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GENKI ONE VIDEO REVIEW TRANSCRIPT
GENKI ONE VIDEO REVIEW
Hey, everybody. This is Donald with TheJapanGuy.com, and today, let's take a look at a really popular Japanese textbook. You know what one of the really big questions I get over on TheJapanGuy.com blog is? "No, Donny. Why don't you tell us?" Okay. The question is, "How do you start learning Japanese? How do you learn the language? It's a huge one," and it's a question that is really, really close to me because when I came to Japan, I didn't know doodly-squat. I couldn't read Hiragana. I couldn't read Katakana. Definitely not kanji.
The extent of my Japanese education was a set of basic Pimsleur CDs that I picked up a few weeks before getting here, and I would just listen to them over and over again. While that Pimsleur CD did spark an interest in learning the language and it helped me to learn the stock phrases that were on those CDs, I wouldn't say it was really effective in helping me pick the language apart and find ways to actually produce it on my own, so to that extent, I can't say my Japanese education really began there. I didn't really feel like any confidence came from it.
Depending on your job like if you're at a job that doesn't require you to use Japanese, you can live in Japan a very long time without having to pick up the language, and it's totally cool. To each his own, but for me, I didn't want to walk around and keep hearing everybody sounding like Charlie Brown's teacher. "Wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha." "Pff. Whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop, whop."
INTRO
What was the book? What was the resource that helped me start building my Japanese confidence? The one that got me thinking, "Hmm, maybe learning Japanese might be possible," was this one, and you have to excuse the cover. I have torn it up. It's an old book, the old version. When we put the flaps together, boys and girls, what do we see? I can't even put the flaps together. Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. We're going to take a look at this book today, look at the ins and outs, and why I like it so much.
PROS
There are five things that I really and truly like about the Genki 1 textbook. My number one like for the Genki 1 textbook is complex made simple. Genki 1 takes a subject that's perceived to be really, really difficult, Japanese, and which can be, but it really takes the fundamentals and puts them in a way that's both fun and easy.
A really big part of Genki 1 being easy to understand is it's predictable lesson structure, which I think is great for beginners, so what are you going to get in every chapter? You know you're going to have a dialog, vocabulary, grammar, practice, and listening. Those five things, rinse and repeat.
The third thing that I like about the Genki 1 textbook is the yomikakihen (読み書き編) section, and this section is at the back of the main textbook, and it's 12 lessons that go along with the main 12 lessons that you read in the book. yomikakihen just means reading and writing, so it's a really good way to get your feet wet with Kana, Hiragana, and Katakana, and to get some light Kanji word gain as well, some good fundamentals with Kanji.
The fourth thing that I really like about the Genki 1 textbook is actually not the textbook at all. It's this. It's the workbook, and when I got started, I went a little bit Genki crazy, and I bought everything from Genki 1 like picture cards, CDs. Just all kinds of stuff, and it was a lot more expensive back then, but if you're just looking for the essentials, I definitely recommend getting both the textbook and the workbook because this is how you apply what you're learning in here.
What I really like about the textbook is that the textbook gets you writing about you, what's more real to you than yourself. For me, when I had the chance to write about myself and think about the Japanese that I had learned in the textbook, and then apply those lessons to trying to make my own stories or answer questions about me, that was the way that things started to stick for me. That's why I think the workbook is so awesome.
Donald:The fifth and final thing on our list of likes for today are the audio files. I think the audio files are really well done, very professional. I like that they used neutral Japanese at a speed that is easy for beginners to comprehend and understand, so it's easy to follow along in your textbook all that kind of stuff, and I like that it introduces you to some pretty interesting characters that you'll run into throughout the books.
CONS
As many great qualities as Genki has, no book is prefect, so let's look at some of the cons for this book as well.
My number one dislike for Genki 1 is that maybe it could use a bit more real world Japanese because when you're studying Genki 1, you're going to learn very polite, very straightforward Japanese like nani nani-masu. Like that style of Japanese, but when you listen to television, when you listen to conversations going on in the train, when you hear Japanese out and about, it doesn't really sound like that sometimes.
Some of the words, you don't necessarily hear that sound like the ones in Genki, but that's okay. I don't think it's a bad thing. I couldn't have made a better book. It's a great place to start, and when you look at Genki 2, there is a bit more real world Japanese in there, but that's a whole another review.
My second dislike would probably be the writing. It's a bit light on the Kana and Kanji practice. Okay? I think Genki focuses more in the dialog and grammatical aspects of Japanese, which is super important like I don't think a book can be everything, or it'd be this big, you know, so understandably so.
PRICE
The price of Genki 1, the latest version, at the time of this recording when I went to the Amazon store US was $55.87 for the textbook, and then it was $22.80 for the workbook. I guess because the book was made here in Japan, it's actually cheaper here. On the Amazon store at the time of this recording for the latest version of Genki 1, it is 3,780 yen for the textbook, and then 1.728 yen for the workbook.
Genki 1 is for the aspiring Japanese student that has no prior experience with the language, whatsoever. Keep in mind that Genki 1 is used in a lot of colleges as a 101, Japanese 101 course. Genki can also be great for the person who needs to brush up on their Japanese. Great review material.
WHO IT ISN'T FOR
Genki 1 isn't for the person that's looking to become a hardcore Japanese master overnight. There are those people out there, and maybe Genki 1 can be a part of your whole plan, but I think it's ... Trying to become a master off of Genki 1 is beyond the scope of the book. Also, for those of you who want to learn like dirty and raw Japanese, Genki might not be the book for you.
RATING
All right, gang. We're going to wrap this review up for today. We took a closer look at Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese, and it's a book that doesn't take itself too seriously, but at the same time, it served me very, very well, and I think it's going to serve you very well too. It's not the perfect book, mind you, but if I was giving it grades like we got in school from A to F, I'd give it a solid A-minus.
WRAP-UP
Well, guys, I want to wish you luck on your Japanese studies no matter where you are in your Japanese journey. I know it's not always the easiest thing in the world to do. It can be a challenge, but it can also be a lot of fun. I've gone through this book cover to cover, both the textbook and the workbook, and it's one that I really, really trust, and so I hope it helps you, especially for those of you who are beginners, and I just wish all you guys the best. Keep working hard. Keep trying hard, and I'll be right over here studying alongside you. Talk to you in the next one, okay? Bye.
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