Nihongo + Japanese Level Up

Chris Vasselli -

Some big news!

You may have heard that Japanese Level Up (aka Jalup), the excellent Japanese learning tool created by Adam Shapiro, is shutting down later this year. I've long been a fan of Jalup, and was sad to see this great resource disappear.

So, I've decided to make sure it doesn't. I'll be licensing the Jalup content from Adam, and Nihongo will be the new home of Jalup content starting this fall!

What is Jalup?

Jalup is a Japanese learning system based on spaced repetition flashcards and puzzle-solving. Each flashcard contains a new Japanese sentence, where all but one word/concept is something you have previously studied. This i+1 method of introducing new concepts is a highly efficient way to acquire new grammar and vocabulary, and dare I say it, very fun.

These flashcards are separated into decks, and teach you everything from basic pronunciation, how to read and write the characters of Japanese, and goes all the way up to highly advanced vocabulary and grammar. If you follow the decks, it will transition you from Japanese-English to Japanese-Japanese word definitions, and from textbook Japanese to native content.

Why Jalup?

Honestly, Jalup just seems like a perfect fit for Nihongo. By integrating Jalup's content into Nihongo's dictionary and flashcard system, it can make both of them even better.

Nihongo will get a plethora of new example sentences with native Japanese audio, and learner-oriented Japanese-Japanese definitions for words. Jalup content will benefit from deep integration into a fully-featured dictionary app, and all of the work that's gone into Nihongo's spaced-repetition flashcard system over the years.

What's coming to Nihongo

Main Jalup Decks - Fall 2022

  • Jalup Beginner: 1000 Japanese-English sentence flashcards, with full native audio.
  • Jalup Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Hero: Four packs of 1000 Japanese-Japanese sentence flashcards each, with full native audio.
  • Jalup Master and Champion: Two packs of 1000 Japanese-Japanese sentence flashcards, based on the real-world contents of 22 manga series.

Additional Content - TBD

  • Kana Conquerer: Flashcards to teach hiragana and katakana, with accompanying sentences and native audio.
  • Kanji Kingdom: Flashcards for learning 2300 common kanji.
  • Jalup Stories: Short companion stories for the grammar and vocabulary learned in Jalup Beginner and Jalup Intermediate, with full native audio.
  • Jalup Situations: Short companion conversations for the grammar and vocabulary learned in Jalup Beginner and Jalup Intermediate, with full native audio.

Pricing

I haven't settled on a plan for pricing yet, but this content will be available separately from Nihongo Pro. If you've previously purchased content via the Jalup app, I intend to have some kind of discount on the corresponding content in Nihongo. Stay tuned, I'll have more details closer to the fall.

I started developing Nihongo around 10 years ago to help me study the words I was encountering in the real world when I was living in Japan, and in books and video games I was reading/playing. Since then, it has evolved and grown into a powerful tool for studying Japanese, but one that always needed to be paired with your own content - BYOC, if you will.

I still believe that using your own native content is key to growing your Japanese skills. But I also know you can't start there, and guided content like Jalup has a significant role to play. By adding Jalup content, I'm hoping Nihongo will become an even better tool for people at all stages of their Japanese-learning journey.