I also highly recommend the beginner readers from the japan shop. They do line by line translation, furigana and non-furigana versions and even if you don’t know all the words/grammar structures you can work through with the support provided.
As a beginner I found the history readers a bit too advanced, but the learn japanese with stories is fab (after genki 1/JFBP1 I’m at about 50-70% recognition of words) and for total beginners the beri beri shoshinsha is really straightforward. Looking forward to going back to the history readers once I’ve levelled up a bit on WK!
I like this kind of stuff.
There’s also some good italian stuff, I bought some… hope I will be able to read those with some effort.
@Jerricent
I totally agree with you. Without using the grammar, I will forget everything for sure. I Think that grammar should be a natural process and not something to learn by memory with formulas.
Thanks for the link!
@jels808
That shop is really good! Thanks a lot… I will finish Genki I and buy the stories for sure!
Thanks again!
Haha, when I saw “studying voraciously” I got curious what your native language is
Personally, I started grammar studies with Lingodeer (~N5) and then skipped over behinner textbooks. Well, I tried Minna no Nihongo but got bored after the second chapter…
I was pretty much looking up more advanced grammar when necessary and then crammed N4 and N3 using Shink Kanzen Master just 3 months before JLPT N3. The result is that I passed the test easily but I still find it difficult to use all the grammar I can recognize during conversation.
I’m slowly reviewing N3 and studying N2 grammar now.
It’s common and sometimes I still use “italian stuff” in english… I know that sounds strange.
But English people have very few expressions compared to us Italian, and I love to use It
I will never leave grammar back. I’m a programmer, I always start with syntax and “docs” if possible. It takes a lot to learn everything from the ground I know… but If you’ve solid foundation, you can do more in the future.
Maybe I’m wrong… who knows!
My experience with the Genki series (since I’m using it at class), is that it’s quite bad at teaching you how to understand real Japanese, and I mean the type of Japanese you see in books and TV shows.
I do find it quite good for using in class since it has so many pair-work exercises. And the writing style is entertaining and funny.
But for actually understanding real Japanese? I wouldn’t even bother with it. Especially if I was just studying on my own. I’d just go through Tae Kim’s guide and find whatever I need on youtube.
I’d go even further and say even if you finished Genki II and didn’t actually read or watch any real Japanese you’d have missed a massive amount of stuff.
Plus I think Genki I + II are only meant to teach you basic stuff anyways.
Dunno…
Maybe there’s a huge difference between 2nd and 3rd edition?
I’m using Genki and I’m at Lesson 6… chatting everyday with japanese people. I’m limited of course, but I can explain myself in many ways.
I think that a grammar book should teach you how to speak correctly and not how to speak as they do in Anime.
If you read the intro in Genki I, there’s a sentence that tells you “here you will learn to speak correctly, not formal or informal” or a stuff like that, I can’t remember exactly what he says.
Should an english grammar book teach you “Yo Bro! Let’s go bun a zoot, bruv”.
I don’t think so, maybe in “cultural notes”.
Pair works? They’re ok, I can do many by myself (not all, of course).
I’ll check Tae Kim’s guide for sure anyway.
Thanks!
Hey, italian fellow here.
I just finished genki 1 and I’m about to start genki 2 (second edition).
Have you found any interesting material for italian speakers learning japanese?
I don’t mind learning japanese from english but I’d love to have some italian material too!
Many books from Riccardo Gabbarini and Aki Saku are really cool!. There are some books on Kana and Kanji (the Kanji one is fabulous). You can also buy a book like “100 Proverbi Giapponesi a Colori”. It’s a very well made book with translation on side and a lot of japanese culture.
In his blog you can find a fully translated and free version of memoizazion (RTK like) If you enjoy that on Anki.
How’s your experience with Genki i?
I just stopped. Now I’m working on flashcards to learn all the vocabs.
That’s interesting – I found the Genki series generally quite helpful
My tutor switched us to Genki II after using something based on Minna no Nihongo for a while – I like the grammar explanations and examples, especially paired with Bunpro, and got better with neutral and casual verb forms thanks to the change…(for some reason whatever we were using before was very worried about us speaking rudely )
The books are quite easy to read alone, so I went back and read through Genki I, then read the rest of Genki II and moved on to other resources. I still work on the Genki II exercises with my tutor in some lessons, because I skipped most of them on my own
Genki definitely gave me a more solid base to continue all my reading and Netflix binging!
I also read Tae Kim’s guide in it’s entirety, but don’t necessarily find it to be more appropriate for self-study than other textbooks… I also hated the lack of furigana when I was first starting out, because I don’t like pre-learning vocab, and if I can’t pronounce a word it’s hard for me to make it through a sentence (because the word isn’t concrete enough, it’s just a scribble).
Tae Kim’s was much easier for me after studying with other resources for a while
Thank you for the blog!
It took me almost 2 years to finish genki 1 because after work I’m too tired to study, but I’d say it’s a good book. For the vocab I used a memrise deck bc I don’t like anki and it worked pretty well for me.
When I chose it I was searching for a book in english with matching workbook because I need to practice a lot to remember things and I think Genki perfectly served the purpose.
I don’t think I’ll be able to start reading the second book until the end of the summer though
I thought this might be highly relevant to quite a few people in here.
We’ll be starting a course with Genki I (3rd edition) very soon. We hope we get enough people that we can move to Genki II (3rd edition) once it becomes available.
Quick question for you, I have the first edition of Genki I, is it worth upgrading to the 3rd edition? I got my copy second hand so the cost of the new books is giving me a moment of sticker shock.
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