I personally have come across Marugoto and Minna no Nihongo; I’ve heard of Genki but not used it. My question is, for example, what does Genki 1 cover in Marugoto equivalent? What about the other books? Just curious in case I need/want to pick up other books in future.
Thank you in advance for your thoughts on the topic!
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Hey there! It’s great to hear that you’ve already had some exposure to Japanese language learning materials. In terms of comparing Genki to Marugoto, I’ve found that Genki 1 covers a lot of the same basic grammar and vocabulary as Marugoto A1-1. However, Genki has a more structured approach with clear grammar explanations and exercises while Marugoto places a lot of emphasis on communicative language learning through real-life scenarios. As for the other books, it really depends on what level you’re at and what specific aspects of the language you want to focus on. Personally, I’ve found Tobira to be a great intermediate-level textbook for building reading and listening skills while also delving into more complex grammar. Good luck with your future studies!
probably can look at the table of contents
a big thing with genki, besides the clear explanations, is that basically so many people use it there are lectures about it on youtube and someone made an online workbook
so with all that it’s easier
I’m curious peoples thoughts on Japanese from Zero? A lot of the book recommendations I see are grammar guides and stuff that already assumes you know a more Japanese than I already do. I like to break things up into tangible lessons. I was planning on checking out Genki, but I already own Japanese from Zero.
These are not a bad places to start:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/startersguide/
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/beginner-japanese-textbook/
Genki is the most popular textbook for western universities. It has a lot of content and English explanations. There are additional on-line study sites including:
https://sethclydesdale.github.io/genki-study-resources/lessons-3rd/
Minna no Nihongo is more dense and has only Japanese. One should purchase the supplementary grammar/vocab guides. This is the most popular textbook for language schools in Japan.
Both Genki & MNN are designed for classroom use so missing a bit of content which was intended to be taught by the teacher.
I think they all cover similar material, but I feel like Minna no Nihongo covers the most material and has the most practice work if you buy the grammar guide and the workbooks. MNN really was the book that pulled me out of the beginner hell hole and into consuming native content.