Hi

I'm wondering if anyone on here thinks Genki would be useful for someone like me. I have been studying Japanese for about a year. Resources I have been using are, Tae Kim's grammar guide (to the end of special expressions), a RTK anki deck, and I recently completed core 2000. I also recently started Japanese Manga Way. I plan to finish Tae Kim, and maybe get through core 6k.

I think my interest in Genki comes from a concern that I am missing out on important material by not reading through a traditional text book. For example, the textbook I used for studying French grouped together vocabulary and grammar useful for specific and often important conversation topics, such as weather, or school (which I think may be useful for me). Core 2k seems incomplete in this way, eg. I know how to say politics, economics, history, but not anthropology, engineering etc... I also think Genki may teach common expressions, such as greetings and idioms that I don't yet know. I feel like the resources I mentioned in the first paragraph won't really guide me through learning vocabulary and expressions essential for progressing to an intermediate level.

So does anyone here, preferably someone who has used both genki and the some of the resources I have used, have an opinion on whether Genki could help fill any important gaps in my studying. Or is it unlikely to teach me enough extra to be worth the somewhat expensive price. And if you recommend Genki, is the workbook also helpful? I'd appreciate any advice.

Short answer: You probably aren't missing out on anything. I used Genki in college, and when I re-started my Japanese a few years ago. But if you want to make sure, I wrote out some suggestions below.

Grammar:

Here's a good way to check if you have covered just about everything in Genki: my Japanese teacher (who originally taught me with Genki in class) recommended this book to me a few years ago to double-check my basic Japanese skills: 短期集中初級日本語文法総まとめポイント20 (ISBN: 978-7-88319-328-8). It's about 125 pages, by 3-A, who makes Minna no Nihongo. It's a good review of everything you should know basic-Japanese-wise, and probably covers most of Genki I and II. Runs about 1400 yen. I'd say if you don't have too much trouble with this, then you didn't miss anything, except Mary and Takeshi's story. >_>a

Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar (ISBN: 4-7574-0168-X) is a good basic review. 197 pages, 1900 yen. This is a really good basic-level intro book for a motivated self-learner, or as a review. If you have questions, it has pretty good answers, considering the price. (Or the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, which is kind of expensive.) But this has a good "learning path" to follow. I'd get this if I had problems with the first book. Otherwise, it's safe to skip it.

You could also check with どんなときどう使う日本語表現文型200初・中級 ISBN: 4-7574-0174-4. 236 pages, 2300 yen. This one moves past Genki and goes into other stuff-- it assumes a certain level of Japanese knowledge. It might be a good introduction to lower-intermediate level Japanese, at least in terms of exercises.

Vocab:

Vocabulary-wise, keep going through the core decks. They should pick up most of the common stuff. If you feel like you want to jump ahead and study *just* vocab, look at the Kanzen Master or Nihongo so matome JLPT 語彙 and 漢字 books. A lot of verbs and wago are in the 漢字 books (they aren't just books on kanji, they're vocab books!), and more kango and category-based stuff is in the 語彙 books.

Listening:

Genki has a listening component. It's okay. It's not worth the cost of the CDs, though. Look in the wiki for podcast resources. There are also a ton of YouTubers doing Japanese, too. Don't neglect listening, but don't pay for Genki's listening.

Speaking:

Genki has a lot of speaking exercises, most of which I found to be really awkward when I was first learning Japanese. iTalki has a lot of people you can pay to teach you conversation. It's totally worth it in the long run, if you want to be able to speak well. (Or you can use the online schools like JOI.)

Just my $0.02.

If you can I would recommend skimming it before you get it. I found it fairly useful as my first textbook which I started with in my college classes, but if you already know the grammar it might be costly/redundant. I would recommend it if you need to learn the material, but if you know it all already then it's not worth the cost of review. At most I would use Genki to fill in grammar gaps, but in the small bit of Core that I've done I've already seen a lot of the genki words

Re-listening: You won't be able to jump right into podcasts. I highly recommend you download a listening deck on Anki. My one regret in studying Japanese is not making a huge deal out listening practice right away.'

Theres also this website: http://mykikitori.com/