Lessons for English speakers
Learn to read Japanese
A short, active path into reading Japanese: decode seven real words from eleven kana, learn why the verb comes last and how nine particles carry the grammar, meet the plain past stories are told in, and read a short fable before opening your first book.
13 core sections · ≈ 34 min + 4 optional lookups · ≈ 55 min with everything
17
Into your first book
≈ 2 min
What you'll learn
- Start with the Green Hill fables, which use deliberately limited language, rather than a full-length classic.
- Read the Japanese line before looking across at the English.
- Take the meaning of an unknown word and keep going; do not stop to learn it.
- Never learn a kanji’s readings — read the one printed above it and move on.
- After Green Hill, move to Winnie-the-Pooh, then Doctor Dolittle.
A book will have longer sentences and words you do not know. That is not a sign you started too early. This path has shown you what to notice while a dictionary handles the rest: the three scripts, the nine particles, the verb waiting at the end, the quote frame, and the plain past. One habit matters more than anything else: keep going. Take the meaning and move on — you will meet the word again in four pages and learn it then, in context, which is how anybody has ever learned a word.