I recently re started WaniKani (its been ages).
I had 2 years worth of Japanese in Uni (finished Genki 1 and half of Genki 2) and then did very little for 2 years.
Now I want to resume my studies as self studies but Genki doesn’t seem to work for me and I had a look at Minna no Nihongo and personaly dont like it.
If anyone has some recomendations on books or Apps/ programms (not too expensive, I’m still a student…) that are good for self study, I’d appreciate a comment,
Human Japanese is alright. Have a Beginner and Intermediate apps, $10 a piece. Not great, but for $10, they’re good.
LingoDeer has two levels as well. First is free, second I believe costs money.
Bunpro good for grammar. $3/month
Minato has some free courses I believe. Haven’t looked at them in ages.
Tae Kim, Wasabi and Imabi are all good and free grammar resources. I use a mix of all three especially since explanations from multiple points of view and having different examples is nice.
If you are looking for more of an app experience I recommend Lingo Deer. You will probably go over material you already know, but will also get exposure to new material. Other have recommended Human Japanese. I have not tried it yet, but those who have enjoyed it.
If you are looking for books you can take a look at Tae Kim. If you want a slower book series that provides you with random details that may or may not be useful (but usually very interesting if you want to know the history behind the language or other bits of knowledge) you can go with the Japanese From Zero series. I believe 4 books go over the similar material as in Genki 1 and 2 (although I don’t know personally and no one has confirmed that it gets this far). JFZ does offer some videos and it looks like they have some online learning options. I also enjoy the Attain Corp videos. I have only watched the N5 and some of the N4 videos. If you prefer to watch videos it’s an option. There are also some YouTube videos out there, but they aren’t always in order of what you should learn.
Honestly though Genki is one of the better textbooks. They do have a website and app. I haven’t used these yet, but it’s worth looking into if you decide to stick with Genki. The reality is that learning Japanese is tedious and in the middle it can get a bit dull until you reach the level where you can understand more native material better.
Alternatively you might want to consider taking classes. If there’s no classes near you then you can look into online tutors. I used to think it was so expensive and while it can add up it can definitely be worth the money.
I mostly use apps, lots of them. Bunpo was already mentioned, LD, Kanji study are amazing. Also, here is what I use for other studies - I’m usually really busy because of college and it’s nice to organize all my studies in one place.
