Upper beginner grammar club (Genki II/Genki 2 and friends)

Japanese Language
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Genki and friends

This is a club where we work through Genki 2 (various editions) grammar, make friends, and study together. You don’t have to have Genki 2 to join, as we’ll also provide links to grammar points, prompts for practice, and meet-ups that anyone can join. (thanks @Rigansginger for the original lovely call to action!)

Each week we will have a different theme loosely related to the section of the Genki book and workbook we’re on. I’ll write the weekly posts and prompts - let me know if you have ideas and want to help! We’ll also meet up on Discord now and then! @Delphynia and friends will help organise this - probably using an existing Genki Discord to avoid extra work: Genki Club

Resources

Great free resources - I'll update this list as they're recommended

This link provides Anki decks for Genki vocab. Also, the main website has exercises related to the Genki books - great practice for everyone whether you have the books or not.

Genki Exercises - 3rd Edition | Genki Study Resources

The Genki grammar explanation videos by Tokini Andy (e.g. for Chapter 13): 【N4】CAN in Japanese - The Potential Form | Genki II Lesson 13 Grammar Made Clear 【Chat Removed】 - YouTube )

If you are going to buy Genki II + workbook, just buy what you can afford or the latest edition (3rd). So far members have the 2nd and 3rd editions, so you’ll be fine either way. The book and workbook look like this:
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Also, the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar is super helpful:
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Getting started

We’re starting 11 April 2022, but please join in anytime. We’re not racing, and there might be a pause for a couple of weeks one month in due to vacation. We’ll cover each chapter in about 4 weeks, so if you start late, you can easily catch up. Accounting for some breaks for holidays, we’ll finish in about a year. Links and dates will be added below as we make progress.

Structure for each week

Per chapter, we’ll have a week for:

  • Grammar week: link to points in on wasabi/Tae Kim/tofugu, also have a writing prompt
  • Workbook week: it’s possible for anyone to access Genki’s listening examples, which are really good in the workbook; it would also be fun to share some listening episodes from other sources that have a similar level or theme to that chapter’s vocab/grammar.
  • Reading week: we can have a prompt to talk about what we’re currently reading, or even share links to articles on similar themes as above
  • Kanji / speaking week - there’s a website I know that links to that Genki’s kanji by chapter - this would be a good prompt for writing practice. Also, the speaking practice will be open to anyone.

Discussion schedule / threads

Start Date Chapter Notes
April 11, 2022 Ch 13 grammar week Start front half (FH) of main book chapter and do writing prompt
April 18 Ch 13 listening week Start FH of workbook chapter and do listening prompt
April 25 Ch 13 reading week Start back half (BH) of main book chapter and discuss reading
May 2 – 2-3 week break for holiday
May 19 Ch 13 speaking week Start BH of workbook chapter, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji. Aim to complete Ch 13!
TBD Ch 14 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 14 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 14 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 14 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 15 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 15 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 15 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 15 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 16 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 16 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 16 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 16 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 17 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 17 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 17 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 17 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 18 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 18 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 18 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 18 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 19 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 19 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 19 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 19 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 20 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 20 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 20 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 20 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 21 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 21 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 21 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 21 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 22 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 22 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 22 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 22 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
TBD Ch 23 grammar FH main book and writing prompt
TBD Ch 23 listening FH of workbook and listening
TBD Ch 23 reading BH main book and discuss reading
TBD Ch 23 speaking BH of workbook, meet-up on Discord, and practice writing kanji
9 Likes
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Would you like to participate in the Genki and friends club?
  • Yes - with Genki 2 (any edition)
  • Yes - with a different grammar reference / using the links provided
  • Not sure - I might follow along though
  • Nope

0 voters

3

The first post for week 1 is live

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The website you linked for Anki decks ALSO has lots of exercises for each Genki chapter on it. If anyone doesn’t own Genki, they can essentially do really similar exercises with that website.

It’s also a good compliment to the book for people who do own it.

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Thanks, I updated the description!

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Hello! I’m excited to get started.
Just want to add that anyone can join and jump in at any time!

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Thanks for organizing! This comes at just the right time for me. Question: When you say front half/back half of main book/workbook, where do you mean (trying to figure out where I should study to)?

Also, noting here as a resource the Genki grammar explanation videos by Tokini Andy (e.g. for Chapter 13 【N4】CAN in Japanese - The Potential Form | Genki II Lesson 13 Grammar Made Clear 【Chat Removed】 - YouTube)

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The front half means the ‘Conversation and Grammar’ section in the main textbook(but not the workbook) for the chapter (eg. Chapter 13).
The back half is the ‘Reading and Writing’ section in the main textbook(but not the workbook) for the same chapter (so, chapter 13).
It’s just because they put all of the conversation and grammar at the front of the book before all of the reading/writing sections.

And thanks for the link! I’d heard he did good videos, but I hadn’t tried any yet. I think I’ll use them from now on!

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Thanks! I’ll put that in the resources section for this page and Ch 13

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Wow, the people in the big Genki discord are so much nicer than the ones in my private server. :skull::upside_down_face:

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I feel like I’m 100 years old, I joined the discord with the qr code but it says I’m not authorised to post anywhere, even in introductions? Am I doing something wrong

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You have to go to #reaction-roles and pick your levels, interests, etcetera, before you can message. I’m gam3rpaint3r on that server. You’ll see me lurk in #japanese-only-chat.

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You have to go to #reaction-roles and pick your levels, interests, etcetera, before you can message.

I’m gam3rpaint3r on that server. You’ll see me in #japanese-only-chat with a cat icon.

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You also have to check the big green check mark in the reaction roles as well, that stumped me a little!

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Week 2 is now live - everyone is welcome whether you participated in the first week or not.

You may notice, I have sneakily included more Japanese in this week’s post. Every week I will replace English text in these posts with Japanese text so that we get used to more and more Japanese exposure! Everyone has much different kanji knowledge, so I’ll err on the side of using furigana, but will leave it off for kanji I’m pretty sure you’ll know by this point, but let me know how you feel about that.

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I’m hoping we can get new people to join and jump in! Let’s practice Japanese everyone!

I’m actually already on Lesson 20 in Genki 2! But I’m using this club as a way to practice and reinforce what I already studied.

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Thanks! I’m so glad to hear they’re helpful for you, because I’m trying to format each week so it’s helpful for anyone beyond the absolute beginner stage to jump in to learn something new or practice and reinforce what they know.

I’ll put out the third one today. Then I have a few weeks where I have a holiday. Would anyone like to continue making them in my absence? (if you put a link here to that week’s thread, I’ll check now and then to add it to the main list here, I didn’t see an option to make it a wiki). Or, people can use the time to consolidate progress in Ch 13 and we continue when I’m back?

I noticed that most people work on the posts during the weekend. What do you think about making each week’s new post on a Wednesday or Thursday instead of Sunday/Monday?

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hi all! We got some great engagement on the Workbook thread. Keep it up!!!
Week 3 is up here:

Let me know how this format is working out!

Would you like a different thread each week or one thread per chapter?
  • One thread each week so that the section of the workbook/main book is clear.
  • I want just one thread per chapter
  • I don’t care!
0 voters

I’m going on holiday/vacation for a bit, so if you’re keen, please continue to make the next threads in my absence (or if I have time I’ll try). Otherwise, week 4 will be up around May 18/19th. See you then!!

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I will be busy during the holiday, so I’m fine using it as a catch up week and resuming the normal schedule after

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I’m fine with having a few weeks off too. Next week will be particularly busy for me. I’ll still try to follow along if somebody continues though.

I noticed the same thing. Personally, I’m still trying to figure out when this fits into my schedule, but I certainly have more free time on the weekends.

New posts anytime in the latter half of the week would work better for me than posts on Sunday/Monday since when I have time on the weekend it’s not toward the end of the “grammar club week”. I’d like to hear more opinions before changing anything.

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