Study Help: Online Guide to Japanese Grammar

By Sam Finley on July 24, 2016

Grammar concepts can be tough when learning any language, especially when some of them are hugely different from your native language. Understanding these concepts becomes a challenge and sometimes that challenge discourages many people, because no matter how many times they read over something in a textbook or try to do it themselves, it just won’t click. It’s a lot like being bad at math. For Japanese, lots of concepts are very different from English (of course) and some are easier to understand than others. Some just can’t be equated to something in English too well, and that’s where Tae Kim’s Online Guide tries to clear things up.

Site logo

As it says on the site, “This guide was created as a resource for those who want to learn Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese.” That may sound intimidating and like it won’t make sense at all to you, an English-speaker (I presume), but Tae Kim’s guide is actually fantastic. Unlike the popular Genki series textbooks, with long explanations for teaching anything from particles to conjugations, Tae Kim’s guide is concise and simple, not wasting any time with long, drawn-out sessions and focusing on the subject at hand instead of having a few pages of what feels like digression. Not to say Genki’s culture notes and whatnot are not important – one must understand the culture of the language to fully understand the nuances of a language – but sometimes they are placed awkwardly in the text. Tae Kim’s guide keeps it all divided and short, keeping you focused.

Site’s menu of resources

The examples are also really helpful, because you progress with them. But, unlike Genki, Tae Kim does not hold back on Kanji in the examples you read. This is helpful for becoming genuinely literate in Japanese, because when it comes to the real world of learning a language, no one is going to hold your hand when you think you are finally ready to jump away from your comfort zone and start reading things in Japanese outside of class. Tae Kim’s guide prepares you to be able to feel more confident in taking a step of independence with language-learning.

I think this website can help a lot of students learning Japanese from the Genki books. Even though the Genki books are really good, I think that the way the Tae Kim guide presents the concepts of grammar is better, especially for learners who want a simple, almost bulleted-list type of approach, with brief explanations and clear examples. The guide also has a series of videos for a lot of the beginning chapters in case you learn better that way than with reading it. If anything, using this guide alongside using Genki can only benefit a serious learner.

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