4️⃣ Quartet 1 and 2 Study Group [ongoing - Chapter 2]

Japanese Language Resources
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Quartet 1 and 2 Study Group

This is the home thread for the Quartet 1 and 2 Study Group.

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We have started with Quartet 1 on August 19th, here is the proposed schedule:

Week Start Date Focus
Week 1 Aug 19 :four: :open_book: :one: (Quartet Chapter 1 reading)
Week 2 Aug 26 :four: :writing_hand: :one: (Quartet Chapter 1 writing)
Week 3 Sept 2 :four: :speech_balloon: :one: (Quartet Chapter 1 talking)
Week 4 Sept 9 :four: :headphones: :one: (Quartet Chapter 1 listening)
Week 5 Sept 22 :four: :open_book: :two: (Quartet Chapter 2 reading)
Week 6 Sept 30 :four: :writing_hand: :two: (Quartet Chapter 2 writing)
Week 7 Oct 7 :four: :speech_balloon: :two: (Quartet Chapter 2 talking)
Week 8 Oct 14 :four: :headphones: :two: (Quartet Chapter 2 listening)
Week 9 Oct 21 :four: :open_book: :three: (Quartet Chapter 3 reading)
Week 10 Oct 28 :four: :writing_hand: :three: (Quartet Chapter 3 writing)
Week 11 Nov 4 :four: :speech_balloon: :three: (Quartet Chapter 3 talking)
Week 12 Nov 11 :four: :headphones: :three: (Quartet Chapter 3 listening)
Week 13 Nov 18 :four: :open_book: :four: (Quartet Chapter 4 reading)
Week 14 Nov 25 :four: :writing_hand: :four: (Quartet Chapter 4 writing)
Week 15 Dec 2 :four: :speech_balloon: :four: (Quartet Chapter 4 talking)
Week 16 Dec 9 :four: :headphones: :four: (Quartet Chapter 4 listening)
Week 17 Dec 16 :four: :open_book: :five: (Quartet Chapter 5 reading)
Week 18 Dec 23 :four: :writing_hand: :five: (Quartet Chapter 5 writing)
Week 19 Dec 30 :four: :speech_balloon: :five: (Quartet Chapter 5 talking)
Week 20 Jan 6 :four: :headphones: :five: (Quartet Chapter 5 listening)
Week 21 Jan 13 :four: :open_book: :six: (Quartet Chapter 6 reading)
Week 22 Jan 20 :four: :writing_hand: :six: (Quartet Chapter 6 writing)
Week 23 Jan 27 :four: :speech_balloon: :six: (Quartet Chapter 6 talking)
Week 24 Feb 3 :four: :headphones: :six: (Quartet Chapter 6 listening)
  • Discord: Quartet Study Group, join us:

What is Quartet 1 and 2

Quartet 1 and 2 are intermediate-level Japanese textbooks - not suitable as a first textbook, but perfect if you are done with Genki.
Roughly speaking:

  • Genki 1 = N5
  • Genki 2 = N4
  • Quartet 1 = N3
  • Quartet 2 = N2

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Why Quartet and not Tobira

Honestly, my decision is solely based on the fact that ToKini Andy has recommended it and doing videos for it. See the videos for why he chose it and not Tobira:

As I enjoyed watching his videos for Genki, I will probably do it for Quartet too.

Where can I buy it and how much does it cost

You can buy Quartet 1 and 2 from various online retailers like Amazon, Kinokuniya, amazon.co.jp, or directly from the publisher’s website.
Prices may vary depending on the retailer and region, but on average, each book costs around $50-$60.
I live myself in Denmark and got them shipped via Nipponrama and paid 130 USD for the 4 books + shipping.

Why doing it together

Working through language textbooks can be a solitary experience and a reason to give up. By doing it together, we can motivate each other, clarify doubts, share insights, and make the whole process more enjoyable.

Extra resources

ToKini Andy has a playlist on youtube (free as far as I can tell) where he goes through each lessons:

He also has a website, where if you have a paid membership you can access extra:

  • Vocabulary video
  • Grammar Stream
  • Bonus sentences
  • Readings
  • Workbook Time!
  • Challenge / Grammar in context
  • Challenge / Shadowing
  • Listening
  • Writing
  • Speaking
  • Links & Resources

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Poll for interest check

Now time to vote :slight_smile:

Quartet 1 and 2 Study Group
  • YES! I have the books and was planning to start too!
  • Yes! Let me just get the books!
  • Sounds interesting, maybe
  • I have already started / finished Quartet 1 and 2 but am interested in joining the group
  • No, the starting date doesn’t work for me
  • No, for other reasons (books too expensive / I go the Tobira route / I don’t want a study group / other)
  • I just want to click a poll option
0 voters
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Sounds awesome. I did Quartet 1 last year, so it might be time to jump on Quartet 2 this year (I try to do at least one text book a year). May go digital this time as I personally don’t like having the books just kind of lying around when I am finished with them.

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Nice, didn’t event know that that was an option :slight_smile:

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You can buy them on Kindle, even the workbooks!

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First of all, thank you for making this thread! :slightly_smiling_face: I’d be interested as well to see if there are a couple of community members who would be up for a Quartet study group of sorts.

In my case, I can’t promise anything because I don’t know if I will be finished with Genki II by the end of August. But I am considering continuing my grammar study with Quartet and only afterwards tackle Tobira as the latter is almost exclusively in Japanese if I remember correctly which seems a bit too difficult for my current level.

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I went through Tobira after Genki II because there was no Quartet, but if I had the choice again I wouldn’t do Tobira. It did get me started reading, but it does a really bad job teaching grammar, vocab, and well… everything. Its more or less a good book to start learning how to read Japanese material, but I would advise against using it as a learning resource.

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I have heard mostly good things about Tobira so far but I’m glad you’ve given me your perspective about its cons too.

As I was planning to do Quartet after Genki, I’ll still have plenty of time to take a quick look at other intermediate/pre-advanced grammar textbooks and decide which one I’ll eventually use after finishing Quartet. I’ll take your insight into consideration when that time comes.

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Yeah Tobira was the closet thing to “Genki III” we had at the time, an Integrated Approach to Japanese was literally Genki III, but people felt it was more dry than Tobira, so for a few years Tobira was the go-to for intermediate Japanese learning. Quartet is definitely THE way to go if you have gone through Genki I and II.

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Well, there are definitely people interested, awesome!! So this will definitely happen \o/

I’ll make in the coming weeks a poll for the start date, and an attempt at a schedule and a structure suggestion, will probably look for inspiration in @taiyousea 's thread :grin:

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Aren’t Quartet intermediate textbooks and not advanced? It even says that in the title.

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I’ll update that :slight_smile: it’s more advanced than Genki for sure. Don’t know if there is anything after that though.

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Absolutely, I started quartet a bit ago but parked it for the time being.

I was planning on starting it again so this is perfect timing for me :slight_smile:

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Yay I’m glad more people are going to use Quartet! I picked it up last year and I’ve been pretty satisfied.

In case you didn’t know, I wanted to mention that FYI the chapters are longer in Quartet than in Genki. There are only 6 chapters per book. So, one chapter a week may be too fast for a lot of people.

Tokini Andy gives each chapter in Quartet 1 two videos, whereas it was 1 per chapter in Genki. Also, don’t forget that there are two readings per chapter as well that are worth doing imo.

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Great initiative!
Are you considering creating a Discord group o something like that?

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Yes :grin: I think it would be great if we could have some kind of talking practice, reading, group exercises and so on, so definitely!

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Thanks for chiming in!
Will definitely take a good look at the structure and the size before trying to make a schedule. It confirms my impression that it’s less chapters, but longer. So it will probably be more 2/3 weeks per chapter, so we have time to discuss and practice the different things.

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Probably no way to track this other than for me to check in myself, but I’m only interested in Quartet II since looking through the content of each I feel like I already know all of Quartet I.

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I love the idea of discussion sessions on Discord or Zoom :sob: it’s so helpful to get instant feedback as I speak or brainstorm. I think I have the PDFs but I like to reallyyyyy mark up language books with notes and practices, so I will try to also get the physical texts.

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Yes! I already finished Genki, and i’m almost finish using Tsunagu Nihongo to review. My next step was to jump into Quartet! This is perfect timing!

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They are intermediate textbooks. Quartet 1 is Lower Intermediate (N4 to N3), and 2 is Upper Intermediate (N3 to some N1?).

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