JLPT Resources

Hereby consists of a simple introduction to Japanese and useful links to learn the language and prepare for JLPT exams.

# Writing Systems

There are 3 writing systems in Japanese. Hiragana (ひらがな or 平仮名), Katakana (カタカナ or 片仮名) and Kanji (漢字). In short Hiragana and Katakana are a set of syllabus that can combine into a word, and the word can be written in Kanji if there is a word for it.

# Hiragana and Kanji

For example, the word "table" in Japanese is "tsukue", which can be written in Hiragana "つくえ" in 3 syllables and just one word in Kanji "机".

つ(tsu) + く(ku) + え(e) = 机(tsukue) = Table

Note that the same Kanji can have different pronounciation depending on the context. Example, the word "学" is pronounced "gaku (がく)" but in "学ぶ" it is not pronounced as "gakubu(がくぶ)" but "manabu (まなぶ)" instead.

# Katakana

Katakana is exactly identical to Hiragana in terms of pronounciation, just the writing is different. It is mainly used to represent words of foreign origin.

The word "camera" is written as "kamera (カメラ)" in Katakana. As you can see, the pronounciation is almost the same with the English word. It can be written in Hiragana "kamera (かめら)" as well, but honestly nobody usually do this.

# Furigana

Furigana (振り仮名) is the small Hiragana hint that appears above Kanji on it's pronounciation. It can be usually seen in news articles, novel or the likes of it.

Here is an example sentence with Furigana: 私わたしの名なま前えは田た中なかです。

On the rare case, Furigana might be in Katakana as well. For example, the unicorn: 一角獣(ユニコーン) and even English acronyms can have Furigana too: OL(オーエル).

So do make use of the Furigana to learn it's pronounciation for difficult words.

# Learn The Basics

Learning Hiragana and Katakana are the absolute inception on advancing Japanese learning. Not even Kanji is in the list (but knowing a bit will definitely help!) as it can come after Hiragana and Katakana. Here are some useful links to help with your learning.

1. Hiragana - https://a1.marugotoweb.jp/en/hiragana.php
2. Katakana - https://a1.marugotoweb.jp/en/katakana.php

For Kanji, as a rule of thumb, the more you read, the more you will learn. However here are some links to get you started. If your Hiragana and Katakana is not firm yet, suggest to master them first.

1. Basic Kanji Book (PDF)
2. Kanji_all.pdf - いろどり 生活の日本語

You may also search Google for the target JLPT level vocabulary (including Kanji).

# JLPT Exam

For JLPT exams, there are only reading/comprehension and listening tests. All of them are MCQ. Hence, there are no speaking nor writing tests. Refer to the test sections for detailed info. For Malaysians, refer to this guide for more detail including the price of the registration.

The test usually falls on July and December each year. Immense thanks to Reddit user u/shen2333 for sharing JLPT N5-N1 past exam papers, we can use it for practicing for the exam.

For self-studying, here is the best website - JLPT Sensei and it have everything you'll need to ace the exams! Must visit this site!

Additionally, here is the mock test provided by the officials to get first-hand experience on the questions.

# JLPT N5

Links for studying JLPT N5.

1. Vocabulary
2. Grammar
3. Kanji

# JLPT N4

Links for studying JLPT N4.

1. Vocabulary
2. Grammar
3. Kanji

# JLPT N3

Links for studying JLPT N3.

1. Vocabulary
2. Grammar
3. Kanji

# JLPT N2

Links for studying JLPT N2.

1. Vocabulary
2. Grammar
3. Kanji

# JLPT N1

Links for studying JLPT N1.

1. Vocabulary
2. Grammar
3. Kanji

# News

The website やさしい毎日新聞 provides short news articles with Furigana with audio. It's helpful to immerse both reading and listening together to reinforce the learning.

# AI For Learning

Clever use of AI will definitely empower your learning journey. Here are a few tips that you can use AI for practice.

1. Ask it to generate a short essay base on any JLPT level you want.
2. Ask it to correct a sentence you build.
3. Role-play with it, example you can tell AI to act as an uncle selling vegetables in the market and you as the buyer. Have natural conversation with it.
4. Generate incomplete sentences that requires you to fill in the blanks with the correct vocab.

Do search the internet for more tips on leveraging AI to learn Japanese.

# Grammar

The Grammar Guide by Tae Kim offers incredible depth of the Japanese grammar that is extremely useful for mastering the language. Even though it is roughly 350 pages long, it's definitely worth the read.

# Japanese Blogging Site

Here are a few blogging websites used by native Japanese people. Zenn and Qiita are for software developers to share their insight.

• note.com
• Hatena Blog
• zenn.dev
• Qiita

# Other Resources

List of other pertinent resources.

• Youtube
• Anki Japanese Decks
• Tofugu
• NHK Learn Japanese