me remember words, because I’d kind of have a hint for what something meant, if I could remember what other words I learned around the same time. The (English) definitions they provide are very limited though, often just a single word. The example sentences are pretty helpful, but I often had to look words up in a different dictionary before I entered them into my flashcard app, since otherwise I’d be missing a lot of their meaning. In addition to regular vocabulary, “単語3000” also has sections for commonly confused words with the same pronunciation (e.g. 犯す、冒す、侵す（all おかす）） or the same characters (終始 vs 始終), idioms, and other non-typical vocab items that are helpful to know.