How is everyone’s week 2 going? Making any progress? Does anyone need an extra week for studying chapter 13?
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I have both slacked off a bit on chapter 13 as well as jumped ahead to chapter 14.
I don’t need extra time - rather I do need to pace myself properly because I have three weeks of look-ahead time ahead of the JLPT test date.
I am planning to supplement my Genki 2 study this weekend by taking some practice JLPT exams, in order to help better focus my efforts.
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Good luck on the JLPT! Which level are you taking?
I’m taking the N4 - for the second time - last December I missed the passing grade by 3 points…
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Ahhhhh, a redemption arc! You should ace it this time, then! (hopefully)
(One would hope - but anything is possible due to the stress of traveling three hours to the test site, maybe not getting enough sleep, and maybe forgetting things in the heat of the battle.)
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Started Andy’s video today! I love studying grammar along with doing a lot of reading, because every new point feels so useful and makes things feel so much clearer. I was like woww, the potential, finally I can understand all those られる’s.
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Good luck on your redemption arc test @servette
Pace is great @soggyboy ! And glad you’re up and running on 13!!!
When we started this I thought I’d need more than two weeks because of how slowly I did volume I, but the pace is suiting me great and I find it drives me a) forward and b) in a prioritized way. I’m skipping the super simple exercises I don’t need and am instead using the exercise prompts to make up sentences and then paying attention to these points in my reading. I really like going through the Satori lessons on these as I feel like it’s getting me into more nuanced territory.
Yesterday I read a great explanation there (ep 17) on why a transitive verb in the potential form would take ga instead of wo and it was so enlightening about the structure of Japanese on this and other similar points.
Here’s an example
この本を読みます。the subject is me (or someone) because I am doing the action of reading the book. I am reading. What am I reading? The book.
この本が読めます。In contrast, here the subject is the book being able to be read. The action in potentials in Japanese is not “can read(or other verb)”. The action is “able to be read” or “read-able”. The book is the subject of the “able to be read” action hence it is the subject not the object. It’s not about me, it’s about the book. It might be readable “to” me or someone else depending on context.
I haven’t had a particularly hard time with wa and ga, but I’ve never felt such a crystal clear understanding of an example.
I’ve simplified it, the full explanation is worth reading if you have Satori! He draws a parallel to why “wanting” phrases use ga too. It hinges on this subtle difference between English and Japanese in what exactly the action of the verb is and how that relates to the subject, named or not. Translations don’t really do this concept justice, I feel it internally more like a perspective shift suited to the language.
An aside on why I'm so excited by this
This is exactly why I’m interested in language learning in the first place. My understanding of German culture shifted dramatically when I could look at it through the German language lens. And when I went to Japan and was fascinated by the attitudes conveyed in every human interaction, I just knew I had to learn the language to understand this better. I have not been disappointed!
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I haven’t gotten too much into it, was a bit under the weather last week! Will catch up this week and hopefully be able to follow on by like Nov 20th 
Also got a heap of reviews on here… がんばりましょう！
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I think I’ll sign up for saitori reader toward the end of the month too, looks like their grammar series is useful! I have read the first 3 chapters of a few of the stories for free, they seem decent. Nice gateway into reading manga and stuff. Do you guys use the SRS kinda review thing on there? I already use Bunpro and WK…too much SRS already lol.
Satori is an excellent resource as a bridge between learner content and native content. Some people have issues with being bored by the stories but I view them as language learning material so that doesn’t bother me personally, if I enjoy the story it’s a bonus! I personally don’t use the SRS that’s built in, and I don’t use bunpro either, so the only SRS I regularly use is WK and sometimes jpdb.io (for like 5 minutes haha)
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Satori was a big part of getting me into native material, and even now that I am, I still use it because it is so helpful.
I use the satori SRS and would say, try it at a low level and see what you think. Don’t add every new word you come across. Add max a few a day, and make sure the word you add is the only unknown word in that sentence. Now I’m even pickier, I only add words I’ve seen before and am thinking, ah right, forgot that. Then reviewing the sentences on Satori (with audio!) is like a personal collection of words I really want to learn, complete with audio and memories of that story. And if I repeatedly miss a word or decide I no longer need it, I delete without a second thought, I’ll come across it in another context later.
Anyway, if you do something pretty low effort like that for a few months you’ll see for yourself if it’s helpful or not and go from there. At first I really didn’t like Satori’s SRS and preferred Anki, but now that I curate my cards on Satori a lot better, I prefer Satori’s SRS to any other just because it is my most relevant deck.
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Cheers for the input guys, I’ll pick up a subscription at the end of the month
Just getting into the L10 Kanji on here now, nice learning more and more useful words. Also, just finished the grammar points and TokiAndy’s video for Ch.13, really useful stuff. Been wondering how to express some of these ideas for a while!
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Omigosh, I’m loving all the words I’ve been learning on WK lately. I feel like I keep opening up manga or Satori and immediately seeing them.
Nice!! I love how useful all the grammar we’re working on feels. It unlocks such big chunks of the language at once.
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Yeah ikr, it felt very 不明 for the longest time, but now it’s kinda fun haha!
Feels great to be in the midst of a consistent routine, when you take a few days off cos of sickness or whatever, it feels pretty tough to face a wall of hundreds of reviews across a few resources, but once you’re in it, it’s cool 
I know it’s not meant to be stressful, but it’s kinda depressing living in Japan with just N5 grammar hahah. Should’ve studied more before leaving the UK…Oh well!
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Definitely. Having a daily routine is going to give you much more stability and long term growth than cramming every once in a while.
Think of it this way, you have a high motivation to study and endless resources for listening/speaking practice!
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Chapter 14 week 1 is here!
It’s officially time for a new chapter! How did Chapter 13 go? Thoughts, feelings, complaints? Anything you’ve noticed about building your study routine?
Looking ahead, what’s your study plan for the next two weeks? Anything you want to change after completing one chapter? Anything you want to add to your routine?
Personally…I’m behind, still doing chapter 13. The new week starting is a good motivation to finish the chapter, haha. I keep neglecting grammar study in favor of doing more reading. Just have to keep telling myself that more grammar study will improve my reading and make it easier.
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I hope you guys are enjoying Genki II so far! When I first opened it, I was so overwhelmed by all of the new verb forms. But as I finished Ch. 23 and finally closed it, I couldn’t believe how sad I was that there wasn’t a Genki III 
Anyway, sorry for hijacking the group, I just wanted to pop in and share a resource I abused to help me memorize new conjugations before all of my reading/writing exams. You can choose “potential form” and just practice until your brain melts, but he has most other forms for future chapters, too!
I for sure owe the dev of that tool a drink for how many hundreds of hours I used it for verb practice ahaha. Have fun in Chapter 14, everyone!
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Tyyyy! I’ll add it to the home post along with another verb conjugation practice tool I’ve used.
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Was just reading the potential lesson on Satori and came here to agree with how it’s so interesting how learning a language will reveal different ways of thinking. My personal favorite that I’ve come across in Japanese learning is how you can’t say ‘he did x happily’ because you don’t know anyone’s feelings… you essentially say ‘he did x happy-seemingly’ with sou. I thought it was so cute. Japanese language is so polite you can’t say how anyone else is feeling since that would be an intrusion.
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