Yeah, I’ve been finding interesting facts just by watching random channels, pretty cool.
I’m following Tae Kim’s guide right now (the complete edition) and find it very useful, because Tae Kim really breaks down the language into components and doesn’t go into very loose translations like a lot of other resources I used before did.
Genki is considered positively by many.
I also found this website recently (Cure Dolly’s?) with an article which brilliantly explains the differences between various forms of “to open”: Finding the right opening: 開く (あく) vs 開く (ひらく) vs 開ける（あける）
I have a strong recommendation for Minna no Nihongo. The main book and the work it asks you to go through are entirely in Japanese (You buy a separate companion book available in various languages to translate vocabularly and provide lesson notes). The advantage this approach has is that instead of having your hand held in English, with English prompts to your exercises that lead you to constantly switch between languages and think more about “How do I translate this?”, Minna no Nihongo’s all-Japanese format means that right from lesson one, you’re tasked, in Japanese, to write four simple sentences with the は particle, then four with a slightly different meaning, then four more a bit more complexity. By the end of the lesson, you’re not thinking of は in terms of its English equivalent, you just understand its meaning and usage.
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If I could go back in time, I would definitely try it this way. I usually recommend people use Genki just because its ubiquity comes with a lot of support online and from teachers, etc., but the all-Japanese approach should be superior, in theory.
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Everyone could have different answer. Because everyone’s journey is going to be different than yours. So i recommend u sticking with what you like unless if it is has major errors.
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This is true. I bounced from material to material, uncomitted until I found myself with both the free time and something that I felt very engaged with. It’s not a bad thing to try out multiple different resources.
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Indeed. Japanese grammar is also the sort of thing where I personally needed several explanations before it stuck. My main piece of advice, @Clarified: don’t worry about all the little exceptions to the rules, at least for now. You’ll develop an intuition for what sounds right over time.
Fundamentals of Japanese Grammar was really popular in my Japanese learning circles in the aughts. It’s technical but thorough. It’s ideal for anyone who wants to acquire multiple languages. It uses a lot of linguistic/phonological terminology. If you plan on becoming a polyglot, then the sooner you become comfortable with those fancypants words, the better.
I saw this because of your post and it’s blowing me away. I’m three videos in and after over two decades of learning Japanese, this is the clearest explanation of the fundamental structure of Japanese sentences I have ever seen. I also bought and read Unlocking Japanese. It’s short but it’s great to have a reference to Cure Dolly’s conception of grammar without that off-putting voice and presentation.
Believe it or not, it’s really not too soon for you to listen to untranslated Japanese for immersion practice. You won’t understand a thing at first, but it’s tremendously important to get used to the sound of real Japanese. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere on this forum, but every day I check out trending videos in Japan.
I also just started following Asahi Shimbun’s channel. This video about yesterday’s Setsubun Festival requires little or no Japanese to know what’s going on and it’s super interesting:
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Good to hear that it’s working for you. I found the presentation strange at first but I got used to it after a few hours study. I feel really fortunate that I randomly stumbled across the channel thanks to a post on these forums.
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Yeah, I’ve been watching random Japanese videos, game shows, anime and just vlogs in general. I feel like it helps me understand certain kanji, and when I’m lucky, I sometimes even recognize some words, that always makes me happy. Thanks for that resource, definitely will be checking it out because I learn best in a technical standpoint, although I’m decently good with other formats as well 
(Cure Dolly is the best)
I wish she would write a textbook already. I already have unlocking Japanese but I want moooooore
I strongly suggested the Human Japanese apps for starting grammar for two reasons:
- it is very motivational.
- gives you a nice picture of the structure of the language
- you can finish it very fast.
That said, as soon as you finish Human Japanese, I would move to the Genki series which is slow but if you do all the exercises will provide you with a strong foundation. I found Bunpro useful only for practicing exercises but not for learning grammar. Tae Kim guide is useful only as a quick reference but again there are better references like the Dictionaries of Japanese grammar…
I enjoyed learning from the Japanese Grom Zero Series on Youtube. Sometimes you just need thay extra explanation in English. It was helpful for me.
Huh, this looks pretty cool, will definitely use it, thanks for the find!
It’s best to reference many different resources rather than relying on one. Find one to provide structure and reference other resources as you go.
I’ll second Human Japanese for beginning grammar. It’s been a long time since I used it but I remember it fondly for being easy to understand and for teaching me things I didn’t see mentioned anywhere else. I’ll also second Cure Dolly. I wish I’d had her videos earlier in my studies. The Dictionary of Basic/Intermediate/Advanced Japanese Grammar are excellent as well, I wouldn’t trade my copies for anything.
Stack Exchange is also really useful if you’re struggling with a grammar point. If you have a question, chances are someone else has had the same question and taken it to Stack Exchange.
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I love the HJ apps, but they are very vocab heavy. Since my goal is to learn grammar, mostly, I have been putting the vocab-majority chapters into an SRS flashcard app to work on more slowly (30-50 new words per week) so I can get in to the grammar stuff.
I also really love the layout of imabi.net
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