Beginner operating system (Japanese)
A1–A2 Japanese here means kana automaticity, a small polite toolkit, finishable graded listening, and sentences you invent — not kanji streak theatre. Romanization is a temporary crutch; schedule its retirement in week 3–4.
Week-by-week month
- Week 1 — Finish hiragana with the script trainer; 20 First 500 words/day recognition; one short graded clip finished daily.
- Week 2 — Add katakana (trainer); survival frames (です／ます, これ／それ, どこ); invent five spoken sentences/day from First 500.
- Week 3 — Topic deck (food/directions) via topic decks; 45-second voice note of your day; retire romanization on re-listens.
- Week 4 — Introduce 5–10 kanji via components in the Explorer (not 100 isolated characters); re-listen week-1 audio without romanization; 60-word week paragraph in kana (+ any kanji you own).
Daily 25-minute template
- 3 min — yesterday’s three words aloud
- 10 min — script trainer or First 500
- 12 min — graded listening + 30-second retell (English OK at first)
Model micro-paragraph (week 4): 今週は日本語を勉強しました。ひらがなで日記を書いて、やさしい音声を聞きました。新しいことばを五つ覚えました。もっと話したいです。
Japanese-specific traps
- Kanji collection as productivity theatre before kana is automatic
- Anime-only input with no finishable graded audio
- Politeness chaos — learn a small です／ます toolkit before slang
- SRS decks larger than your speaking practice
Progress checks (end of month)
- Can you read a short kana diary without romanization?
- Can you finish a graded clip and retell three facts?
- Have you spoken — even badly — four times this month?
Hub: Japanese resources. Next: B1–B2 path.
A solid practice day
Finish one listening or reading piece you can actually complete. Invent three new sentences from today’s words. Record a short spoken retell. If the input is too hard, step down one level — don’t open another app. Repeat on three weekdays before stacking new resources.