It has been a few years since I finished Genki 1, and I subsequently completely stopped learning Japanese. I have no idea why, I just stopped for the most part. I still did Wanikani, got to level 5 before stopping that as well, as there were too many words and kanji that I was struggling to remember. (Probably because I couldn’t apply it anywhere.) and watched Japanese streamers (Stopped that too)
I want to learn again.
As it has been a few years, should I redo Genki 1? Or do I just read through the grammar explanations, and then move on to Genki 2?
6 comments
skim the table of contents and see what you remember, write down the topics you totally forgot
and then you can go over those
and then you can go to genki II or redo genki I if you forgot like over half the book
Nobody here can possibly know how much you still remember. Read through the grammar explanations and then use your own judgement if you need to reinforce them via exercises or not.
I’d be tempted to start from scratch again. If you’ve not been using Japanese or studying it for that long you’re bound to have forgotten a lot.
Sounds like you were having trouble with vocab retention. Were you using Anki? If not that will help you retain vocab. I’ve put [some advice and resources here](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/s5mtva/comment/ht1lo0x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) that might help.
Start from scratch it treat it as review. The topics you are good at will be a breeze to review anyway.
I don’t think it would be a bad idea to refresh and relearn for a good foundation. You should review at a very accelerated pace as you have seen the materials before and given that Genki is not particularly dense.
This site has some review materials you might like
https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/
Go through it and see how much you do or don’t remember. Then skim over parts you do know and focus on things you don’t.