I used Minna no Nihongo when i decided to go over beginner level again to fill some gaps (finished the 2 volumes for beginner level).
There’s a lot of audio for beginner level, i mean a LOT. It includes not only the audio for vocab but also all of the example sentences at the beginning of each chapter, as well the last conversations exercises (れんしゅう C). Since the vocab list comes in the translation/grammar notes book, i’m not sure if the audio for it comes in that book (instead of the main textbook).
It takes a slightly different approach with grammar in the main textbook. They don’t call it “grammar points”, it’s “sentence structures”. Therefore, you learn how to use that structure to make as many different sentences as you can (it’s displayed in れんしゅう A)
The workbook, for me, it’s really good and worth getting it. The exercises are really helpful. You train a lot how to use the particles. I think i mention somewhere in my blog how i loved this one exercise where you had to make a sentence out of the words they gave you. Thing is, they wouldn’t include the particles, so you had to decide on your own which particle was the correct one in order to connect everything. In comparison with Genki, i never really like it that much. I thought they used too many exercises of the type “translate this sentence to…”. I don’t think those exercises are really helpful, and usually just come with one answer/sentence. It makes you think that that is the only way of saying that, and a person tends to “memorize” that sentence.
My impression about the themes of each chapter is that they’re like “daily situations” for someone living in Japan. I remember that there was this conversation about someone calling the gas company asking to come to their home to fix the gas, for example. Overall i enjoyed the themes and how the “sentence structures” were related and made sense being used in those situations. But that’s my impression. I never got that much far with Genki (i probably just did 5/6 chapters before i got tired).
Finally, going back again to the topic of the audio. I feel that the audio of the 1st edition was much better than the 2nd edition. It felt more natural, like the actors seemed to convey the feelings of the conversation really well. The 2nd edition they changed and it feels more like someone reading the script. 😔
Ah, i also should point out that it makes slightly annoyed that Genki “forces” people to buy an Answer Key book separately. But that’s me. If there’s exercises, i would like the answers to be at the end of the book…
It’s probably what most people complain about. The main textbook has no english at all. But then again, i also felt that that has helped me. I usually tend to say that Genki is like “going out for dinner” and Minna no Nihongo is “staying at home, prepare your meal and eat” (since it requires a little more effort trying to understand and go over the material, specially if you’re self-studying).
In contrast with Genki, you have no Kanji lessons. You do have another book to train specifically the kanji (Minna no Nihongo Kanji Workbook, there’s an english version for this one but i never really used it)
The english in the grammar notes/translations book is sometimes a little awkward, at times a little confusing. 😅 I don’t know if they got better with the 2nd edition.
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