Ok, updated the title to move on to chapter 20, long overdue haha.
Thoughts on the chapter 19 points:
Honorific Verbs
I think I forgot all these already Good to know if keigo ever turns up in a book, but not going to have any production needs any time soon.
Giving respectful advice
This one is easy to understand.
てくれてありがとう
Also easy to understand
てよかったです
This is kind of like the ばよかった point, where I’ve seen it plenty of times which means I find it difficult to translate it in my head as ‘i’m glad that I x.’ I think of it more literally like ‘it’s good that I x.’ Eventually translating in my head should go away anyways, so I can’t imagine it matters much if the meaning comes across.
はずです
This was the only completely new feeling grammar point! I read this, and thought, I’ve never seen this “”“” はず “”“”" before in my life. Then I immediately saw it in Fushigi Sweet Shop like one day after reading it. This really feels like the only grammar point that was teaching me something new this chapter. (Besides keigo, which is its own thing, and the verbs pretty much just amount to extra vocabulary to memorize if I’m so inclined)
Realized after finishing that there are only 4 more chapters left, which suddenly feels doable. Motivated to continue on now!
Finished Andy’s video for Chapter 20! Thoughts on the Chapter 20 grammar points:
Extra-modest Expressions/Humble Expressions
More keigo. I’m putting a pin in keigo to come back to later when I want to take a closer look at it.
ないで
Easy and self explanatory
Questions within Larger Sentences
It was good to take a look at this. かどうか was new to me, and taking a minute to break down embedded questions in general was a nice lesson since I’ve seen them fairly often in reading.
Name という item
This one seemed so easy I was surprised it hadn’t been covered before. Maybe ということ had been covered before?
〜やすい / 〜にくい
These were new to me but very useful and easy to understand.
Well done @soggyboy, I’ve kinda gone back to Bunpro so there are some bits and pieces I know from chapters 19 & 20 but I haven’t studied them formally! Been wanting to watch Andy’s videos, but for the last couple weeks I’ve just been really enjoying reading, be it manga or satori reader. Even playing some games in Japanese, something I’ve wanted to get into for a while but never been brave enough lol.
I will get chapters 19 and 20 videos watched and chapters read by the end of the week! Formal commitment!
Had a good laugh at this lil 1 min video last night. Relevant to genki I swear !
I’m finding a weird effect where I’m mostly familiar with the grammar points, so Genki feels too easy, but I definitely need more practice because when I try to use these points I mix up similar ones or how it actually functions. All part of the process I guess, but I’m thinking of ways to use the text more creatively for production practice. Maybe I’ll make a bingo card of grammar points to use in conversation or something…
The first time I tried a やすい construction I put it in front of the verb but my friend understood and corrected me
My biggest sticking point is keeping clear humble vs honorific points, with many covered in the last few chapters. But I have to admit I’ve gotten a lot more than I thought I could from just reading Genki reading in Japanese, and reread Genki now and then. I’m starting to recognise more and more. For example, when I started reading ふしぎ駄菓子屋 I thought Beniko talked in a made up dialect but now having gone through books 1 and 2 I see she’s used all the Genki polite and humble forms! So that was helpful to think back on and realise I’ve definitely learned a lot and these forms were helpful to understanding her character. So I’m secretly thankful we’re going slow because it means I pick up Genki more casually over a longer period and notice stuff like that
It feels at least pretty derivative of the core quoting meaning, and it’s so common you must have read it a thousand times by now!
We learn this as ‘difficult to…’ and I occasionally hear it in my class, but I’m not sure I’ve ever read it used like that. Probably i just didn’t notice. My friend always says むずかしい though instead. I don’t know if it’s why, but just learned with a different kanji にくい also means hateful! So… caution! I wonder if that double homophonic meaning gives this word a more negative feeling…
That’s great!!! I’m loving reading in Japanese too, I spend so little time in comparison on grammar study.
I believe in you!
That’s a cute idea!
This maay be something that can only be solved by messing up and being corrected, though, like your やすい example. I bet you won’t forget how to use it now
Yes! I love reading about something in Genki, then seeing it pop up in the Japanese reading I’m doing.
I’ve been surprised at how many points I feel like I already know because I’ve picked them up from reading already. But every chapter still has had a couple things I didn’t know, and that’s obviously useful. Plus it’s just nice to see a formal explanation for something you already instinctually understand to help solidify it.
that keeps me going, too. There’s always a little aha moment about some nuance or a comparison with a similar point I hadn’t thought of. I’m pretty confident with most of Genki I, but I feel like Genki II stuff will take a few turns to fully sink in.
It’s so funny to notice how much you skim over as a beginner. Even easy manga will have things that become so much more clear as an intermediate learner, like grandpa turtle speaking politely in keigo. It’s actually stuff like this that makes me so much more motivated to keep learning and uncovering more about the language!
I read the grammar points of chapter 21 and the first 2 were so enlightening!
The suffering passive (Satori) / affective passive (Genki)
First off love the sense of humour
(Victim)は (villain) に (evil act)
With the example being my friend used my car
I learned the vanilla / direct passive form right away when reading my first manga because it’s everywhere, lol. So I was super surprised that Genki covered the suffering passive like it’s the main show! How intersting to discover in the footnote that the direct passive is more common in writing than speech - come to think of it that’s right I rarely / never hear my friend use it! And the use of によって is something I understand but haven’t really gotten why it’s used and under what circumstances. It seems Genki is saying that it helps us see this is not the suffering passive. Since reading that I’ve kept an eye out and the niyotte is indeed almost always used with the passive and this trick of seeing it as basically ni but for normal passive is so helpful somehow! Also a bit of a clue that if the actor is a person marked by ni then watch out it’s probably the suffering passive. Alas, if only Japanese was always so explicit lol
With てある
I thought, huh I see this all the time and know this, nothing new here. But the distinction of it generally using a transitive verb whereas gets ている uses the intransitive was so helpful! This is one of those points where I totally understand and distinguish transitive vs intransitive technically, but often it’s not clear when to choose which one, so this was a great example of one way to understand that choice.
I’ve not read the skits in a while… I was thinking of reading them all through in one go, might be more interesting that way. Since we’re so close to the end of the Takeshi / Mary story I feel like it’s time to read it all the way through like a story
Oh, crud… I’d better get back to reading Genki! I had no Idea what Mitrac was taking about, except bagels having been introduced to “the suffering passive” in a note in Satori Reader.
Lol
@willthelearner Thank you for linking that video by Jack! I’ve got some middle schoolers going to Japan this month, and I’ve been teaching them from Zero for the last 6 months, and it’s going to be exactly like that for them!
I kind of struggle with grammar points where the actor is marked by に, I always want に to be pointing the other way for some reason. Definitely laughed at (victim) (villain) (evil act) though. The passive form is everywhere in reading, but I never bothered to look it up because I am the lazy so I’m just now trying to get a handle on it.
I also watched Andy’s video a couple weeks ago and just read through the chapter now, it’s nice to do that because then I can review what I learned.
てある
Easy!
間に
Makes sense, have to remember to keep in mind the difference between 間に and just 間、though.
adjective + する
I forgot about this one between watching Andy’s video and reading the chapter, haha. Wonder if I’ll notice it when I see it in reading.
てほしい
Not too hard, just have to remember that it points outwards, I want you to.
And that’s it! I may need to do some of the exercises for these ones, but we’ll see if I get around to that. Only 2 chapters left, guys!! I’m already brainstorming what I’ll do to review or if I’ll go ahead and jump in to Quartet
I heard it in the spoken part of N3… Where you had to know the rule and notice who hadに to answer the question correctly. I didn’t get it at all! But I noticed it…
Hey!
To be honest I’m pretty far behind! It would only take like one solid day of studying to catch up but yeah a combination of busy with work, even working on Saturdays rn ahh, and laziness has killed me off.
I’m like midway through chapter 19 according to bunpro
Oh! it’s finishing already. I was planning to start genki II and just found this. Question, i’ve never worked with genki (actually finishing minna no nihongo), is it genki II good for studying N4? Im not sure about the content of the textbook
Interesting! Makes sense to test for those kinds of confusing grammar rules, but can’t say I’d get it either…
Ahhhh, that’s not so bad !! I like to watch one grammar point at a time from Andy’s videos, that way it’s only like 5-15 minutes of studying at a time. It’s a little easier than thinking ‘well when I have all that mythical free time I’ll just buckle down and get through 3 chapters in a row,’ haha.
Feel free to work through the book and post your thoughts on the grammar points/study strategies/whatever you would like to post anyways! I like to post manga panels where I’ve encountered a new grammar point and things like that. I’ll keep watching the thread and cheer you on if you do
Good to know if keigo ever turns up in a book, but not going to have any production needs any time soon.
in keigo to come back to later when I want to take a closer look at it.
Good to keep in mind!
it’s finishing already. I was planning to start genki II and just found this. Question, i’ve never worked with genki (actually finishing minna no nihongo), is it genki II good for studying N4? Im not sure about the content of the textbook