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Genki vs. Japanese for Busy People | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5539 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 9 of 23 12 April 2012 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Additionally there's also the book, Japanese for Everyone that Gakken Press put out
(which is different than Minna no Nihongo). It's hard to get the books new (which may or may not make it a feasible option for you) but I've seen a lot of really good reviews of it and it ends up being cheaper than buying Genki I and II despite the fact that it goes over the same amount of material. That said, it doesn't go over learning kana at all and does away with romaji by the fourth chapter so it'd be smart to learn kana first (which I personally didn't find that difficult). The set consists of audio (which you'd probably only find through inter-library loan), the textbook, a kanji workbook, and a workbook. I know a number of people have said (in other forums) that they haven't needed the workbooks because they think that the textbook has enough exercises, but I personally need the practice that the workbooks provide. I started using the textbook again as of yesterday and should get the two textbooks by Monday (one is coming today and the other "is shipping soon" according to Amazon.com) so I'd be happy to post a a review of my first take of them. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tamise Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom jllrr.wordpress.com/ Joined 5241 days ago 115 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English*, German, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese, Spanish | Message 10 of 23 14 April 2012 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
A cheaper place to buy from is bk1. (If the site being all in Japanese is a problem, there are detailed instructions here.) The main reason it's cheaper is that they allow you to ship via SAL and Airmail, whereas Amazon is priority only for overseas. bk1 don't say what the shipping is when you order, but it's done pretty much at cost (see chart) so will cost you less than Amazon who will change 4000 Yen for 2 books. The speed is slower, but it's not too bad - 1-2 weeks for SAL to Europe. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| buchstabe Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4700 days ago 52 posts - 108 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: Czech, Swedish, Japanese | Message 11 of 23 29 April 2012 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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A little belated because I've been travelling during the last two weeks, sorry: Thanks for all the tips!
I tried to get Japanese for Everyone and the new edition of Genki through inter-library loan but wasn't successful. They a copy of the Japanese for Everyone textbook and workbook in Munich but didn't let me order it, and I couldn't find the new Genki in any German library - the closest hit was from the SOAS in London. I didn't order that one, though, because the couple of times I tried international loans, I only had the books for a very short time, which wouldn't give me enough time to test, and at the same time I believe it's rather expensive for the library. So eventually I ordered Genki from Amazon.jp shortly before I left (unfortunately I hadn't read Tamise's message yet, but it's great to know about bk1 nevertheless, for future purchases), including the answer key, to have it here when I would come back. That worked out as planned and I've hopped into the first lesson, skipping the intro about the writing systems. My impression so far is that it's exactly what I was looking for. :) atama warui, since I have Minna no nihongo already anyway, it's not unlikely that I'll use it for additional practice at some point, but I didn't want to use it as my main textbook, even if it would actually become easier to work with it after completing other material first, because I'm learning Japanese just for the fun of it and I don't want to make it a chore by fighting my way through a textbook that I simply don't like. Thanks for the hint to Tae Kim's Guide and Human Japanese. Both look very interesting. I've downloaded the Human Japanese App on my phone and when I'm done with the free lessons, I'll likely buy it. As for the writing, I see the point of getting rid of romaji as soon as reasonably possible, and I never planned to rely on romaji. Nevertheless I prefer to have romaji support in the beginning and that's not because I want to shun learning the writing systems but because I found that I'm more likely to be successful that way. I can more or less read all Hiragana, and some Katakana, I just occasionally have doubts where I like to double-check if I read a word correctly. That's where romaji in a textbook come in handy, because looking it up each time would be unnecessarily time-consuming. Another reason is that my retention rate when I try to memorize vocabulary written in hiragana is painfully low, which is demotivating. I found I get better results when I memorize new words looking at the romaji version first, but then use hiragana only when I review them in Anki. It's not that I'm avoiding hiragana, I'm just breaking the task up into two steps to accomodate how my brain works: I need to see a word in writing (and, asI found out when tackling Japanese, in a familiar script, so that I don't get distracted by the script) to be able to remember it quickly. I've never been able to pick up vocabulary just from listening and the results when trying to learn words written in hiragana strongly remind my of the effects I saw when I tried to learn vocabulary from tapes. I understand that to some people that might seem inefficient, but it's not for me, given that I hardly made any progress at all when I tried to learn words in hiragana. It was just plain frustrating reviewing the same word about 20 times and more and still not being able to recall its meaning. When I instead work with romaji and word lists first, I review new Japanense words 3-5 times on average in the word list, and then when I switch to hiragana in Anki, I can move most of them through the stages rather smoothly. It's definitely more rewarding that way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 5092 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 12 of 23 01 May 2012 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese for Everyone is my favorite textbook. I had used Genki as well, particularly the recorded audio, but I very much preferred JFE overall. It's not that Genki isn't as good, but I think JFE is geared more towards self study, whereas Genki is geared more towards college students, so I felt like I could relate to JFE a little bit more. It's a dense book, though, and moves quickly. Basically, it covers the same material in one volume that Genki covers in two. As you proceed through the book, it gradually stops giving English transcripts for the dialogs, expecting you to follow them without translating.
The audio portion of Genki is very useful, in my opinion. I didn't spend a lot of time on the written material, but I would play the audio content during my commutes to practice listening comprehension and going through the exercises out loud. They read off the vocabulary lists for each chapter, so I would replay those several times and repeat after the speaker. I actually enjoyed it a lot more then I did Pimsleur. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| thephilologist Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6032 days ago 26 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 13 of 23 03 May 2012 at 6:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Could anyone give me an idea of about how much material is in each Genki book? I may be taking a Japanese class that uses this text in the fall, and I would like to get into a more advanced level. How long would it take to get through each book assuming I study an hour a day?
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| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 5092 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 14 of 23 04 May 2012 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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@thephilologist, the Genki page at Japan Times answers some of your questions about how much it covers, and the recommend number of hours:
http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/faq_en How fast you could get through the book depends. If you have any previous knowledge of Japanese through other resources, then you could probably move through it much quicker than the recommend amount of time. Are you asking if Genki covers advanced topics? Or are you saying you already know some Japanese, and want to know which volume you should start on? The first two volumes (Genki I and Genki II) cover basic grammar. After those two books, there is a 3rd book, which is not called "Genki" but is produced by the same people and follows the same format, called An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese. Some people refer to it as "Genki III". 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| thephilologist Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6032 days ago 26 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 15 of 23 05 May 2012 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the link, starrye. I know I will be starting with Genki I, I was just curious about how many hours it takes to get through the material in each book. The website suggests 9 hours per lesson, but it sounds like they are assuming a classroom setting; I could probably be a bit more efficient on my own.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| buchstabe Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4700 days ago 52 posts - 108 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: Czech, Swedish, Japanese | Message 16 of 23 09 May 2012 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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@thephilologist: I was reluctant to say anything because I really don't have much to
report about, but maybe it still helps a bit, since nobody else has answered yet: My current speed is 1 lesson per week, with a couple of hours (3-4) of reading, doing exercises and writing on the weekend plus repeating vocabulary (Anki and listening to the mp3s with the vocabulary occasionally) during the week. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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