How to Efficiently Self Study the Genki Textbooks | How I Learn Japanese

Also if you're looking to buy the Genki textbooks, try and buy it from a Japanese bookstore in your area! Support local 💕

This may seem like a strange comment in the scope of learning the language, but get your book SPIRAL BOUND so that it stays open and flat for you. I guarantee it will help you focus!

Will learning the 2k/6k Anki deck first be beneficial for genki? Or even like halfway through? Or should I just straight up start the book?

the anki link doesn't work. . .

I have acquired some of the very basic phrases. However, I do have some challenges. #1 I have no one with whom to practice. I'm buried in New England and everyone here has no interest whatsoever. PLEBS! #2 I did have a major brain injury years ago and my ability to move short term memory to long term memory is limited and quite hit or miss. Sometimes it takes almost immediately. Sometimes it never sinks in. There is no pattern.
I want to move to Japan for retirement and would like to get to at least the JPL5 level. I believe that once I am there fully embedded within the culture my retention for conversational purposes, via live practice, will increase significantly.

One thing that I believe would help many people is for the translations to be in the Japanese sentence structure. Having the sentences written as spoken would help a lot since Japanese is a SOV (subject-object-verb) language whereas English is a SVO (subject-verb-object) language. It requires rewiring your speaking and thinking circuits to say the least! LOL

Something that is helping me to become familiar with the speaking patterns is J-Pop music! I love AKB48 and they have many songs that are perfect for voice practice. I can't do it without the song playing as if I were in a karaoke bar but, when they do play, it all kicks in just fine and I get it all spot on! Go figure! LOL

FWIW

What is all levels of Japanese

🎇🎇🎇

It always annoys me when people say "ローマン字"! It's "ローマ字"! Why is that so hard?

I loved how i was recommended this video. It has helped me so much cuz i am lost. I want to understand and get patterns but its weird to speak textbook lamguage by myself. These are great pointers ill end up using.

Spends months learning Japanese correctly then says "ANYWAYS" which is bad English and not a real word.

jesus christ that constant pop sound effect

thank youuuu!! this was super helpful!!

these textbooks are too expensive , its like 5k inr and as a student i cant afford it. is there any pdf file for them?

Thanks for your videos! I’m considering the Genki textbooks. Your copies have more sleek cover designs than the ones I’m seeing online. Which editions do you have?

I'm confused , does this book not teach you the calendar? You seem to go on about reading it first then checking to see if you had it right. Is this book not for people that completely dont know anything?

What sucks for me is that when my genki textbook came it didn’t come with a Audio CD, and also by comparing some small details between my book and the book used in this one, it is the same book but it’s an older version. Which probably explains my current situation.

I have the genki textbook and workbook but where can I listen to the audio book? Thanks

Huh, I didn't know about that section in the back of the book. Thank you! I'm going to go through it. I'm about 3/4 of the way through Genki 1 and almost done with Japanese from Zero book 3 (with an online class).

People like you are rare, thank you so much for everything you do!

this is soo helpful!!! And Do you think it's possible to do the genki textbooks in a month? ( literally am spending this week learning all of hiragana and katakana from scratch if possible). I'd like to do a 30 day challenge if possible where I start from nothing , and see how much I can comprehend after 30 days.

With these 2 books, which JLPT level do you think you get?

I am currently stuck on Chapter 6 (て form) and in combination with new words introduced, I feel like I am sipping through mud.

Just wondering if it is okay to continue going through chapters, while memorising the words ( I use Anki also) from the previous ones, or wait until all of the new words are completely embedded in my brain before moving on ?

I find that learning new words even through repetition is an absolute killer as at some point, I come to a grinding halt.

Thanks for a very informative video!

That AnkiGen vocab generator was extremely helpful for an Anki newbie like me, thanks a bunch!

The price is outrageous though. The four of them cost 137€

Oh god, the same girl who said Kenji instead of Kanji is giving advice...eek.

Is it good for learning hiragana katakana

Thanks to the author of the video! The most important thing in life is knowledge of foreign languages! Thanks to foreign languages you can realize all your dreams and realize your grandiose ambitions! I would like to recommend all the practices of Yuriy Ivantsiv ''Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign language". This book will be an indispensable helper, a handbook for every person who studies a foreign language! This book contains invaluable tips, questions and answers, and solutions to problems faced by anyone who studies a foreign language! Knowledge is power! And knowledge of foreign languages is your power multiplied by many times! Success to all in self-development!

I’m learning korean but your videos have been really useful in helping my Korean studies. Korean and Japanese grammar is VERY similar so someday maybe I decide to learn Japanese 🙂

not for me, i took 6 months to finish both, your way is skimming not studying, i think!

Question: Do you need both the textbook and the workbook or do you only need the textbook?

So you would do the premade Genki vocabulary deck in Anki alongside the N5 deck discussed in your Anki video? Or do Genki vocabulary first and and then move to that deck?

Which textbook did you move to after these two, if any?

I'm using Genki, Anki, and Tae Kim's grammar book (which is free). Oh, can't forget wanikani. Absolutely a must for me. Mnemonics helped learn Hiragana and Katakana. Kanji is still a beast though. I'm feeling Tae's book better than Genki. I like his presentation and I think he explains the concepts better. Good luck for those who are self studying. You can do it! 幸運!

Awesome vid hun

I just discovered your channel and it’s really helpful! I did an Japanese course in university but since this is over and I want to continue studying, I don’t know what to do. But your video is really good to get an idea of how you can study with a textbook. 😊

Hi Alivia! Out of curiosity, after finishing these textbooks in 2 months did you feel confident in taking and passing the N5 and N4 for the JLPT?

Sugoi des

so after the 1 and 2 chapters of the first book there is no romaji, right?

The genki book have jlpt n4 book and n3 book ahh??? Pls can u tell me?????

Did you pass JLPT N5 with your approach?

Very well presented and helpful video.

When I write words on paper I don't ever look back at them either. However, the act of writing the words sometimes helps a little. It's not really worth it though and I don't do it very often.

Dumbest thing that helps me with memorizing words: I 'write' the words (in hiragana) in the air with my finger while picturing the word in my mind and saying it aloud. For some reason, I tend to remember words better that way. Using my finger without visualizing the word doesn't work as well, nor does visualizing without using my finger.

ty for the advices

This was good information I just ordered the 4 books to start my journey.

your effort doesn't go unnoticed, keep up the good work!

I’ve had genki for two months and only up to chapter 7 trying to memorise, etc
I will try to use this method in the future with the hopes it will help me cover more bases! Thanks for the tips :)

One thing that's not mentioned here is that there are three Genki apps - Vocabulary, Verbs and Kanji. Those apps are really helpful specially the vocabulary app which has both the word and an example sentence.

I'm enjoying your videos. Very good insight for beginners like myself. I'm glad to see you wrote in your books, I've been debating to actually write the answers inside the books or just in a notebook. I'll just use pencil in case i need to erase something ;)

why is it so expensive, cant afford it sadly. My mother wants me to keep on studying chinese so i can't spend a lot of money on japanese text books

I haven't completed Genki II yet but I literally understand everything that is in the book. I got a different book Japanese Tutor (Upper Beginner to Intermediate level most likely lower intermediate). I got Genki I for my Japanese classes I took at a local community college back in 2016 (2nd edition) I have a PDF version of Genki II both textbook and workbook with the audio files as well. I primarily use actually Japanese resources now anime manga tv shows movies books light novels newspapers (I got in Japan in 2017 and from a local store here in California). I also buy a lot of my manga from kinokuniya in San Francisco, CA. I'm also planning on taking the JLPT N3 exam this year as well.