こんにちは、みなさん。 I’ve just joined Wanikani this month and noticed a topic about learning Japanese through Genki 1 upon browsing the community forum.
This might be a bit late for me to share but I’m also currently learning Beginner Japanese via Genki 1 Textbook Second Edition on a virtual platform called Second Life. Every Saturday 10pm JST (5am PST) / 11pm JST (6am PST) depending on Daylight Saving Time, a couple of Japanese volunteers guides us through the textbook, with light homework / revisions to discuss the next Saturday.
If you don’t have the textbook, the lesson page of the day will be displayed like a whiteboard anyway so you can still follow along. However, if a less-structured Japanese speaking exercise might interest you more, every Friday at 10.30pm JST (5:30am PST / 6:30am PDT) there is a weekly Shiritori event, but in a form of Japanese and English Language Exchange.
Over there, we’re encouraged to speak mostly in Japanese to each other and the relaxed atmosphere makes it feel like we’re at home, rather than in a classroom. In fact, they rather not call it a school because the setting is more casual. I was astonished that they don’t charge at all, where locally (Malaysia) it would be hard to find such an interesting Japanese learning experience, especially with a native Japanese teacher too.
So far we have classmates from Australia, America, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Spain. This also makes it an interesting place to learn about other cultures from different countries while speaking Japanese.
For the Genki Textbook, we’re in Lesson 10 now, so if anyone don’t mind jumping in midway into the lesson, as well as going through the learning curve of using Second Life as a virtual platform, you’re more than welcome to join us. And don’t be taken aback by the Lesson 10 mark because in the last class, I still struggle to describe Sailormoon to everyone in Japanese (つきのうさぎはどの人ですか).
Once you are in Second Life, search for ‘Cypris Japan’ and you will see a Teleporter to ‘Nihongo Tea Room’, where we have our events every week. If everything still seems too confusing, feel free to IM me in Second Life (my account name is Haruka Flores) and I’ll do my best to help explain things in more detail. Below are snapshots from some of our sessions (photo credit to Cypris Japan founder Mystie-san).
Edit: I totally forgot to add that Cypris Japan has security set to kick newbies (mainly to avoid trolls). Admins would have to manually add a person if their Second Life account is younger than 2 weeks old. So if you’re new to Second Life, please send me an IM before coming by, and then I will inform Mystie-san so that she can add you in a safe list. Looking forward to welcoming you to our Japanese learning community.
よろしくお願いします。
Hopefully last Edit: More info and pictures inserted since this thread is added in a wiki.