The lessons on JapanesePod101 do not follow an obvious sequence such as Lesson #1, Lesson #2, and so on. New students often find it difficult to work out where they should start. Hopefully this short summary will remove some of the confusion.
OverviewJapanesePod101 is based around audio lessons that generally last around ten to fifteen minutes. Lessons are grouped into seasons (explained below) and are categorised by Level (also explained below).
Each lesson has a variety of supporting materials including
Lesson Notes and
Lesson Notes Lite. These PDF files contain exactly the same information: use
Lesson Notes Lite if your PDF reader won't display
Lesson Notes correctly.
LevelsLessons are categorised using four levels:
Absolute Beginner,
Beginner,
Intermediate and
Advanced.
The
Absolute Beginner level contains two sub-levels,
Absolute Beginner and
Newbie. The main difference is that the
Absolute Beginner sub-level is aimed at those who want to learn to say things in Japanese but don't feel ready for detailed grammar explanations.
SeasonsThere are several seasons (or series) at each level.
You are not expected to work through each season in order! When you have completed between two and four seasons at one level, you will probably feel ready to move up to the next level.
For most seasons there is a summary of the curriculum for that season. You can find the curriculum from the season's home page by clicking on the
Explore Curriculum button. The
Explore Curriculum button is also available alongside the seasons listed for each level on that level's home page.
CurriculumMany members like to follow a structured curriculum. For these members there is a sequence of series called
Nihongo Doujou.
Newbie S2 -->
Newbie S3 -->
Beginner S4 -->
Beginner S5 -->
Beginner S6 -->
Lower Intermediate S6 Alternatively, there is another earlier sequence:-
Beginner S1 -->
Beginner S2 -->
Beginner S3 -->
Lower Intermediate S1 -->
S2 -->
S3 -->
S4 -->
S5 WritingYou can find out about Japanese writing on the
Japanese Writing System page.
The first stage of learning to read and write Japanese is to learn the kana (
hiragana and
katakana). A very good resource is the
Kantan Kana video course.
