GENKI: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese I [Second Edition] 初級日本語 げんき I [第2版]

by 坂野永理, 池田庸子, 大野裕

GENKI is an integrated textbook series widely adopted by many elementary Japanese courses at colleges and high schools in Japan, U.S., and other countries. It completes the elementary level study of the Japanese grammar as well as some 300 kanji and 1,100 vocabulary in the 23 lessons of GENKI I and II.Filled with words and expressions that learners can easily relate to, this resource also provides a wealth of communicative exercises. Its learner-centered approach makes for fun and effective study―one big reason why GENKI is used in Japanese language courses around the world.- Understandable grammar explanations written in English enable students to study by their own.- As the GENKI series have textbooks, workbooks, picture cards, teachers' manual, the Genki-Online website, and applications for iPhone & Android, teachers can offer comprehensive instruction easily.『げんき』シリーズは、初級日本語を「話す・聞く・読む・書く」の４技能にわたって学習する総合教材です。全2 巻・23 課で、初級の文法全般と漢字約300 字、語彙約1,100 語を学びます。学習者に身近な語彙や表現を積極的に取り入れ、コミュニカティブな練習問題を豊富に用意。学習者中心の楽しく効果的な授業を可能にします。国内・海外の日本語コースで数多く採用されています。＊文法説明はわかりやすい英文なので、学習者の自習も可能です。＊テキスト、ワークブック、絵カード、教師用指導書、ウェブサイト「げんきオンライン」、アプリなど、豊富な教材がそろっています。※この商品は固定レイアウトで作成されており、タブレットなど大きいディスプレイを備えた端末で読むことに適しています。また、文字列のハイライトや検索、辞書の参照、引用などの機能が使用できません。

Genres: Japanese Literature, Nonfiction, Textbooks

Kindle Edition

Published January 20, 2020

Reviews

[Todica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book as it was one of the most raved about textbook for learning japanese. It is an extremly good resource, but Japanese it’s a very difficult language to master, so I would say that choosing just one book and expecting to speak the language by the end of it just won’t do it. It depends which are your goals, of course, but if you aim to take at some point the JLPT 1 exam then you must mix more textbooks, invest many hours, be really determined and be persistent. Also, I recommend not starting anything until you are mentally prepared and really excited about learning this language as it is a very long and difficult road; requires lots of stamina and patience, mostly for those who have no knowledge at all of kanji and asian languages generally.
However, I started by learning hiragana and katakana together with the basic survival Nihongo Fun & Easy 1 (the survival guide) trying to understand how they work and the rules for this 2 systems and integrating kanji along the way. While doing this I also studied from 2 books for basic Japanese from Tuttle and used 3 apps (taking advantage of my commute time to work) : TenguGo - both Kanji and Kana ( kanji is free on ios, Kana about 1,99 usd ), Sensei and Kana (on this one you can practice the strokes order among many other things). Still, I must say that for me, the old pen and paper are the best way of practicing this, but I use it sometimes while I commute. I am also taking some lessons in a language academy spending a total of around 90-100 h per month of classes and individual study combined - which can be really challenging when you have a full time job as well. You can spend less time and don’t have to invest this much if you just want to learn the survival language or if you didn’t set up a goal in terms of time to reach a certain level. However, if you strive at using the language in business environment and take the exam, get ready to be really serious about it.
I also found super helpful Kanji learner’s dicitionary, Kodansha’s Furigana Dicitonary, a Dictionary of basic japanese Grammar by Seiichi Makino and Genki (textbooks and workbooks). Genki though should not be taken as the first book. It is for beginners, but quiet complex, so I suggest starting with Nihongo-fun and easy 1 and after you have basic knowledge move on to this one.
You can also try to read children tales and stories (for 1st graders and toddlers) as they are written mostly in Hiragana, so easy to be read by those who just start learning and it’s a good way to exercise recognizing them. There are some websites which provide the books with romanji words under the hiragana, so very helpful if you cannot recognize yet all hiragana.
I found out that juggling multiple resources gave me a deeper understanding and different approaches helped me learn easier and faster. Some books explain very well a certain thing, but they are maybe not that clear in terms of some other aspect which you might find explained better in another book. Maybe it’s just me! My suggestions is to try and find a system which works for you and stick with that and enjoy the ride because it is for sure a very rewarding experience.
Good luck!