I got pretty far in WK (15 now) before starting Genki, and it feels like I am blowing through the text book. I’m holding myself back with practicing extra, but feel like I am missing something critical or like that.
Is this just because I’m not struggling with the kanji aspect?
Would love to hear some comments.
Why is that? Do you feel like you’re learning the content?
Genki can be easy to breeze through, but making the content stick is a different story. Things like practicing reading the time/date in Japanese immediately without having to work it out, that kind of thing. But if you’re combining it with WK study and a bit of reading (say vocab example sentences) your brain should be putting pieces together subconsciously so I wouldn’t say it’s unexpected.
Thank you.
Yes, I am learning it, just not sure if I am going at a rate it will stick for good!
Grammar is nice in that everyone can do it at their own pace. I’m personally a slow and steady type but speed-demons aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong either. I would say with Genki that you probably aren’t flying through merely because of your kanji level though because Genki does not heavily rely on kanji to get its grammar points across to.
My advice to you is to do the first read through however quickly you’d like, but then review a set number of grammar points in depth every night. I think everyone needs multiple exposures to really set grammar in stone. As I have learned from Bunpro, the devil is in the details even if you think you really know something!
Well you’re probably missing real life usage of Japanese unless you have a Japanese friend or are in Japan. The Genki books are really good, I spent my first 6 months learning Japanese on my own with them. Once I got into a classroom, I realized there were quite a few grammar issues I had. The biggest thing you’ll struggle with is figuring out how Japanese people actually say certain phrases or expressions. Even though something you come up with is gramatically correct, if it’s not the established way that Japanese people say it, it will be wrong due to common usage. They will often say 日本人は言わない、I got that a lot as I was learning when I would say or write something awkwardly but technically correct.
BunPRO is awesome, I am into that. The cram feature is prob my fave.
Make sure to be reading other content, too, so you are encountering the grammar points “in the wild.” Reading graded readers along with Bunpro has really helped things to stick even more so than just Bunpro alone.
I studied Genki I and II in class. I wish I had WK available at the time. Only now with WK, Genki and graded readers do I feel like I’m making progress.
Formal Japanese vs Normal Japanese will alays be a problem, but I think if you’re powering thru Genki you should continue and not worry. More power to you !
Doubt youre going too fast.
You wont really learn it until youve used it to do something in Japanese anyways. If you want to test yourself, I would recommend to try some graded readers and/or some N5/N4 prep books.
When you reach the WK level for all Gr2 Kanji, try native Grade 2 material if you find any that interest you and you want a challenge.
Are you learning the vocabulary for each lesson? Are you reviewing the dialog after you learn the grammar? Are you doing the practice questions/exercises in the textbook? Are you doing the workbook? If you’re doing all of these or all but the workbook and feel comfortable with the material then you’re not going too fast. Just make sure to review every now and then. If you’re not doing any exercises (or few exercises) or not learning the vocabulary in Genki then you should spend more time on those things. By doing all the exercises you’re not holding yourself back you are ingraining the material into your brain. I think the workbook might be a little unnecessary, but it really depends on your needs and how much you understand. I also recommend that if you don’t have an answer key that you work with someone to review the exercises. Everything can be easy if you don’t have the correct answers to tell you if you’re wrong.
Thank you all. The graded readers are a good idea, I will look into those.
Also, humorous point is that my son asked me if I would watch InitialD with him (we are car nuts) and he set it up in Japanese with english subtitles so we could hear the original soundtrack with the period-correct engines. I caught myself correcting some of the subtitles. That was really weird. Fun, but weird. Now to find a set with Japanese subtitles!
I thought I was good with Japanese 1 but decided, before moving onto Japanese 2, to take example sentences for all Japanese 1 grammar points and make them into SRS flash cards (in the format of English on the front with me having to produce the Japanese). I’m happy I did that because 1) now I have a long term solution for making sure it all sticks, and 2) reviewing those cards showed me how much more practice I needed with the things I already learned.
So just make sure you have a system for keeping it all fresh. Having a solid foundation is far more important than blowing through grammar points as fast as possible.
I got the ASK graded readers for level 0 and they are a hoot. New vocab, interesting conversational bits. I appreciate the advice a lot!
I now know everything about soy.
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