Learn Japanese from Zero — Curriculum Overview
Ryno Tools teaches Japanese following Japan's actual school progression: 6 years of elementary, 3 years of junior high, and 3 years of high school. Every level introduces kanji, grammar, and vocabulary in the order Japanese children encounter them — anchored to MEXT standards and the JLPT N5→N1 proficiency ladder.
What you'll learn
- Foundations — 208 kana: 104 hiragana characters and 104 katakana characters, each with a vivid memory mnemonic. The starting point for all Japanese reading.
- Elementary 1–6 — 1,026 kyōiku kanji (the characters taught in Japanese elementary school), plus N5–N4 grammar patterns, greetings, numbers & counters, and everyday vocabulary. Grade 1 introduces the six core particles (は, が, を, に, へ, で) — the same ones Japan's Ministry of Education identifies as first-grade objectives.
- Junior High 1–3 — The remaining 1,110 jōyō kanji (2,136 total by the end of Grade 9), full keigo honorific system (sonkeigo, kenjōgo, teineigo), passive and causative verb forms, and N3-level reading comprehension.
- High School 1–3 — N2 and N1 grammar patterns, classical Japanese (古文) from texts like the Man'yōshū, Sino-Japanese reading (漢文 kanbun), and advanced academic and professional register. No new kanji — jōyō is complete at the end of junior high.
Frequently asked questions
What order should I learn Japanese scripts?
Start with hiragana. Every Japanese word can be written in hiragana, and you'll need it to read furigana (pronunciation guides printed above kanji). Katakana comes second — it's the angular script used for loanwords like コーヒー (coffee) and テレビ (TV). Don't touch kanji until you can read hiragana without hesitation.
How many kanji do Japanese students learn?
Japanese students learn 1,026 kanji in elementary school (the kyōiku kanji list) and an additional 1,110 in junior high, completing the full jōyō kanji set of 2,136 characters by the end of Grade 9. High school focuses on grammar, register, and classical texts — not more kanji.
What is JLPT N5 and how does it relate to this curriculum?
JLPT N5 is the entry level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test — roughly equivalent to Elementary 1 in this curriculum. At N5 you're expected to read hiragana and katakana, know about 103 kanji, handle simple AはBです sentences, and use basic question forms (〜ですか, なん/どこ/だれ). Sentences I in Elementary 1 covers all of this ground.
How long does it take to learn hiragana?
Most learners can recognize all 46 base hiragana characters in one to two weeks with daily 15-minute sessions. The full set — including voiced marks (dakuten: が, ざ, だ, ば) and combination characters (きゃ, しゅ, ちょ) — totals 104 characters and typically takes three to four weeks to fully master.
What are Japanese particles and why do they matter?
Particles are short grammatical markers that show the role each word plays in a sentence — topic, subject, object, location, direction, and more. The six core particles (は, が, を, に, へ, で) appear in virtually every Japanese sentence. Three of them (は, を, へ) have irregular pronunciations (wa, o, e) that learners need to memorize early — and that's precisely why Japan's Ministry of Education lists them as Grade 1 objectives.