Quote:
Originally Posted by Khengi
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.
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Hm... It's been a while since I used nakama. I used it when I was in high school for independent study. Maybe I'm not remembering it correctly, but I thought it was pretty helpful. I think genki is the same when it comes to strange teachings of grammar patterns, though. A lot of textbooks are like that for some reason.
Tae Kim is definitely one of the best resources for studying alone. I still go back to that site all of the time.