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From "I can say arigatou" to surviving a business meeting in keigo — every Kotoba course starts where you actually are, not where a textbook assumes you should be.
Where are you right now?
Map your current level to what you can actually do in Japanese — not just what you've studied.
Find Your Levelレベルを見つけよう →| Category | Self-study alone | 言 KotobaReal World N3 | Generic school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-life abilities | Order off a Japanese-only menu, Argue about ramen rankings… |
| Order off a Japanese-only menu (maybe) |
| Speaking practice | Shadowing apps, alone | Weekly conversation circles + mock scenarios | 30 min/week classroom drill |
| Kanji approach | Anki deck, 200 cards/day | Context-first, whiteboard sessions, ink & error | Stroke order worksheets |
| Listening | Podcasts at 0.75x speed | Native-speed audio + real-time debrief | Textbook audio CDs |
| Community | Reddit threads at midnight | Study group, izakaya meetups, LINE group | Classmates you barely talk to |
| JLPT prep | Practice tests, no feedback | Mock exams + teacher review + pass guarantee | Textbook chapters |
The walls are real.
Every Japanese learner hits them. We're not going to pretend otherwise. Here's what actually trips people up — and how we're built differently.
The Kanji Wall
Around 300 kanji in, most learners hit a wall. The characters start bleeding together. You forget what you learned last week. This is normal — and it's exactly where our whiteboard sessions are designed to break the pattern.
The Listening Gap
You've been reading Japanese for months. Then you hear native-speed audio and understand maybe 20% of it. The JLPT plays audio once. No rewind. Most textbooks don't prepare you for this.
The Plateau
Between N4 and N3, progress slows to a crawl. You feel fluent in class, then lost at a konbini. This is the intermediate plateau — and it requires a different kind of practice than what got you here.
Real people. Real moments.
Not "I improved my Japanese." Specific, embarrassing, wonderful breakthrough moments.
Find Your Level
レベルを見つけよう
5 questions. 3 minutes. We'll match you to the right course, teacher, and start date.
Ready to find your starting line?
5 quick questions — a couple of self-assessments, one listening clip, and a short reading. No judgment. No wrong answers. Just an honest starting point.