| Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 (English and Japanese Edition) |  | Authors: Eri Banno, Yutaka Ohno, Yoko Sakane, Chikako Shinagawa
Creator: Japan Times
Publisher: The Japan Times
Category: Book
Buy New: $51.80
as of 9/9/2010 01:57 CDT details
New (21) Used (13) from $49.99
Seller: thejapanshop
Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 1,077
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 4789009637
Dewey Decimal Number: 495
EAN: 9784789009638
ASIN: 4789009637
Publication Date: May 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Genki outlines in 23 structured lessons all the fundamentals of the Japanese language. Abundantly illustrated and containing a wide variety of exercises, Genki is sure to bring vigor to your classroom! Though primarily meant for use in college-level classes, it is also a good guide for independent learners and is a nice resource book for teachers of Japanese. Genki's authors teach at Kansai Gaidai University, which hosts the largest number of North American students spending their junior year in Japan.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 63
 Decent quality book with great shipping time September 8, 2010
Cat
The book came in great condition and so far has been very easy to use to learn Japanese!
The BEST workbook out there for learning Japanese August 27, 2010
Taco
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is amazing. It teaches you grammar quickly, in a way that makes sense. Very few times I was confused with what was going on with this book. I would advise you to have a dictionary with you (Or be at your computer with a dictionary site ready) because flipping pages is a pain sometimes. There are plenty of examples that never try to trick you.
Only downside is the audio tape isn't too helpful. They pronounce all the words for you, and they read out certain scenarios, but they don't slow down. Sure its great listening practice, but its very hard to do for a beginning student. Believe me, listening to full pace Japanese is hard to make out. If you want good listening comprehension, might want to go to rosetta stone or something.
The kanji they teach is pretty good. They dont go over radicals or anything, but they teach you about 20 of them then give you some reading exercises, repeat for about 160 or so. Also, during the main lessons, all the kanji have furigana for you to read. You may end up 'accidentally learning kanji' this way. Where you see the same kanji enough times you just remember it without studying it. Other books weren't so good at teaching kanji, or do so in a different manner. Know that this book wont teach you all of the joyo kanji, not even close, but it gets you started with a few hundred of the most common ones. It is very organized.
PS: I recommend a dry erase whiteboard + a thick tip chisel dry erase marker for all your kanji drawing. A pen and pad will not cut it. Write down all the kanji you learn a few times, and try to remember it by parts. EG-- the in (ni-hon-go --- Japan) is made up of (to say) (5) (mouth). Definitely makes it easier to remember. Just know that learning kanji will suck no matter what, but this book makes it slightly less sucky. I found it a bit fun to read their little stories, too.
Keep in mind that the Genki series wont teach you -everything-, but it will get you started. I've attained several Japanese textbooks and this one is the best.
PS: How each lesson works is they have a story at the beginning, then a few pages on the grammar tricks used in each story. If you cant read a lesson without 100% understanding, don't advance.
 It's okay, but supplementary August 25, 2010
Ji (CA)
My University will be using this textbook for the Japanese 1 class. To get a heads start, I purchased this book, accessed many online resources (i.e. Smart.FM), and utilized another book called: 'Hakwon kal shigani upnun bun weehan: dokhak chutkul eum (For those who don't have time to go to class: Japanese, first step) published in korea.
I titled this review as "It's okay, but supplementary" because I wouldn't learn the Japanese language using ONLY this book. It doesn't cover everything, and often, it does very vaguely. For example: it goes over Katakana and Hiragana pretty fast and doesn't elaborate on the use of and its various pronunciations; nor does it include stroke order for any of the Kana or Kanji within the book. You are required to use other sources to nail down these important concepts.
As a learner who speaks both English and Korean fluently, I find the previously mentioned book (from Korean<->Japanese) much more elaborate and concise when explaining grammar.
This book is an excellent supplement to learning the Japanese language. I recommend utilizing online resources!
[...]
Best Japanese Textbook I've used August 15, 2010
Nile
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have used the "Adventures in Japanese" series books before, but I realized when I received this product that I like the "Genki" series better. The illustrations are enjoyable and the way the book is divided is logical. I'd highly recommend this product (with the workbook and audio CD) to anyone who wants to learn Japanese.
 Not my first choice July 14, 2010
Kokori Rose (New York)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This was the book that my Beginning Japanese class in college used. I had high hopes for it, placing my trust in the Japanese department. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I have used both Genki I and Genki II at this point. The introduction to hiragana and katakana was not a smooth one, even with additional materials provided by the teacher (and I had been studying the kana on my own before I took the class, as well!) I found myself feeling very confused about even basic grammar structures for most of Genki I. The readings were quite boring, to be honest, and the dialogues were like something out of a very poorly written soap opera.
The two things that bothered me most, however, were kanji and vocabulary. The first chapter with kanji was okay, and the order seemed pretty logical. But as the chapters progressed, I learned that we weren't being taught kanji in the order that they are normally taught in Japan. There are many very simple kanji that are used in everyday words that I can't identify because the textbook never introduced them.
Vocabulary. Oh, the vocabulary. Some vocabulary was useful. But others were just complete failures. My favorite example being in Genki II, where we were taught the word for "space alien". That's nice and all, but frankly, it had nothing to do with the chapter, and I've never needed to use it in conversation. Learning to say something more relevant would have been nice. Also, I felt like it was a waste to have so many katakana words as vocabulary words. We could easily guess at how those things were spelt. But why not teach more words that are actually in Japanese, and not just foreign words?
Maybe the book just didn't work with my style of learning. I don't know. But I know that I probably won't recommend it to anyone I know personally, and that I'm going to have a lot of trouble with the JLPT because of this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 63
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