Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 (English and Japanese Edition)
004 4 I am currently in a college course which uses this as our sole text book , and it is extremely useful . With lessons in class paired with the book's chapters , new concepts are picked up comfortably , and are then used throughout the rest of the chapters , providing a cumulative effect that really lets you feel like you are making progress . Also included are kanji in the back of the book for each chapter , allowing you to fill out your reading / writing skills as you see fit . All in all , a wonderful text !
029 4 My college teacher uses this book and she is one who expects you to do alot on your own , that being said this isn't the book for self teaching . Its great for classroom instruction with the aid of the workbook , as long as lectures are provided to help put in the missing pieces of japanese grammar that genki misses . Overall , its a good book but only recommended for those in college or high school .
037 4 I am currently using this book in college in a course I am taking . This is the third type of Japanese book I have experienced . Its really good . Its not meant to be a self study though . Its kinda of written for a class room environment .
042 4 This book came highly recommended by two Japanese tutors who have been living and studying in Japan for years . It is a great starter book and from what I understand , there is a series of books that follow for more advanced studying . A must have for anyone interested in learning Japanese .
046 4 I learned Japanese as a second language from the Genki books , and now I use them to teach students of my own . This is by far the best Introductory Japanese book out there !
048 4 This book really helps me learning Japanese from the very beggining . if ure looking for a best Japanese book , this book should fit you.highly recommended !
057 4 Though I cannot confirm whether this is the workbook or textbook , I can still give my opinion . This is the exact same series used in my Japanese classes . It is easy to understand , gives ample explanation and example , and follows a logical course . My Japanese teacher , who happens to be Japanese herself , likes this book far better than the other ones she has tried . This is a book for anyone who is interested in the Japanese language or just beginning to learn .
038 4 The textbook is just what I was hoping it would be . I've been told that the language itself is very difficult , but I was surprised to find that it was simpler for me to comprehend then my previous instruction in French . The beginning work is very straightforward and smoothly transitions from using romaji . I do suggest spending a fair amount of time practicing and memorizing the hiragana and katakana . It makes everything easier . I'm not sure if that was how the process was intended to be , but overall , I highly recommend Genki's text .
059 4 This booke came in great condition , with only one corner bent . It was probably due to packaging , but the book itself is exactly how it was said to be . Would definitely buy from this person again .
054 4 Way overpriced by the people selling the used versions . You can buy brand new copies for less than half that . Search through amazon .
063 4 This book came in a short period of time . It was the exact book that I needed for class and was very pleased by it .
065 4 It was pretty fast delivery and in good condition , but there were a few nicks and dings on it , but nothing too big .
@ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other ; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary . This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience . It is useless for business , BTW ( though in my own case , I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business ) .
@ Even within this scenario , the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation - - all classmates address each other with polite - masu form verbs . In real life , this would be distant or even rude with your pals . ( Moreover , on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like Mary and Sue address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine , squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials , not people talking to friends or family . )
@ In Japan , it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say , or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them . This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops , where they will use a lot of keigo ( honorific speech ) or other specialized formulas . Simple example : A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask Yoroshii desu ka ? ( Is that OK ? ) , you don't answer back Hai , yoroshii desu . Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent ; e.g . when someone says Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you , even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically ( been there , done that ) . This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations , nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks . All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle ( as well as indiscriminate use of wa , the topic particle ) . So it's pretty useless for practical purposes - - unless you plan to use Japanese in class only .
@ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text , the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination . After several chapters of reading stuff like Are you OK ? I am fine . It's cold here in Japan . I took some pictures , studied Japanese and took a bath . My father is nice , but very busy , and so on , you just want to scream .
@ Although the publication date is 1999 , at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan , this book is snail-mail all the way : you spend time learning about stamps and postcards , but there isn't anything about email , the Internet or texting . ( Forget also about DVDs - - people watch videos . )
@ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity , in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on - A - , - I - , - U - , - E - and - O - ( e.g . , negative , polite , dictionary , causative and let's forms , respectively ) . This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems , so it's easy to remember . However , Genki ' s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern ( see , e.g . conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol . I ) .
@ The book lacks any review chapters , appendices , exercises or quizzes to help you consolidate what you've learned in a chunk of preceding chapters . Schools don't necessarily take the initiative to review the material every now and then , so you may need to request special quizzes to force yourself to review stuff you studied weeks earlier . My teachers were amenable when asked , though my lessons are one-on-one , and this might be more difficult to do if the book is used in a class situation ( you might ask about that before you sign up ) . If you're using the book to study on your own , you're on your own with this too .
Like most students of Japanese , I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness . ( Two of the best , Rita Lampkin's Japanese : Verbs and Essentials of Grammar and Jay Rubin's Making Sense of Japanese , unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters , or nearly so . ) You will definitely need to to the same ( or at least half a shelfload ) if you use this book . But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22 . One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author . This one is written entirely by Japanese authors ; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner .
PS ADDED 2009 / 01 : Now that I have more experience with Genki 2 , I feel there are several additional caveats for prospective users of this text . First , the good news is that you learn more informal usage , and a little bit of polite language , especially in Genki 2 . Unfortunately , many of the informal expressions are * too * informal , including several that I have never heard any educated person use , and which my wife ( a native speaker ) and my teacher ( ditto ) confirmed they would never use , even at home with family . This means that , especially in Genki 2 , you can expect a constant struggle to calibrate the text with the spoken language ; my teachers even skip some of the material because it's wrong or incomplete .
Also , more bad news if you're hoping to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test . Although Genki 2 will get you into some of the Level 3 material , the set of Genki 1 + 2 still doesn't cover all the material even for Level 4 ( the easiest level ) . I was amazed , and kind of steamed , at the new vocabulary ( several dozen words - - all of them traditional , not new words that have become current since Genki was published ) and grammatical constructions I had to learn just for the most basic level . And as one commenter noted , the sentence structures used in Level 4 are more complex than in Genki . This is not too tough to remedy , since there's plenty of review material available from other vendors . But given that the textbook was prepared in Japan by a Japanese publisher ( The Japan Times , the leading local English-language newspaper here ) , this gap is more surprising . Please consider this before you embark on a course with Genki . You might want to check out the 2008 revision of Everyone's Japanese / Minna no nihongo - - not easy , but one that my teachers often use when Genki is wrong or obtuse .
001 4 This book may be good for young students who anticipate homestays ( and I'm skeptical even about that , for reasons below ) , but if you're an adult you may find this book excruciating . I recently moved to Japan , and finally determined to take some private lessons to get a more systematic grasp on the language than I have had hitherto . My school uses this text . I can't compare it with other college-style textbooks , which may mostly suffer from the same problems , but among the issues I have with it are :
@ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other ; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary . This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience . It is useless for business , BTW ( though in my own case , I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business ) .
@ Even within this scenario , the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation - - all classmates address each other with polite - masu form verbs . In real life , this would be distant or even rude with your pals . ( Moreover , on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like Mary and Sue address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine , squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials , not people talking to friends or family . )
@ In Japan , it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say , or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them . This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops , where they will use a lot of keigo ( honorific speech ) or other specialized formulas . Simple example : A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask Yoroshii desu ka ? ( Is that OK ? ) , you don't answer back Hai , yoroshii desu . Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent ; e.g . when someone says Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you , even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically ( been there , done that ) . This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations , nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks . All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle ( as well as indiscriminate use of wa , the topic particle ) . So it's pretty useless for practical purposes - - unless you plan to use Japanese in class only .
@ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text , the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination . After several chapters of reading stuff like Are you OK ? I am fine . It's cold here in Japan . I took some pictures , studied Japanese and took a bath . My father is nice , but very busy , and so on , you just want to scream .
@ Although the publication date is 1999 , at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan , this book is snail-mail all the way : you spend time learning about stamps and postcards , but there isn't anything about email , the Internet or texting . ( Forget also about DVDs - - people watch videos . )
@ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity , in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on - A - , - I - , - U - , - E - and - O - ( e.g . , negative , polite , dictionary , causative and let's forms , respectively ) . This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems , so it's easy to remember . However , Genki ' s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern ( see , e.g . conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol . I ) .
@ The book lacks any review chapters , appendices , exercises or quizzes to help you consolidate what you've learned in a chunk of preceding chapters . Schools don't necessarily take the initiative to review the material every now and then , so you may need to request special quizzes to force yourself to review stuff you studied weeks earlier . My teachers were amenable when asked , though my lessons are one-on-one , and this might be more difficult to do if the book is used in a class situation ( you might ask about that before you sign up ) . If you're using the book to study on your own , you're on your own with this too .
Like most students of Japanese , I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness . ( Two of the best , Rita Lampkin's Japanese : Verbs and Essentials of Grammar and Jay Rubin's Making Sense of Japanese , unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters , or nearly so . ) You will definitely need to to the same ( or at least half a shelfload ) if you use this book . But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22 . One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author . This one is written entirely by Japanese authors ; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner .
PS ADDED 2009 / 01 : Now that I have more experience with Genki 2 , I feel there are several additional caveats for prospective users of this text . First , the good news is that you learn more informal usage , and a little bit of polite language , especially in Genki 2 . Unfortunately , many of the informal expressions are * too * informal , including several that I have never heard any educated person use , and which my wife ( a native speaker ) and my teacher ( ditto ) confirmed they would never use , even at home with family . This means that , especially in Genki 2 , you can expect a constant struggle to calibrate the text with the spoken language ; my teachers even skip some of the material because it's wrong or incomplete .
Also , more bad news if you're hoping to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test . Although Genki 2 will get you into some of the Level 3 material , the set of Genki 1 + 2 still doesn't cover all the material even for Level 4 ( the easiest level ) . I was amazed , and kind of steamed , at the new vocabulary ( several dozen words - - all of them traditional , not new words that have become current since Genki was published ) and grammatical constructions I had to learn just for the most basic level . And as one commenter noted , the sentence structures used in Level 4 are more complex than in Genki . This is not too tough to remedy , since there's plenty of review material available from other vendors . But given that the textbook was prepared in Japan by a Japanese publisher ( The Japan Times , the leading local English-language newspaper here ) , this gap is more surprising . Please consider this before you embark on a course with Genki . You might want to check out the 2008 revision of Everyone's Japanese / Minna no nihongo - - not easy , but one that my teachers often use when Genki is wrong or obtuse .
002 4 My Japanese teacher used this book in our classes and it was an excellent choice . It can easily be used for self-study , especially if used with the CDs . Each lesson starts out with a dialog and is followed by a vocabulary list , grammar explanations , and vocabulary / grammar practice . The grammar is explained very clearly and the practice exercises are very useful for remembering what is being taught . One drawback : no answers are given . The vocabulary lists are not always comprehensive but they give lots of useful vocabulary . Several topics are covered including shopping , talking about family , travel , daily routines , and health . The book also includes lessons on Katakana , Hiragana , and Kanji .
I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test ( Level 4 ) after 5 months studying with this book and passed . The Kanji included was very useful as were the grammar points and vocabulary . If you can , I recommend getting the CDs and the workbook . The CDs are excellent . You can practice pronunciation with the dialogs and vocabulary lists and the CDs also include listening exercises for the text and workbook . The workbook covers more grammar and vocabulary as well as Kanji , Katakana , and Hiragana practice .
This is the best Japanese textbook I've encountered . It is well organized and relevant . I give it 5 stars without hesitation !
003 4 I had been self-studying Japanese over numerous websites for ' bout 7 months when I decided to actually get a textbook . After searching around , reading reviews , asking people what they think I decided on Genki I . What a fantastic choice ! ! I learned more in 2 weeks in this book than I learned 7 months on a computer . Here I go , in depth ( summary at end ^ _ ~ ) :
A ) It starts out with an overview of the book , explanation of alphabets , so-on-and-so-forth , ect . Not much here but an introduction , soooo . . . .
B ) Dialogue - The beginning of the lesson has a dialogue that goes with a certain lesson theme ( e.g . New Friends covers greetings , simple questions , numerous phrases and vocab , ect . ) . This is written in kana ( after lesson 3 , kanji w / furigana ) , romanji , ( if any ) katakana w / furigana , and an English translation . You won't understand what's being said ' till the next few pages , so now onto that .
C ) Vocabulary - A loooong list of vocab resides here . Although it may be sorta random , it is useful and good stuff to know . Words and terms used in the dialogue are marked with an asterisk * . This page is written in kana , kanji w / furigana , ( if any ) katakana w / furigana , romanji , and English . Ok ! Here we go :
D ) Grammar - easy-to-understand grammar explanations rest here , after vocab . This provides the info needed to actually USE the vocab . After reading this , you should probably get a lot more of the dialogue . But not quite . . . .
E ) Um , Other ? - These pages contain numerous class activities ( not very useful to self-studiers , but can have some good practice exercises if you play both parts XD ) , other grammar / useful notes explanations , some more vocab perhaps , more dialogues , ect . In later lessons , this contains the kanji explanations as well . Basically , it's a planned lesson part that puts all you have learned in the previous pages to the test . It really builds on what you need to know , and forces you to read back , building stronger understanding and memorization ^ ^
Summary : Clear , neat , and fun planned lessons , put together in a learning-effective format . Great for all ages ( it IS intended for college classroom use , but I am a 13 self-studier , and I find it great ! ! ) as well ! You will learn so much , and be reading , speaking , writing , and UNDERSTANDING real Japanese by the end of the book !
Other notes : Be sure to get the CDs ( especially if you're learning on your own ) and the workbook . The workbook reinforces grammar and such , and the CD helps you listen , speak , and understand spoken Japanese better ( REALLY helpful ! It's extremely helpful at learning and understanding the accent ! ! ! ! ) .
Thanks for listening to my rambling ! Hope it has given enough detail and everything you want to know before you decide on a good book ! ! ( ALSO : do NOT get the Japanese For Busy People series ; no matter how popular , it is terrible ! ! ! ! ! Genki is a waaaay better investment ! )
- Sachi
005 4 For those of you who didn't have the chance to browse from a selection of Japanese language book , let me recommend this textbook to you .
There is a total of 24 lessons in Genki I & II . Genki I consist of 12 lessons .
Here's the sequence to which the lessons are structured
1 . Dialogue
2 . English translated dialogue
3 . Vocabulary
4 . Grammar
5 . Practice
What I've found best about this textbook compared to other japanese textbook is in the organization . I sometimes stare at Japanese for Busy People II and get overwhelmed by the difficulty and the globs of unspaced words . It in turn become very discouraging to continue reading because it is not the vocabulary or the grammar that you'd be focusing on , it's finding what's important in that glob of paragraph that takes away your concentration .
Grammar :
( average of 6 grammar per lesson )
In An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese , important grammars are bolded , spaced , and highlighted . The explaination in how to use the grammar are precise and neatly spaced along with an example or two to illustrate how to use it .
Vocabulary :
( Average of 50 words per lesson )
The vocabularies they teach in this textbook are basically the same as the ones in other textbooks . Useful in everyday conversation . But again I must stress that this textbook organized very efficiently .
1 . Noun
2 . i-adjective
3 . na-adjective
4 . u-verb
5 . ru-verb
6 . adverbs
For a beginner , you might not know the reason to distinguish between i-adj and na-adj . But it becomes very useful when you start studying grammar . Some textbooks out there also distinguishes the types of verb and adjectives , but some doesn't .
Practices :
( 6 - 7 pages per lesson )
The practices in this textbook uses both pictures and words to test your recall ability . From the looks of the practices in all the japanese textbooks , they are not designed to be a self-study course . There is no accompanying answer-key along with the practices . I agree that the practice is designed so that you can figure it out by rereading the lesson , but personally , it bothers me because you cannot be sure at that moment whether your answer is correct or incorrect . In a way , it prevents me from putting it into my long term memory because my answers might be wrong . I'm sure my opinion can be argued .
Lastly , there is also a Genki Workbook ( sold separately ) . Each lesson has around 8 pages of extra sheets to practice . Again , it has no answer key . The last page in every lesson is a listening assignment . Which means unless you have the CD ( not provided within workbook ) , you cannot do that assignment . But it's still good if you want the extra 7 pages / lesson of practice in writing .
A little story to end this review
A boy went into a language bookstore and asks the store owner which japanese textbook is the best . The store owner replied : Genki - The End
I know , it's an awesome story .
006 4 This was textbook used by my Japanese teacher in my college classes , and is a great way to start learning Japanese . As an anime , manga , video game fan , and having a general interest in Japan , this is a nice way to start out . The book starts with the most basic structures and slowly builds up to making more complete sentences .
The book also includes little tidbits of information , such as when to use long forms versus short forms when in conversation , or what the Japanese will actually say versus what is grammatically correct . I also liked that there are some special little stand-alone sections , with common phrases to use and listen for if you're . . . say . . . at a post office or train station .
At the beginning of each lesson is a conversation between some of the recurring characters , using the new things that you will be learning . They're nice because you can see how the language is used in conversation , and not just a string of repetative complete sentences and statements .
It's also a great way to learn how to write hiragana , katakana , and kanji . The first two are relatively easy to learn ( I taught myself hiragana in about a week . ) Hiragana and katakana are in the front of the book , before the first lesson . Kanji instructions are in the back after the last lesson , but it's good to bookmark them and do the exercises there . You learn some of the most basic and commonly used kanji . I found myself recognizing words right away whenever I stumbled onto something written in Japanese .
It's well-written , too . I enjoyed doing the excercises and reading over information , and even studying for my tests . You're given a lot of useful vocabularly . It's geared toward college students , but I can picture myself using it and following along if I were not in college , whether still in high school or just learning in my spare time .
While the book does well standing alone , I found that also having the workbook was an immense help , and I recommend purchasing it along with the main textbook . It includes hiragana , katakana , and kanji practice sections in the back , which helped me learn the characters very quickly . There are also CDs to buy , and those are mostly good for helping with listening comprehension , but there are some activities that you need them for . I got them free through my college , but if you have the money , they're worth purchasing as well . You can get your listening skills through anime , but I wouldn't recommend it . The speakers on the CDs start out slow , and slowly begin to speed up , so it's easier to pick up on for beginners . But you'll need this main text to start out with , of course .
007 4 Ok , I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on Japanaese language learning materials . Books , software , CDs etc . Some of them good some of them bad . Genki is the only one that has really put it all together for me . It explains the concepts and explains them well . When you are done reading the grammar sections it just starts to make sense .
This is a great stepping stone for those that are wanting to learn Japanese as part of a fuller understanding of the language . If you are looking for a quick read for a weekend in Tokyo this book isn't for you .
Pick up the workbook and CD if you are going to be doing this solo . It'll help out like you wouldn't believe .
008 4 I have been using a couple books in the beginning of my learning Japanese ; but after starting this book and reviewing futre chapters , I'd say this beats most if not all of the other books I've seen . The vocab is set up very well , the subjects are arrainged in a very realistic order ( some books make you wait until middle chapters to learn how to tell time ? ? ? ) . If you're looking for a simple read through book , this isn't it . This book forces you to learn the written language and utilizes it heavily early and often . By the third chapter , the Japanese portion of the lessons no longer come with phonic translating subscript , and nor do the vocabulary pages come with script / japanese-phonic / english-phonic breakdowns ; you go from Hirigana to Enlish . Immersion that I have never really seen in a lot of books , but this is done extremely well . I say all this because if your intention is to learn the phonetic speak , this is not the book for you ! If you want a good , quality and well set up immersion learning book , this book is incredible . Also , of all the books I've recently looked at and tried to use , my Japanese fiancee gives this one the biggest thumbs up because it forces you to not only speak , but learn to read and write .
009 4 I am a student in Canada and our university uses this text as the only book for our introductory course to Japanese . This book contains everything that you need to get a firm grip on the language . It has many basic grammar rules that will get you into the feel of Japanese quick and fairly painless . There are over 150 kanji ( Chinese symbol words ) that this book will teach . Starting this class I knew about 6 words in Japanese and none of the rules for grammar , but I am happy to say that after 8 months of hard study I passed the course with flying colours . To get all the potential out of this book you will have to do the work , preferably with a study group . All the lessons are chopped down into bite sized pieces so that you can absorb it easily , but each lesson is called on in future lessons . . . This text is a great way to start you way into this beautiful language .
010 4 I especially like Genki's extensive use of Kanji ( with Furigana ) to allow me to slowly become accustomed to them . The grammar is taught very well , although I recommend Japanese Step by Step as a better technique or way-of-thinking about verb conjugation . ' Step by Step ' uses a flow chart to conjugate the different verbs - the best way I've seen to teach it yet !
The point I'd like to add about this book is that I think it starts a tad too fast for someone who's just decided to learn or is starting from nothing . If you haven't started Japanese classes at the same time you will need a Preliminary study period before beginning with Genki . I did this by accident , and it suited me fine . I bought Japanese For Young People Bk I and finished it before I started Genki . I also started night-classes for 2 hours a week for about 2 months . By the end of that time , I was almost proficient with Katakana and Hiragana and could flip through the first 2 chapters of Genki - saying I already know that . Importantly , though , I was able to start using Genki's Kana-only ( after chapter 2 ) format with relative ease . Had I not used a preliminary study period , it would have been very slow going and just too daunting with all that Kanji .
So , if you've mastered Hiragana / Katakana more or less , and have a few weeks of vocabulary and speech introduction , then Genki is the best book around - and I looked at all of them , believe me !
I also think it's the best serious or all-round book I've seen . That is to say , it really does teach you how to write , read and listen , without favouring any particular interest group . Incidentally , my native Japanese teacher recommended this book to me - she used it to give out homework ( from the studybook ) .
012 4 In my experience studying Japanse , both in college and self-directed , I've owned around a dozen different course texts . The Genki series is by far the best I've seen . Grammar , vocabulary , and kanji are all included in the text . The pacing is very good and I really appreciated the complete dependence on kana and kanji instead of romaji ( a crutch that will only slow you down in the long run ) . I also recommend the workbook as a supplement although the main text does contain some good review exercises .
The only downside I found is the ultimate cost of the audio portion ( sold seperately ) . The student edition , while affordable , only includes the vocabulary from the main text , the dialogues from the main text , and the workbook exercises . It did not include the exercises from the main text , which seems strange to me .
014 4 Genki I and II cover pretty much the same things as Japanese For Everyone ( JFE ) and the Japanese for Busy People ( JfBP ) series - both in terms of Kanji and of grammar - but not so in vocabulary .
There is no such thing as a perfect book on Japanese for everyone because most books have a specific audience in mind and Genki is one such book , I think prospective buyer should keep this in mind .
The Genki-series is less concentrated than JFE but more so than JfBP , and the textbooks are packaged with audio-cds unlike the other books .
It does not use any romanization and starts using Kaji from the start . Unlike the above books this one has an introductory chapter on Hiragana and Katakana .
The exercises are varied , a big plus is that there are many creative exercises such as making your own dialogues .
There are also a good number of group-exercises to use in classrooms , and many listening exercises as well .
The grammar is explained in an easy and clear way with many descriptions .
The vocabulary is aimed at younger learners at high-school and college level and covers things like : what major your are taking , exams , dating , etc .
So it would be ideal for someone taking part in an exchange-program with a Japanese school .
As you can probably guess the type of language used is also less formal than in JFE and JfBP .
What many people like about this book is that it explains everything in an easy and clear manner , starts using script from the start , and that it has many audio exercises .
What people complain about is the large number of group-exercises and the college-vocabulary . I agree with other reviewers that the strength of the book is its clear explanations of grammar .
However , in my opinion much of the vocabulary is unsuitable for anyone above the age of 25 and for those who plan to work or do other professional business in Japan . It is also not the best book to use for self-learners due to the large number of group-exercises - for those Japanese for Everyone , Japanese for Busy People and similar books are much better .
There is something patronizing or even humiliating to be a working adult above the age of 25 and use something that looks like Genki : it is like reading a teen-magazine when you should be reading the equivalent of the New York Times or The Guardian , to use an analogy .
For people like me , a 30 - year-old professional , it would be strange or even inappropriate to base my knowledge around the college-vocabulary that books like Genki offers . I am most likely to talk to people my own age who have families and started a career , so I do not really need vocabulary focusing on college student life .
For people like me books like Japanese for Everyone , Japanese for Busy People and similar are more appropriate .
So to me Genki was a big disappointment .
The fact that Genki uses cartoons & pictures of children and teenagers should tell you who their target audience is , compare this to JFE and JfBP who use drawings & pictures of adults . . . often in suits .
So if you are a working professional or plan to be one in Japan then choose books aimed at you : Japanese For Everyone , Japanese for Busy People ( I , II , III ) and similar .
If you are high-school / college-student exploring a new language : Genki I , II .
015 4 My first-year Japanese college course uses Genki as its textbook , and it has proven to be a very helpful guide . I've had experience with Nakama , which was decent but a bit too disorganized with too much thrown around at once . The Jorden book , simply titled Japanese , is so dated that it is painful and contains no kana in the normal text of the book .
Genki gives the user the vocab they are likely to need , along with just enough kanji ( which are tied to the vocab in the lesson ) . Everything is laid out simply yet concisely , and genki is by far the best book I've ever used . It is currently being used by the first year students at Indiana University .
What I love the most , other than its organization , is its use of kanji and kana . Virtually every word in Japanese in the book is in kana , with no romaji . Kanji ( along with kana subscript ) are used frequently . This has helped boost my reading speed greatly .
016 4 Genki : an intergrated course , was the text I learned to speak Japanese from in college . It was also the text I gave to my brother , who is learning Japanese now on his own . This book lays a solid foundation for grammar , vocab , and kanji , all while providing nice cultural notes , and fairly entertaining plot , and a nice transition to informal and formal speech , allowing a greater mastery . This approach also helps one to read manga or watch japanese foriegn films immensely .
My only drawback is it is increasingly hard to find the workbook and companion volume , Genki II , these days .
017 4 Genki is a great book . 5 stars hands down . I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn japanese , but you can get it brand new and for way less than some of the prices people are selling them used for !
Check out :
018 4 The Genki series is the textbook of choice at my college , and I've gone through alternating periods of absolutely hating and somewhat liking the text . Perhaps my learning style is just different than most people ( or perhaps my language skills are slowing down in my old age ) , but I really can't see what all of the buzz about this book is .
In the interest of fairness , I'll list some of the positive points :
1 ) Genki does a nice job of introducing how ru and u verbs conjugate into polite forms at the beginning of the book .
2 ) Introduction of basic sentence particles ( wa , e , ni , wo / o , etc . ) is also good .
3 ) Explanations of stroke order and readings of kanji at the end of the book are clear , and the book even throws in a few words where you'd see the specific character used .
4 ) If you're willing to do some digging , there's a useful mnemonic device for learning te-forms of verbs .
These nice things , however , are offset by host of issues :
The most pressing issue is that of vocabulary , which is universally terrible throughout the book .
a ) Genki's method of learning vocabulary is aggressive ; you'll usually learn around 60 words per chapter .
b ) It also suffers from what I like to call Phantom Vocabulary Syndrome : Genki will have you learn a word , say , in Chapter / Lesson 5 , will not use it for three or four chapters , and will suddenly pull the rug out from under you and use the word once .
c ) Although Genki ostensibly has unifying themes for each lesson ( A Day in Robert's Life , After the Vacation , etc . ) , they are not used after the initial dialogue at the beginning of the lesson . Although some words may match with this theme , most don't . The book would benefit by using these lesson themes to help learn the vocab ( more vacation words in the vacation lesson , more words about retail in the shopping section , you get the idea . )
d ) Order in which the words are introduced is bizarre ( learning the colors after you learn such useful words as to do laundry and Municipal Hospital . All I have to say is , Huh ? )
e ) As other reviewers have mentioned , some words ( letter , postage stamp ) are almost obsolete ; considering this was written in 1999 , there's no excuse for words like e-mail not being introduced in the book at all .
There are also issues with formatting :
a ) Contrary to what some other reviewers are saying , the use of furigana is more of a frustration than a help . Having to squint to see a tiny hiragana in 2 - point font is not fun , especially when the kanji it is substituting is never introduced in the text . I totally understand that furigana are used in authentic Japanese , but the font size needs to be bigger , and they need to use them more sparingly , or they should just be omitted entirely .
b ) In grammar lessons , very rarely do the authors come out and say exactly what the grammar is used for ; aside from a few exceptions like Degree Expessions , all of the grammar lesson titles are in Japanese and give the reader no idea what they're used for until they tackle the couple paragraphs of text attached to each lesson .
c ) My teacher is rather put off by some of the kanji introduced , especially later in the book , saying that there are much more useful ones that could be learned first .
d ) There aren't enough review exercises , and there are no cumulative review exercises to speak of .
I wish I could recommend another text , but I hardly consider myself an expert in Japanese textbooks ; if anyone would like to recommend something , please feel free . This is the first one that I've used , so perhaps I'm being a bit too hard in my assessment of Genki . But in comparison with the quality of textbooks that I've used for learning other languages , Genki is rather mediocre .
019 4 I have purchased Genki I and Genki II ( and the workbooks ) . I am very pleased with the books . They provide the student with invaluable information , and present the material in a logical order . I have used other college texts in the past , but they pale in comparison with this series . If you are looking for an excellent introduction to the Japanese language , look no further .
021 4 This book has been an excellent tool for learning written and some spoken Japanese on my own . The only real issue I had with it was that many of the nuances of the language , both written and spoken , are not fully explained or demonstrated . However , within the context of a class many of these issues would not exist .
So for anyone who is interested in learning Japanese by themselves I would strongly recommend this book in combination with Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone or private tutoring or all together .
022 4 Not sure why all the reviews here are for the textbook because these are the Audio CDs for the Genki I textbook .
I just purchased them from Amazon and received them in the mail today . The first CD contains audio for the main Genki I Textbook while the second CD contains audio for the Genki I Workbook .
The publishers website mentions a 6 CD set but I have been unable to find them anywhere . . . even from the publishers website . Up until now I had been using audio cassettes that the school provided . There are 6 of them so maybe there was just some confusion .
The main textbook , workbook , and audio CDs equal a great learning experience . I'm about 3 / 4ths of the way through it , learning with a small group . It's been a lot of fun and one of the easier language immersions I've experienced . Do you need the CDs to learn the language ? I'd say yes . . . for a while I avoided listening to the audio , only depending on the class sessions to train my ear instead . After so many classes I found myself falling behind and unable to understand the teacher because she started to talk at a normal speed and in full sentences . Doing the homework with these audio CDs are a great help .
024 4 I'm taking Japanese at college and this was the text book that was required . I'm very happy with it . The book explains grammar very well and the pace moves just fast enough so that my skills in the language are progressing but I don't feel lost . It does not go too much into kanji ( there are some pages in the back that correspond to the lessons ) , but if you are just learning Japanese and have no prior experience with an Asian language - that is a very helpful feature . There is an activity workbook that goes along with the text book and it has grammar and writing exercises and kanji practice pages in the back . You don't actually need the workbook to use the text book , but I definitely recommend it for the extra practice it gives with the lessons .
The beginning of the book focuses a lot on speaking in the polite form ( like if you were to speak Japanese to a teacher , stranger , acquaintance . . . ) by using phrases such as masu and masen at the end of verbs and desu and jaarimasen meaning it is or it is not , as well as the past tenses of the polite forms . The second half of the book focuses on the cordial or familiar ( what you use to speak with close friends , family . . . ) . This book also teaches the te-form ending ( you cannot use masu or masen with a verb in the middle of the sentence , so you use the te-form ) . It also teaches teimasu ending ( both the te-form and the masu form together to indicate that the action is happening at the instant or that a change of action has occurred ) . For example : ima ko-hi wo nondeimasu means I am drinking coffee right now . So the book focuses on all of the three ways of writing in Japanese - hiragana ( used for Japanese words that do not have a kanji and for the particles ) , katakana ( used for foreign words to give them a Japanese sound such as coffee - ko-hi ) and some kanji characters .
I'm sorry if I have made any mistakes with my Japanese sentences ( I'm still a beginner with learning the language ) , but I wanted to try to explain this as best I could because if you already understand most of what I'm writing about - then you probably need the Genki 2 book . If this is all new material to you , then this book is a great way to learn the basics and grammar of Japanese . I also apologize because the amazon site will not let me write the japanese characters .
So , I would definitely recommend the Genki textbook to anyone trying to learn Japanese ( don't waste your money like I did trying to learn on Rosetta Stone and computer programs ! ) . My 14 year old sister bought the same book to learn Japanese also , so it's a textbook that can work for a lot of different age groups ( I wouldn't go any lower than High School though - but it depends on the motivation of the student ) . Good luck with your Japanese studies !
026 4 I am teaching myself Japanese and I really like this text . This book has a good collection of vocabulary and is very easy to follow . I recommend this book to everyone . It is excellent ! My Japanese friend is very impressed with what I was able to teach myself . I feel very confident in what I have learned . The student CD that accompanies is a little lacking , though . It only covers dialogue and vocab for the book ( and workbook ) , when I really wish the CD included more from the textbook . I also recommend getting the workbook for more practice . You should know that you need the student CD to use the workbook . Genki 1 has to be the best text out there for learning Japanese !
027 4 I really liked this book . The conversations are oké , vocabulary is great , as is the grammar explanation , and there are many excercising which teaches you the grammer gradually .
What I really liked is the seperate Kanji section at the back of the book . It teaches you all the Kanji you need to know for the JLPT 4 and JLPT 3 ( book II ) exams . There is enough information given and there are very usefull reading excercises reinforcing not only the Kanji learned , but also incorporates the grammar learned that far .
Use this book together with the CD's and workbook .
028 4 Japanese is a very difficult language for English speakers to learn . If you've learned some French or Spanish ( as I have ) , forget about it ! Japanese is many times more difficult . That being said , Japanese is also more interesting , in that it has a completely different structure and forces you to think differently .
Genki does a good job of presenting Japanese is an orderly fashion . The authors are all native Japanese speakers , and there are a few places where they make mistakes in English , but those small errors do not take away from the text .
Genki could use a few more sample Japanese sentences , though . For example , when they present a new pattern , they often provide just a couple of examples when ten or twelve would be better . I suppose they assume ( correctly ) that this book will mostly be used in a classroom setting , and that the teacher will provide additional material .
In the end , Genki is a good textbook , but you will need more help if you are going to learn to speak Japanese . That is not the fault of the authors , it is just the way it is .
030 4 At first I briefly toyed with the idea of giving Genki 4 stars rather than 5 because of the self-motivation aspect that is critical to its effectiveness , but then I realized that would be a meaningless depreciation of its actual worth to the potential buyer . If you're NOT self-motivated to learn Japanese ( or any other language for that matter ) STOP reading this review and , for heaven's sake , STOP wasting your time on shopping for books / CDs / DVDs / software / etc . that have no function other than to provide aid . There is not a medium in existence that is going to miraculously self-help you help yourself learn Japanese !
The bottomline is it doesn't matter how fun , funny , or FANTASTIC a tool is , it won't do a lick of good if you don't have some tiny shred of drive or passion to S-T-U-D-Y , whether that implies listening to a CD while sitting in 5 PM traffic ; doing all of your assigned homework in a class ; or even simply attempting to order dinner at a foreign restaurant without using your native tongue .
So , that being said , I found Genki to be perhaps the BEST introductory textbook to the Japanese language . It has 12 well-organized lessons that gradually lead you into the complex world of Japanese word allocations . Each lesson is arranged into four parts :
( 1 ) DIALOGUE
This is where an exchange is set up between two or more of Genki's sample characters in a straighforward - - albeit , totally cheesy and insipid - - script . The most important thing to note here is that if you mistaken this section of the lesson to be the Useful Everyday Phrases equivalent found in some other reference books , then you deserve to be giggled at sideways by your local exchange student .
The dialogue conversations are pointedly written to introduce new grammar structures and vocabulary words ; they are no better written than those ridiculously staged Say No to Drugs movies that we've all suffered through in grade school or , for that matter , ANY textbook-scripted interaction . Let's face it , here . Nothing's going to teach real-life dialogue except real-life . However , I should note that having to recite and repeat the Genki dialogues after listening to the audio greatly helped me find a good feel for the cadence and flow of standard spoken Japanese .
( 2 ) VOCABULARY
Every lesson of Genki introduces about 20 - 40 new nouns , 10 - 20 new verbs , and about 10 - 30 miscellaneous other words such as adjectives , adverbs , or expressions . Though it is true some of the terms may only be useful to college students / young adults [ e.g . , shukudai - - homework ; gakki - - semester ; benkyou suru - - to study ] the vast majority of the list consists of basic , everyday words I couldn't imagine any beginning learner living without [ e.g . , shigoto - - job ; imouto - - little sister ; byouin - - hospital ; noru - - to ride / to board ; tabako wo suu - - to smoke ( cigarettes , etc . ) ]
( 3 ) GRAMMAR
The grammar section breaks down the complex linguistic structure of Japanese without convoluting its explanations or otherwise overwhelming the beggining learner with overly in-depth assessments of why A goes here and B goes there . Obviously , Japanese is a very intricate language , it doesn't help that it's so vastly diverse from English . Genki takes a crawl before walk approach by sacrificing technical explanations for more practical examples that slowly warm learners to the IDEAS rather than the rationalizations . Now , this may drive some of you linguistics nerds and grammar nazis crazy * because it certainly did me * but for an introductory level textbook , it does the job .
( 4 ) PRACTICE
The last part of each lesson includes 6 - 10 pages of exercises that directly correlate with the preceding vocabulary and grammar sections . The only failings here include the fact that there are no answers in the back of the book and , of course , the textbook doesn't come with a living , breathing human being to practice the two-person exercises . This is definitely a setback to consider if you are truly pursuing the language completely solo .
* * * I would also highly recommend picking up the companion workbook as it offers additional exercises and practice space that also directly correlate with the lessons in the text . * * *
Also , one of the best things about Genki is the utter lack of romaji or as they say romanized Japanese . Ask any good Japanese-language learner and they will tell you the faster you shed the habit of thinking about Japanese in the English phonetic alphabet the better off you will be . Genki did me a great service by forcing this dangerous crutch out from under me by removing all traces of it by Lesson 3 . But don't let this daunt you , if you follow along with the hiragana / katakana practice in the back of the book ( or invest in the workbook ) , you will be well prepared for the change .
033 4 I'm a student at Texas A & M University and our Japanese professor uses this book to teach us . It is VERY helpful and is full of lots of helpful tips and ways to relate Japanese to English . Not only does our professor use it , but also many different universities with Japanese programs across the nation ( including Harvard and Stanford ) use Genki to teach there students with . I highly recommend this . Don't forget the workbook and the CD's !
039 4 I bought this after trying Contemporary Japanese . Genki is very straight forward . There are a lot of with your partner in the practice areas and as I don't have a partner , I write them all out minus the ones where is asks for specific information on fellow students . I find that this has helped me in remembering vocabulary and my writing as I am constantly repeating certain sentences .
It can get a little confusing with the grammar especially the particles so I am going to buy a supplementary book to help me with that .
Personally I find that even though everything is formal and others may complain about how it sounds but I think that for a beginner this book is great ! If you think about it , when you learned English or whatever your native language is , you didn't speak , read or write it perfectly . It took time to learn and listen to others to get it right . And this is what this book does . It may not have you speaking the greatest when you're done , but it will get you speaking , reading and writing more than you were before .
040 4 This book , while obviously dated ( tapes are the only media in the vocabulary ) , presents a great deal of information in a ordered and concise form . If I hadn't read other reviews , I wouldn't know that the verb forms in the book are not the most likely to be used . The book works very well as part of a university course .
041 4 It's a good premiere for students of Japanese and will teach you some things about the language . It's a pretty standard textbook for American schools .
However , while you will learn very basic Japanese from this , it won't get you much farther than that , since it's really meant to be used as a classroom supplement . I would recommend searching for another book if this isn't a required textbook for one of your classes .
045 4 This book is great for people who want to learn by themselves our with a teacher . It has real life situations and easy to learn . I recommend buying the textbook for more practice and the CD .
047 4 This is the book that we use in my Japanese class and it is the best that I have ever read to learn the Japanese language .
I have learned so much in the first 3 chapters .
If you want to learn the language , get this book . Its the best by far . I'd also get the workbook that goes with it too .
052 4 This book is very good , but there are not many to choose from . This was 3 quraters of classes .
Overall a good book !
053 4 This is a horrible book . Why the Genki series gets so many good ratings on Amazon , I don't know . Perhaps it's the fact that for some odd reason more people than usual seem to be rating the sellers in the PRODUCT RATING area .
Anyway , this book is much like the Nakama and the Yookoso series . They don't take the learner seriously and the whole program is extremely childish . While popular on community college ( and unfortunately even on University ) Campuses , the Genki series is horrible for any learner . Like Nakama , it pushes learners to have the many gaps it leaves filled by Japanese instructors . Why not just forgo the pleasure of dropping $50 on a useless book ?
The grammar explanations in Genki , like Nakama , are simplistic and examples are insufficient . Again as in Nakama , useless cultural aspects of Japan and the Japanese language , such as how to write letters in the language share as much of the spotlight as anything that would be useful .
The vocabulary and the format of the series are atrocious . The most common complaint of the book from both teachers and students is that the vocabulary is simply an illogical and useless mishmash that often has no correlation to the dialogue at the beginning of the chapter or to anything at all . The most famous example of this would be that the first chapter of the second book , which is supposed to be about restaurant service introduces the Japanese word for UFO . This is ridiculous . The coverage of vocabulary is also glaringly insufficient . The grammatical explanations also follow such chaotic placement throughout the book with no linearity and complex grammatical structures being presented here or there at the author's whim before or after more simplistic ones . This book is so bad that one can almost just pick up the second book and start off from there with no effect on the learning process ( assuming one knows the Japanese writing system , of course ) .
Like Nakama , this book is also a rip-off . It comes with no audio for the student , so it's useless for self-studying . To get the exercises you need to build ability , you also have to buy an overpriced pencil-thin workbook . This is where it differs from Nakama - although they are the same price , the workbook for Nakama is far superior to the Genki one . Expect to drop some 80 dollars list-price to not learn Japanese .
Ultimately , this ill-conceived series of Japanese textbooks should be considered a shame by the Japan Times . And it's also shameful of teachers to push this kindergarten Japanese text in Universities across the country .
Why does it get good reviews ? My guess is as good as anybody else's . This book has very few positive points , but it looks extremely good and the paper is of very high quality . It's all flash and no delivery , just like the Japan Times newspaper . The only good thing about this book is that it covers Kanji to an acceptable level .
So why good reviews ? I challenge anyone who has become fluent in Japanese in their adult age and used this book as a first two-year starting point to give me an answer . Any takers ? I didn't think so .
Apparently Amazon won't let me paste URLs , so you'll have to Google the site names separately . I'll mark them with ( www ) . Sorry about that !
The Genki course is a great textbook , and obviously a lot of time and effort went into putting it together . Since this book tries to do a little of everything , it understandably can't be content-rich in any one category ; therefore , I highly recommend looking for supplementary materials to better flesh out your Japanese proficiency . Happily , a lot of online resources are available for free , and I'll try to list them below . My review is from the perspective of a native English speaker who is currently living and working in Japan .
Grammar : In each lesson , you get several new sentence patterns or grammatical points to try out , as well as notes on why and how to use them as well as pictures , diagrams , examples , etc . to get the point across . I found this section to be very clear and easy to understand .
How to make it better : One of my favorite sites is ( www ) Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar , which I did alongside the Genki lessons . You can also check out Jay Rubin's
Making Sense of Japanese
.
Dialogues : The dialogues are kind of stilted and unnatural-sounding ( try reading the English translations out loud and you'll see what I mean ) and is IMHO the book's weakest point . This is made even more pronounced since the characters all address each other in polite form ( desu , - san , etc ) even though they're supposed to be close friends or even couples . But the bottom line is that they demonstrate the grammatical teaching point within a realistic context , so I guess I can't complain too much .
How to make it better : There's really no substitute for listening to native Japanese speakers . Watch a lot of Japanese shows without subtitles and try to just listen to their pronunciation and intonation , and when applicable , when they use the grammar points you learned . If you like manga , you can also look for children's series and make a project out of translating them ( I chose Gakuen Senki Muryou ) . Especially try to observe the differences in speech between peers , friends , superiors , and customers . This is a pretty big deal in Japan , and using the wrong form to the wrong person can be pretty embarrassing . Believe me , I found out the hard way . . .
Vocabulary and Kanji : Each lesson comes with about 50 - 60 vocabulary words and 10 kanji ( except for the first two lessons , which cover hiragana and katakana instead ) . The vocab is broken up into several categories ( places , food , things to buy , verbs , etc . ) which are then plugged into the sentence patterns provided in the grammar sections . The kanji section in the back provides you with a standard dictionary entry ( with stroke order , on'yomi and kun'yomi , English definition , and a few example words ) .
How to make it better : There are a lot of fun ways of doing this one . ( www ) Yookoso has a great daily mailing list that will send you a new kanji character a day . ( You can even set the JLPT level , if that's what you're studying for . ) You can also check out the various quizzes and activities on ( www ) Charles Kelly's Japanese study materials site . If you don't mind spending a little extra money , I highly recommend
Basic Kanji Book , Vol . 1
, which is what I've been using . I also highly recommend ( www ) Jim Breen's online Japanese Dictionary to look up any words instead of a paper dictionary . Unfortunately , there's no shortcut to learning vocab and kanji . You just have to keep practicing over and over and over until you've memorized them , and then after that keep practicing to stay in shape . I HIGHLY recommend making your own drill cards instead of buying pre-made ones because the process of writing the characters onto the cards will also help you to memorize them . ( Not to mention it's cheaper ! )
Exercises : This is my absolute favorite part of Genki . The exercises are usually very fun and cute , very repetitive ( which , when learning a language , is a good thing ) without feeling like a chore . The only thing I regret is that these exercises aren't as much fun to do if you're studying by yourself ( like how I did ) than if you were in a classroom . If you have a friend who can practice with you , it'd be even more fun . If that friend is also a native speaker who can correct your mistakes , then even better . At the back of the book are even more exercises , mostly to practice reading and writing .
How to make it better : You can go to Charles Kelly's site for more quizzes , or buy Genki's accompanying workbook and CD to practice with them . Also check out ( www ) Renshuu for a lot of practice exams ( even includes Genki lesson material ! ) If you're studying for the JLPT , I recommend checking out Unicom's series of JLPT guide books ( I bought
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4
) which has a lot of practice questions .
I feel that the best thing this book provides is a solid foundation for good Japanese studying habits . Japanese can be an extremely overwhelming language to master if you don't have a good guide to show you what to learn , how to learn it , and how you can absorb information from other sources . Even though Genki is far from a comprehensive guide to Japanese , I feel that it's a great way to kick things off for beginners , and teaches you HOW to study the language .
If you're interested in buying the accompanying Genki materials : the workbook is great because it has a lot of exercises to do on your own ( ideal for those trying to self-study ) . If you get the workbook , be sure to get the CD so you can do the listening comp sections , but if you're only using the textbook then DO NOT BUY THE CD . It's NOT worth the money just to hear the dialogue and vocab pronunciations .
011 4 EDIT : Apparently Amazon won't let me paste URLs , so you'll have to Google the site names separately . I'll mark them with ( www ) . Sorry about that !
The Genki course is a great textbook , and obviously a lot of time and effort went into putting it together . Since this book tries to do a little of everything , it understandably can't be content-rich in any one category ; therefore , I highly recommend looking for supplementary materials to better flesh out your Japanese proficiency . Happily , a lot of online resources are available for free , and I'll try to list them below . My review is from the perspective of a native English speaker who is currently living and working in Japan .
Grammar : In each lesson , you get several new sentence patterns or grammatical points to try out , as well as notes on why and how to use them as well as pictures , diagrams , examples , etc . to get the point across . I found this section to be very clear and easy to understand .
How to make it better : One of my favorite sites is ( www ) Tae Kim's guide to Japanese grammar , which I did alongside the Genki lessons . You can also check out Jay Rubin's
Making Sense of Japanese
.
Dialogues : The dialogues are kind of stilted and unnatural-sounding ( try reading the English translations out loud and you'll see what I mean ) and is IMHO the book's weakest point . This is made even more pronounced since the characters all address each other in polite form ( desu , - san , etc ) even though they're supposed to be close friends or even couples . But the bottom line is that they demonstrate the grammatical teaching point within a realistic context , so I guess I can't complain too much .
How to make it better : There's really no substitute for listening to native Japanese speakers . Watch a lot of Japanese shows without subtitles and try to just listen to their pronunciation and intonation , and when applicable , when they use the grammar points you learned . If you like manga , you can also look for children's series and make a project out of translating them ( I chose Gakuen Senki Muryou ) . Especially try to observe the differences in speech between peers , friends , superiors , and customers . This is a pretty big deal in Japan , and using the wrong form to the wrong person can be pretty embarrassing . Believe me , I found out the hard way . . .
Vocabulary and Kanji : Each lesson comes with about 50 - 60 vocabulary words and 10 kanji ( except for the first two lessons , which cover hiragana and katakana instead ) . The vocab is broken up into several categories ( places , food , things to buy , verbs , etc . ) which are then plugged into the sentence patterns provided in the grammar sections . The kanji section in the back provides you with a standard dictionary entry ( with stroke order , on'yomi and kun'yomi , English definition , and a few example words ) .
How to make it better : There are a lot of fun ways of doing this one . ( www ) Yookoso has a great daily mailing list that will send you a new kanji character a day . ( You can even set the JLPT level , if that's what you're studying for . ) You can also check out the various quizzes and activities on ( www ) Charles Kelly's Japanese study materials site . If you don't mind spending a little extra money , I highly recommend
Basic Kanji Book , Vol . 1
, which is what I've been using . I also highly recommend ( www ) Jim Breen's online Japanese Dictionary to look up any words instead of a paper dictionary . Unfortunately , there's no shortcut to learning vocab and kanji . You just have to keep practicing over and over and over until you've memorized them , and then after that keep practicing to stay in shape . I HIGHLY recommend making your own drill cards instead of buying pre-made ones because the process of writing the characters onto the cards will also help you to memorize them . ( Not to mention it's cheaper ! )
Exercises : This is my absolute favorite part of Genki . The exercises are usually very fun and cute , very repetitive ( which , when learning a language , is a good thing ) without feeling like a chore . The only thing I regret is that these exercises aren't as much fun to do if you're studying by yourself ( like how I did ) than if you were in a classroom . If you have a friend who can practice with you , it'd be even more fun . If that friend is also a native speaker who can correct your mistakes , then even better . At the back of the book are even more exercises , mostly to practice reading and writing .
How to make it better : You can go to Charles Kelly's site for more quizzes , or buy Genki's accompanying workbook and CD to practice with them . Also check out ( www ) Renshuu for a lot of practice exams ( even includes Genki lesson material ! ) If you're studying for the JLPT , I recommend checking out Unicom's series of JLPT guide books ( I bought
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4
) which has a lot of practice questions .
I feel that the best thing this book provides is a solid foundation for good Japanese studying habits . Japanese can be an extremely overwhelming language to master if you don't have a good guide to show you what to learn , how to learn it , and how you can absorb information from other sources . Even though Genki is far from a comprehensive guide to Japanese , I feel that it's a great way to kick things off for beginners , and teaches you HOW to study the language .
If you're interested in buying the accompanying Genki materials : the workbook is great because it has a lot of exercises to do on your own ( ideal for those trying to self-study ) . If you get the workbook , be sure to get the CD so you can do the listening comp sections , but if you're only using the textbook then DO NOT BUY THE CD . It's NOT worth the money just to hear the dialogue and vocab pronunciations .
025 4 In my study of Japanese , I've used Genki ( the standard textbook at my College ) as my primary text . I definitely recommend the text but when it comes to learning any foreign language , no textbook on it's own will take you to mastery . Here are a few additional resources that I found particularly helpful in supplementing Genki , in the areas of listening , speaking , Kanji and slang .
- Genki Online Self-Study Room : Lots of resources here , my favorite of which is Genki Movies . The textbook dialogues are presented by native speakers in a more natural way ( meaning more challenging to comprehend ) than the CDs that accompany the text .
-
White Rabbit Press Kanji Flashcards
: Genki is a little light on Kanji in my opinion . These are truly the best Kanji flashcards available . I started by re-arranging the cards to correspond to each Genki chapter , then expanded my study to incorporate additional Kanji not covered in Genki . They've got way more info on each Kanji character than the text does , and they're organized for JLPT test prep if you're into that .
-
Pimsleur Japanese I - 3rd Ed .
and
Japanese II - 2nd Ed .
: These audio courses go much further in terms of building your listening and speaking skills than the text with accompanying CDs alone . They also introduce new vocabulary that's not included in the text . So far I've discovered that Japanese I roughly corresponds to the grammar covered in the first half of the Genki I text . Note there's also a
digital version of levels I , II and III
available .
Lastly , for those who want to learn Japanese the way it's really spoken on the streets of Japan ,
-
Making Out in Japanese , Revised Edition
: This little book has all the slang , chit-chat , insults and pick-up lines that have been understandably omitted from the Genki text . It also delineates which expressions are used by which genders .
Good luck with your Japanese language studies !
031 4 I was studying Japanese diligently though / / pell mell / / for 2 months before this arrived - - - took notes from Japanese : Step by Step and Teach Yourself and learned 150 JLPT kanji on my own . So it's been somewhat weird for me to adjust to a textbook format and Im inclined to think that my previous way of learning Nihongo is more fruitful and fun .
Ive looked through Japanese for Busy People at the library and prefer their feel though JFBP is awful for learning kanji . The illustrations in Genki look rather cheap . I'd give Genki 4 stars if I could change my rating without deleting this review and starting over .
That being said . . . the vocabulary lists are helpful and the grammar explanations are very clear . The good thing about Genki I is that it forces you to learn the kana / kanji . Romaji is used sparingly . I'll try to update this after I finish the whole book .
UPDATE : We're using this in my Japanese 1A class and it's a much better experience than using it for self study . For self study , I recommend Kodansha's Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication .
060 4 I am writing this review as a person who is concerned with passing the JLPT tests and finding study materials . Of ocurse as everyone else wants , I also want to learn Japanese as well . After having passed all the exams and having an understanding of what each requires and being a State university ( college ) student I can say this book si great . Challenging but great .
THE Genki 1 IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO PASS JLPT TEST 4 or 3 ! ! !
Let me repeat that again
THE Genki 1 IS NOT SUFFICIENT TO PASS JLPT TEST 4 or 3 ! ! !
While it can be a help , it simply does not go over enough information to insure passing .
THE GENKI BOOK 1 and THE GENKI BOOK 2 DO NOT INSURE PASSING LEVEL 3 or 4 ! ! !
let me repeat tht again
THE GENKI BOOK 1 and THE GENKI BOOK 2 DO NOT INSURE PASSING LEVEL 3 or 4 ! ! !
The other reviewers who write that it does would have needed other knowledge NOT included in these books or with the cds . You simply need more information . about it . The best book for passing the JLPT levels 3 and 4 do not exist . you need a thorough understanding which school can provide or multiple resources for the home study fanatic .
I normally do not review . but would hate to see people just buying this and then getting to the examinations and not knowing a thing that was going on . Be careful what you read .
THe book is great but if one of your goals is passing JLPT 4 or 3 this is not sufficuent alone .
Thank you and good luck to you !
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
Absolutely fantastic . I was given a personalised , hand-written note with my book thanking me for the purchase . The seller also upgraded my order to expedited shipping for FREE ! I ended up getting the book right after my first class that Monday , meaning I wouldn't have to be the awkward guy who had to share with someone for a week .
Thank you !
062 4 Absolutely fantastic . I was given a personalised , hand-written note with my book thanking me for the purchase . The seller also upgraded my order to expedited shipping for FREE ! I ended up getting the book right after my first class that Monday , meaning I wouldn't have to be the awkward guy who had to share with someone for a week .
Thank you !
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
I'm taking Japanese at college and this was the text book that was required . I'm very happy with it . The book explains grammar very well and the pace moves just fast enough so that my skills in the language are progressing but I don't feel lost . It does not go too much into kanji ( there are some pages in the back that correspond to the lessons ) , but if you are just learning Japanese and have no prior experience with an Asian language - that is a very helpful feature . There is an activity workbook that goes along with the text book and it has grammar and writing exercises and kanji practice pages in the back . You don't actually need the workbook to use the text book , but I definitely recommend it for the extra practice it gives with the lessons .
The beginning of the book focuses a lot on speaking in the polite form ( like if you were to speak Japanese to a teacher , stranger , acquaintance . . . ) by using phrases such as masu and masen at the end of verbs and desu and jaarimasen meaning it is or it is not , as well as the past tenses of the polite forms . The second half of the book focuses on the cordial or familiar ( what you use to speak with close friends , family . . . ) . This book also teaches the te-form ending ( you cannot use masu or masen with a verb in the middle of the sentence , so you use the te-form ) . It also teaches teimasu ending ( both the te-form and the masu form together to indicate that the action is happening at the instant or that a change of action has occurred ) . For example : ima ko-hi wo nondeimasu means I am drinking coffee right now . So the book focuses on all of the three ways of writing in Japanese - hiragana ( used for Japanese words that do not have a kanji and for the particles ) , katakana ( used for foreign words to give them a Japanese sound such as coffee - ko-hi ) and some kanji characters .
I'm sorry if I have made any mistakes with my Japanese sentences ( I'm still a beginner with learning the language ) , but I wanted to try to explain this as best I could because if you already understand most of what I'm writing about - then you probably need the Genki 2 book . If this is all new material to you , then this book is a great way to learn the basics and grammar of Japanese . I also apologize because the amazon site will not let me write the japanese characters .
So , I would definitely recommend the Genki textbook to anyone trying to learn Japanese ( don't waste your money like I did trying to learn on Rosetta Stone and computer programs ! ) . My 14 year old sister bought the same book to learn Japanese also , so it's a textbook that can work for a lot of different age groups ( I wouldn't go any lower than High School though - but it depends on the motivation of the student ) . Good luck with your Japanese studies !
023 4 This review is from :
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
I'm taking Japanese at college and this was the text book that was required . I'm very happy with it . The book explains grammar very well and the pace moves just fast enough so that my skills in the language are progressing but I don't feel lost . It does not go too much into kanji ( there are some pages in the back that correspond to the lessons ) , but if you are just learning Japanese and have no prior experience with an Asian language - that is a very helpful feature . There is an activity workbook that goes along with the text book and it has grammar and writing exercises and kanji practice pages in the back . You don't actually need the workbook to use the text book , but I definitely recommend it for the extra practice it gives with the lessons .
The beginning of the book focuses a lot on speaking in the polite form ( like if you were to speak Japanese to a teacher , stranger , acquaintance . . . ) by using phrases such as masu and masen at the end of verbs and desu and jaarimasen meaning it is or it is not , as well as the past tenses of the polite forms . The second half of the book focuses on the cordial or familiar ( what you use to speak with close friends , family . . . ) . This book also teaches the te-form ending ( you cannot use masu or masen with a verb in the middle of the sentence , so you use the te-form ) . It also teaches teimasu ending ( both the te-form and the masu form together to indicate that the action is happening at the instant or that a change of action has occurred ) . For example : ima ko-hi wo nondeimasu means I am drinking coffee right now . So the book focuses on all of the three ways of writing in Japanese - hiragana ( used for Japanese words that do not have a kanji and for the particles ) , katakana ( used for foreign words to give them a Japanese sound such as coffee - ko-hi ) and some kanji characters .
I'm sorry if I have made any mistakes with my Japanese sentences ( I'm still a beginner with learning the language ) , but I wanted to try to explain this as best I could because if you already understand most of what I'm writing about - then you probably need the Genki 2 book . If this is all new material to you , then this book is a great way to learn the basics and grammar of Japanese . I also apologize because the amazon site will not let me write the japanese characters .
So , I would definitely recommend the Genki textbook to anyone trying to learn Japanese ( don't waste your money like I did trying to learn on Rosetta Stone and computer programs ! ) . My 14 year old sister bought the same book to learn Japanese also , so it's a textbook that can work for a lot of different age groups ( I wouldn't go any lower than High School though - but it depends on the motivation of the student ) . Good luck with your Japanese studies !
034 4 This review is from :
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
Thank you so much for the book and it was so kind of you to include the free book alongside it . That was very kind and much appreciated .
049 4 This review is from :
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
This is a great textbook and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn Japanese . Keep in mind it is the first of at least 2 textbooks . It arrived from the seller quickly and in excellent condition . It even had the instructor booklet in it yet !
051 4 This review is from :
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( Genki 1 Series ) ( Japanese Edition ) ( Audio CD )
This book is very good , but there are not many to choose from . This was 3 quraters of classes .
Overall a good book !
055 4 This review is from :
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
Loved it and it was exactly as it was described i am so excited to use it and learn more Japanese
Arigatou Gosaimasu : )
056 4 Loved it and it was exactly as it was described i am so excited to use it and learn more Japanese
Arigatou Gosaimasu : )
058 4 This review is from :
Genki 1 : An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 ( English and Japanese Edition ) ( Paperback )
This booke came in great condition , with only one corner bent . It was probably due to packaging , but the book itself is exactly how it was said to be . Would definitely buy from this person again .
hiragana and katakana in 2 lessons , and kanji from lesson 3 and on . . . consider getting the textbook along with the workbook , answer key and the 6 - cd pack . I couldn't find it in the u.s . though , so I bought it from amazon.co.jp - a lot cheaper , even with s & h . Also check for more info .
050 4 This is a great textbook and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn Japanese . Keep in mind it is the first of at least 2 textbooks . It arrived from the seller quickly and in excellent condition . It even had the instructor booklet in it yet !
