Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 (Japanese Edition)

Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 (Japanese Edition) | Eri Banno, Yutaka Ohno, ... | Genki - Excellent Japanese text

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Genki 1: An Integr...

	Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 (Japanese Edition) Eri Banno, Yutaka Ohno, ... Varsitybooks.Com, 1999 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A great start to learning Japanese

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.

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Genki - Excellent Japanese text

In my experience studying Japanse study, 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, did not include the review exercises from the text, although it did include the workbook exercises.

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Superb...but a bit expensive in the U.S.

I had been using Japanese for Busy People when I found out about this series, and decided to give it a try. Basically, it's great, even for self-study, and as someone else already put it, it never withholds information, and it's very fast paced: 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 http://genki.japantimes.co.jp/index.en.html for more info.

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Wonderful book

The best intro for beginers and/or refresher for intermediates I've yet to find. Extremely well done; uses more modern, but still polite, Japanese instead of the outdated wording that most other books offer. Make sure to the use Genki I textbook in conjunction with the appropriate Genki I work book and CD for optimal learning potential.

Invaluable Reference Text for the Self-Motivated College Student, Young Adult, and Beginning Learner

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.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8

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