Hello everyone,
Wanikani solves a huge problem for me since I hate studying from book. Is there any other cool websites for Japanese grammar too? How are you guys studying grammar? I tried minna no Nihongo and genki books, but couldn’t maintain it.
It seems like bunpro is the best way for me. Sorry for opening a thread without searching enough!
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I think textbooks are still a good way to go with regards to structured learning and progression. Supplemented with websites, and videos showing usage and nuance. And then Bunpro/Anki for practicing what you’ve already learned.
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Thank you! I should give it a try to genki again I guess
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I’m totally unqualified to be giving this advice as I attend classes, but if you already have the Genki books could you sort of read through a grammar point on there and then add it to BunPro for practice (plus check out on online resource for an extra viewpoint at the same time)?
That could break up the textbook so it doesn’t feel as tedious, and move your practical application online, which it seems you’d prefer.
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I may be in a minority here, but I personally believe that, within reason, as long as you find a way to learn that keeps you interested and coming back everyday (hopefully), then you should use whatever works for you.
That is to say, if textbooks aren’t your thing, I don’t believe you have to use them as a main source of learning grammar. I 100% recommend BunPro and the other websites it uses to supplement the information it contains.
Of course, I would absolutely use textbooks as an additional source of information (though I personally don’t have any). If, for example, a particular usage of grammar were confusing you, having a textbook on hand may help provide new insight and help clear things up. But if you don’t really like using textbooks, then by all means, there are plenty of other ways to learn.
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I don’t think that puts you in the minority!
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I just know I’m terrible about physically sitting down and studying most anything.
Maybe i’m not in the minority, but it seems like a lot of other people here prefer the tried and true method of Genki or みんなの日本語 and using WaniKani as a supplement, whereas I try to keep everything online. Something about physically studying with a textbook and taking notes and whatnot just drains the life out of Japanese (and everything else) for me…
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Oh, sure, lots of people seem to get on fine with textbooks, but I definitely don’t think you’re in the minority in suggesting that the best approach is whatever works for you!
The Genki textbooks are really designed for use with a class, anyway, so it’s not surprising that lots of people don’t like them too much for self-study.
I don’t think I’d ever manage to self-study from the beginning (now that I’m addicted I’d be fine continuing). Reading through a textbook sounds unbelievably boring and ineffective. (Edit - my point was supposed to be that I have a lot of admiration for people who do manage to self-study! Whatever works, works!).
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I’m awful at sitting down & studying whether it’s from a physical textbook or a digital textbook. Idk what it is yet but something about the structure of bunpro too feels… Then again I don’t like Anki no matter how many times I try. It’s a miracle I like Wanikani enough as I do.
I’m one of the “foolish” ones who learn as I go so I’m a lot slower and less structured than others and it kind of really sucks. But I just cannot force myself to sit down and cram through stuff; I just don’t get it. So I just read and watch and play games and i think I’m learning from nuance and looking stuff up when it’s interesting or confusing.
I sure wish I could sit down and study though because it’s really not easy this way & I feel like everyone is smarter than me lol. Oh well I can mostly understand my games at this point.
Now I gotta work on my kanji again haha. I’ll get back to the later levels sooner or later…
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Yeah, some of us just tend to learn better by doing what interests us.
Same here. I have a difficult time doing more than 30 minutes of study at all. Not sure if it’s ADD or what. But then I turn around and see people who spend hours with their noses in textbooks. I know a guy at work who’s studying beer brewing. I kid you not, that man has at least a dozen different textbooks from what I’ve seen, all filled with notes and post-its and what not and I just cannot fathom how anyone can have the attention span for that kind of thing.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a marathon, not a race. We’re not here to see who’s smarter than here, we’re all here to learn a language that we care about. Besides, I’d be willing to bet you know more than you give yourself credit for.
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See, here’s the problem, beginner learners don’t know what they don’t know. There’s a lot of garbage out there claiming to teach Japanese. So many people think they’ve found something good only to learn things incorrectly, or learn the wrong stuff. However, they don’t know Japanese, so they don’t know that.
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Thank you!! And yeah when it comes to language learning I’ve become very passionate about doing it at the pace and the way that feels best for you. Especially once you hit the intermediate wall, everything starts to feel kind of awful & whatever you can do to keep going is what makes you stand apart from those who quit!
I really want to sit down with a textbook and hammer out grammar or anatomy and stuff… I’ve gotten Spanish & Japanese textbooks and I need anatomy for art and science I just… Suck at it lol
I wonder if brewing textbooks make much sense. I feel like that’s one best learnt thru experience but best of luck to them!!
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It’s nice to see that I’m not alone! Infact, it seems like we’re the majority! Lol
I found a nice youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nihongo+no+mori
I will watch their n3 series, hope it will work.
皆さん、ありがとうございました。
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Yeah my best friend has a lot of resources that she uses like this but I don’t go on YouTube often so I haven’t checked out Nihongo no Mori yet. Probably should…
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This is why I chose not to say to ignore textbooks outright. Sometimes there is bunk information, and I personally feel like this is why there should multiple different sources to compare information between.
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I’m personally using the Japanese from Zero books alongside with his youtube series that follows the books.
So far he has 4 books out right now, however supposely book 4 is getting a big revision alongside book 5 coming out, so hold off on book 4. His youtube series only does books 1 to 3 at the moment. The youtube series really makes a difference in helping to understand the content in each lesson.
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I’m using the Japanese with Ease course by Assimil. It fits very well into the AJATT method I’m following. It teaches grammar through constant listening over and over to comprehensible input. A few years ago I learnt Dutch using Assimil and completely immersed myself in the language. After about lesson thirty (each course has ~100 lessons) I tried to make my own sentences based on what I was doing during the day. Whenever I got a grammar point wrong I just new it was wrong because it sounded strange. Plus I new why it was wrong. All without dedicated grammar study.
There is also a linguist, I forgot his name, who says grammar does not need to be taught as a separate subject as all the grammar is contained in a language’s lexicon. Just study the lexicon (sentence mining) and you will learn the grammar. Constant input of comprehensible material will allow your brain to make the connections.
No doubt there will be a few grammatical points that will remain confusing but that’s what forums are for.
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I agree. But the hardest problem is you never know what you might not know. Case in point, I just came upon a usage of the word 払う that I had absolutely no idea about. But that’s a word I literally burned 2+ years ago.
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this sounds pretty cool idea. Actually I learned English mostly with this idea (without knowing a single thing about assimil). I watched the whole south park series, watched the same episodes again and again because it was hilarious. Then I felt I became better. Of course I still struggle but it helped a lot. Thanks for the advice.