A free, interactive guide to learning Japanese through immersion
Jared’s Ultimate Japanese Guide.
日本語ガイド · 全14章
This is how I learn Japanese, written down: what I did, what I’d do differently, and the stories in between. It’s free, it’s in chapters, and it remembers where you left off.
読How to read this / 使い方
I started Japanese about eight years ago, spent six of them on textbooks and classes, quit four or five times, and then restarted with immersion two years ago. I’m a little over 4,000 hours in, reading most days, and taking the N1 this December. Still まだまだ. This guide is basically everything I’ve said in my videos, cleaned up and put in order.
The chapters go roughly in the order you’ll need them, from your first kana to keeping yourself going years in. If you’re a total beginner, start at chapter 1. If you’re already immersing, jump to whatever’s bugging you. There are a few things to click on along the way, and your progress is saved in your browser. No account, and nothing to buy at the end.
- 始Chapter 1 第一章Start hereWho I am, what AJATT means to me, the loop the rest of this guide hangs on, and why I stopped being in a rush.
- 志Chapter 2 第二章Find your whyI quit Japanese four or five times. What finally made me stop was a reason, not a method. Here’s mine, and a place to pin yours.
- 仮Chapter 3 第三章Kana and typingHiragana and katakana in a few days, a Japanese keyboard on every device you own, and why romaji early on is fine.
- 基Chapter 4 第四章The starter kitOne starter deck, one quick grammar skim, then real Japanese as soon as you can stand it. What I’d do if I started over tomorrow.
- 具Chapter 5 第五章The toolboxAnki, Yomitan, Japanese subtitles on anything, a reader for novels and a miner for games. The free setup I used for years, the paid one I use now, and how to get it all running in one evening.
- 覚Chapter 6 第六章SRS without becoming an Anki droneHow many new cards a day, which words are worth a card, what to do about a backlog, and why flashcards should fill gaps instead of running your life.
- 浸Chapter 7 第七章Immersion that actually works“Just immerse, bro” is half right. Picking content at the right level, active vs passive listening, subtitles, my YouTube tier list, and the video games that are secretly great teachers.
- 読Chapter 8 第八章ReadingThe fastest way to grow your vocabulary, and the skill I neglected the longest. From graded readers to Natsume Sōseki, my first novel, and manga picks for every level.
- 字Chapter 9 第九章Kanji without the wallTwo thousand-ish characters look like a wall. Learn them through words, in context, and they turn into a toolbox instead.
- 文Chapter 10 第十章Grammar, going monolingual, and thinking in JapaneseGrammar is mostly just more words. Learning it in context, when to drop English definitions, and how I stopped translating everything in my head.
- 話Chapter 11 第十一章Speaking (and not dying of embarrassment)When to start talking, sounding natural with shadowing and pitch accent, six things that keep a conversation alive, and how I deal with social anxiety in two languages.
- 暮Chapter 12 第十二章Make your life JapaneseThe “all the time” part of AJATT: switching your world over a little at a time, finding Japanese hours in a busy day, and why you don’t have to move to Japan.
- 続Chapter 13 第十三章Staying in itBurnout, sleep, routines, scams and community. The unglamorous stuff that decides whether you’re still doing this in three years.
- 道Chapter 14 第十四章Roadmap and resourcesThe whole guide as a checklist you can tick off, what I think about the JLPT, every resource in one place, and other guides worth reading.
謝Thanks / 謝辞
Standing on some very cracked shoulders.
- TheMoeWay (TMW). Their guide is the blueprint a lot of us followed, and its layout inspired this one.
- SevenStop. Near-perfect N1 in about three years, and the guest in my myths video. “Grammar is mostly just more words.”
- Hypothetical Tiger. A friend, now living in Japan. Immerse → make cards from immersion → rep cards → repeat until fluent.
- Wyatt (Furretar). Just cracked. Honorable mention for mining every unknown word he ever saw.
- DASmallWorlds. His annotated resource guide (JLPT N1, studying for Kanken 1) is the best case for the structured route I know of.
- Everyone in the Discord. Hundreds of people grinding together. Come say hi.
Disclosure: Migaku, italki and Ohana have sponsored my videos before. There are no affiliate links in this guide. I only recommend stuff I actually use, and every free alternative is listed right next to them. Looking for the old blog posts? They’re in the archive.