The KiC-Anki method is designed for the pre-intermediate student who has completed the equivalent of two years of college-level Japanese (Genki I and II or Minna no Nihongo is sufficient). If that’s not you, don’t worry! We have materials available for beginners as well. Whether it’s kana or beginner kanji, you can find solid self-study methods and carefully crafted Anki decks on our site.
The beginner Japanese language learner should start with the Genki textbook series. Minna no Nihongo is a viable alternative, but Genki was created for English speakers specifically, and therefore is a little more efficient in its presentation of content. (Minna no Nihongo is often used in classes where the students’ backgrounds are varied and not everyone speaks English.)
Learning Kana (Hiragana and Katakana)
Once you’ve purchased the Genki I textbook and the workbook, you can get started on learning to read and write hiragana and katakana (collectively, “kana”). The Genki workbook has an entire section devoted to teaching how to write kana for the first time. Students should first complete the section of the workbook that teaches kana writing, and then review the kana using the KiC-Anki Hiragana and KiC-Anki Katakana decks in Anki.
Learning Basic Kanji
The Genki textbook series itself is great for learning up to 317 basic kanji, too. To get the most out of Genki, stick to the book and workbook for your kanji practice. The Genki textbook series’ dedicated kanji learning apps are not recommended because they do not allow for sorting or combining multiple lessons, nor do they employ an Anki-style spaced repetition algorithm necessary for optimal learning.
Another option is the Kanji Look and Learn textbook and the accompanying workbook, written by the same set of authors as the Genki textbook series. Kanji Look and Learn helps students learn up to 512 kanji with pictures and mnemonic hints. It also helps build familiarity with reading and writing radicals and subparts of kanji.
IMPORTANT! Genki and Kanji Look and Learn are great methods of learning basic kanji. As kanji get more involved and complex, the textbooks’ picture-mnemonic method becomes not only less useful, but actively problematic. Students should be aware that once they’ve learned the 512 kanji from Kanji Look and Learn, they will need to change the way they approach kanji study altogether—and that’s where the KiC-Anki Method comes in!
The KiC-Anki Method 