How the lessons work

Maudric is written for adults who live in Japan, or are about to, and who want to cope with everyday life in Japanese: the school, the shops, the station, the neighbours. This page explains the thinking behind the lessons, for teachers and for learners who like to know why things are done the way they are.

Built around what you need to do

Most of the site follows a functional approach. Each lesson is organised around a task: renting a flat, asking the way, understanding a station announcement, telling a hairdresser what you want. The words and sentences are the ones that task actually needs, including what you'll hear, not only what you'll say. Station announcements, shop staff and on-screen messages are taught as listening material, because in real life you meet them before you're ready to produce them.

This is different from grammar-translation, where you study the rules of the new language and practise by translating sentences to and from your own. That approach can teach you a great deal about a language and still leave you lost at the bank counter.

Grammar, in whole sentences

The core course, Everyday Japanese 1–7, does follow the grammar: the て-form, the ない-form, the past, adjectives, giving and receiving, polite Japanese. But each form is met inside everyday sentences you can use straight away, with a short table to show the pattern, rather than through drills on the rules themselves. Many expressions are learnt as whole chunks, such as ～てもいい？ ("Is it OK if…?"), before you take them apart.

Listening first, speaking out loud

Every line has audio, and every lesson ends with a hands-free walking drill:

1. You hear a prompt in English.
2. You have a few seconds to say it in Japanese. Trying to recall it, rather than just reading it, is retrieval practice, one of the most reliable ways to make things stick.
3. You hear the answer and repeat it, twice, in the gaps. This is close to shadowing: copying the rhythm and sound of the speaker.

The order of the drill changes every month, so you can't learn the answers by their position. Where a native speaker has recorded the lines, you hear their voice; otherwise your phone's Japanese voice reads them. Some casual sentences have a second recording where a particle is dropped, the way people really speak, so you learn to understand both.

Reading support, not a reading course

Every kanji has its reading (furigana) above it, everywhere, so not being able to read never stops you learning a sentence. Typing in Japanese and the printable sheets help you start recognising common kanji, but reading is a support here, not the main goal.

Recycling and review

Each lesson brings back words from earlier lessons, so vocabulary keeps reappearing in new situations. Every course ends with a review drill that mixes the whole course for the walk.

Natural, everyday Japanese

Sentences are standard Tokyo Japanese as people actually speak it: casual with family and friends, polite with shops, offices and strangers. A native speaker checks the lessons, and corrections are applied as they come in. If you spot something that sounds wrong, please tell us.

The JLPT

The lessons aren't exam preparation, but where a word is on a JLPT list (N5 to N1) it gets a small level badge, and the JLPT pages show which lessons teach each word. Useful everyday Japanese turns out to overlap a great deal with N5 and N4.

Who it's for

• Adults living in Japan who want everyday conversation more than exam results.
• Learners whose listening is ahead of their speaking.
• People who study in small pieces: on a walk, on the train, between other things.
• Teachers looking for free material for learners to practise with between lessons.

Visiting Japan is the exception: it's a short phrasebook for tourists, with set phrases and the pronunciation in English letters, because visitors need something different.