Genki has a good balance between kanji and grammar. In the first lessons it uses almost no kanji and in later lessons it only enforces a small sunset of kanji per lesson, while offering kanji for introduced vocab words as an alternative. When learning new vocab from Genki I actually do try to use their kanji, even though itās often of much higher level.
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i donāt know any of the textbooks, so canāt really comment on MNN specifically.
Tofugu does advocate learning some kanji before diving into grammar/textbooks, as you then can concentrate on the grammar instead of having to also learn kanji. i can totally see where Tofugu is coming from with that.
however, personally i find that context is the best tool to help things stick. and by doing a bit of grammar, youāre giving yourself context for the kanji and vocab youāre learning here. iād find it very difficult to remember 10 levels of kanji in a void.
but then, every learner is different, and we all have to find the ways which work for us ^^
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Iām glad that Genki is balanced well! I debated for a long time whether I wanted to try Genki or MNN, but ended up going with MNN because I wanted to get more reading practice, even though itās a steeper learning curve for beginners (due to no romaji, and the primary text being entirely in Japanese). Iām probably still going to run into a lot of kanji that I donāt know and will have to try to memorize the vocab before learning the kanji in WK, but Iāve found that I struggle more with that, so Iām hoping to start with a decent base of knowledge to make things a little easier.
Actually, one thing I didnāt realize that I was getting from WK was lots of practice with reading hiragana. I used to struggle a lot more with reading it, but now itās pretty easy for me. Just flipping through MNN, I realized I didnāt actually miss romaji at all.
Honestly, the absolute beginners playlist is a pretty good introduction to Japanese grammar, at least what Iāve watched so far. Iāve been able to follow everything the videos are teaching. Though, Iām sure that doing actual exercises to accompany the lessons would help them stick better. But she does touch on some things that Iāve learned in WK, and Iām pretty sure the videos cover topics that arenāt really covered in MNN, like informal speech. Iāve been looking up some things in A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar as I go, too.
But truthfully, the best thing Iāve found for helping things stick is getting the context from actual native Japanese materials. Itās harder for me to remember things in the context of lessons, but I have a very easy time remembering things Iāve learned in WK if I hear them while watching Japanese wrestling, haha, or if I see kanji that I know up on the screen during shows, or if I suddenly understand a pun or a joke that I didnāt understand before. Iām also enjoying gradually learning how to read the kanji in my favorite wrestlersā names. I guess maybe Iām approaching MNN as eventual reading practice as well as a tool for teaching grammar and additional vocabulary.
Thank you both for the advice!
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yeah! iām really enjoying reading manga! and thereās these great moments when you get a new kanji on WK, and youāre like, i saw that just last night while reading 
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Can absolutely relate! On the other hand, if you learn a kanji outside of WK, it will be easier to pass those reviews in WK.
Sounds great! 
Yeah, Genki doesnāt use romaji either. It has furigana all over the place, but you donāt need to use it if you donāt want.
Honestly, romaji is more of a crutch than anything.
I managed to ding ding yesterday and do a couple of lessons. Still have 34 to go and itās getting progressively harder as I encounter more and more kanji I genuinely donāt know . Then again, reading vocab is getting easier and easier somehow. Lots of words with ę in the last batch, but the meanings are very intuitive.
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Romaji is for those curious about the language, but with no intention of learning it.
I can understand it being used in a news article or a book, where a specific words needs to be put in Romaji for them to know how to say the word.
But any workbook or study material with respect for itself does not use it!
I have one that does, and it hurts so much Iām never going to use it!
Just do a first chapter about hiragana, problem solved!
Woah, now Iām baffled. Which workbook/textbook is it?
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According to Tofuguās list, there are several popular textbooks that use it. I canāt believe it either!
I occasionally see people complaining in the comments of Misaās Japanese Ammo videos because she dropped the romaji after the first few videos of her absolute beginners series, and seeing those comments makes me feel really grateful that WaniKani has us using kana right from the start. I think itās one of the biggest benefits of regularly using the site as a beginner. Itās scary at first, but you quickly get used to it, and it massively benefits your ability to actually read Japanese sentences.
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Updated:
| Username | Team | Old Level | New Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kraits |  |
15 | 19 |
| oncejess |  |
3 | 4 |
| AndyMender |  |
12 | 14 |
| Lewby |  |
3 | 4 |
| Jirachi |  |
15 | 16 |
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I leveled up to level 7, it took a little bit longer that expected (23 days) but Iām almost ready for starting the level 7 material as I only have 4 vocab from level 6 left. Letās see hat level 7 brings me.
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Ah, okay, I think I sort of understand the intent here. That bookās for English speakers to grasp spoken Japanese quickly, correct? I see it even has a ton of pronunciation hints.
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Honestly, it is marketed just like any other ālearn Japaneseā book, and not as a ālearn some phrases for travelsā (I can give those a pass)
So it is just plain bad.
Also, Watakushi is so extremely polite it is plain wrong 
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Honestly, I almost immediately found the romaji more of a struggle than kana? I have a harder time recognizing words I do know in Japanese and it throws me into āenglish brainā. Maybe because my second language (Hebrew) also uses a non-English alphabet, but I looked at romaji and immediately noped out.
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I donāt know conversational Hebrew, but I did go to Hebrew school up til bat mitzvah age. Formative years learning a non-Latin script definitely helped when learning kana for the first time (and helps with kanji now that i think about it)
(small hebrew high-five 
)
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My native language used Latin letters, same as English. It still felt like a bad broken crutch as soon as I learned kana. They use several different methods of romanising, none of them perfect. Seeing the actuall kana words makes 1000 times more sense.
Learning kana is just a few hours, can be mastered in a week! (sure, still confuse some at times, especially in different scripts, but that is still better than romaji) Since kana is relatively easy to learn it makes no sense outside of ātravel phrase booksā (I can understand the use there, and other similar areas. But not for people who are learning the actual language)
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Maybe, but Hebrew is different in that vowels are not usually written and each character (with the exception of Ayin and Aleph) has a single consonant or vowel sound but adding vowels can change that. So a × can be pronounced just as a g or a g plus any vowel sounds Hebrew can make. In Japanese, every kana with the exception of ć will have a vowel in there somewhere and it will be the same one for the same letter every time.
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levelād but barely scratched level 4 vocab 
since my lesson ordering is āascending level, then subject,ā and I donāt have any scripts that would impact the order otherwise, is it guaranteed that i wonāt see level 5 radicals until i finish level 4 vocab? I would like that to be true.
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I believe so, yes! I usually spend at least five or six days after I level purely working through the previous levelās vocabulary before I even start on the new levelās content. If I want to do the new levelās radicals before then, I have to use a reorder script to get it to give them to me.
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Yes, Iām fairly sure we get the order of old vocab, radical, kanji, new vocab; when not using scripts
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