Katarineko · Guides

Japanese beginner resources: the short honest list

Every guide on this site says some version of "get the basics from any beginner resource". This page is that resource list: short on purpose, mostly free, one good option per job.

Kana first (a weekend, not a month)

Learn hiragana and katakana before anything else; romaji becomes a crutch fast. Tofugu's hiragana guide (and its katakana sibling) with mnemonics gets most people reading kana in days. Practice by reading anything, badly. That is the whole method.

Starter grammar (a map, not a mountain)

You need the basic shapes: particles, verb forms, word order. Tae Kim's guide is free and goes straight at how the language works. Genki is the classic paper option if you want structure. If drilling patterns helps you stick with it, Bunpro adds spaced repetition on top (how it pairs with Katarineko).

Whichever you pick, do not aim to finish it before touching real Japanese. Grammar study is scaffolding for input, not a gate in front of it.

First vocabulary and kanji

A few hundred common words make everything else comprehensible. WaniKani teaches kanji with mnemonics and its own schedule (how it pairs); an Anki core deck is the free route if flashcards suit you (and if they don't, that's normal too). Either way, treat word lists as a head start, not a lifestyle.

Listening from day one

Comprehensible listening exists at every level. Comprehensible Japanese has videos spoken slowly with pictures doing half the work, and "Nihongo con Teppei for Beginners" is the classic starter podcast. The Comprehensible Input Wiki lists far more, sorted by level, when you want variety.

First reading

Tadoku's free graded readers start at a handful of words per page. Read easy, read a lot, and see our graded readers guide for how to use them and what comes after the levels run out.

When to stop collecting resources

Soon. The beginner phase has a known failure mode: optimizing the toolkit instead of meeting the language. Once you can read kana, recognize a few hundred words, and follow a slow sentence, pick the film you actually want to understand and start walking toward it. That path is what the comprehensible input guide lays out, and what Katarineko builds for you.

Keep reading

• The comprehensible input guideThe method these resources feed into: what the research supports and how the film path works.
• How to start Japanese immersionThe content ladder from learner podcasts to native films, and a schedule that survives real life.
• Every film, ranked by difficultyThe catalogue with the numbers: how many words each film asks of you before you can follow it.