This is a story about an adult buying a book that sits not on the language shelf of a bookstore, but on the shelf of study guides for high school students. Eitango Target 1900 is a vocabulary book for entrance exams from Obunsha, and the current edition is the 6th edition, published in January 2020. It was the first revision in eight years, and it contains 1,900 headwords.

Shinsho format, 528 pages, printed in three colors, ¥1,210 (incl. tax), with a red-cell sheet included. Many people will remember touching it in their student days, and picking it up out of nostalgia can be a little disorienting. The current edition is far more finely designed than the old 'just cram it all in' vocabulary books.

The Contents Are a Solid Block of Exam Data. That Is Why They Work for Adults, Too

There are two cores to the design. One is 'order of appearance': the ordering comes from analyzing Obunsha's database of university entrance exam questions and sorting words by frequency of appearance. The other is 'one word, one meaning': for each word, the central meaning most likely to be targeted in exams is shown prominently, and the meanings are not scattered.

The learner's job leans toward judging 'can I give this word's representative meaning instantly?' The headwords are also divided into groups of 100 words, in a structure you work through in the rhythm of 19 sections in total. This is the type of book where the table of contents almost decides whether you buy it — the table of contents doubles as a table of the levels you will reach.

The reason this book works for adult re-learning is that entrance-exam English vocabulary is, just as it is, the foundation of general English. With holes all through your foundational high-frequency words, your reading speed will not rise, whether it is a news article or a work email.

Because an exam-prep book has its 'order of appearance' so sharply honed, it is actually well suited to rebuilding your foundation in limited time. You use it not for exams, but to learn frequent words one by one, in order of frequency. That is the adult way of re-reading this book.

Do Not Do All 1,900 Words. Narrow It Down to the First 1,500

The structure is Part 1, 'Basic Words That Always Appear on Exams,' 800 words; Part 2, 'Important Words That Always Appear on Exams,' 700 words; and Part 3, 'Difficult Words Where the Gap Opens Up,' 400 words. The range you take on for re-learning goes up to Part 2 — in other words, you cut it at the first 1,500 words.

Up to that point is the core vocabulary covering everything from the Common Test to standard private universities, a layer you also encounter frequently in general reading. Part 3's 400 words are the gap-opening set aimed at highly competitive universities, and if your purpose is reading English for work or as a hobby, their priority drops.

Perfect the 1,500 words first, then see how it goes. If you greedily make 1,900 words your quota, you will usually stall in the middle of Part 2.

At the back of the book, special features add 'Words That Often Appear on Eiken Grade Pre-1' (200 words) and 'Words That Often Appear on TEAP' (140 words). For someone aiming at Eiken Grade Pre-1, those 200 words are just right as the next step after finishing the main 1,500 words. If you have no qualification plans, you can skip the back-of-book features. Spending your time on cycles through the main book gives a bigger return.

Build your approach in units of 100 words = 1 section. On weekdays, do one section a day, doing nothing but judging 'can I give the meaning instantly?', and on weekends, pick up only the words you got stuck on. For 1,500 words that is 15 sections, so the calculation is that you can run through the first cycle in three weeks.

On the second cycle, do only the words that failed the judgement; on the third, check whether you can also give the meaning instantly when you hear the word in audio. The condition is not to linger long on a single word — leave the deep chasing to the number of cycles.

The Audio Is 'Target no Tomo.' Paper Is for Judging, the App Is for Rotation

The audio provision is generous. Audio for the headwords, meanings, and example sentences can be downloaded free from Obunsha's website. In addition, the official app 'Target no Tomo' (iOS/Android, free *some in-app purchases) links with the book and, in addition to audio playback, has confirmation tests and study-record functions.

Divide the roles: the paper book is for judging whether you know a word or not, and the app and audio are for rotating through words during your commute. Because it is in shinsho format and leaves one hand free, it is also manageable for people who prefer to carry the paper book.

The example-sentence audio works differently if you listen closely to it rather than just letting it play through. For people who want to cut it into short segments and listen repeatedly, Rehear is another option.

It is a listening practice app made by the team behind this magazine, and you can use it to repeatedly listen to just the phrases you could not catch. Knowing a word's meaning and being able to catch it by sound are different things, and Target's example sentences are just the right length to bridge that gap.

How Its Position Differs from DUO 3.0 and Kikutan

When you align the viewpoints, the difference lies in the direction of the design. DUO 3.0 embeds 1,600 important words and 1,000 idioms, without duplication, into 560 example sentences, in a design for learning sentence by sentence. Kikutan is designed to enter through the ears: its appeal is how easy it makes getting started, putting phrases and then example sentences into your body in that order, carried on music.

Target 1900, by contrast, is designed to 'run through a list in order of appearance, at high speed, one word and one meaning at a time.' It yields to DUO on the depth of learning in context, but its clarity — being able to manage 'which words are left' by number — puts Target a head ahead.

How to choose is decided by your purpose. If you want to rebuild your vocabulary foundation in the shortest time, and grasp the words you are missing in a list, choose Target. If you want to acquire words together with how they are used, in example-sentence form, choose DUO 3.0. If it is hard to secure desk time and you want to start through your ears, choose Kikutan.

For someone who already owns DUO, the meaning of adding Target is as a 'check for gaps in frequency order,' and the reverse does not hold. Running both books in parallel is not recommended, because both end up half-finished.

Decide Before You Buy. Who It Suits, and Who It Does Not

It suits people who have been away from English for a long time and are aware of gaps in their vocabulary, and people who can touch it every day, even if only for 15 minutes on weekdays. It does not suit people who like learning by reading example sentences closely and want to learn each word in context.

That type will find DUO 3.0 easier to keep up with. If you buy, buy the current 6th edition new. Used copies of the 5th edition and earlier keep the included words and ordering from entrance-exam data eight years old, so even if they are cheap, skip them here. If you buy it, deciding how you will run it before you buy is how you live with this book.

You can buy it from 『英単語ターゲット1900』6訂版（紙版）.

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