[Ronin4hire]

Japanese don't "laugh" at the genki books and if they did it would be because of the cheesy stories in them but that's about it.

I've shown my books to some Japanese friends when I was still using them and nobody "laughed".

In fact some of them said it was quite good for begginers and they were the required texts in my university.

I'm now studying for Nikyu (Level 2) and planning to take Ikkyu (Level 1) on the JPLT in 2012 and I started Japanese only 3 and a half years ago so if you want a good reference from the genki series you can take it from me.

There is no problem with keigo. There is a scene where 2 friends talk to each other in masu form but that's in line with the books. Quite frankly.. If you speak to a Japanese person in casual form then they are going to assume a certain level of fluency that people at that level don't have and can easily mess up.

Starting with the masu form is necessary.