I think in the case of ても and てもいい it’s fine to teach the set phrase first and the construction later. てもいい is more useful, like you said, and comes very early in Genki 1, when conceivably students might just be looking for, like, phrases to use while traveling and so on. In other cases, though, I do find the structure of Genki to be weird. ばよかった before the ば form is the main one, since ばよかった isn’t really a set phrase… And I think by the time a student is using Genki 2 they should be comfortable learning how phrases are constructed instead of just memorizing them by rote, so it would be fine to teach ば first. An intermediate learner’s goals will differ from a beginner learner’s goals, and I think the intermediate level is where people will naturally want to start diving into how phrases are constructed.
This is a good point, I should probably thank Satori for teaching me all those tiny grammar points that I knew before Genki 2 covered them, haha.
Your goals sound great. I agree that I’d like to use Quartet as kind of a ‘fresh start’ for working harder on studying grammar and improving output. I feel like the grammar in Genki is so common that you almost don’t need to study it since you’ll see it a million times in any book, but intermediate/advanced grammar requires more understanding of nuance, and more intentional study. It’s also, honestly, very difficult to practice output at a low beginner level when you can’t say anything, so I feel more confident now working on output since I have a larger toolbox of grammar to work with.
I’d also like to transition to adult level novels. In my harder read (japanese HP), I see a lot of grammar that I don’t know still, and HP still counts as a children’s book! It keeps me humble.
I’m going through Genki 2 in preparation for the JLPT N4 in December. Earlier this year I got up to Lesson 16 but I dropped Genki for a while. (Had to study for a job related cert!) Now I’m back and doing a small crash course for L13-15 before slowing down for L16 (haven’t done the workbook for L16 yet). Is anybody else in early lessons of Genki 2?
I’m not sure if anyone is working on the beginning of Genki 2 at the moment (not sure if @servette is doing grammar study at the moment?), but feel free to post in here or ask any questions!
So, the thing that I said wouldn’t happen, happened…
I went back to the UK and basically just chilled out the whole time, didn’t even want to open WK because of the inevitable review mountain. I literally went on vacation, and didn’t turn on vacation mode💀
So now I have like 700 wk reviews and 150 Bunpro reviews. I’ll get through them eventually, just tired for now, still jetlagged tbh.
Glad to see you guys have moved on to Quartet, best of luck with it! I obvs haven’t progressed since my last post unfortunately. I have a friend irl that has finished Genki II and we’re gonna start Quartet together when I’m ready, should be fun.
Anyway, looking forward to chatting etc. on the forums again! I’ll be sure to join the other thread when the time comes!
Is your actual level high enough that you could already move on to Quartet? (see the threads, which have the grammar points listed at the top of each unit) I’m just asking because in retrospect I wish I had done that -
For me, I struggled to finish Genki II, and then realised after moving on to Quartet the reason I struggled is it was boring due to being too easy - I hadn’t realised that my level had moved on so much from my reading. Quartet has a lot more Japanese and feels more motivating to approach (for me).
Of course, if you’re still getting a lot out of Genki then ignore me! And feel free to keep posting updates here to stay motivated, we’re still going to cheer you on
