* half the exercises for each chapter are in the back half of the book (which confuses like 50% of the people who buy this)
* ch1-2 are shorter/simpler than the rest of the book, so don’t pace yourself based on that
* kanji are in the back as well starting with ch3
* online workbook is an option, google “genki online workbook”
* genki II starts to drag on seemingly forever, don’t give up
TokiniAndy on YouTube has lectures on every single lesson in the book and does a great job explaining everything, sometimes better than the book does. Makes Genki so much easier, especially when self studying
The thing that helped me with Genki was finding an online group where we went through half a chapter every week (that’s basically what it took for us, might be different for different people). That accountability was *really* helpful.
Pay attention to the characters so you can watch the story of mary play out. When I was using genki in my japanese classes me and my friends had a lot of fun following the “plot” of the textbook lol
Be consistent. Make a time in your schedule for (almost) every day if possible. Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint.
Good luck!
I’ve used the GENKI vocab and GENKI kanji apps much more than the workbooks to reinforce what I’ve learned. Recently I bought one set of the GENKI ‘easy’ readers. Pricey but 10 interesting classic stories and they exploit the vocab and grammar introduced in the books too. Nice set of resources. Good luck. Enjoy the ride!
I’m in the same boat as you, just got the books, thanks for the post and all the people who commented.
• there is an answer key which is especially helpful with for the workbook • it’s helpful to find Japanese language partners for practice, especially for the partner exercises (native people at best) • don’t do ALL exercises, some are way too repetitive or plain unnecessary, some grammatical functions are so simple it’s a waste of time but in the end it depends on you • don’t forget the back of the book for the extras to each lesson if you’re interested, I personally didn’t know they existed until I was done with all lessons
If you watch a lot of anime, you won’t learn how anime people (and irl people) speak for a while. But, it’s still important to learn the polite/long form.
I’ve seen others in this thread suggest getting a group together to learn and keep each other accountable, maybe if there’s enough interest we can create a discord group or something?
I’ve just bought genki textbook and workbook as well, would love a study group
Prepare a schedule for yourself. A good idea would be to get hiragana and katakana down first. At the same time start learning kanji with SRS (I don’t like learning them by book, I recommend wanikani). Once you can read hiragana and katakana fluently (shouldnt take longer than a week of serious practise), start with the books and give yourself maybe 1-2 weeks per chapter, while keeping up the kanji learning separately. I also suggest you download the genki I & II anki deck for studying vocab.
Tldr: Use the books mainly for grammar, reading and the exercises. Outsource kanji and vocab to an srs based system. (Wanikani, anki)
Edit: nearly forgot, these days there’s tons of input based on these books on YouTube. I recommend tokiniiandy (not sure I spelled it correctly). He goes through each chapter slowly and explains it all. I would use these as a recap once you’ve studied the chapter for yourself.
I tend to go through a block of grammar in the textbook and then watch the corresponding segment of ToKini Andy afterwards.
After getting through a chapter completely I like to watch Game Gengo’s video on said chapter as a refresher. TK Andy and GG both have a slightly different style of teaching and I find it interesting to approach the grammar from multiple viewpoints. I also enjoy the game clips on GG’s videos, many of which I’d like to play in Japanese in the future.
Watch some videos on grammar before using the textbook / workbook in my opinion. It’ll go by faster / easier and you can reinforce / practice with the books after. They are free and widely available. Japanese from Zero, Japanese with Lilly, Japanese Ammo with Misa are some good ones.
Feel free to take as long as you need on a chapter. I was going at about a chapter a week in the beginning, but have started doing about 2 weeks a chapter just to really get it down pat. The first few chapters are a bad gauge at how the rest of them flow.
I really like it! Recommend it full! The only thing is, the textbook has a looot of pair and team excercises, and as I study by my own, I just skipped them. But the workbook its perfect for doing it alone!
19 comments
* half the exercises for each chapter are in the back half of the book (which confuses like 50% of the people who buy this)
* ch1-2 are shorter/simpler than the rest of the book, so don’t pace yourself based on that
* kanji are in the back as well starting with ch3
* online workbook is an option, google “genki online workbook”
* genki II starts to drag on seemingly forever, don’t give up
TokiniAndy on YouTube has lectures on every single lesson in the book and does a great job explaining everything, sometimes better than the book does. Makes Genki so much easier, especially when self studying
The thing that helped me with Genki was finding an online group where we went through half a chapter every week (that’s basically what it took for us, might be different for different people). That accountability was *really* helpful.
https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/lessons-3rd/
I would strongly advise you download Anki and import a Genki I vocabulary deck to help you study.
The TokiniAndy Genki lessons playlist is an amazing complementary resource. He clarifies some concepts and lessons that might be confusing when working with just the books. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA_RcUI8km1NMhiEebcbqdlcHv_2ngbO2
Pay attention to the characters so you can watch the story of mary play out. When I was using genki in my japanese classes me and my friends had a lot of fun following the “plot” of the textbook lol
Be consistent. Make a time in your schedule for (almost) every day if possible. Language learning is a marathon, not a sprint.
Good luck!
I’ve used the GENKI vocab and GENKI kanji apps much more than the workbooks to reinforce what I’ve learned. Recently I bought one set of the GENKI ‘easy’ readers. Pricey but 10 interesting classic stories and they exploit the vocab and grammar introduced in the books too. Nice set of resources. Good luck. Enjoy the ride!
I’m in the same boat as you, just got the books, thanks for the post and all the people who commented.
• there is an answer key which is especially helpful with for the workbook
• it’s helpful to find Japanese language partners for practice, especially for the partner exercises (native people at best)
• don’t do ALL exercises, some are way too repetitive or plain unnecessary, some grammatical functions are so simple it’s a waste of time but in the end it depends on you
• don’t forget the back of the book for the extras to each lesson if you’re interested, I personally didn’t know they existed until I was done with all lessons
If you watch a lot of anime, you won’t learn how anime people (and irl people) speak for a while. But, it’s still important to learn the polite/long form.
I’ve seen others in this thread suggest getting a group together to learn and keep each other accountable, maybe if there’s enough interest we can create a discord group or something?
I’ve just bought genki textbook and workbook as well, would love a study group
Prepare a schedule for yourself. A good idea would be to get hiragana and katakana down first. At the same time start learning kanji with SRS (I don’t like learning them by book, I recommend wanikani). Once you can read hiragana and katakana fluently (shouldnt take longer than a week of serious practise), start with the books and give yourself maybe 1-2 weeks per chapter, while keeping up the kanji learning separately. I also suggest you download the genki I & II anki deck for studying vocab.
Tldr: Use the books mainly for grammar, reading and the exercises. Outsource kanji and vocab to an srs based system. (Wanikani, anki)
Edit: nearly forgot, these days there’s tons of input based on these books on YouTube. I recommend tokiniiandy (not sure I spelled it correctly). He goes through each chapter slowly and explains it all. I would use these as a recap once you’ve studied the chapter for yourself.
I tend to go through a block of grammar in the textbook and then watch the corresponding segment of ToKini Andy afterwards.
After getting through a chapter completely I like to watch Game Gengo’s video on said chapter as a refresher. TK Andy and GG both have a slightly different style of teaching and I find it interesting to approach the grammar from multiple viewpoints. I also enjoy the game clips on GG’s videos, many of which I’d like to play in Japanese in the future.
TK Andy’s playlists have been linked in other comments but here’s Game Gengo’s ongoing series on Genki I: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT12i1gB38HGAc-zjgFA4YcJA2Z3gVZTL
Watch some videos on grammar before using the textbook / workbook in my opinion. It’ll go by faster / easier and you can reinforce / practice with the books after. They are free and widely available.
Japanese from Zero, Japanese with Lilly, Japanese Ammo with Misa are some good ones.
Feel free to take as long as you need on a chapter. I was going at about a chapter a week in the beginning, but have started doing about 2 weeks a chapter just to really get it down pat. The first few chapters are a bad gauge at how the rest of them flow.
I really like it! Recommend it full! The only thing is, the textbook has a looot of pair and team excercises, and as I study by my own, I just skipped them. But the workbook its perfect for doing it alone!