Quote:
Originally Posted by mercedesjin
I don't mind, I'm used to going off-topic. I've used both textbooks before... and I personally think that nakama is better. I feel like it's a little more organized, and genki tends to baby the readers, not really giving a whole lot of information... And then, on top of that, there's only genki 1 and 2, so when I got to my 3rd Japanese class, my class had to switch to a different series.
Also - and this is just based on something I've heard - when students who used genki for two years were compared to students who used other textbooks, the students who used genki were far behind where they were expected to be.
Why did you hate nakama?
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Well (like many people), I'm self-taught, so when I decided to go to college and see how good I really was, I passed out of 101, 102, and 201 quickly from 3 tests I took, based on Nakama (no English whatsoever). Finding this a little too easy for a 16 year old, I worried what the 202 would be like.
My Japanese teacher is very sweet, but even she hates Nakama 1 and 2. It offers a bit more information and even large amounts of Kanji, but does not correctly explain Kanji, pretty much saying that 便 means mail, and mail only. Deal with it (I exaggerate of course, but sadly no that much).
They also make you jump right into the 丁寧語 instead of the dictionary form (you learn 食べます before 食べる, what the heak?!)
I think I hated it when I compared it to Tae Kim's online guide to Japanese, which is extremely neat, written with humor, and related to the reader, as well as going in depth. In fact, from studying from Tae-Kim, Jim Breen's dictionary, and various other sites, I got to where I am today. Nakama felt like a step down.