GUIDED PATH · PHASE 5
Guided Japanese Course
A mastery path for complete beginners and technology professionals.
HOW THIS COURSE WORKS
Follow the path. Advance by mastery.
The primary path tells you what to do next. You can still open any available lesson, but completion is based on checkpoints rather than calendar days.
FULL TARGET CURRICULUM
Tracks 0–10
TRACK 0 · 0-2
Hiragana Boot Camp
Build direct hiragana recognition and establish a repeatable Kana Dojo routine before grammar lessons depend on it.
- Complete 0-1: How Japanese Writing Works.
Particles, verb endings, adjective endings, and many everyday words use hiragana. If か still requires 'shape → chart position → k-row → ka', grammar has to wait for that decoding chain. We want か → ka to become immediate.
1. Learn the sound grid, not 46 random drawings
The basic hiragana chart is organized around five vowel sounds: a, i, u, e, o. Consonant rows combine with that vowel pattern. This organization gives your memory structure. Learn a small row, retrieve it, then add another.
2. The grid is regular—but Japanese sounds are the authority
A few common romanizations do not look like a mechanical consonant + vowel combination: し is shi, ち is chi, つ is tsu, and ふ is fu. Learn these as normal Japanese sounds, not as errors in the chart.
Say sa · shi · su · se · so.
Say ta · chi · tsu · te · to.
Say ha · hi · fu · he · ho.
3. Kana becomes useful when it forms words
Do not wait until all hiragana are perfect before seeing words. Small, decodable words teach your brain that kana is a reading system, not a flash-card collection.
inu · dog. Read the kana first; rōmaji is only a check.
neko · cat.
koko · here. You will use this in Track 1.
kore · this. Another Track 1 word.
4. Kana Dojo is the main lab for this lesson
This lesson and Kana Dojo are meant to work together. The page teaches the strategy; Kana Dojo supplies repeated retrieval.
Kana Dojo — Hiragana training
Why here: Recognition speed is the mastery target for this lesson.
How to use it for this lesson: Round 1: Learn mode with only a small set. Round 2: Recall mode and say the answer before revealing it. Round 3: write every missed kana once by hand. Stop after 10–15 focused minutes. Return later rather than grinding until tired.
Train Hiragana in Kana Dojo →5. Write to reinforce recognition—not to chase calligraphy
Choose two or three rows you trained today. Write each symbol five attentive times while saying its sound. Then cover the model and reconstruct the row from memory. Circle only the symbols that hesitated; those become tomorrow's priority.
INTERACTIVE WORKSHEET
Hiragana Recall Grid
Practice 2–3 rows. Write each kana five times while saying the sound. Then hide the model and write each row from memory. Circle the kana that caused hesitation.
Tip: on a foldable or tablet, use your pen directly on the page. Your strokes are saved in this browser as you work.
Hiragana Recall Grid
Practice 2–3 rows. Write each kana five times while saying the sound. Then hide the model and write each row from memory. Circle the kana that caused hesitation.
6. See hiragana inside future workplace Japanese
You do not need to understand these sentences yet. Your task is simply to locate and read the hiragana pieces you already know. This previews why kana fluency matters.
Structure: This — bug — is.
Can you spot こ・れ・は・で・す around the katakana バグ?
Structure: Here — at — test — do.
Spot こ・こ・で and the hiragana ending します.
Structure: Code — object marker — write.
Spot を and か・き・ま・す.
