When should I start learning grammar?

8 comments

1. You can (and should) start grammar as soon as possible. I don’t know about the Genki books (not used them) but give them a go. I’d also recommend having a go with [Cure Dolly’s excellent grammar series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9uYxuZf8x_A-vcqqyOFZu06WlhnypWj) – they start off with no expectations (turn on the subtitles though as it helps – her voice can be a little indistinct at times, and you don’t want to miss anything).

2. Start immediately. The idea that you must master a bunch of vocab or kanji first is nonsense. There’s no need to silo your learning, do a little of everything as you go. Everything reinforces everything else.

3. You can start with grammar as soon as you know the kana. Grammar takes time to settle in so start as soon as you can.

4. > but I’ve been told I need to get to at least level 10 on WaniKani to start grammar.

   no, people who don’t even use wanikani have learned grammar, it has nothing to do with your wanikani level and whoever told you that was wrong

   you can start it in genki chapter 1

5. You can start gramma whenever you’d like.

6. “At least level 10 on wanikani” that is completely arbitrary, it’s up to the individual learner, the only rule in language learning is to succeed in learning the language and think for yourself!

7. I feel like “grammar” in Japanese is less about rules, and more about just learning “stock ways” of saying things. The sooner you start practicing this stuff, the better.

   Of course, this is based on my idea that I feel like English grammar does follow “rules” more regularly than simply having “conventions” (which may be a biased and not very accurate assumption). That said..now that I’ve started glimpsing the tip of the iceberg for more hardcore Japanese grammar (e.g. learning a little about Classical Japanese and how grammar has changed over time), I can start to appreciate that maybe it does have more “rules” that I initially thought, but this requires such a deep dive and more prior knowledge that I don’t feel like Genki or any beginner learning resource wades anywhere near this stuff. They will just focus on how to say stuff, not why.

   In any case, I’d suggest you start going through Genki ASAP. Maybe learn hiragana first? But that shouldn’t take you more than a couple days before you know it “well enough” to get moving. It doesn’t need to be absolutely perfect, since you’ll reinforce it as you use it going through he book.

8. Tokini Andy has a great grammar series on Youtube that augments what you learn from Genki.
   Learning a language without starting with basic grammar and conjugation, sounds backwards to me. It gives you the framework to plug in new vocabulary as you pick it up

   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA_RcUI8km1NMhiEebcbqdlcHv_2ngbO2