An online Japanese course, built around culture

What you will know at the end of the beginners path

• Read every hiragana and katakana letter
• Write your name in Japanese
• Greet, thank and apologize correctly at any time of day
• Count, ask a price and tell the time
• Introduce yourself and talk about family, days and colors

How you learn

Every lesson takes five to eight minutes. It opens with a new word or letter, read aloud in Japanese with romaji, then a short explanation and a culture tip, and ends with varied practice:

• Multiple choice and matching pairs, to remember meaning.
• Listening: hear a word without seeing it, and choose what you heard.
• Speaking out loud: speech recognition gives you a pronunciation score.
• Writing with your finger in stroke order, with an accuracy score.

Everything you finish goes into spaced review, which brings each word back just as it starts to fade. There are also games built from the words you learned, a daily speaking challenge, and a journey across Japan: every unit you finish moves you one stop, from Tokyo to Miyajima, with a temple stamp for your album.

Conversations with characters

13 real situations where a character speaks and you answer out loud: ordering ramen, passport control, buying a train ticket, checking in at a hotel, asking the way, a temple stamp, the pharmacy, a lost wallet, the konbini checkout, a café, a taxi, a new friend at a hostel and a first business meeting.

パスポートを見せてください。

pasupōto o misete kudasai.

Your passport, please.

はい、どうぞ。

hai, dōzo.

Here you are.

日本へは何をしに来ましたか。

Nihon e wa nani o shi ni kimashita ka.

What is the purpose of your visit to Japan?

観光です。

kankō desu.

Sightseeing.

どのくらい滞在しますか。

dono kurai taizai shimasu ka.

How long will you stay?

二週間です。

nishūkan desu.

Two weeks.

どこに泊まりますか。

doko ni tomarimasu ka.

Where will you be staying?

東京のホテルです。

Tōkyō no hoteru desu.

At a hotel in Tokyo.

はい、どうぞ。よい旅を。

hai, dōzo. yoi tabi o.

Here you go. Have a good trip.

ありがとうございます。

arigatō gozaimasu.

Thank you very much.

Culture in every lesson

31 articles on etiquette, festivals, food, art and everyday life in Japan, written to be read in a few minutes.