Japanese resources for beginners

Inku is our first pick for beginner review. Start with ready-made kana, vocabulary, and phrases, then pair them with a course, reading, and listening.

A beginner Japanese stack has five jobs. Most abandoned setups fail because they buy five products for the same job, or skip the jobs that are not an app.

1. A course that tells you what to study this week.
2. A dictionary for words that block you.
3. Reading you can finish.
4. Listening you will actually play.
5. A review loop small enough to survive a workday.

Do not start all five at full volume. Keep Inku reviews short, choose one course, and use a dictionary when you need it. Add reading and listening at a pace you can keep.

If you want the same jobs as a chooser, use the study stack builder.

If you already know you are past this stage, use the intermediate hub.

If hiragana or katakana is still the bottleneck, finish that job first. Use Learn kana in two weeks for the routine and the kana shortlist for which tool owns the drill.

Pick one course

Irodori is the free default: Japan Foundation lessons for daily life, with official audio. Use it if you will study from a site and you do not want to buy a book yet.

Genki is the book many classes and tutors assume. Buy the workbook if you buy the textbook. If you are choosing between Genki and Minna no Nihongo, read the comparison before you order both.

Do not run Irodori, Genki, and a gamified app course in the same month. One sequence is the point.

Grammar without a second course

Tae Kim is a free explanation source. Use it when a lesson is thin, not as a third syllabus. If you already sit with Genki or Irodori, you do not need a second grammar product on day one.

Look words up. Do not collect them yet

Jisho is enough. Search English, romaji, or a pasted word. A popup dictionary such as Yomitan can wait until kana is comfortable and you are reading real pages. See the reading shortlist when that day comes.

Reading and listening that finish

NHK News Web Easy is a short daily article with furigana and audio. Nihongo con Teppei is free beginner audio you can play on a commute.

Finish the article or the episode. Opening a library is not practice.

A longer workflow lives in How to start reading Japanese before you feel ready.

Use Inku for review

Inku gives you ready-made kana, vocabulary, kanji, and phrase cards with audio on iPhone or the web. Choose a beginner deck and return for reviews. You can also make cards for words you meet in a lesson or a book.

Keep the daily queue small. Inku supports recall; it does not replace a grammar course, reading, or listening.

If reviews start eating the week, read How to use SRS without burning out.

A first month that can survive

Job	Pick one	Skip until later
Course	Irodori or Genki	A second textbook, MaruMori plus Duolingo plus Genki
Dictionary	Jisho	Mining pipelines
Input	NHK Easy or Teppei	Native news, untranslated novels
Review	Inku or workbook recall	Three SRS products

When those four rows are stable, combine them on purpose with How to combine a textbook, SRS, reading, and listening.

If you already registered for N5, look at official sample questions after the course is moving. Do not replace the beginner path with a mock-test app. The exam map is JLPT study resources. Split the hours you already have with the JLPT study planner. It does not estimate hours to pass.