Genki is one of the most popular Japanese textbook series in the world, and for good reason: it is clear, well paced, and used in classrooms everywhere. We used to stock Genki here. These days we point you to Amazon for the books themselves and focus on what we make: the reading and listening practice that goes with them.
Which Genki book do you need?
The current edition is the third edition. Make sure your textbook, workbook and answer key are all the same edition.
- Genki I Textbook (3rd edition): lessons 1 to 12. Hiragana, katakana, the first kanji and the core grammar, roughly JLPT N5.
- Genki I Workbook (3rd edition): practice for every lesson of Genki I, including listening exercises.
- Genki II Textbook (3rd edition): lessons 13 to 23, roughly JLPT N4.
- Genki II Workbook (3rd edition): practice for every lesson of Genki II.
- Genki Answer Key (3rd edition): one book for both volumes. It has the answers to the exercises in the Genki I and II textbooks and workbooks, plus the scripts for the workbook listening sections. If you study on your own, it is the one extra book worth buying.
What Genki doesn't give you: lots of reading
Genki teaches the grammar well, but there are only a few readings per lesson. Learners who read a lot alongside it learn faster, because the grammar and kanji from class keep showing up in real stories. That is what our books are for: short readers with furigana on every kanji and native audio.
See the Complete Beginner Bundle
Free practice while you study
- N5 reading passages and N5 listening practice for the Genki I level
- Free kanji lists for N5, N4 and the 1,000 essential kanji
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