Their ongoing discussion on pitch accent is really a nice entertainment for me. I realize how ignorant of my native language and it keeps me absorbed in thoughts. I'm repeating random sentences in various accents while driving. I had to be careful not to jump a red light.
I really appreciate all your work in reviewing these books Chad. You just come across as being so honest, enthusiastic, and helpful. Enjoy your holiday.
If anyone is interested in my comparison data, here is a chart I spent about two days on comparing the JF0 3rd and 5th book to Genki, and all the other books in my collection. I picked the Genki data to be our norm since it's the most popular and I think most everyone, even if you don't like it, still considers it a pretty standard beginner series. This is what I was comparing the two too in the video!.. I hope youtube comment formatting doesn't screw me on this one. Japanese From Zero 3 - Genki 1 Chapter 1 chapter 4 chapter 2. chapter 10 chapter 3 chapter 6 chapter 4. chapter 8 chapter 5. chapter 8/12 chapter 6 chapter 7 chapter 7. chapter 15 (G2) chapter 8. chapter 18 (G2) Chapter 9. chapter 11 chapter 10. chapter 4 chapter 11 chapter 5 12 chapter 6 13 chapter 13 (G2)
So, with the third edition, Genki has also added an answer book you can buy to go along with their third edition books. So both series have 5 books. With that, it really comes down to how well you retain knowledge. Genki is great if you can handle a lot of information at once, and is more designed for group/classroom studying as it is designed to be a legitimate school textbook. Basically, I would say if you were a straight-A or A/B student, and you have a partner to work with or a tutor, Genki is the way to go. JFZ is for people that don't retain well, need their hands held a bit more, don't have someone to study with (as JFZ has the youtube series to go along with it), then JFZ is the way to go.
Thanks for reviewing. Currently learning the language as a hobby and future possibilities. I decided to go with this series after watching several of your reviews. This will be my 2nd foreign language. Language has always been my weakest subject. As mentioned in your review, I find this series to be a bit slower yet more fun/fulfilling than other language learning texts. For my language learning needs, this series seemed a better fit. I have found the series satisfies most self study needs, the online resources and videos that accompany the book are a hidden value. When you hit a road block in the text, the online resources often give a different perspective to get you back on track. I found the format of the book allows one to change pace easily, from extended study sessions to short lessons/reviews. If studying was interrupted for an extended period (work family etc), this series seemed easier to pick up where one left off. For self study, I am missing out on one thing, the author wrote in classroom/group activities to promote speaking and listening skills. For anyone using the series, the online community has flashcard and Anki vocab decks available. For me, splitting out the vocab into a separate task made a big difference. I could build speed by focusing on the books context and grammar.
You don’t have to focus too much time on pitch That’s the whole argument. Also, what resources would you recommend for pitch accent? Do you know of any textbooks that have pitch accent in them?
Ok so I already know hiragana I'm rusty but I remember it ,would the first book be necessary for me ,or would the grammer and vocab benefit me ,or could I go to the third book or just get the kanji book, I suck at kanji 9 times out of 10 if I can't fully read a sentence in japanese its because of kanji ,but my vocabulary is very small in japanese and I do need a good way to get some bulk vocabulary with some context to remember it
Thank you for the videos! I'm more of a manga guy. So I am going thru RTK. Unfortunately I got burnt out last year cause it's a damn dictionary but hopefully this time around I can add like 5 kanji per day and review every 100. (Currently at 110)
Doing RTK on it's own is a bad idea IMO, I hope you're using it to supplement something using the actual language. To me RTK was just a foothold into kanji, just some scaffolding I used to build actual knowledge from while I was starting out in Genki I. If you're doing RTK without studying or using the language in parallel it's going to be a horrendously boring grind that won't help you accomplish much even if you do finish it. But I found it very helpful when studying Genki in parallel to give me a foothold for understanding kanji I'd run across in the vocab for each chapter and each reading in the book.
Without looking at what the other books teach it’s a little bit of guess work on what you might be missing, but I think it wouldn’t be a problem to try for the intermediate books :) if they are too hard I would do something like a 中級へ行こう as like a pre-intermediate step! But assuming book 5 follows the patterns I’ve seen of other beginner systems then something Tobira or Integrated Japanese would be great :) and I have reviews for those as well!
I'm considering myself a fast paced learner but want to take my time to teach myself by self studying Japanese. Would you still recommend the JFZ series?
This might be two late but if you want to learn as fast as possible I wouldn't recommend JFZ, I'm currently working through it and it's really fun (especially with the youtube videos that gi with each chapter) but I definitely wouldn't describe it as fast lol
I'm a fast learner and I like cause it actually makes me slow down and really process what I'm learning I found with Genki I kept getting to an end of a chapter think I know what I just learned and then flop the moment I try to use it less of an issue with jfz
@@mtb6188 Texas was horrendous in the summer and then even worse November through January, but positivity rate in my area nosedived by March once the vaccines started having decent availability. Just wondering if there were any real hotspots in Colorado the last couple of months.
@@user-cf3jy7wk2s NO WAY HAHAHAHAA I still remember this comment xD I usually get Chandler Bing or Tarantino but anyone who says giraffe makes me remember. Well I’m glad you’re here at this zoo! Welcome to the community ☺️
yes, you can. I went through all 5 JFZ books and went straight into Tobira no problems. First 1-2 chapters were a bit rough in terms of some kanji gap, but in terms of vocabulary/grammar I haven't encountered anything I should've known that JFZ hadn't taught me.
@@vovausachov5468 this is so incredibly helpful. Ive been thinking of possibly getting the tobira 2 book after finishing JFZ 5 in case i needed a bridge between JFZ and tobira, very happy to hear thats not the case.
nice video but you keep repeating yourself and mentioning the same points, i think the video would be better if it was just 10 minutes. im sure you could fit all the info in that time span without affecting your pace. otherwise great stuff
@@lichazeakel1126 I’m not sure you understand the crazy amount of work it takes to create a textbook. I hope whatever you create isn’t looked at the way you’ve looked at our creation.
