This is a great tool to help you teach yourself Japanese for free!
I made this half for the Speak Japanese Fluently in Just 1 Year Challenge! (Part 1) and half for someone else.
It lays out 14 weeks (3.5 months) of studying the beginner JTalkOnline courses on Memrise. Instead of just studying 1, then moving onto the next, this guide combines vocabulary, kanji and grammar study all at the same time.
What is Memrise?
For those that don’t know, Memrise is a website and app (for iOS and Android) which provides you with the software to make and use your own flashcards with spaced repetition programming.
They have ALL kinds of languages, including Japanese.
I love Memrise because is it’s FREE, you can MAKE YOUR OWN decks, and it has SPACED REPETITION programming.
Which is why I’ve made a LOT of courses for all levels of Japanese to learn with!
The JTalkOnline Memrise
They use the resources I’ve made for JLPT N5 and JLPT N4 but you don’t have to take the JLPT exams! (Click here if you want to learn more about the JLPTs)
By the end of 3.5 months you should know at least 1500 vocabulary, 280 kanji, basic particles and over 100 grammar points!
Click here for ALL JTalkOnline’s Memrise Courses
14 Weeks of Japanese!
This is a suggested time-line. Don’t worry too much if you can’t keep these up every week. It’s important to go at your own pace and have fun!
Pre-Weeks 1-3:
[Memrise] Learn Hiragana Through Vocabulary
[Memrise] Learn Katakana Through Vocabulary
If you’ve NEVER studied Japanese before you’ll need to learn the alphabets. Hiragana and katakana, which you can do in 2-3 weeks.
The above courses I created teach you the alphabets through vocabulary. You’ll learn about 200 words at the end of both courses.
Week 1:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 1-7) – This first week of vocabulary will teach you 117 words, including some simple adjectives, verbs and nouns.
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 1-6) – These first few levels will teach you how to make polite verb forms in present, past and negative.
Week 2:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 8-19) – The second week introduces kanji.
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 7-11)
Beginners Particles 1 (Levels 1-10) – If you have no idea what particles are or how to use them there are explanations in the course. These only appear on the computer version of Memrise though!
If you’re still confused by particles and how they work How to Make Simple Japanese Sentences will help.
Tofugu also have a great cheat-sheet for these basic particles which is GREAT for beginners.
Week 3:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 20-31)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 12 – 19)
Beginners Particles 1 (Levels 11-17)
Week 4:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 32 – 43)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 20 – 29)
Beginners Particles 1 (Levels 21 – 27) – At this point I suggest skipping 18-20 because they’re verb forms that haven’t been covered in the basic vocabulary yet.
Week 5:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 44 – 54)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 30 – 39)
Beginners Particles 1 (Levels 28 – 32)
Week 6:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 55 – 63)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 40 – 49)
Beginners Particles 1 (Levels 18 – 21)
Week 7:
JLPT N5 Vocabulary & Kanji (Levels 64 – 75) – The END of beginners vocabulary 1!
Beginners Japanese Grammar 1 (Levels 50 – 59) – The END of Basic Grammar 1!
Beginners Particles 1 (Levels 33 – 36) – The END of Particles 1!
Congratulations! You just learned over 800 basic vocabulary and all the basic grammar in just 7 weeks!
Week 8:
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 1 – 7) – This is the start of the second half of basic vocabulary. There’s NO kanji in this course so you associate the English with the Japanese.
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 1 – 6) – This grammar course begins to use kanji.
Week 9:
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 8 – 13)
JLPT N4 Kanji (Levels 7 – 12)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 7 – 14)
Week 10:
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 14 – 19)
JLPT N4 Kanji (Levels 13 – 17)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 15 – 21)
Week 11:
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 20 – 25)
JLPT N4 Kanji (Levels 18 – 23) – The END of JLPT N4 Kanji!
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 22 – 32)
Week 12
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 26 – 32)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 33 – 37)
JLPT N4 Vocabulary+ – If you feel up for it I suggest starting the JLPT N4 Vocabulary+ course which goes through the same vocabulary from the basic N4 course, but teaches you the kanji for these.
These are more advanced kanji but are also common kanji that you see in everyday life, so would be very useful for daily life in Japan.
Week 13:
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 33 – 38)
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 38 – 45)
Week 14:
JLPT N4 Vocabulary (Levels 39 – 45) – The END of JLPT N4 Vocabulary!
Beginners Japanese Grammar 2 (Levels 46 – 58) – The END of JLPT N4 Grammar!
That’s ANOTHER 700 vocabulary and 180 kanji learned!
Which brings you to over 1500 vocabulary and at least 280 kanji in just 14 weeks/3.5 months!!!
Want more? Click here for ALL JTalkOnline’s Memrise Courses
