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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes  Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 15 March 2011 at 4:19am | IP Logged |
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Hi every one, I've been studying japanese very seriously for a little while now and am in need of a little advice.I am mainly looking for a beginners book that focuses mostly on japanese grammar.So I'm wondering, have any of you used Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1? if so would you recommend it as my first book for learning grammar, or are there alternatives that you would recommend?
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| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7122 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 2 of 7 15 March 2011 at 7:01am | IP Logged |
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Are you planning to take the JLPT tests? If so, why not take a look at the preparatory courses for those because they are highly grammar-based, and on completing them successfully, you'll also be in a position to take a test at that level, leading to a useful, formal qualification in Japanese. You can get an English guide for each book. They are pretty dry, but if it's grammar you're looking for you might like them.
I've heard Genki is good though. I started off with Hugo's 'Japanese In Three Months' which I liked a lot, but it doesn't use any Japanese script. Finally, The Japan Times (I think) does three grammar books, at basic, intermediate and advanced levels but they are done as reference books, i.e. no exercises. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5409 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 7 15 March 2011 at 7:21am | IP Logged |
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I've gone through most of Genki I. I think it's okay for Grammar but I prefer to use books that are more Grammar specific like Japanese Step by Step, Shaum's Japanese Grammar, or the Japanese in Mangaland books. Genki is a pretty good book, and there's quite a bit of audio available for it which I like, but there's also quite a bit of "group" type exercises which I find annoying to go through (or usually I just end up skipping them) as a self-learner.
Also the Grammar isn't introduced all that quickly so you'd probably need to go through both books before you're at a JLPT n5/n4 type level. Edited by Sandman on 15 March 2011 at 7:23am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 7 15 March 2011 at 12:27pm | IP Logged |
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Genki I was my first main textbook. I am not sure I can recommend it wholeheartedly as there are a number of reasons I got quite fed up with it towards the end. However, it did give me a feeling of confidence in the beginning that Japanese was something I could actually learn and I am not sure if I would have felt this using any of the other main beginner textbooks available. I think I prefer Genki I over Japanese for Busy People I, however I think Japanese for Busy People II & III are in many ways better than Genki II - the exercises are not as helpful but the descriptions are better written, there are complete transcriptions, an answer key and all audio is included with the books. Japanese for Busy People I is annoying because it doesn't use kanji at all (you can either get a romaji version or a kana-only version) and only teaches verbs in ます form. It may be worth your while picking up Japanese for Everyone. I own it but have never really used it, however it is very comprehensive and also relatively cheap. Ultimately there is no perfect textbook and if you're anything like me you will end up jumping around a lot of different materials anyway.
I wouldn't recommend jumping straight into using JLPT materials to learn grammar as a beginner because they generally don't explain things in much detail, I think they assume you will learn a lot of the grammar elsewhere. However you might still find them a useful supplement, especially if you do intend to sit the exams. Anyway, I will set out what I think are the best and worst points and maybe this will help you decide. Good points: The first two chapters had both kana and romaji, before switching to Japanese script only for the rest of the book. I found this really helped me to develop confidence in reading kana because I had a transcription to refer to in the beginning, without encouraging a reliance on romaji as from Chapter 3 there are no more transcriptions. Plain forms are introduced about half way through. Grammar descriptions were very good at explaining issues of politeness (to the point at times where I got quite paranoid that I might start sounding rude), long before any humble/honorific expressions are introduced (actually, these aren't covered until book II). There is a good range of different types of exercises, if you like that kind of thing, particularly if you shell out on the workbook as well. Bad points: No answer key unless you shell out on the teacher's guide (which I did not do) Audio has to be purchased separately Lots of group exercises which are pretty much useless for self study No transcriptions of audio exercises It is very obvious that the English is written by a non-native speaker, and at times the grammar explanations were a little confusing as a result. The grammar approach was more about teaching set sentence patterns rather than giving an understanding of how Japanese grammar really works. Some very simple concepts, like using こと or の as nominalisers were not really covered as early as they could have been, if it all. The explanations relating to conditionals I think was particularly bad, but I think this was all in book II. The kanji are introduced in the reading section in a very haphazard order - often it feels like they pick a kanji because it fits in with the text they are using, but then it is never used again throughout the entire book. In fact I would absolutely not recommend you use Genki I to learn kanji/reading and I think that Basic Kanji Book is far better for this. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 5 of 7 15 March 2011 at 10:11pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'm going to use Japanese step by step, and Japanese demystified for my first grammar books. That is, after i get a few hundred kanji under my belt.
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 7 16 March 2011 at 12:04am | IP Logged |
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There is no reason why you cannot get a grounding in basic Japanese grammar at the same time as covering a few hundred kanji, just allocate a bit of time to both.
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| fortheo Senior Member United States Joined 5037 days ago 187 posts - 222 votes Studies: French | Message 7 of 7 16 March 2011 at 12:38am | IP Logged |
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Yeah, I just don't have the time to fit it into my study schedule at this moment ( between remembering the kanji, pimsleur and rosetta stone, i'm quiet busy ). In about two weeks though I will have finished pimsleur. At that time i will have a good start with some kanji, and the time that pimsleur took up will be allocated by grammar studies.
Thanks again for all the comments! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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