Japanese
Learn Japanese with a course that adapts to you.
Four courses take you from hiragana to real conversation. Everything around them — flashcards, graded stories, audio, a partner to talk to — is written for your exact level and rewritten as you improve. Nothing to outgrow.
Generated for you, in real time
What nobody tells you
Speaking Japanese is the easy part.
Japanese has a reputation it only half deserves. The spoken language is one of the friendliest you could pick up: five pure vowels, clean syllables, almost every sound already close to something you say. The writing is where the work is — and knowing that on day one tells you exactly where to put your hours.
Five vowels, and they hold still
English wrings about fifteen vowel sounds out of five letters, and slides through most of them. Japanese uses five, they never change, and they never glide. The work isn't learning new sounds — it's teaching your mouth to stop moving mid-vowel.
The Japanese r is already yours
It's a single quick tap of the tongue: the tt in the American butter. Not the growly English r, and never rolled. You make that sound dozens of times a day without noticing it.
All the difficulty is in the writing
Three systems at once: hiragana, katakana and kanji, each doing a different job. Kana is a fair trade, though — one character, one syllable, always. After English spelling, that's a relief.
Writing and sound
Three scripts in one sentence
Japanese writes with three systems at the same time, and each one has a job. Once you know which does what, a sentence stops being a wall and becomes readable in pieces. And katakana hides a gift: thousands of words came straight from English.
That's the trade Japanese makes with you: it gives you the sounds cheap and charges you for the script. Lemma leans into it — kana with guided strokes from lesson one, and romaji that fades on purpose until it's gone.
- カメラkameracamera — katakana, straight from English
- コーヒーkōhīcoffee — you can already read this one
- たべるtaberuto eat — hiragana, the grammar glue
- 東京TōkyōTokyo — kanji, meaning at a glance
- 日本語nihongothe Japanese language
The full path
Four courses, from hiragana to conversation
One continuous story with the same characters from the first lesson to the last. Romaji is a crutch in the kana modules only — from lesson one you're reading real Japanese.
- 01JLPT N5
Japanese from scratch
All of hiragana, all of katakana and your first 49 kanji, plus ten lessons and around 135 words. You finish reading Japanese without a safety net.
- 02JLPT N4
Japanese on the move
Your whole day in Japanese: what's happening right now, the weather, getting around, going out, the house, clothes, health, memories, favours asked and done, and making plans.
- 03JLPT N4
Japanese in depth
N4 in depth, and Misaki joins — the neighbour who runs a bakery. Reasons, the potential form, advice, the «I got it done» and the «it slipped away», affectionate complaints, hearsay and deduction.
- 04JLPT N3
Japanese in flight
Japanese society for real: respectful and humble keigo, politeness prefixes, expectations and obligations. Kenji runs an izakaya and gives Ana her first part-time job.
Already have some Japanese?
The intermediate problem: the material runs out.
Almost everything made for learning Japanese is made for beginners. Past N4 the shelf empties out and strands you: the textbook is beneath you now and native content is still over your head. That gap is where most people quit, and it's the whole reason Lemma exists.
There is no last level
The material isn't pulled from a catalogue that runs out — it's generated for you. As your profile climbs, the content climbs with it, all the way to C2. There is no final lesson.
You start where you are, not at あ
The placement test measures you skill by skill — vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening, speaking — and starts you there. If you already read kana, you never drill it again.
Kanji that come back when you'd forget them
Spaced repetition is built for exactly this problem. Every kanji returns right before it slips, which is the difference between recognising four hundred and actually keeping two thousand.
What's included
Everything else is in Japanese too
The courses are the backbone. Around them, Lemma generates new material at your exact level, every day, without running out.
Decks
The core of vocabulary. Flashcards by level and topic, with spaced repetition that shows you each word right before you'd forget it. Inside every card: an explanation in your language, examples, and answers — generated on the spot.
Spaced repetition + AIQuick Practice
Short readings and audio capsules, generated instantly, that mix the vocabulary you've already studied with new words to challenge you. Calibrated to your exact level.
Reading and listeningLibrary
Eight-chapter short novels, written by AI at your level, with cover art and an immersive reader. Pick the genre and the world. You'll never run out of something to read made just for you.
Immersive readingPartners
Create partners with different personalities and practice by text or voice. Real conversation that sharpens your expression — and gives Lemma a precise read on your progress.
Text and voice conversationWhy Lemma
This is not a streak app
The content is generated for you, not for everyone
A streak app hands you the same lesson it hands a million other people. Lemma measures where your Japanese actually is and tunes every card, every reading and every audio clip to what you know and to what's blocking you.
Spaced repetition, not a daily quota
Every card comes back right before you'd forget it. That timing is what makes it stick — and with kanji it's the only thing that does. Miss a day and you've lost a day, nothing more.
You practise speaking, not tapping
You talk by voice or text with partners who have their own personalities, and the Coach answers questions knowing exactly which screen you're stuck on.
Frequently asked
About learning Japanese with Lemma
Do I need to know any Japanese to start?
No. «Japanese from scratch» begins with hiragana and katakana, with guided strokes, and your first kanji come after. If you already know some, Lemma runs an adaptive placement test when you sign in and puts you at your real level.
Do you teach romaji or real Japanese script?
Real script. Romaji is a crutch inside the kana modules only, and it fades on purpose until it's gone. From lesson one you're reading Japanese.
Is this useful for the JLPT?
Yes. The courses run from N5 to N3 and follow that vocabulary and grammar. Lemma also ships preloaded decks by level, so you can work the exam's word list directly.
Is Japanese pronunciation hard for English speakers?
Less than its reputation suggests. Japanese has five pure vowels and clean consonant-plus-vowel syllables — far fewer moving parts than English. The main adjustment is that English slides through its vowels and Japanese doesn't. The Japanese r is the tt in butter, which you already say.
How many kanji do I need?
Around 2,000 are considered general literacy, but the useful thresholds come much earlier: a few hundred already unlock signs, menus and simple text. What matters more than the count is that they come back for review before you forget them.
How much does it cost?
Lemma Pro is 9.99 USD a month, or 109.89 USD a year, which works out to a month free. Lemma runs on a weekly usage allowance that resets each week; Pro removes those limits.
Can I study another language besides Japanese?
Yes. Lemma has ten languages, and with Pro you can carry several at once from the same account, each with its own profile and its own progress.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Lemma runs in the browser on your computer and your phone, and you can pin it to your home screen like an app. You sign in with your Google account.
Read your first hiragana today
Sign in with Google. Lemma finds your real level of Japanese in a few minutes and starts there.
Blog
Articles about Japanese
Full guide
Learning Japanese as an English speaker
Japanese has a reputation it only half deserves. Speaking it is one of the friendliest jobs you could take on; the writing is where all the work lives. Knowing that on day one changes where your hours go.
Hiragana, katakana and kanji: which first and how many
Three scripts, three jobs, and an order that matters more than people think. What each one does, how long each takes, and why the 2,000-kanji figure is the wrong number to plan around.
What the JLPT is and which level you actually need
Five levels, one exam, and a gap most guides skip: the JLPT never asks you to produce a single word of Japanese. What each level means, which one anyone actually asks for, and what the certificate doesn't prove.
How many kanji do you need to read Japanese
Everyone quotes 2,136. The number is real and it's the wrong thing to plan around, because the hard part was never learning kanji — it's keeping the ones you learned six months ago.
Japanese pronunciation for English speakers
Japanese sounds are among the friendliest you could take on, and English speakers still get an accent. It comes from three habits you can't hear yourself doing — and one feature nobody teaches until it's too late.