Knowledge Base

Answers and Guides

Which Aspects of Japanese Culture Should Japanese Learners Understand First?

If you are learning Japanese, the highest-value cultural topics to learn early are politeness levels and honorifics, greetings an…

What Should Beginners Know About the Japanese Language Before Starting?

Japanese is structurally very different from English, but it is also remarkably regular in ways that reward beginners. Before you…

What Does It Take to Start Speaking Japanese as a Beginner?

Speaking Japanese out loud is not one skill but four working together: pronunciation, pitch accent, sentence patterns you can ret…

What Does Studying Japanese Actually Look Like for a Beginner?

Studying Japanese as a beginner means building four separate skills — listening, speaking, reading, and writing — that progress a…

How to Start Learning Japanese from Scratch: A Beginner's Roadmap

Start with the writing system, not with vocabulary lists. The single most useful first step in learning Japanese is to learn hira…