I've just discovered Renshuu as another potential tool to add for studying Japanese. I've been working my way through Genki 1 3rd ed. so far (with Anki for memorizing vocab) and I'm up to around lesson 5.
I was hoping that with Renshuu, I could pick Genki 1, say I'm at lesson 5, then start some reviews for the content I've already studied (grammar, vocab, kanji) just for another layer of practice while I learn, however I've run into some problems when doing the quizzes. I've noticed there's A) many bits of vocab that haven't been covered in Genki yet that appear in the quizzes up to lesson 5 asnd B) there's seemingly more advanced usage of some bits of grammar that also haven't been covered in Genki yet.
I assumed that because I picked the Genki specific course it would be content limited just to what I had covered up until this point, but that doesn't appear to be the case? Have I missed something here? Is there some sort of supplemental studying I need to do to pair with Renshuu?
On a separate note - in terms of recall, are all quizzes multiple choice/fill in the blanks? If so, how does this work for general recall? I find Anki works well because I'm forced to recall a word from memory, not from a list provided to me, so curious if this is just how Renshuu starts, or if it remains this way, how others have found their recall.
How did you add the schedule? I recommend adding the Genki schedule from the Dashboard > Manage Schedules.
With that schedule the next lesson unlocks after you have studied all terms from the current lesson.
that's exactly what I did! The problem is that the quizzes for grammar include a lot of terms and grammar points that haven't yet been covered (i.e. some sentences had て forms of words as an example, others using の at the end of a sentence which is another thing Genki hasn't covered at this point).
How did you add the schedule? I recommend adding the Genki schedule from the Dashboard > Manage Schedules.
With that schedule the next lesson unlocks after you have studied all terms from the current lesson.
that's exactly what I did! The problem is that the quizzes for grammar include a lot of terms and grammar points that haven't yet been covered (i.e. some sentences had て forms of words as an example, others using の at the end of a sentence which is another thing Genki hasn't covered at this point).
I struggled with this as well when I started studying with Renshuu. The word and kanji quizzes corresponds to what's taught in Genki, but the grammar quizzes mixes in some unknown words and grammar. It doesn't actually quiz you on those, but it can be hard to figure out the correct grammar to use when you don't really understand enough of the words or what grammatical function certain parts of the sentence fulfils. I think that's just the way the grammar quizzes works (マイコー, please correct me if I'm wrong here!), Renshuu has a pool of sentence to use with a particular grammar point and randomly picks one of them. Some of the might incorporate grammar and words you haven't studied yet. Clicking on the words and grammar you don't know will give you a translation (unfortunately doesn't work with "Sentence Jumble"-questions, but you can turn those off), and there's always a translation of the entire sentence underneath. This usually gives me enough information to deduce what word or grammar point should go where. Plus I find it get's easier with time as you learn more Japanese (I just started Genki II, so I'm still very much a beginner!).
Turn on one of these two to either show definitions of new words, or tap on them to get a translation:
This just came up in a DM from a user, so I'll copy the response I sent them:
So, renshuu uses hand-made sentences for the grammar quizzes, and for the grammar lessons. There's nothing machine/AI generated. That means we have a limited amount of sentences for each of the 900+ grammar elements/expressions available in renshuu.
Because every textbook or learning resource is going to introduce things in a different order, there's unfortunately no way to create sentences that accommodate every learning path that a user might take. (This is specific to grammar - vocabulary and kanji work just fine, regardless of what you study) So I can only guarantee that the grammar elements in the sentences are properly ordered for those using the official renshuu-path materials for grammar: Japanese Basics, Beginner Japanese, and Pre-Intermediate Japanese.
There is (I feel) a good amount of value in studying grammar in renshuu for other resources (such as Genki), but it will not be a perfect fit.
I think the thing I struggle with mainly isn't so much the new words, but the new grammar structures that seem to get thrown into some of the quizzes. Obviously words I don't know can be easily just clicked on and the rest worked out, but when it's new grammar points it makes things a bit more difficult to wrap your head around.
At this point I'm managing and I do think things are slowly sticking, so for now I'm happy to keep ploughing through! I do worry though in terms of retention that renshuu is nowhere near as 'sticky' as Anki for new words and such. Any suggestions for how to improve on that? As it stands I already have the hide multiple choice options until I click on the button, but I do find new words just don't get shown as much or aren't repeated enough to make it stay in my head (at least as much as Anki).
As it stands I use Anki for remembering the vocab, then Renshuu more to drill sentence structure and grammar
but I do find new words just don't get shown as much or aren't repeated enough to make it stay in my head (at least as much as Anki).
In your settings under Quizzing, you can adjust the "Mastery level spacing" for the different levels. You could for instance reduce the days between levels 1-5, so "new" terms are shown more often.
You have this also in the advanced settings of each schedule.
Besides that, you can do a focused review if you click on the three dots next to your schedule. There is an option for low mastery terms.
), Renshuu has a pool of sentence to use with a particular grammar point and randomly picks one of them. Some of the might incorporate grammar and words you haven't studied yet. Clicking on the words and grammar you don't know will give you a translation (unfortunately doesn't work with "Sentence Jumble"-questions, but you can turn those off), and there's always a translation of the entire sentence underneath. This usually gives me enough information to deduce what word or grammar point should go where. Plus I find it get's easier with time as you learn more Japanese (I just started Genki II, so I'm still very much a beginner!).
