Grammar and resources

[Shidoji]

hi everyone,

i was wondering when should i start studying grammar? like, is there a specific level i should be at or above to start or what?

Also, any recommendations on resources i should use for studying grammar?

[RoseWagsBlue]

It is never too soon to start! At a certain point, not learning any grammar can start to hold you back.
Bunpro is nice, and it also uses SRS. I believe that there is a free option.
Genki are great introductory books, intended for a college class. There is a Genki club starting July 11.
There are lists of resources around here, just do a search.

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[VictorLino]

The best time to start studying grammar is now!

Genki is great all-arounder, I think there’s a great opportunity here to join the Genki club since you’ll have a environment where your questions can be answered. On youtube there is Japanese Ammo with Misa who also covers the fundamentals of grammar.

But I would recomend you to see the link that Rosewagsblue posted and see what suits you best !

[GremlinExibit11a]

My personal favorite grammar resources are Japanese Ammo with Misa and Japanese from Zero on YouTube.
Real Japanese with Miku is also another good YouTube channel.

Maybe check out the Japanese from Zero textbooks, too. They’re geared toward self-study and break things down really well. I started there and kinda branched out.
Having an understanding of how the grammar works has so far made understanding/remembering kanji a bit easier for me.

The sooner you get some grammar down, the sooner you can start talking with people. That’s what it’s all about, right?
頑張って！

[GinAA2020]

I just ordered Genki… I should have done that when I first started here but I think I will be okay, right? I agree with the others, never too soon to start!

[Weirdmind]

It’s not bad to start grammar immediately. But, for me, I got majorly overwhelmed since I knew nothing about Japanese before starting. So trying to learn grammar while memorizing unfamiliar hieroglyphs/kanji was too much for me. I waited until level 10 then tried again. By that time I knew a lot of the kanji in the grammar books and was able to fully focus on the grammar points.
Also, everyone is different and you will probably go through a bunch of resources before you find what works for you.

tl’dr - Try grammar now to see if it works for you.

Recommendations - Lingodeer app, Organic Japanese with CureDolly (youtube),

[riddlewrong]

To give a different perspective on what most others have said:

I started grammar at the beginning when I only knew hiragana and nothing else. It was not a good experience, and it was very slow going. The thing about grammar is that it doesn’t make much sense to you if you don’t know some basic Japanese vocabulary. The context just doesn’t click easily when you’re being shown a bunch of words and kanji that are a mystery to you. Trying to learn the basics of both at the same time is really slow. I decided to learn a lot more vocabulary first, and I’ve just started Genki and it’s an absolute breeze. I get it so easily now.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what method of learning is best for you, but I don’t think the one-size-fits-all advice of “never too early” is necessarily correct. That’s my two cents.