Am I hurting myself putting Genki off and focusing on WK?

[IanD]

While I guess it’s fine to just focus on kanji and vocab first if you’re enjoying it (it’s really recommended by Koichi? I’m surprised), keep in mind that foundational grammar will help memorize words presented by Wanikani much faster too. You’ll be able to more easily track patterns between transativie and intransitive verbs, get bits and pieces of the Japanese example sentences, etc.

To be honest, I can’t imagine putting it off, but do what feels good, I guess. Just keep in mind that it’s a double-edged sword; vocab and grammar help you memorize one another.

[Miimers]

I started Genki and Wanikani around the same time, and I finished them around the time I reached level 13 or 14 about a year later. In hindsight, I would have put off the grammar book until I reached level 10 because the vocab in the Genki books becomes a whole lot more manageable when you know a decent number of words. That way you can focus on the grammar lesson instead of trying to cram 35 items of vocab into your head right before starting the grammar point.

Personal opinion and all that.

[Asteroth]

I sort of agree with this, with my own addendum.

When starting WK (or before). I recommend running your preferred grammar choice for a little while. Get a feel for the language, learn the basic particle uses. This will allow you to play around with the language in you head, and maybe decipher one or two of the example sentences.

After a little of that, segue into mainly WK for a while (I’m still at this stage admittedly), then back to grammar. I think the WK-then-grammar approach is a little less frustrating if you have the most basic understanding of how these Kanji are used.

[Seraseth]

I started with Genki first and was about at chapter 6 when I found and started WK. I’ve found the vocab in WK much easier for me to memorize than in Genki, since it seems faaaar easier for me to remember words with kanji than just hiragana.

Since then I finished the first book but didn’t start the second one yet, and since I took such a long break from the book I’m considering going back to it for a refresher to go over all that grammar a second time with all my handy new vocab in tow.

As for helping with Genki, I use www.renshuu.org, it already has the kanji/vocab lists from the Genki books divided by chapter so you can use its SRS system to help you remember them. I’ve been using it since ch 2 of Genki and I don’t think I could have finished without it.

[Jecsashbolt]

I have read through Genki and am slowly working through activities in the workbook, I find it really boring.

I use Wani Kani and Bunpro, and now I am starting to branch out into more reading like NHK News Web Easy and just trying to get as much exposure to Japanese, as you would in day to day use. It’s up to you and your goals, mine are to be able to speak it (I just started getting tutoring with a friend who speaks) and get N2 in the next 2/3 years, I also want to work in my field in Japan - which will require high reading skills, so I am trying to focus on that.

Overall though my advice is, if you’re like me where time is limited (other study/work) and because of other commitments motivation/energy levels waver just go for whatever you find the most fun and engaging, otherwise you are going to lose steam.

[doublesbrian]

Thanks everyone for the great replies.

ShawnPCooke, The cube analogy makes a lot of sense. I know focusing on one thing too much doesn’t help the overall understanding of Japanese until the other sides grow too. But I was just afraid if it grew unevenly it would be bad. Which thankfully it doesn’t seem like it will be as long as I eventually focus on other stuff too.

Seraseth, Thanks for the recommendation for renshuu. I’ll definitely start poking my head around that. I spent a handful of days trying to memorize the ch1 vocab for genki and something about it just being completely in hiragana made it a lot more difficult to remember and I kept mixing the words up. I kept seeing words ending in がく and I eventually assumed that words with がく seemed to relate to school subjects, but then renshuu shows that’s actually a kanji 学 which makes it click a whole lot easier in my head.

ToastyHotdog, I actually didn’t know it was recommended to focus on vocab until level 10~20 before diving into Genki so that means a ton to me. I’ll probably make that goal and then give a try at Genki again. hopefully the vocab at that level will be also be some vocab that’s in the book to make things easier.

HunterTheDog and Miimers, looks like you both are saying around level 10 is a good place to jump into Genki too. Thanks for that recommendation. That makes me more motivated and that’s when I’ll probably jump into it.

windupbird, that’s seriously impressive! Congrats! And I appreciate you saying that if you forced yourself to focus on Genki even though you didn’t like it then you’d be nowhere with Japanese period. I guess that’s what I needed to hear. Although I don’t think I’ll put it off that long, it’s good to know I’m probably just worrying too much since you’ve had so much WK success already.

For those asking about my goals and progress on Genki, I’m still on Chapter 1. My plan is to read through a chapter once using the English while using the Japanese to familiarize myself with it, then memorize all the vocab in the chapter, and then be able to reread it again in Japanese only and really focus on all the grammar points without using the English as a crutch before moving to the next chapter.

My goal is to first be able to read Japanese for manga/light novels, then be able to listen to anime and Japanese podcasts, then be able to speak it eventually. I don’t really have a time frame as I just want to continue to learn as much as I can for the rest of my life. So waiting to be able to read a bit longer to focus on WK is fine for me as long as I wasn’t making everything extremely hard on myself by doing that. I’m a bit older and I only have about an hour before work and an hour or two after work in free time a day so WK definitely works well for me as It’s something I can pick up and do and put 5 minutes into or an hour+ into and still make progress and feel good.

To all the other replies I didn’t single out. Thanks so much for your views too. I appreciate input from all different sides of learning and it really reinforces the fact that really any progress is good progress since everyone seems to have made progress following different paths which is reassuring.

And thank you everyone for the words of encouragement! I super appreciate it and I’m super thankful that WK has a great community.

[MastodonFarm]

Lots of good advice/takes here. I waited until lvl 20 to start Genki, and it was the right choice for me–now the vocab in there is largely (though not entirely) review, and I can focus on learning the grammar.

One thing I will add is that you shouldn’t use your (in)ability to read the WK example sentences as a benchmark for anything. As far as I can tell, those are designed to be funny/amusing/clever rather than to be readable by beginning/intermediate Japanese learners.

[lamarozzo]

@MastodonFarm

As far as I can tell, those are designed to be funny/amusing/clever rather than to be readable by beginning/intermediate Japanese learners.

I agree, they are funny, but I mostly don’t bother with them any more.

[heisamaniac]

I’m in a hurry so I’ll just quickly inform you of what I did.

I had very little grammar knowledge up until lvl 30.
I did some of TaeKim’s guide before coming here but didn’t make it too far.
At lvl 30 with my basic understanding of grammar, I was able to quickly get through both Genki I and II (took about a month maybe).
Since I knew a lot of vocabulary already and could read a lot of kanji, it was possible for me to solely focus on the grammar points rather than new vocab and kanji which made it incredibly fun and even further motivated me to learn the language.

I’d say, do “only” WaniKani for a while if it really motivates you to learn. Grammar will be easier to enjoy. But don’t wait too long…