I didn't really know where to post this, I haven't been on the forum in awhile but I just finished RTK1 last night finally after 9 months(I kinda had to slow down after the holidays for personal reasons).

I have Genki 1 and 2 and the workbook for 1. I finished about 3/4's of the first Genki but then stopped because it was too much to do both Genki and RTK, and while I forgot a lot of the grammar I did keep studying my Genki vocab deck and still retained a lot but if I go back to Genki I'm going to probably start from the beginning again.

Anyways I was wondering what would be the best course of action on going forward I'm kinda hesitant on the RTK3 route and kinda want to take a break from learning anymore kanji right now. I was thinking of doing Core2K but I don't really know which is the best deck so if someone could tell me a good Core2K deck that would be much appreciated. I was also opting for Tae Kim instead of Genki even though I have both of the text books.

If you already have both books/workbooks, I'm of the opinion that not to use them would be a waste of a resource. Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese if a rather useful free resource, but for what it's worth, you have at hand professionally published coursebook which is highly recommended for beginners. If you didn't mind the first 3/4, and found it beneficial, it probably wouldn't hurt to finish it off.

They should (I'm assuming- haven't used them myself) provide the groundwork to be able to tackle the Core2k (or 6K, or 10K) deck, thus making it easier to study more advanced grammar guides with greater ease. Tae Kim's guide has a somewhat steep learning curve, and having the basics from Genki and vocab from Core2k would probably make the more "advanced" topics touched on in Tae Kim's guide much more user friendly.


In my opinion.

That said, I prefer Japanese: the Manga Way, as an introduction to the Japanese language, and the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar (beginner and intermediate) series over Tae Kim's guide. But it all boils down to your preferred resources, as ultimately no one else is going to be able to do the work for you. An "inferior" study guide will always remain "superior" to the "superior" study guide, if it is the one which is actively used. That is to suggest, at the end of the day, what counts is not so much as the spring of the source, but how often you drink from it.

Thank you uisukii I find your advice very sound. I do think it would be a waste of a resource to just leave them sitting on my shelf. I did find Genki fun and useful at times I just don't know how useful the book it since the examples put you as an exchange student in a host family. So I just want to learn more real world Japanese and build on that and Genki might be able to do that but I didn't find that it did that much but I also didn't even finish the first one so I hope someone who maybe has finished both Genkis and who has gone over Tae Kim's guide can help shed some light on the situation.

I've heard a lot of good things about the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar I just don't know how well it would be for me. Is it more of a learning guide or a grammar dictionary cause I don't know how well I would be able learn from the latter, but they could be excellent resources to use when I'm stuck with a particular problem every now and then.

There is no need to do RTK3 right now. You should be able to finish the Genki series (and maybe buy the second workbook?) while doing Core2k without any problems. Not sure I can recommend a deck, mine was the typical Core6k. Getting 2k decks with the audio already included is often more practical.

The Dictionary of Japanese Grammar series are dictionnaries, but if you have the money they are a great resource because they have quite detailed explanations, have a lot of example sentences, and contrast structures.

tguk911 Wrote:I've heard a lot of good things about the Dictionary of Japanese Grammar I just don't know how well it would be for me. Is it more of a learning guide or a grammar dictionary cause I don't know how well I would be able learn from the latter, but they could be excellent resources to use when I'm stuck with a particular problem every now and then.

You're welcome to take a look at an "Ankified" version of the Beginners (and not too far away, intermediate) volume, found here:

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=10723
(Screen shot of what the reordered/more beginner friendly deck looks like on the second page of the thread)

It might be of some use to you. If not, you could always simply delete/not use the deck, as it the beauty of the internet, lol.

Thanks EratiK I think I'll open Genki back up tomorrow and then I'll look for a good Core2K deck.

Also I'll check out the DoBJG tomorrow thanks much uisukii. I think I might place an order for the actual Dictionary next week once I get my next paycheck and I'll see how much use I can get out of it in the next upcoming months. I'm sure I'll be able to get some use out of it. I just wish there were some used ones on ebay but that might just show how much a valuable resource they are that you could use for the rest of your life which you can't put a price on.

I can't imagine selling my DoBJG. I don't use it every day, or even every week, but when I need it, I *really* need it.

Japanese the Manga Way is a great book as well. It's great because it explains a lot of colloquial speech that textbooks avoid like the plague. (Like the use of って in informal language as a substitute for は.)

It is good to go at it from a varied approach and I agree with most of what uisukii said. I used Japanese Demystified and Japanese Step by Step when I started, and I would recommend those, but with your present resources you probably won't be needing them, and it's best to not buy too many books at once.

One thing that Tae Kim doesn't do is quiz you on the materials and force you to use a little ouput and active recall. There is a clozed deletion shared Anki deck for Tae Kim, however, that offers this opportunity. I found it a bit clunky for my smart phone, but I'm sure it works great on the Anki desktop application.

rich_f Wrote:I can't imagine selling my DoBJG. I don't use it every day, or even every week, but when I need it, I *really* need it.

Japanese the Manga Way is a great book as well. It's great because it explains a lot of colloquial speech that textbooks avoid like the plague. (Like the use of って in informal language as a substitute for は.)

I'm pretty sure either the DoBJG or DoIJG covered different usages of って, including the informal "は"- though I can't exactly remember which. Then again, they aren't really what you'd call "textbooks", lol. JtMW is something I'd recommend to everyone, though. Such an enjoyable and informative read.

Even Genki (the first one, I think) explained at least two meanings of って...