Listening & reading
Audio and reading resources, grouped by rough level. These are existing NHK and Japan Foundation resources, not content produced for this site. See docs/sources for how they were chosen.
Progress tracking isn't available in this browser, so the checkboxes below are disabled. Free audio and text grammar lessons from NHK World Radio Japan, aimed at absolute beginners. Video skits following a foreign exchange student in Japan, with subtitles and vocabulary notes, produced by the Japan Foundation. What the Erin video series covers and how the lesson library is organized, useful before picking a starting lesson. Self-introduction and the copula です, with audio. Asking what something is, with audio. Asking where something is, with audio. Everyday set phrases used entering and leaving the house, with audio. Video skit continuing the series, with subtitles and vocabulary notes. Video skit continuing the series, with subtitles and vocabulary notes. Real NHK news articles rewritten in simplified Japanese with furigana, updated daily. Describing possessions with が, with audio. Video skit continuing the series, with subtitles and vocabulary notes. Video skit continuing the series, with subtitles and vocabulary notes. A curated list of free N4-level reading material (graded readers, news, blogs), maintained by a Japanese extensive-reading community. A slow, natural-speed Japanese podcast with no subtitles, told in short story episodes; commonly used by learners around the N4-N3 range for real listening immersion. A curated list of free N3-level reading material, maintained by a Japanese extensive-reading community. Graded Japanese short stories with furigana and audio, spanning N5 through N2, with a built-in vocabulary lookup. A curated list of free N2-level reading material, maintained by a Japanese extensive-reading community. NHK's regular, unsimplified news site: real native-level written Japanese, with video for many stories, no furigana or simplification. A free digital library of out-of-copyright Japanese literature: thousands of full novels, short stories, and essays in native, unmodified Japanese.Absolute beginner
N5
N4
N3
N2
N1