Learn with us

How it works, and how to get the most out of it

Tanuki Sensei is a Japanese learning platform containing different learning paths, each designed for different skills and formal milestones. You start with the kanas, move to some fundamentals, and then start choosing your paths according to your preference and goals. The main paths include the JLPT levels, the EJU and the BJT. This page walks through the whole thing.

Chapters

Every path is made of chapters, and a chapter contains three parts — learning, practice and test. The learning section is made of slides that teach you both new vocabulary and grammar rules. Then in the practice section you will be doing all sorts of exercises to get it all in, until you are ready to move on to the test, where you prove you have got it all and you are ready for what comes next.

A learning slide listing new words, each with its reading, its meaning and a button to hear it. — Learning — new vocabulary, with audio on every word.

A learning slide explaining how the length of a sound changes a word, comparing obasan and obaasan. — Learning — a rule explained, with the examples that make it land.

A practice exercise asking which Japanese word means boy, with four options to choose from. — Practice — exercises until it sticks, then the test.

The method

Japanese first, explained in your language

A lesson shows you real Japanese and then takes it apart. Every word carries its reading, so you are never guessing at pronunciation, and the parts of the sentence are colour-coded by the job they do — topic, object, verb, particle. The explanation is in your language; the Japanese stays Japanese.

Every sentence and every vocabulary item has audio. You can hear any of it, as often as you want, at the moment you meet it.

A lesson slide teaching the particle は: the example sentence is broken into word tiles, each colour-coded by its grammar role, with audio. — A grammar lesson: the sentence broken into its parts, each one colour-coded by role.

Exercises

You answer after every point

There is nothing to skim. What you have just read comes straight back as a question, in whichever form suits it — listening, meaning, particles, or building the sentence yourself.

A listening exercise: a play button above four possible meanings. — Listening — hear it, choose what it means.

A fill-in-the-blank exercise asking which particle completes a sentence. — Grammar — the right particle, in a real sentence.

A sentence-building exercise with a tray of word tiles to arrange. — Building — assemble the sentence from tiles, including ones that do not belong.

The same exercise answered incorrectly, showing the correct answer and a retry button. — Get it wrong and you are told why, then you try again.

Review

What you get wrong comes back

Every mistake goes into your mistake bank. Review sessions bring those items back on a spacing schedule — soon at first, then further apart as they stick. You are not re-reading things you already know; you are drilling the ones you do not.

This is the part that turns a chapter you finished into Japanese you actually retain.

Your notebook

Everything you have covered, filed for you

You never take notes. Every word, kanji and grammar point you meet is recorded as you go — searchable, filterable, and grouped by the chapter it came from.

The notebook's vocabulary tab: a searchable list of words with readings, meanings, part-of-speech and theme tags, grouped by chapter. — Vocabulary — searchable, filterable by type and theme, sortable, starrable.

The notebook's kanji tab with the character 行 expanded, showing its readings, an example sentence with audio, and the words built from it. — Kanji — readings, an example sentence with audio, and the words built from it.

Exams

Mock papers in the real format

Each exam path includes full mock papers built to the shape of the real thing — timed, in the same sections, and scored per section so you can see whether it is your reading or your listening that needs the work.

The paths

Where the paths go

One ladder from your first kana upward, with dedicated routes for each exam. Paths still being written are marked.

Fundamentals

Free

Both kana scripts in full — reading and writing hiragana and katakana, with audio on every sound.

JLPT N5

Included

Your first kanji, verbs and their conjugations, particles, adjectives, numbers and time, te-form, nai-form, plans and experiences — then reading and listening practice.

JLPT N4

Included

Plain and potential forms, conditionals, giving and receiving, keigo groundwork, longer reading and faster listening.

JLPT N3 · N2 · N1

Coming soon

The upper ladder — the grammar, vocabulary and reading stamina each level asks for, with mock papers throughout.

Kanji mastery

Coming soon

A dedicated route through the writing system — radicals, components, readings and compounds, drilled the same way as everything else.

EJU path

Coming soon

The Examination for Japanese University Admission, with the exam's own format and full mock papers.

BJT path

Coming soon

Business Japanese — workplace register and the BJT format, with mock tests.

Getting the most from it

The way it works best

Short and often

Twenty minutes a day beats three hours on a Sunday. The spacing schedule assumes you keep coming back, and the streak is there to make that easy rather than to punish you.

Review before you advance

Clear your mistake bank before starting a new chapter. New grammar lands better on vocabulary that is already solid.

Say it out loud

Play the audio and repeat it. Reading silently teaches you to recognise Japanese; saying it teaches you to produce it.

Do not skip the kana

Romaji is a crutch that gets expensive later. The first three chapters exist to remove it early, and they are free.

Use the notebook

When a word feels familiar but will not come, search it. Seeing it in its chapter with its example sentence is usually enough to fix it.

Sit the mocks early

Take a mock paper before you feel ready. The per-section score tells you where to spend your time, which is more useful than a general feeling of being behind.

Studying offline

Coming soon

A Windows desktop app is on the way, for studying with no connection — on a plane, on a train, or anywhere the signal gives up. Your progress syncs back the next time you are online.

Until then, the browser version works everywhere, including on phones.

See the download page →

Twenty interface languages

The explanations, menus and feedback come in twenty languages — Arabic, Burmese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, Filipino, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malay, Nepali, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese. The Japanese itself is never translated — that is the whole point of it.

The more advanced paths go further still. From N4 upward the chapters are taught in Japanese — the explanations as well as the examples — so the later paths are genuine immersion, with the app's own menus and buttons still in whichever language you picked.

The story

Kenzo and Hana

You have joined a private immersion program, hosted in a house in the Japanese countryside. You arrive early — early enough to catch your hosts mid-shapeshift.

Kenzo and Hana are tanuki, living as humans and working as Japanese teachers. Kenzo is the Master: he sets the goals and runs the tests. Hana is the Teacher: she guides the learning. You agree to keep their secret, and the program begins.

It is a light frame around serious content. The story is why the app has a voice; the grammar, the drilling and the exams are why it works.

Kenzo

The Master. Sets the goals, runs the tests.

Hana

The Teacher. Guides the learning.

Start with the free chapters

Hiragana and katakana in full, free forever. Decide after that.

Start learning See what a subscription unlocks →