How Manabiya works

The courses

Each JLPT level has three courses: vocabulary, grammar and kanji. You pick the courses you want in your plan, one level or several.

N2 and N1 have short word lists; their words come with the kanji lessons (1,983 and 7,789 words).

A lesson

• A word: its meaning, how it is written, the phrases it usually comes in, three example sentences read aloud, a scene to remember it by, and a quiz.
• A grammar point: how to form it, what it means, how it differs from the patterns it is confused with, the usual mistakes, example sentences with audio, a scene and a quiz.
• A kanji: its readings, its parts, a story to remember it by, a stroke-order animation, the words it is used in and example sentences, all read aloud, and a quiz.

English explanations throughout, furigana over every kanji word (hide it when you want to test yourself), and pictures in every lesson. The quizzes explain every answer.

The daily plan

Tell Manabiya how long you have: 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes a day. Today’s plan has three parts: the reviews that are due, a few new lessons taken in turn from your courses, and something to practise, such as shadowing a scene or watching a unit again. The plan follows your results: if reviews go badly it slows down on new lessons. A day you skip is not lost; its work waits for you. A study day starts at 4 a.m., so a late evening still counts as today.

Spaced reviews

A lesson you learned today is examined tomorrow with a handful of its own quiz questions, picked from what went wrong before. A good review sends it further away each time: three days, then about eight, twenty, fifty. A poor one brings it back the next day and makes the next intervals shorter. Reviews of several lessons come together in one mixed quiz.

Listening and reading

Every example sentence and dialogue is recorded. Listen straight through, one line at a time or on a loop, shadow the speakers, and slow them down. With a mouse, rest the pointer on any Japanese to see its English, the word under the pointer and the lesson that teaches it, and its kanji. Lines are linked to the grammar and words they use, and a search finds a word or pattern in every lesson.

Five gardens

What you learn earns maple leaves (紅葉), collected when you finish the day’s plan, with a bonus for every finished day and more for a week in a row. They buy pieces for five Japanese gardens in 3D, one for each level: a courtyard garden (坪庭) for N5, a tea garden (露地) for N4, a pond stroll garden (池泉回遊式庭園) for N3, a dry landscape garden (枯山水) for N2 and a temple garden (寺院庭園) for N1. Finishing a level always pays for its whole garden. The gardens need a browser with WebGL 2.

Your account, on every device

Sign in with your email and a password, or with Google. Your progress, plan and garden are kept in your account and are the same in any browser at japanese-jlpt.com, in the Android app and in the Manabiya app for Windows. If two devices change things at the same time, both are combined: nothing either of them did is lost.

Free, without ads

Manabiya is free: no ads, nothing to buy, no tracking. The site sets one cookie, which keeps you signed in; visits are counted without cookies. You can download everything stored about you, or delete your account, at any time (privacy, deleting an account).

Who makes it

Manabiya is made by Silenos Works, an independent studio from the Czech Republic. The lessons were written, voiced and illustrated with the help of AI tools and then checked; if you find a mistake, please write to hello@silenosworks.com. The word, grammar and kanji lists follow those published by JLPT Sensei. Manabiya is not affiliated with the JLPT, its organisers or any school (credits).