I have the ‘Minna No Nihongo’ textbooks and i planned on starting tonight but i feel stuck. Any tips for starting it?
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Open it and dive into it. 
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any other tips? like anything you have learnt whilst doing one yourself?
I use quizlet to go through some of the vocab for memorising. I would also make sure you have the grammar companion book (the yellow one), especially if you are going through it by yourself!
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ah so just srs it? also i do have the yellow one. So is it just putting the vocab into a srs and memorizing it? Then do I just do the questions? what about the grammar notes should i copy the somewhere?
I guess MnN, among beginners’ textbooks, has quite a tendency to look intimidating because it’s almost entirely in Japanese, and the English explanations are in a separate book.
Maybe it would help if you started small and just picked a few pages to look over? I’m sure there’s also an introductory section somewhere that tells you how to use the book. Most textbooks contain such suggestions. I have to admit that I’ve never used MnN, but I know a friend who tried studying it on his own, and I think he found it fairly helpful despite not feeling like he’s particularly gifted at learning languages.
That aside, I found this YouTube channel while searching:
Maybe the N5 Minna no Nihongo playlists will help you get an idea of what to look out for, or at least help you become more familiar with what’s inside the book?
thanks i’ll look into it
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Basic flow for using MNN often goes like this:
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Learn vocab for the chapter - lots of people SRS this
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Read the example sentences in the main book - see if you can figure out what they mean without looking at the translations in the guide - if not, go read the grammar explanations in the guide and give it another whirl - confirm your understanding with the translations in the guide
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Listen to the dialogue - this is meant to introduce you to language and phrases in common social situations - read along in the main textbook, and check your understanding with the translation guide (you can really do this whenever - it doesn’t tend to super relate to the grammar being covered)
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Do the exercises - A, B, C - check your answers in the solutions booklet at the back of the textbook. Figuring out what to do can be a little tricky until you’re used to it - feel free to ask questions.
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Repeat for the next chapter.
After the first couple of chapters, it gets more routine and much less intimidating
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Tysm this helped a lot btw do you recommend writing down the grammar notes onto something like RemNote(a note taking SRS that I use)?
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Don’t be afraid. The layout of MNN is pretty easy to follow.
I did study through books I and II, 18 years ago (50 lessons) and that knowledge was enough to establish simple conversations with native japanese people (at least U will be able to ask for help and directions 
)
And believe it or not, at that time I knew NOT EVEN ONE KANJI… So while you are also studying WK contents, the benefits of learning from both resources will be ENORMOUS 
.
Be confident and keep strong 
I feel happy for you 
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Thanks i will keep this in mind. I have already made flashcards for the vocabulary in RemNote (I love this app I even use it for school currently, you should check it out) and have made a checklist to add the grammar notes to my notes in the app!
Don’t feel pressured, take it easy. Don’t feel like you need to understand everything perfectly the first time through. You can always come back later or reference it. Skip exercises if you don’t feel like doing them; never found them helpful myself 
. Have fun.
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I think SRS does work and there is an awful lot of vocab to get through. But once you have gone through even the first book, you’ll be pretty good at basic conversation. There is a small independent Youtube series which follow Minna no Nihongo, it’s a bit out of order and fully in Japanese, but it helps with pronounciations and stuff.
If you never studied Japanese besides with WaniKani, I’d recommend you to study MNN with a teacher in a group setting. If you have the budget, here’s a link to Fuji School from LA: https://www.oh-fuji.com/
Good school offering all kinds of online zoom classes. Their teachers are very kind and patient. Highly recommended. Good luck. ^_*
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