Lessons
Welcome to our extensive Lesson Library, where you can access a wide range of free Japanese language lessons and resources.
A curated collection of authentic Japanese language lessons, designed to teach you the language as it's truly spoken and written in Japan.
Main Course
The Unique Sounds of Japanese: Retraining English Ears
A basic lesson on identifying and practicing key phonetic differences between Japanese and English sounds, with insights into their historical evolution..
Hiragana Basics: Starting Japanese Writing Natively
A beginner's guide to learning hiragana as Japanese children do, with historical context, stroke order, and practice for reading native words..
Katakana Essentials: Adapting Global Words to Japanese
A beginner's guide to katakana, its origins, and how it adapts foreign words into Japanese..
Introduction to Kanji: Pictorial Foundations of Japanese Script
A beginner's guide to understanding the pictorial origins of kanji and how they integrate with kana in Japanese writing..
Japanese Pitch Accent: The Melodic Key to Meaning
An introduction to Japanese pitch accent, exploring its patterns, historical roots, and why mastering it unlocks natural pronunciation and word distinction..
Phonetic Differences: Navigating Japanese Sounds Beyond L and R
A basic exploration of Japanese sounds that differ from English, focusing on unique phonetics like the flap r, vowel lengths, and historical mergers to improve pronunciation..
Fundamental Sentence Structure: Topic-Comment Dynamics
A beginner's guide to understanding Japanese sentence structure through topic-comment dynamics, comparing it to English and emphasizing context..
The Role of Particles: Binding Elements in Japanese
A beginner's guide to understanding how Japanese particles bind sentence elements and define relationships, distinguishing them from English prepositions..
Wa vs. Ga: Emphasizing Importance in Sentences
A basic lesson on differentiating between the wa and ga particles in Japanese, focusing on their roles in topics, subjects, and emphasis..
Ni, De, and E: Mapping Directions and Locations
A basic lesson on using ni, de, and e particles for directions and locations in Japanese, with contrasts to English..
O and Wo: Marking Objects Without Prepositions
A basic lesson on using the Japanese particle を (o/wo) to mark direct objects, highlighting its independence from prepositions unlike in English..
Verb Basics: Harnessing the Dictionary Form
A beginner's guide to understanding the dictionary form of Japanese verbs, grouping them by types, and appreciating their flexible endings..
Masu Form: Mastering Polite Everyday Speech
A beginner's guide to using the masu form for polite speech in Japanese, including conjugation, usage, and cultural context..
Te Form: Linking Actions Seamlessly
A beginner's guide to mastering the te form in Japanese for connecting actions, building compound sentences, and expressing requests and permissions..
Nai Form: Negating Without Auxiliary Words
A basic lesson on transforming Japanese verbs into their nai form for negation, applying it in statements and questions, and comparing to English negation for better understanding..
Adjectives in Japanese: I and Na Types Explored
A basic exploration of i-adjectives and na-adjectives in Japanese, including how to distinguish them, modify nouns, and conjugate for tenses..
Basic Vocabulary Building: Embracing Words Without Latin Ties
A basic lesson on building vocabulary by embracing native Japanese words without relying on Latin or Western ties, focusing on direct associations and polysemy..
Greetings and Self-Introductions: Authentic Entry Phrases
A beginner's guide to mastering authentic Japanese greetings and self-introductions, incorporating cultural nuances like bowing without relying on direct English equivalents..
Numbers and Counters: Contextual Counting Systems
A basic lesson on numbers and counters in Japanese, exploring contextual counting systems and contrasting with English..
Time and Dates: Tense-Free Expressions
A basic lesson on expressing time and dates in Japanese, using particles and handling relative time without verb tenses, while exploring cultural views like seasons..
Legacy Lessons
Reading and Writing in Japanese I: The Japanese Writing Systems
An introduction to the three writing systems of Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, and their roles in the language..
How 2nd Graders Learn Japanese (The Three Types of Japanese Sentences)
An insightful look into how Japanese second graders learn the language by understanding the three types of Japanese sentences..
Introduction to Jyoshi I: Particles, but Not Those Particles (は)
A lesson on the Japanese 助詞 (jyoshi) particles, focusing on the は (wa) particle and its differences from English particles..
Reading and Writing in Japanese II: Hiragana and Katakana
A lesson on Hiragana and Katakana, covering their functions, sounds, and basic character variations..
Conjugation in Japanese: It Doesn't Exist
An exploration of why 'conjugation' is a misnomer in Japanese grammar and a breakdown of actual verb changes..
Introduction to Jyoshi II: Different Functions of Jyoshi (が)
A lesson on the が (ga) 助詞 (jyoshi), exploring its function as a subject marker and its differences from は (wa)..
Introduction to Jyoshi III: Relating to the Verb (を)
A lesson on the を (wo) 助詞 (jyoshi), covering direct objects and differences between sentence structure in English and Japanese..
The Three Types of Japanese Sentences
Master the essentials of Japanese grammar with our interactive lesson, which breaks down the three fundamental sentence types using authentic materials from a Japanese 2nd-grade classroom.
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