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I agree because i suffered with the same problem. Genki taught me to think the masu form was the only form at first. I didn't even realize what the dictionary form was used for until much later chapters (can't remember which). Basically it set me back because i got used to ignoring the dictionary form.
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I'm not sure if you have Genki confused with another book but the book does not actually teach it that way. Dictionary forms and masu forms are introduced in the same chapter (#3) but they teach you the differences, (there's even a chart listing out dictionary form, present test affirmative, present tense negative, stems, bases etc.) and how to conjugate RU verbs and U verbs into -masu. Also in the vocab lists, all the verbs are listed under their dictionary forms and -te form is introduced right in the Chap. 6 so I don't see how you could ignore them, for long anyways.
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I have :jap1901: next semester as one of my uni classes so maybe this thread will be of help then ~~
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I made a similair thread before the "Great Crash". You should check it out for further information. (And yes, my name was "-Dark Warp-" Back then).
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We used Minna no Nihongo,
I Find them very good, but you again need to know both Hiragana and Katakana (it does have an explanation and stuff but it's only a few pages) The thing i like about it is that it comes in 2 books, the Japanese exercisy book and then the translation and grammar notes, which explain everything. I would assume this is not uncommon in language textbooks though. I have heard that the Kanji learning book for Minna no Nihongo isn't very good (we don't use that, we use Basic Kanji Book vols 1 and 2) But the reading exercise supplement is very good, i've found that very useful! I could scan in a few pages from the first lesson if you wanted to see th style, but i'm not back at university until tonight (GMT) but send me a PM or something and i'll see what i can do :) |
We use Genki in my class, and I don't really have any complaints on it (except, as someone mentioned, the randomness of the vocabulary lists). Maybe part of this is because I was pretty familiar with Japanese when I started taking the class, and most of the stuff in the first book was review.
There was this one thing my teacher went over in class the other day, which I thought was funny. He's a native, and commented on how feminine a lot of the speech was in the examples (when it wasn't stated that "this is a female speech pattern). Three of the four authors are women, so I guess a lot female influence (intentionally or not), found its way into the book. |
Yea, learning the writing system very first is probably a good idea, that way you have access to all materials, and not just the stuff in Romaji. I'm learning Arabic right now, and I'm focusing on getting good at the writing system before anything.
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everyone, check out this link http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/
It has tons of free material of japanese language exercise. I'm overjoyed. I hope you could use it too for your own sake.;) |
If you're looking to make a serious investment into learning the language, you may want to consider getting Elementary Japanese by Hasegawa. This is the book that they use here at Berkeley (I had to deal with it in a thick reader form before) and I definitely came out of my first year of Japanese here feeling like I learned a whole damn lot. It pretty much hits on the all the major topics any good first year college Japanese book should.
We've never used Genki here, so I'm always lost when talking to my friends from other colleges about Japanese. We do use Intermediate Japanese though. I've always thought that they teach the -masu form before (usually) the plain form because they don't want you to go out into Japan and basically speak rudely to everyone there and make a problem out of yourself. Of course, if you're bold enough to go to a foreign country and speak in their language only after a year of training, then more power to you. |
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Okay, I'm learning Japanese at school...very slowly. I've learned all hiragana, barely any katakana and only about 20-30 kanji. What book (or series of books) do you recommend for me?
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you know, I think we should make a thread to share our knowledges of japanese language to the forum. I also want to chat in japanese, but I'm just too afraid that I will speak in wrong grammar.
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(sort of a bump, I guess)
Regarding the Genki series of books: 1) If I wanted the "complete" Genki I package what would I need? eg workbook, CD etc... 2) How many Genki series' are there? 3) Are there any sites besides amazon which sell these books? (and on that matter, ship internationally?) |
From what I've read and heard, GENKI is one of the better texts.
Try to find torrents online so you can download stuff like rosetta stone or primswhatever. |
Theres a lot of these torrents on Demonoid.com(some have external trackers). I found some Genki mp3's but it looks like some part of it is missing on another torrent that seems to be dead.
I'm sure there was a ~10 gig Learn Japanese collection on the Hongfire tracker, seems like its dead also. Does anyone want to scan their text books? :dealer: :tpg: (In advance...MOAR MOAR MOAR MOAR) |
Bitme.org has a live torrent with 8 gigs of Japanese learning matieral. It's an invite-only site, though.
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I don't think any textbook would be the greatest tool in learning any language. Learning the written stuff is one thing, but there is nothing like getting spoken knowledge from people speak the language fluently. Anyways, good luck with your search. |
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Speaking of all this, I just got my pratice copy of the Kyuu 3/4 JLPT test today in the mail. I'll be putting that aside until a few months when I'm ready to test myself out.
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Suggestions!
I have been studying nihongo myself since the summer of 2005, and I must tell you, you are in for a lot of work. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you are truly serious.
Anyhow, I would recommend these relatively cheap and easily available books: this for learning the basic grammar, hiragana, etc., and this for the kanji. Neither are full-fledged textbooks, like Genki, but they served me pretty well, enough to be proficient in basic Japanese. Actually, I found this thread Googling for a torrent of a real textbook. ~ erikku |
I hear many suggestions for textbooks, but none for the most efficient. There is no substitute for learning a new language in the real environment or with real people. Study the grammar vocabulary online and get on a chat with someone, they are not that hard to find.
If you really want conversational dialogue, the best place to look is subtitled anime! They use colloquialisms and slang that you would be using in your elementary level, and you will get used to the conjugation naturally, instead of having to figure it out procedurally. I wonder what support we would have for creating a couple threads in which members would speak exclusively in that language or it could be a sounding board for those learning members. There seem to be many Japanese scholars in this thread alone, so anyone interested? |
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Another vouch for Genki since that's what we're using right now, although the vocab introduces some counter-intuitive words like "host family" and "LL". I also wish they introduced short form earlier with its various applications, since -masu makes lots of things longwinded. However, overall it's a good book as long as you force yourself to learn each concept thoroughly.
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