2:12N5 · Grammar lesson
Inviting someone with 〜ませんか
〜ませんか
Japanese Shadow
Languages on Shadow
Japanese listening practice from N5 to N1
Graded Japanese stories, listening quizzes and conversations with slow, clear native audio, furigana over every kanji and English subtitles. Listen, then repeat each sentence out loud, at every JLPT level.
Lessons by level
Every lesson stays within the words and grammar of its CEFR level.
Elementary
N5
About 800 words · 100 characters
Very short, concrete sentences about yourself, family, numbers, food and daily life, in the polite です/ます form, mostly in kana with the simplest kanji.
10 lessons
Elementary
N4
About 1,500 words · 300 characters
Simple everyday situations in the polite form, with the plain form starting in casual talk between friends: shopping, weather, plans, what happened today.
Intermediate
N3
About 3,700 words · 650 characters
Connected stories about experiences, plans, opinions and feelings, polite and plain forms each where a native speaker would use them.
Advanced
N2
About 6,000 words · 1,000 characters
Natural Japanese on a wide range of topics, with nuance, reasons and arguments, and keigo where the situation needs it.
Advanced
N1
About 10,000 words · 2,000 characters
Fluent, idiomatic Japanese with complex structures, a varied register and written expressions.
New lessons
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Practice tools
Podcast
Japanese Shadow Daily
A new Japanese lesson every day for English speakers, made for listening with no screen: graded stories to shadow, grammar taken apart, survival Japanese for the konbini, the train station and the ramen shop, listening quizzes, a café chat between a learner and a native speaker from Tokyo, a weekly audio drama and slow Japanese news. Every episode is graded to a JLPT level (N5 to N1) and leaves you pauses to speak out loud.
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Three ways to practise
Stories
Short illustrated stories at your level. Each sentence is read slowly with the translation, then you repeat it in the pause.
Listening quizzes
Hear a sentence with no subtitles and pick its meaning from three answers. Then see the answer and repeat it out loud.
Conversations
Everyday conversations with two voices. You play one person: answer in your own words, then hear and repeat the real reply.