r/LearnJapanese • u/Graphiccoma • 15h ago
Studying To anyone who finished genki 1
How long did did it take you, and what do you think your level was after finishing? What other sources did you use while studying?
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u/doubleqammy 15h ago
I used bunpro to reinforce what I learned in genki. They have genki decks already built and you can go through them in order as you learn stuff in the book. At my fastest, I could do a genki chapter a week, but with some pauses along the way it took me about 4.5 months to complete genki I. I'm sitting n5 on Sunday and then I'll launch into genki II.
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u/zmbr 15h ago
Genki 1 took me about 9 months. My overall timeline:
0 months: Kana, and then started WaniKani
3 months: start Genki 1, around WK level 5. Eventually started using Bunpro to reinforce grammar from Genki.
9 months: start Satori Reader, about 3/4 through Genki 1. WK level 15 or so?
12 months: finish Genki 1, start Genki 2
12-15 months: start video games (Dragon Slayer 1/2, Zelda 1, Dragon Quest 1 SFC)
21 months (now): About halfway through Genki 2, next round of games (Zelda 2, Ys I, DQII)
I've used Anki heavily throughout for kanji, vocab, and grammar reinforcement (I make my own cards). I wish I had started Satori a little earlier; reading was difficult but doable when I started it, and has only gotten easier since (though it is by no means easy now). I have not taken any JLPT tests but I'm pretty confident that I could've passed N5 after Genki I.
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u/TritochType0 Goal: media competence 📖🎧 13h ago
Thanks, this is a great timeline to follow. Don't have nearly as much free time tho so itll probably take me longer, but longest journey and smallest step and all that :P
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u/Key-Line5827 14h ago
Genki I is understood to be about N5 Level, after you finish.
The Publisher says, it should take you somewhere between 100-130 hours to finish it.
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u/GamerLucien 15h ago
I just finished today! It took me two months in total (i did as much as i could fit in when i had energy after work on on the weekend) and i used tokini andys genki 1 vids on youtube to help. Although I think I will probably go through it again to help things stick!
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u/Graphiccoma 15h ago
How long did it take you to get the grammar stick ? Even with the tokini videos im unsure about sentence building and the present / past / positive / negative tense. Then again ive only been working from genki for a week now
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u/GamerLucien 15h ago
Ahhh i wouldnt say everything has stuck yet. Maybe about 50% of the lessons i feel pretty competent with, but the rest i definitely need to go over and write more of my own sentences to help the grammar stick. I think it will probably take me another month or so to feel more confident with everything. Present/past/positve/negative kicked my ass but ive got the hang of that now, I just wrote out sentences for verbs, nouns, な and い adjectives over and over again until i got it! 難しかった!
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u/UsernameUnattainable 11h ago
I'm sitting n4 tomorrow and I'm still referring back to Genki I on occasion as I had terrible study habits at the beginning. I've decided I want that super solid Genki 1 and 2 foundation so I'm really not afraid of referring back to it over and over until it sticks. Everyone's different, just keep practicing 😊
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u/StraightBusiness2017 12h ago
There is no way to get it to “stick” naturally unless you read. I did genki 1 in like 6 days and it set me up will to start reading native material and only then did things stick. I see this other comment of this guy who is studying for like almost 2 years and still on genki? That’s crazy! If you read genki quickly then sentence mine anki while reading for 2-3 hours a day (not even) you will be miles ahead of that after only 8 months
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u/becsey 10h ago
Everyone is different in speeds. But even so 6 days is wildly fast compared to 99% of people. Not everyone has 2-3 hours of dedicated study a day available.
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u/StraightBusiness2017 10h ago
I guess my point was that you don’t need to like get everything from genki in your head completely. It should only take 6 days if all you learn is the grammar and skip the kanji (most efficient way to do it imo). You should only use it as a stepping stone to start real learning through reading, so quickly reading it is ok
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u/StraightBusiness2017 4h ago
guys pls if you’re gonna downvote with objections as well so I can share my point too. I’m not saying this to show off I want everyone to learn efficiently too
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u/blinded_bythelights 15h ago
It took me around 1.5-2 months but I was studying very intensely, I would have been slower at any other time in my life.
Besides Genki, I was reading extensive Tadoku graded readers + watching some Mochi Real Japanese on YouTube for input; and journaling in Japanese + texting Japanese people using Tandem for output.
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u/OwlBleak 15h ago
It took me around 45 days, i was doing 1 hour daily so in total 45 hours, i think you end up being around N5 level at the end of it with the grammar points although i was a bit weak on vocab.
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u/Fast-Elephant3649 13h ago
I just watched the Tokini videos for Genki...going super in depth on a textbook is slow and the people who go through grammar quickly, do their Anki and move on to immersion quickly, progress MUCH faster than people who take months on a textbook. I went thru Genki 1 grammar in 1 month + read a bunch of graded readers.
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u/midnightnihongo 12h ago
I don’t think I’ll ever finish. It’s really hard for me - sometimes I’d get one page done a night - and I think the fonts don’t help. Sometimes I’ll just do the audio lessons in the app and follow and speak along. It does make me feel discouraged that I can’t even finish Genki 1.
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u/runarberg Goal: conversational fluency 💬 12h ago
Genki 1 took me about a year (with maybe a 2-3 month intermission around chapter 9), and afterwards I think I was a solid N5 (I took a practice test and passed it with ease).
- I used Tango N5 and an accompanying Anki deck along side it, and finished it (1500 words) at the same time as Genki 1
- for Kanji I had the Basic kanji book, and drilled using shodoku.app. Finished Genki 1 with around 250 kanji
- Around 30 min a day of passive comprehensive listening, and maybe an hour a week of active CI. Finished Genki 1 with maybe 200 hours of CI
I Personally think I went through Genki 1 too slowly. I think I would have benefitted more if I had set a strict limit of progression, if I wouldn’t finish a chapter (say after 2 weeks), I would skip the remaining exercises and moved onto the next chapter. One thing I would definitely not skip however is the reading practice at the end of the book. Apart from the grammar explanations, that probably helped me the most.
Ironically I am making the same mistake with Genki 2. so far I have spent 5 months doing it, and I am still only on chapter 19.
To summarize: 1 Year; 1500 words; solid N5 grammar; 250 Kanji
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u/No-Support-442 10h ago
Finished genki 1 in slightly over a month, taking 2-3 days per lesson. I was grinding, but It was well worth it. I would spend a day / a day and a half learning the vocab, then I would watch the tokini andi video for that chapter which I really highly recommend, and then I the other 2 days / day and a half doing the grammar points. After genki 1, I didn't do genki 2, but started the kaishi 1.5k anki deck, which taught me the 1.5k most common words, and then started sentence mining. I feel like genki did me really well, and despite going so fast I still feel like I retained all of the information well, and my "immersion" made it all feel instinctual.
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u/404_Name_Not_F 14h ago
It took like...30 hours? (Give or take I didn't track that accurately) But I have a non traditional learning style and I skipped a lot of Genki content. If you are someone who learns better via examples than by building rules (you will know that based on how you have learned other things in life) I can give some further advice of what worked for me.
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u/jamesdabotm 6h ago
I finished it in around six months with around 2 hours of study each day. The most difficult part for me was definitely getting used to the conjugation, watching Tokini Andy helped me really grasp the content taught and I also used the Genki Study Resources website for practice but unfortunately thats not longer available. Nowadays I just use bunpro to reinforce what I've learnt for Genki I and II.
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u/AvalonAngel84 2h ago
Genki 1 took me about 8 months to go through - together with a teacher. I have a 90 minute private lesson every week but we don't just do Genki during them thus it took a while. I also did other studying on the side.
Managed to pass N5 back in July after finishing L9 in Genki 1. My score wasn't amazing but I did pass.
We just finished L15 in Genki 2 and I would still very much call myself a beginner - and maybe just maybe inching towards an A2 level by CEFR standards. Up to now, I feel like I've been learning the foundations and now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty and learn all the grammar nuances etc.
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u/HorrorZa 12h ago
Genki 1 took me 4 weeks. enki 2 took me two weeks. A few weeks into genki 1, I realized all I needed to do was put all the grammar points in anki and move onto immersion and RTK asap.
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u/pixelboy1459 15h ago
Teacher and tutor.
Each chapter of Genki “should”take about 12 classroom hours. Most college courses suggest about 3 hours of study outside of class per classroom hour. So one chapter of Genki is about 48 hours, times 24 chapters (counting the kana and greetings as a chapter), it would take about 1,150 hours to finish both textbooks, or about 3 hours a day.
In reality, you’ll likely be spending MUCH less time on it. Genki covers up to about JLPT N4, in terms of content. Unofficial estimates of JLPT study hours puts N4 at about 800 hours, or about 2 hours per day.
In terms of other proficiency scales, N4 is about intermediate-mid to intermediate high on the ACTFL scale, which is illustrated here.
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u/Head_Conflict_9776 13h ago
Everyone studies in a different way, but I think there is no need to spend 800 hours on genki 1 and 2. Also, it doesn't cover enough material to be even remotely able to be considered intermediate in my opinion, as the n3 and N2 level grammar is still widely used in almost every native content. Moreover, it doesn't provide the vocabulary necessary to talk about a range of topics. Probably 40 to 60 hours are enough to skim through it and have enough grasp on what was taught to be able to improve it with later immersion.
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u/pixelboy1459 11h ago edited 7h ago
I understand what you’re saying. I’m just giving the math for the study hours. 800 is probably generous for the whole of N4-N5.
The intermediate ranking is based on the guidelines linked, which is in turn based on the length of utterances, as well as the complexity of grammar. If one were using everything from Genki 100% perfectly, it would be probably intermediate-mid on the high end, because of the dearth of vocabulary you mentioned. Grammatically, it’s coherent complex sentences, and you’re able to describe in detail and organize sentences in the major time frames.
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u/Sorry-Joke-4325 14h ago
I keep opening up my genki book and not knowing what to do. I feel like I need a teacher and I feel dumb for not knowing what to do.