I am starting Genki and I am curious what you think about my super detailed study plan: one lesson (book A and B part together) / 1 month. I am a PhD student with many other hobbies thats why I don’t have hours for a day to learn like 100-200 words/day however I really want to learn Japanese in a peaceful tempo. However, I am a bit worried this is just too slow. Will Genki be “quicker” to learn or is it really okay to progress this way? I’ve learned two languages at school in a really stressful manner that’s why I want it to take it slowly but don’t want to forget over time or something. What is you progress? One Genki book over like one year is good? I’ve seen many posts about “Genki 1 over 2 month” etc. and I just feel it extremly uneasing to learn that quickly… Of course I don’t want to follow that way 🙂
3 comments
There is no “too slow” if you study Japanese as a hobby. It’s not a contest and you shouldn’t be intimidated by posts claiming 100 new words a day or finishing Genki in two months, because they are either just lying or speedrun through it without building the slightest amount of understanding. I went to a language school in Japan which was fairly strict and progressed fast but even there we “only” went through one lesson a week which is a fairly fast pace.
Consistency is the main factor. Even if it’s just 15 minutes, try to do something every day. I would just progress as you seem fit and not limit yourself to a set timeframe per lesson. Progress to the next lesson whenever you feel comfortable with all the topics covered in the current one.
for one, any pace that works for you is the correct pace
secondly, for those casually studying and not trying to race to some kind of goal line, one genki book per per, one jlpt n-level every 1-2 years, is very common, just for statistical reference if you want to file yourself in a folder with others
Sounds ok to me! I did Genki 1 and Genki 2, it took about 7 months. I’m not a PhD student but I work full-time instead. Hmm, if you are a PhD student I’m probably 2x your age.
So one thing is, chapter 1 and chapter 2 are not really representative of the rest of the book. They take a very short amount of time compared to the rest. I think the full-swing starts at around chapter 3 or 4. Then you have a good sample to work from of how your pacing should be.
Genki 2 in particular drags on and is pretty hard to keep pushing through.