Gakuu. Studying with Real Japanese

Welcome! Gakuu.com is a brand new website all about learning Japanese.

Just another boring Japanese study site..? Heavens, no!

We’re all about Real Japanese. The solid, gritty stuff you’d come across in daily life. Practical examples and unusual expressions; all the stuff textbooks don’t like to teach you! Because let’s be honest, once you’ve gotten the basics under your belt, you need to be getting your hands dirty with the stuff Japanese people are encountering every day.

So is Gakuu suitable for beginners?

Yes and no. Using Gakuu on its own to learn the Japanese language from scratch will be quite difficult. We do cover some of the basics as they come up, but for absolute beginners of Japanese Gakuu is best used in combination with a basic textbook.

Because we use real-world material to teach the language, it can be quite a shock at first. But that’s part of the process of becoming fluent in Japanese. We use heaps and heaps of quality, native-checked explanations and advice to get you really understanding the inner workings of the language. We feel that even beginners can benefit from this early exposure to real-world Japanese.

You shouldn’t try to swallow it all at once, but it’s there to be used as you progress. Quite often you’ll find yourself looking back at something you did not understand the first time only to discover that it has started to make sense. It’s an indescribable feeling!

So wear your beginner’s badge with pride and get cracking with the studying! We’re also very happy to help advise budding young students of Japanese how to best begin their language studies. Just send us an email.

What about more advanced students?

Pre-intermediate to advanced level learners will be able to jump right in and start learning cool new things that the textbooks don’t cover. We recommend you use your favourite SRS programme to mine sentences and collect the audio and video content on Gakuu. Plugins like Rikaichan will speed up your reading when coming across kanji that you don’t know. Original sources are presented in context so you can completely grasp how the Japanese is used – an extremely important feature that is key to fluency.

So what’s the bare minimum level I need?

If you want to use Gakuu on its own, you’ll need a basic level of Japanese consisting of simple grammatical expressions, several hundred words vocabulary and a couple of hundred kanji. In textbook terms, think ‘Minna no Nihongo’, ‘Genki’ or our particular favourite, Textfugu – the online Japanese textbook for self study.

Even if you don’t have that level yet, Gakuu is still an excellent resource for keeping up to date with the latest Japanese expressions, as well as providing cultural insight and advice for living and working in Japan.

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Intrigued? You can get an overview of the site on the Our Philosophy page and dig into the FAQ and Pricing sections for more info. Any questions, shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to help :).


Comments

10 responses to “Gakuu. Studying with Real Japanese”

  1. This is pretty cool! Right now I’m studying on Textfugu which is great! I belive Gakuu can be really helpul too. What I like most is that its for pre-intermediate to advanced level students. So you can’t say its the same thing over and over again… students can actually improve their knowledge here. Thank you very much for creating this site. Have a nice day :)
    -Sabrina

    1. Hi Sabrina! Thank you for your comment :).

      That’s definitely our aim. I love Textfugu for beginners and really getting students a solid grounding in the language, but afterwards (and even while) studying the basics, it can really help to encounter raw Japanese material. You don’t have to understand everything at first, but feeling challenged and picking up little bits here and there that are extra to your learning the basics helps expand your mind. Let me know if you have any more questions! More demonstration material will be up soon! We are currently having a special launch sale price for early adopters, so check out the pricing page if interested :).

      1. Thanks for your reply. :) Unfortunately I’m even still miles away from the intermediate level. But I’ll definetly return to Gakuu when I get to this point. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the extra demonstration material. :) Keep up the good work.

        1. Sure thing :). Let me know if you have any other questions or suggestions for things you’d like to see on Gakuu!

  2. missingno15 Avatar
    missingno15

    When I looked at this, I first thought to myself, “aw hell no, gakuranman is doing the same thing as koichi…even the website layout is similar”. But then I realized “it’s aimed at pre-intermediate to advanced level students” which is perfect for my situation right now because I now really want to excel way past beginner. So basically, Gakuu really complements Textfugu. Can’t wait for more lessons to see how this is gonna be like so I can decide if its worth getting.

    1. Hey there! Thanks for dropping by :). No way – Koichi and I are buds. I’ve always loved teaching the more advanced stuff so it worked out perfectly. I’ll be adding more stuff in the coming days, so please stay tuned!

      1. Lee Aloy Avatar
        Lee Aloy

        @Gakuranman:

        I am sorry to ask this silly question. Are you Japanese?
        am hoping to find a Japanese friends here please shot me an email:

  3. DumbOtaku (percent20) Avatar
    DumbOtaku (percent20)

    This is really cool. I am glad to see more online content going beyond just teaching hirigana and katakana. That is what I try to do on my blog, but with to little consistency. Glad to see an expert do it, btw already a signed-up paid member now. :)

    1. Glad to have you man! Look forward to hearing any suggestions you have for the site and future lessons :)

  4. Please can I use your phishing image for an educational resource in the UK (not to be sold but to be used in schools?)

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