Learn Japanese with Ikiru
We analyzed every line of Ikiru. It uses 1,322 unique words. The right 301 of them cover 70% of everything said, and this page shows the path to them.
- 1,322unique words
- 301words to 70%
- 903words to 90%
- 1,284lines analyzed
Why Ikiru works as a destination
Ikiru is mid-century Tokyo at street level: offices, paperwork, bars, small talk, a bureaucrat learning to spend what time he has. The vocabulary is the vocabulary of ordinary urban life, delivered in Kurosawa's clear studio diction.
It pairs well with the anime-heavy side of the catalogue: no fantasy vocabulary, just the Japanese of daily existence, which is the Japanese you will use.
生きる: the title in Japanese
Ikiru is 生きる (Ikiru): “To live”.
生きる (ikiru) is the verb “to live”, and quite possibly the first verb your textbook taught you.
The kanji 生 carries life across the language: 人生 (jinsei, a life), 生活 (seikatsu, daily living), 誕生 (tanjō, birth). Learn it here and you will meet it everywhere.
The first words it teaches you
Katarineko teaches a film's vocabulary in the order the film introduces it, so your first words come from its first scenes. These are the opening entries of the Ikiru curriculum, with how often you'll hear each across the film:
| Word | Reading | Times heard |
|---|---|---|
| この | この | 53 |
| 主人公 | しゅじんこう | 4 |
| 物語 | ものがたり | 4 |
| まだ | まだ | 8 |
| 知る | しる | 15 |
| 胃癌 | いがん | 23 |
| 見える | みえる | 6 |
| 部 | ぶ | 4 |
How far the words take you
The curve is steep at the start: a film reuses its own vocabulary constantly, so the early words carry a lot of dialogue. Understanding 70% of the words is still short of enjoying the film. It is the point where following along stops being decoding and starts being watching, and it is the threshold we aim you at first.
How Katarineko turns this into a path
You answer a short calibration drawn from Ikiru's own vocabulary, so we know which of its words you already have. Then, each week, you read a story written from the film's vocabulary, pitched just above your level: the words you meet are the words you are about to hear. Phrase-by-phrase explanations and spaced review keep them. The film is the finish line.
Where these words take you next
Films share everyday vocabulary, so the words you learn here travel. After Ikiru's curriculum, here is how much of each next film you would already cover:
| Next film | Already covered |
|---|---|
| The Idiot | 49% of its dialogue |
| Rashomon | 47% of its dialogue |
| The Quiet Duel | 46% of its dialogue |
See how many of Ikiru's words you already know.
Start learning with IkiruAll numbers on this page are computed from a full subtitle analysis of Ikiru, the same analysis the product plans from. Method: how we measure film difficulty.