She argues that many resources try to cram Japanese grammar explanations onto a framework of Western grammar, while this doesn’t quite fit.
This causes a lot more instances where certain patterns that JP has aren’t explained well, or are reduced to “that’s something you’ll just have to memorise,” while Japanese is in some ways a beautifully modular language. She equates it to Japanese being like Legos. When you have the blocks and now what they do, it’s very doable to slot things together.
A few random examples; how it’s much easier to ignore the notion of “Japanese conjugations,” and instead look at it as the stem system it is. She also covers transitivity in the Japanese way, as self-move and other-move verbs, in a manner that clicks very well with people. She also argues how the way certain forms (like passive and causative) are explained in a manner that can cause confusion down the road.
Oh, man. That’s so nice to read. I’ve been left with the vague feeling for a while that Genki sets learners up for some unlearning at the intermediate level, based on wanting to avoid being too frank about Japanese grammar and trying too hard to bridge it to English, but haven’t had many specifics to draw on since I went through Genki years and years ago. So refreshing to see someone else feels the same way.
Though I still wind up being in the unfortunate position of recommending Genki and its workbooks, because I haven’t heard of a great textbook/workbook alternative that’s as comprehensive at an elementary level, and it still absolutely gets the job done.
Anyway, re:OP, yes, at every level you should be doing grammar study of some kind (and outside vocabulary study) beyond Wanikani. If anything, they’re more important than it, but really everything is one essential piece of learning Japanese. The method you pick for doing so is less important than your own consistency.
I feel like by and large, new learners won’t feel any confusion while going through Genki itself. The confusion/weakness of Genki (though … still probably the best comprehensive elementary textbook game in town) comes when trying to cross the hurdle into intermediate Japanese, when you realize that Genki’s sometimes overly tidy explanations didn’t quite cover the flexibility of various parts of the language. Suddenly getting the logic of more advanced sentence patterns can feel a little difficult.
It’s totally a hurdle you can get beyond, though, if you just accept that Genki gave you a useful foundation, but that now you have to move forward with the assumption that Japanese and English don’t resemble one another at all.
Seriously… English grammar as well as grammar in my native language - I can use it, but I’d fail elementary school tests where you’re supposed to " dissect" a sentence and name all the grammar constructs at work there.
I barely know this stuff in my native language, let alone English.
