Awesome progress all around!!
That’s great to hear! Reading will only get more fun from now on 
You got this!!
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Chapter 5 is here, right at the start of August! If I go as usual, I actually might finish Quartet 1 on the day I start college, but we’ll see.
読み物１ is finished! 読み物２ is (mostly) finished! Forgive me, I don’t want to write a recipe, and the 「後で」 questions were asking for it. 
Grammar pt. 1 has been completed! Mostly cause it was so simple this time around. Pt.2 will be on Wednesday, which as of this edit, is now done. Writing task has been finished, took a lot of searching words and realizing that translating recipes is hard, especially since I didn’t wanna convert it to metric (RIP I only use Freedom units!11!1!! 
)
Was very energized today so I did 話す in one today! Part one was easy but part two was maps and directions and… I’m not sure I would be able to handle Japan by myself if my navigator app failed
The wellspring of energy continues as I completed 聞く in one today also! I’m potentially considering doing a “listen every day” challenge in September as my listening is a little bad, and I’ll probably be too busy to do Quartet 2. But a 20-30 min episode/anime would be doable, and keep me fresh 
Did Brush-up and Kanji Challenge in one today, as I want to go back and do some of the grammar exercises I skipped in past chapters tomorrow. I also need to get my corrections for my writing!
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You are getting through these chapters so fast! Awesome job
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Partially because I don’t do everything in the workbook, but I do plan to come back to the exercises I left behind in it
Thanks though! Just blasting though while I can until college puts a hold on the rest of my life 
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Coyote's Home Post
Quartet 1August 3, 2025 - current
Thoughts, Plans, and Intro
Heyo~ I’m Coyote. My goal is to try and complete Quartet before my study abroad program in Spring. Considering the amount of material I’m going to be covering in class, I’d really like to be prepared and give myself more time to actually enjoy the experience once I’m there! I’ve been trying to get through Quartet on and off for the past few months, so I’m hoping this will help me focus and stay on track!
Since I start the program at the end of January, I’m hoping to get through 2 chapters a month. My priorities are really the grammar and vocab, since I feel those will benefit the most from starting early. Things like writing and speaking will be a lot easier to tackle in a classroom setting where I have no choice but to do them lol
One of my biggest difficulties is the fact that I’m both working and a full-time student. My summer workload isn’t too bad at the moment, but once the autumn quarter starts, it’s going to be really difficult to balance everything. Hopefully by planning everything out and having a bit of accountability here, I’ll be able to manage my progress more than I was able to alone.
 |
Chapter 1 | (August 11, 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | August 3, 2025 | |
| Grammar | August 3, 2025 | |
| Reading | August 3, 2025 | |
| Workbook | August 5, 2025 | |
| Listening | August 11, 2025 | |
| Brush-up (文法1-2; 漢字1-2) | August 11, 2025 |
Goal: Aug 15
 |
Chapter 2 | (in-progress) |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | August 5, 2025 | |
| Grammar | - | |
| Reading | August 11, 2025 | |
| Workbook | - | |
| Listening | - | |
| Brush-up (文法3; 漢字3-4) | - |
Goal: Aug 30
 |
Chapter 3 | (not started) |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | August 11, 2025 | |
| Grammar | - | |
| Reading | - | |
| Workbook | - | |
| Listening | - | |
| Brush-up (文法4; 漢字5-6) | - |
Goal: Sept 15
|
Chapter 4 | (not started) |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | - | |
| Grammar | - | |
| Reading | - | |
| Workbook | - | |
| Listening | - | |
| Brush-up (文法5; 漢字7-8) | - |
Goal: Sept 30
|
Chapter 5 | (not started) |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | - | |
| Grammar | - | |
| Reading | - | |
| Workbook | - | |
| Listening | - | |
| Brush-up (文法6; 漢字9-10) | - |
Goal: Oct 15
|
Chapter 6 | (not started) |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | - | |
| Grammar | - | |
| Reading | - | |
| Workbook | - | |
| Listening | - | |
| Brush-up (文法7; 漢字11-12) | - |
Goal: Oct 31
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Welcome to the thread! What an exciting goal
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Working on the listening section now, and I find myself amazed and proud by how much I understand… while simultaneously frustrated at how much completely flies over my head lol. How strict were you guys when it came to checking the script? I haven’t finished answering the written responses, but I do plan to give the audio another listen. If I’m still missing core information do you think it’d be fine to refer to the script after the first couple listens, or should I keep focusing on the audio by itself until I’ve come up with some answers?
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I usually try to listen to it one time and answer the questions like it’s an exam. Then I check the answer key and if I was wrong, I read the script to find out where. Optional last step would be to relisten but I never do that.
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ね, Soggyboy, 明日のDiscordのセッションは何Quartet1のページですか？
I’m looking over Chapter 3, because I’ll bet you’re done with Chapter 2…
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We can do whichever chapter you want to cover! We’ve done the speaking sections for chapter 2, and I think chapter 3. We also read the readings for chapter 2 out loud for practice.
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I’m on tender head day so won’t join, but I do aspire to spontaneously join again sometime.
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Ugh! I feel you, Mitrac… As I was getting dressed to go to the Renaissance Festival today, I just kept feeling worse and worse, and finally decided just to stay home and try to feel less bad 調子が悪い
Thanks, NovaStar and SoggyBoy for the nice restaurant role-play from Ch. 3, second dialogs…
… We’ll be doing Ch 4 dialogs next week…
… If I have time, I’m going to force myself to be prepared for my personal introductory situation from Ch 1 again… I feel like I’ve forgotten…
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I’m back! I honestly didn’t do much bookwork BUT! I did play a lot of 逆転裁判5 on my 3DS over the course of those two days I took a break, so I’d say it was time well spent. Immersion is king (and the goal anyway)! Time to (partially) finish Quartet 1!
Did 読み物１ extremely late today lol. 読み物２ is done, I feel like I repeated myself a lot… Both grammar days are done, but the motivation of last week has left my body and I haven’t posted it yet. Will hopefully do that today. Edit: I finished the grammar exercises, but now my motivation for the essay today is fried…
I’ve skipped the essay for now, but I definitely want to finish and have it posted by next Thursday, as I know college will take my life lol. For now, I have done what I can in the speaking section, and finished listening part 1. Decided to finish listening pt 2 and both brush-up and kanji challenge today, to give myself more time tomorrow and on Sunday (@soggyboy @Shannon-8 I’m prepared! I will do my best to not skip another speaking practice unless I really need it!) for my essay.
As of August 26th, I have finished my essay! I actually wrote it all today. College got me thinking about how creepy they can be in the name of “preventing cheating” so I wrote about it! It would’ve been a prettier finish had I did this on the weekend, but I was struggling to think of a topic, which is weird cause I do like to write essays about things I’m passionate in.
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Ooh! Color me green with 羨み(うらやみ WK21)/羨望(せんぼう WK21) (sob! I couldn’t recall either of these words!)… 逆転裁判 is my N2-stretch game…
…I want to play Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom… reading it fully in Japanese with few lookups (this has been my goal for years, mostly studying other things in preparation)… But then I added in wanting to play Stardew Valley fully in JP, because, dang, it’s good!…
… And now, for some reason instead first I will soon start playing Final Fantasy 1 pixel remaster with the club.
… (2-3 years ago, maybe? Before he took N1 and got a near perfect score) I watched Game Grammar play some Ace Attorney and decided it was to difficult for me … And that it would be a good N2/N1 prep/study/play level, for me, as well…
Uh…I believe that I have been actively avoiding Quartet this week!
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Oh man, is the game at that level? I just look up any words I don’t know (which is like every other sentence 
) and add it to Anki, while the grammar I just quickly look up on Bunpro.jp if I don’t know it. I can believe that the grammar is a tad hard, as I’ve been using bunpro often while I play through it. Although some grammar points are N4 and Genki and Quartet seemed to have skipped them! I’m looking at you, verb+ところ 
Sometimes it’s smooth sailing and I can get through dialogue in a few mins, and other times it’s “man, due to not knowing this grammar point I almost had an entirely different translation in my head.” It’s the “putting high level words in kana” that kills me while reading, cause I know the kanji (I gotta refresh my level 50+ kanji knowledge tbh), so it frustrates me when I waste time looking up a word I know but it was in kana instead.
I honestly think it’s playable with my current Quartet knowledge, and challenging yourself is good! I’ve finished the tutorial, chapter 1 investigation, and am just about to do chapter 1 trial. AA is a long, slow, tricky game, even in English, so I don’t judge myself harshly when I take a while to read. Attention to detail is important for finding contradictions! I think you should just hop into a game you want to play, and if you can’t handle it rn, then play it later.
Future Gaming Plans
Once I finish this game, I do wanna play the 6th game, but I’m also eyeballing Fire Emblem: Fates (notorious for having a bad Eng translation) because I’m playing FE Radiant Dawn (in Eng…) rn, and after Quartet 2 maybe I’ll play an Atlus game like SMT IV (lots of gods, demons, and mythological/fantasy terminology… 
)
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Hey guys, I’m looking to start quartet 1 after finishing genki 2 a few months ago. From what I’ve heard (and seen), the quartet chapter structure is a bit different from genki’s. I’m curious about the order and structure of the textbook and workbook, as well as any other resources (tokini andy etc.) that are good for studying. I’d appreciate a few tips as it all seems very daunting 
. Thanks!
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Hmm, the main thing that’s different is that each chapter in Quartet is about twice as long as a Genki chapter. IIRC, each Genki book had 12 chapters with 4-5 grammar points each. Quartet books have 6 chapters with 9-10 grammar points each. So you’ll need to plan to spend more time going over each grammar point. Tokini Andy’s videos are also 2 to a chapter, not 1. Other than that the main difference is the reading section being more prominent, with longer readings.
My preferred study schedule has been:
- Watch Andy’s videos for a chapter
- Read the grammar pages (multiple sittings is better for this since there is a lot of grammar covered)
- Now that I understand the grammar, do the reading section, answer the before/after questions, then do the listening.
I stopped doing the essay prompts but I did those last when I was still doing them.
Are there any more specific things you have questions about?
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OK I’ll try using your method to work through quartet. I was doing around 1 week and a half per chapter in genki, but skipping a bunch of the discussion parts. I’ll try 3 weeks to a month per chapter for quartet. Thanks for the advice!
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No problem, enjoy your studies!
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Welp, as of today, I’m mostly done with Quartet 1! Just speaking and some workbook exercises left, but everything else has been done.
Rambling
Summertime has always been my “lets get super into studying Japanese until I burnout/run out of time,” ever since late HS. It’s nice to have something to work on even when I’m on break (or else I’d just play games all day ), and at least it’s a thing I enjoy! It’s my excuse to say I still am improving myself and doing worthwhile things while on break. I also just like feeling accomplished when I look back at how I speedran something during the summer. It’s similar vibes to how I started WK back up last summer after several long hiatuses, and then powered through every single day till my eventual finish back in winter of 2025 (also, recently picked WK back up after pausing). I just REALLY wanna be able to start reading and playing games more! Every time I pick up 逆転裁判 and go, “huh, I actually kinda get what we’re saying here” or read something like 「ひとりぼっちの◯◯生活」(gotta finish that) I get so happy. But I’m still not at comfy reading level yet, so we’re still pushing!
Goals/What's Next?
I really hope to study abroad in Japan my Junior year (spring would be desired), so I really wanna knock out Quartet 2 before then and beef up my listening and speaking skills by that point. That was a big motivator to get myself rolling on Quartet and find other things to work on. I plan to participate in some “Listen Every Day” Challenges to improve, and maybe I’ll finish 逆転裁判 before I turn 80 . But seriously, I want to immerse more, cause at this point I’m knee deep in N3, and we have to start applying this knowledge more. So lots of listening and reading in my future. Maybe more speaking the closer I get to 2027…
Review of Quartet???
Uhhh, I’m definitely not gonna do a full-fledged, proper review cause I just. Don’t have time or energy for that. But my thoughts are:
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Grammar explanations are fairly clear and concise, get the point across without overloading you. Plenty of example sentences that are actually readable at your level (cough cough WK examples)
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Grammar exercises just don’t get me like Genki did. Maybe it’s cause I used the Genki Study Tools website, but idk, I just hated doing them this time.
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Readings aren’t too bad. Some can be interesting (Miyazaki, Recipes, Izakayas), some are standard (Camping gear, Job woes), and some are plain boring (Writing emails/letters…). But in terms of actually understanding after doing the grammar practice, it’s good.
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Writings can be a drag sometimes. This last one was just, hard to push myself to do. Thankfully the word/character counts are low, so you will probably meet them anyway.
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Speaking section is a little lonely if you have no-one to do it with… So find a tutor/Discord buddies! Otherwise it’s essentially a skip section.
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Listening to native material is probably more worth it, but you can still do this as side practice. And it’s free anyway, just download OTO Navi.
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Brush-up is nice to help you quickly remember what you were shaky-on or forgot. Can be used as a quick reference too.
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Kanji Challenge is pretty much useless for me, and probably useless for anyone who wants to learn kanji lol. Do like, any SRS app/program over trying to learn with this.
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Gained some vocab from the readings/exercises, so pop those into Anki!
uhh tired now
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