Comparison: Japanese for Everyone, Assimil, Genki, Linguaphone, etc.

[thevagrant88]

I've been doing that thing that we all do: spending way to much time researching course rather than studying the damn language. I want to get started with Japanese and I'm either going with Genki or Assimil.

Assimil laid the foundation for my Spanish. I still basically use this method today with my Spanish studies with things like Radio Ambulante or Easy Spanish on YouTube. I've heard mixed things about the Japanese course and I can't help but feel like I would benefit from more deliberate instruction considering the how radically different Japanese grammar is.

If you take any time to research Japanese language study, you will undoubtedly be recommend Genki at some point. I've never used text books in the past, but proponents of the book are so vocal in their addimiration that I'm willing to give it a shot. My biggest concern is that it's, well, a text book. I understand that there is audio of dialogs as well. Are these dialogs as comprehensive as those in Assimil? Are they as readily shadowable as the material in Assimil?

Any direction, input, or experience is welcome. Thanks!

[devilyoudont]

I haven't used both books, but it is possible to preview Genki due to the magic of the internet.

Here's a video that pages thru (starting at 1:41):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuOZcHNqlK4

I think what matters with language learning is selecting resources that you enjoy using so you will stick with it.

In terms of grammar, it seems a lot of people find it useful to use a grammar reference even in addition to Genki. You could pair a grammar reference to either course. Just further research the grammar points in the lesson in your chosen grammar reference.

Free online grammar references:
Tae Kim: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/
Imabi: https://www.imabi.net/

The best grammar in my opinion (a book that can be hard to find/pricey)
https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic ... 4789004546
https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Inter ... 789007758/
https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Advan ... 789012956/

[Speakeasy]

My study of elementary Japanese took place before most forum members were born. It was also at time during which I was not even aware of the Assimil series and one when the Genki series had not yet seen the light of day. However, being a pack-rat, it so happens that I book-marked the following discussion thread, which might help the OP ...

Assimil Japanese - LLORG - January 2016
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1928

Frankly, I would work with both Assimil and Genki, concurrently, and I would throw in a copy of Berlitz' Think & Talk Japanese to boot!

[gsbod]

For textbook based courses there are probably three main contenders: Genki, Minna no nihongo, and Japanese for Busy People. Of these three, I would probably recommend Genki to most beginners wanting to self study Japanese. The main weakness of Genki is that it is oriented towards American college students studying Japanese, which influences some of the content in terms of vocabulary, however this is balanced out by the thorough grounding (at a beginner level) that the course provides in terms of the grammar and the writing system. The thing that worked really well for me was the way that for the first two chapters everything was provided in both kana and romaji, which gave me enough time to get used to working with kana, whilst also feeling like I was making some initial progress with other aspects of the language. From the third chapter onwards, you are expected to know the kana and kanji is then slowly introduced. The pacing of the other courses outlined above is somewhat different, with Japanese for Busy People moving at a snail's pace (although there is some good material in the third volume) and Minna no nihongo throwing you in the deep end somewhat at the beginning.

In terms of Assimil, it is difficult for me to provide a purely objective review because I generally don't get on with the method, but working on the assumption that the Spanish Assimil (which I have dabbled with) is a good Assimil course for those who like the method, I would say there are some significant weaknesses with the Japanese Assimil in comparison - in particular I don't like the odd set up with the font size and spacing used for the Japanese text, and the audio sounds very artificial in comparison to, say, the Spanish Assimil. I also dislike the way you have to shell out for two volumes, compared to the courses for European languages.

My recommendation would be to use Genki, and once you are a few chapters in supplement with a short term subscription to JapanesePod101, where there is a massive back catalogue of example dialogues which are perfect shadowing material.

[seito]

Personally, I prefer Assimil.

One difference between the two is Assimil's focus on conversation. Another is that it's aimed at self-study, so there are no group exercises or exercises whose answers are only in the teacher's manual.

For traditional textbooks, my preference is Japanese For Everyone. It's cheap and moves at a much faster pace than Genki.

[thevagrant88]

For traditional textbooks, my preference is Japanese For Everyone. It's cheap and moves at a much faster pace than Genki.

Interesting, I was thinking of running through Linguaphone instead of Assimil for my audio/dialog listening and genki for grammar. Maybe using Japanese for Everyone in conjunction with Linguaphone would work better for self study? That seems to be my impression at least.

[Speakeasy]

Interesting, I was thinking of running through Linguaphone instead of Assimil for my audio/dialog listening and genki for grammar. Maybe using Japanese for Everyone in conjunction with Linguaphone would work better for self study? That seems to be my impression at least.

thevagrant88, as you have expanded the discussion I suggest that you use the EDIT function and revise the TITLE of this thread to read: “Comparison: Japanese for Everyone, Assimil, Genki, Linguaphone, etc.”

Having noticed the inclusion of “Linguaphone Japanese” in this discussion, I thought that the readers of this file might be interested in the following comments, extracted from the LLORG and the HTLAL.

It seems like a good course. I only did the first few lessons out of curiosity, I don't seriously study Japanese. It's based on the format of the linguaphone courses from the 1950s/60s, with 60 lessons in total (numbered 50, but some lessons have two parts), although one of the first lessons is a bit different, and has about two hours of dialogs without silences and pauses. Compared to more widely available beginners courses, they drop you in the deep end (by lesson 3 the material could be called 'intermediate'), and they probably use somewhat more formal language. It should sound natural though (at least for the 1960s), and speakers will have nice voices. You might also like to take a look at 'Beginning Japanese' if you like drill-based courses, the audio is available free online. Personally I like transliterations. I like to learn through my ears as much as possible, and the written material for me is just a support to be glanced at if needed. I don't particularly like reading, and I prefer listening to audiobooks over reading if I get more advanced in a language. But that's not to say you shouldn't learn the script. …

I think just about every other linguaphone course uses the native script, or else the native script together with a transliteration. I'm not sure why this one didn't, maybe the kana script wouldn't have normally been used in a similar text by Japanese natives, so use of the kana would be artificial anyway? I don't know. I think it was also a trend with the rise of the audiolingual method that languages should be transliterated for learners.. I don't think it was really to do with dumbing down, at least then.

… But beware: This course does not teach how to write Japanese. No kana/kanji at all. The lessons are more or less identical to the other 50-lesson-courses from the 1950s/60s. I have not studied the course yet, but I read somewhere that the language is very formal

I would like to make a few points concerning the Linguaphone Japanese course.

1. There are English Translations in the all-in-one Handbook in addition to instructions, explanatory notes, and vocabularies.

2. At the back of the Course Book are the Japanese Pronunciation (Nihongo no hatsuon) written in both romanji and Japanese kanji-kana script, plus the Introduction Part I and II in Japanese script.

3. In addition to the romanji course book, there is 1 more course book in Japanese script in the Chinese edition. At the back of this extra book are also 2 kana charts. Strangely, the Japanese Pronunciation in it is written only in kana, without kanji.

EDITED:
Suggested revision to title of this thread.
Paragraphing. Colour added to highlight "Linguaphone" and "Japanese for Everyone".

[Xenops]

Having used French Assimil, I noted that the main approach is to have the French-English translations side-by-side, give the minimal amount of grammar notes, and have the student mentally connect dots of how things work. This, I think, works well with languages similar to English (or whatever the base language). Even though the quality is much inferior to Assimil, Duolingo uses a similar approach.

Personally, I would not use Assimil for an opaque language, with such a confusing writing system. I have finished the first Genki book and am working on the second, and I am very thankful for the extensive grammar notes in my native language because Japanese is so weird. The writing system itself requires more resources than even Genki can provide.

So I would personally use a traditional textbook system, whether Genki, Minna no Nihongo, Japanese for Everyone (if you can find all of the out-of-print parts), or something similar. I can't comment on Linguaphone.

[gsbod]

I nearly mentioned Japanese for Everyone in my post above, so interested to see it come up.

It's definitely good value, fitting everything covered by all the courses mentioned into a single volume.

The only reason I ruled it out is that the audio is hard to get hold of, and I thought this would be an issue given the preference for Assimil/shadowing material.

[thevagrant88]

Thanks so much for the input everybody. I looked through Japanese for Everyone and it's exactly what I'm looking for. Lots of dialogs, audio in the target language, detailed grammar, etc. It's almost certainly going to be my main resource.