Japan Times Genki 1 Third Edition: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1

I bought this books for a college course, and even if I was a self learner, I would still recommend this book. There are many practices, fun facts, and reoccurring characters, which in my opinion, make it easier to understand. There are also apps that you can get to go with it (that cost about $3-5 if I remember correctly) can can even expand your learning further. Overall a great book, and I will defiantly get the rest once I start up my self-learning journey again!

GENKI is an excellent textbook for anyone starting Japanese. It combines grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, and exercises in a clear, structured way, making it very beginner-friendly. The explanations are easy to understand, and the examples help apply concepts in real-life situations. It’s also packed with exercises that reinforce learning, and the cultural notes provide helpful context for language usage. Whether you’re self-studying or supplementing classroom lessons, GENKI is a reliable resource to build a strong foundation in Japanese.

I thought this Genki Textbook together with the workbook would be a nice combination, but it is not really. The method is far too complicated and there seems to be no structure. In the textbook things are explained in really short ways, with very strangely build up exercises to learn. not very much examples with new grammar as well. Then there is the workbook which seems to have 2 parts and it is never clear to me when to use which. But the most frustrating of the Genki books I feel, is the fact that they are trying to teach you far too much at once. When you've finally mastered the hiragana and katagana in just a few pages....they actually expect you to start reading everyting in them. So when there is a vocabulary list where you can memorise words, the words will be written in Hirgana or even Kanji! Wherease I just want to start learn in how to say "Bank" "postoffice" "school". Now I first have to decypher the Hiragana or Katagana signs, before I know the word. Same goes for grammar explanation. If you want to explain to people how the "ni" , "de" and "o" particles work, the exercies in the workbook shoudl NOT be written in hiragana/Katagana or Kanji. I have a hard enough time trying to find the right ways to build a sentence, without having to decypher and then translate everything. This is actually really slowing me down as it would be so much better to just learn grammar in English and do the exercices in romaji. I find explanations on the internet also far better than the rather short and complicated ones in Genki.

Das Buch ist in einwandfreiem Zustand angekommen und genau wie beschrieben. Genki I ist ideal für den Einstieg ins Japanischlernen - logisch aufgebaut und gut erklärt. Besonders positiv: Der Verkäufer hat sich persönlich gemeldet, um nachzufragen, ob alles angekommen ist. Sehr freundlich - klare Empfehlung!

Delivered within a couple of days! :-) I found out that we were switching to the third edition a couple of days before class. So I immediately ordered this on Amazon because I knew it would arrive in time. It was the second cheapest I could find in Australia. However, it was worth paying a little extra rather than waiting more than a week for delivery. The textbook itself is really quite a good edition. It’s a laid out better than second edition and the accompanying audio app (you get free instead of the CD) is a far superior way to study. Recommended!!!