Customer Reviews

An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese II: Banno Eri (English and Japanese Edition)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the second part of Genki and contains lessons 13 to 22. Just like part 1 I really liked it. Only thing is that grammar sometimes seems to be a bit short. For example the explanation of transitivity is too short. Maybe they did it to avoid difficulty while learning, but I think it is quite important and a good and thorough explanation is preffered here.

I started using 90 days of Japanese Language simultaneous, and actually liked those books even better. The grammar is explained better (I needed this book, to get a firm grasp of what transitivity actually is) and the vocabulary is more extensive.

Besides this, it remains a great book, and is good preparation for the JLPT 3 test. After this book I started learning the book Approach to intermediate Japanese by Akira Miura & Naomi Hanaoka McGloin I couldn't find it on Amazon.com ut it is a great book also published by Japan Times. This is the book that should be studied after Genki II.

Reading reviews of Japanese textbooks has led me to conclude that no one ever agrees that any one system works best. I think the best option you have is to combine several different books to get the best possible coverage of grammar and vocabulary (assuming you can afford it). Having used other textbooks before, I feel that Genki has its good and bad points.

The good: Lots of useful vocabulary, easy to understand for the most part, "bonus" pages of real-life grammar usage at the end of each lesson, lots of exercises to practice the grammar forms, the kanji sections are well-done.

The bad: Very inadequate grammar explanations (many students in my class had no idea *why* they were using certain grammar, or what it actually meant), poor coverage of grammar forms (i.e., they teach you half of the things you can do with a grammar form, but completely skip the other usages), the coversations at the beginning of each chapter have little to no practical use.

I think that this textbook could only be used effectively in a classroom setting, with a teacher to provide more thorough explanations and grammar examples. In my past experience with other textbooks, I've had to memorize a great deal of conversations and sentence structures (all of which turned out to be extremely useful, despite the tediousness), but with Genki, it leaves you somewhat underprepared to use the knowledge you've gained for anything deeper than low-level conversation.

I like the genki books. As you move through the book, the grammatical structures definitely build upon previously learned structures. The vocabulary is very practical. After just using the Genki books, I was able to go to Japan and communicate pretty well considering I only had three years of studying under my belt. The previous reviewer mentioned that it is hard for her students to remember the grammatical structures. I find that all the students in my class and I have been able to recognize structures and use them. This is mostly because we incorporate conversation in class so much. As long as you keep on using the structures, it will eventually come naturally. Hope that helped a bit!

Genki II is just a continuation of Genki I. The quality is the same, and the comments here apply equally to both Genki I and II.

Japanese is a very difficult language for English speakers to learn. If you've learned some French or Spanish (as I have), forget about it! Japanese is many times more difficult. That being said, Japanese is also more interesting, in that it has a completely different structure and forces you to think differently.

Genki does a good job of presenting Japanese is an orderly fashion. The authors are all native Japanese speakers, and there are a few places where they make mistakes in English, but those small errors do not take away from the text.

Genki could use a few more sample Japanese sentences, though. For example, when they present a new pattern, they often provide just a couple of examples when ten or twelve would be better. I suppose they assume (correctly) that this book will mostly be used in a classroom setting, and that the teacher will provide additional material.

In the end, Genki is a good textbook, but you will need more help if you are going to learn to speak Japanese. That is not the fault of the authors, it is just the way it is.

This was the textbook I used in Japan when I was a summer foreign exchange student in Tokyo during high school. I LOVE the Genki series. I could use what I learned from the lessons within five minutes of doing the homework for that day. While another reviewer was correct that the vocabulary and situations used in the lessons are geared towards students and homestays, I think it's still an excellent introduction to the Japanese language. If you get the grammar down, then obviously you can simply expand your vocabulary to suit multiple other situations.

Check out the Genki online resources, too; they're great [...]

This is a required text book for my Intermediate level (Elementary Proficiency) Japanese language class. Students have complained about it lacking enough examples. There is problem with ambiguity in Japanese. I would say that this text is not strong enough for one to learn on their own and speak with confidence. You will always need a native Japanese speaker to guide you. Nevertheless, good text to study from.

The title says it all folks! Genki is the BEST series out there for learning Japanese! I have studied Japanese in the US for 8 years now, used many different books and Genki is BY FAR the best one on the market. From the word choice, to the explanations, to the practice problems this book excels! You will have no problem learning the Japanese language while using the Genki series. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone that has a desire to learn Japanese. If you're struggling with your current textbook or class, I urge you to purchase the Genki series because you just cannot go wrong!

This has been such a fun and useful book for those continuing their Japanese learning experience. I have really enjoyed reading it, and the new vocabulary are extremely useful, as I can now pick out many more words out of a Japanese conversation than before. Thank you, Genki II!

i liked this, it was a good workbook :)
kind of wished it came before school started though. didn't get it until a week afterwards

Use this book in my japanese class. It's not helpful or anything just for practicing one's writing skills. Just an addition to the main text Genki.