I’m level 13 in WaniKani right now after a bit more than half a year of studying, which I feel is going pretty well. But ofcourse I barely know any grammar, so I can’t read any sentences.
Okay so I need to start learning some grammar, great! Where do I begin, Genki? Tae Kim? it’s at this point that I’m stuck. I can’t decide what’s best for me, which is also difficult to find out because everybodies opinion is different and contradicting.
Then when doing research about grammar, I inevitably find about opinions about learning the language in general, which can differ wildly as well.
This is making me unsure about my current ways and I feel like I’m falling in to the trap of looking for a way to learn, rather than actually learning.
Some advice on what to do would be greatly appreciated
19 comments
You can use those textbooks but nothing is gonna beat an actual book
Take a look at Tae Kim, it’s free after all, and if you don’t vibe with the writing style then check out Genki. The Japan Times ebook shop has generous samples you can flip though and see what’s up. If that still doesn’t feel right, look at other resources. Tofugu, Wasabi, and Imabi are a few other places I’ve looked at grammar on.
Personally, I am an awful self-starter and I get stuck with intense analysis paralysis if I have to plan and execute something on my own. Textbooks worked best for me as a result, it’s arranged in some type of order and the practice options are baked in. Do I follow them exactly? No. More as a reference or for some usage practice, more so if I want workbooks.
At the end of the day I’ve found there’s so many options and resources these days that you can waste too much time trying to optimize or perfect your study method. Take a look at what there is, see what makes sense to you and your learning style/goals, and JUST STICK WITH IT.
I’ve waffled with very little progress because I kept dabbling with shiny new resources instead of just progressing through one. Find what works and just stay with it. Nothing is going to reduce amount of work learning takes. No one has better answers. Just stay with whatever you’re likely able to make yourself look at it even when motivation has long abandoned you and discipline has to take over.
I’d recommend grabbing a textbook to get started. Genki or Japanese from Zero if you’re doing self-study. Tae Kim is great for reference, but a little hard to just jump into, in my opinion.
If you like the WaniKani approach, you can also try [Bunpro](https://bunpro.jp/), which is kind of like the same thing except for grammar. Bunpro will teach you grammar quickly, without a lot of hand-holding. But every grammar point has links to articles online where you can get a more detailed explanation.
I found grammar really difficult. I had to bite the bullet and hire a teacher through italki to go through the grammar with me.
When you start speaking Japanese in a conversation and have to think about your sentence structure before speaking it really helps you get used to applying the rules quickly.
Pick one of those sources. Find a time every day and set it aside for study. Start learning.
Most of the beginner options are roughly equivalent. They cover the same ground in basically the same order. So go for whichever one appeals to you for whatever reason, long term it wont really matter what you picked nearly as much as how much time you put into it.
Wanikani does have example sentences for you to explore. If you’re studying grammar through some other resource, they’re a good exercise in reading, it makes it more interesting to examine those sentences.
Personally, the way I started learning grammar was… looking at the wikipedia page for Japanese verbs. That got me the basics of verb conjugation down. But then again, I’m a bit of a grammar nerd, so I *like* that stuff.
I’ve spent some time reading Tae Kim, but what I honestly found worked better was this site: https://sakubi.neocities.org/. They styles are not identical but are quite similar though, so take a look at both and decide what works best for you.
But what really ended up teaching me the majority of grammar was to go through the Tango N5 Omega anki deck… and then whenever I came upon some grammar I didn’t know, I just looked it up!
For example, I remember coming across the sentence 「左に回すと、水が出ます」 (hidari ni mawasu to, mizu ga demasu). The meaning given for this sentence was “if you turn this to the left, water comes out.” I understood most of it – 左 is left, 回す is to turn, 水 is water and 出ます is ‘to come out’. I knew と can be used to mean “and/with”, but that didn’t make immediate sense in this case – so I just googled “Japanese grammar to”, or something like that, and bang – there was a good description of all the ways it can be used, including as a conditional, resulting in an if… then… construction when translated to English. Notably, it can only be used for things that “always” happen; logical or natural consequences. There are other conditionals (-tara and -ba) for other uses.
The Tango N5 deck also suddenly starts using e.g. the -tai verb form without telling you what it is first, so I just looked that up and learned that it indicates something you want to do (e.g. すしが食べたい, “[I] want to eat sushi”).
So yeah, my recommendation would be to *study vocabulary with example sentences*. The sentences will start out easy, but gradually you will meet more and more advanced grammar. Simply look this advanced grammar up when you come across it! Eventually you’ll be able to start reading easy Japanese texts, where you’ll meet more unknown grammar – Satori Reader is a good place to go for beginners, even if you don’t want to pay for it.
I really love this playlist by Cure Dolly https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj
Isn’t there a class you can go to somewhere nearby?
I think the best way to get started is to actually go to a class and learn with a teacher and other students.
I’m actually following both tae kim and genki for grammar. except I hate the way genki is structured so I go through it with Tokini Andy’s lessons on yt. and whenever I don’t get something I look it up online either on stack exchange or tofugu. Tofugu has really good grammar guides but they aren’t structured like in a textbook, tofugu is more like a grammar dictionary.
also, you don’t really have to *choose* between programs and textbooks if you’re studying on your own. just try doing everything and eventually you’ll gravitate towards your own flow.
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edit: oh shoot I probably have to add that you do actually need to follow some kinda program if you need to pass JLPT for work and if you have actual deadlines or whatever. my approach works for me but it’s definitely not as focused
I use wanikani and Bunpro. Bunpro is a paid service like WK is. But bunpo* note the spelling, is free I think. However you can explore the grammar points on Bunpro for free you just don’t get access to the flashcards. You can try it for free for a month if you wanna try it though
Why not get a tutor? A human can detect your proficiency and recommend next steps. Sure it costs money but it can save you a lot of time – helping steer you in the right direction.
I’ve been doing Pimsleur and anki cards daily. I have a tutor once a week but may up it to twice once I’m done Pimsleur.
At the beginning I was super overwhelmed with how many learning resources there were but honestly just find what you like and stick with it. Like anything in life. Stick with it.
Want to get in shape or be good at an instrument? An instructor can steer you in the direction. So why not a language teacher too?
I learned all important Japanese grammar from the 3 following text books:
– a dictionary of basic Japanese grammar (the yellow book)
– a dictionary of intermediate Japanese grammar (the blue book)
– a dictionary of advanced Japanese grammar (the red book)
You only really need the yellow book (beginner). It covers every piece of useful Japanese grammar to cover most situations. I would simply just sit through it and give it a solid read, cover to cover.
Read the grammar and then start making example sentences with it. The more grammar patterns you learn and recognize, the more you’ll start to connect the dots together in your mind, and you will start being able to really grasp it in listening and speaking.
If you can’t/won’t buy these books, you may be able to find pdf versions on archive.org
For me, I find that different sources explain things differently. For example, one source offered a very poor and lacking explanation of て verbs, so I went on the Internet and read about them. When I bought Genki 1, I re-read the explanation to solidify my understanding of it. Generally, I find Genki explains most concepts pretty well, but I still occasionally need to consult other websites to understand some things. Sometimes, just reading/hearing explanations in a different way can help. I would suggest just picking one source to learn from and if you’re having difficulties understanding a certain concept, just search for the answer online and you’ll find a different explanation that might help you more.
Id start off with Tae Kim and support/complement every grammar point with youtube videos and other sites online:
On youtube youve got amazing content creators like **Japanese Ammo with Misa** who cover a lot of grammar points for beginners and intermediate learners, couldnt recommend her enough, heres her beginners playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd5-Wp_4tLqYZxS5j3g6kbeOfVXlTkr3N
And regarding the other sites, you dont even need to bookmark anything, a simple google search typing in “______ grammar” will suffice, i was just looking up “ようになる grammar” the other day for example. If youre lucky, incredible sites like maggie sensei or todoku will come up, if not, then just browse through a few of whatever you find to read some more about it, take some notes and review more examples.
After years of ignoring it, I finally looked at Satori reader last night. I think it would give good value for assimilating grammar.
Since you like WaniKani’s style of SRS and ordered content, I would REALLY recommend Bunpo. Grammar by JLPT, overview + practice and then SRS to keep up with it.
Once you get through N4, I would start reading via Satori or other graded readers. You should have enough vocab and grammar by then that you can learn and enforce via immersion.
Anytime you run across something you don’t know and aren’t sure if it’s vocab or grammar, try to look it up in a dictionary first. Next, Google it like “のほうがいい grammar”. I like to add in “tofugu” because I like their explanations.
i liked genki for learning sentences
Same here – Half a year, WaniKani level 12. For my part, I decided to just get as far as I can with free grammar resources first. I read most of Tae Kim and everything on Tofugu that seemed “fundamental”. Then I got a Japanese and an English copy of a manga I already know and am working through it and asking questions in the language exchange discord. I figured to start taking in real-world usage as early as possible because that will help me internalize the patterns and understand what they really mean in the most useful and efficient way.