Resources for listening/reading N5

Japanese
#1

Despite knowing around 300 kanji, studying N4 grammar currently and having around 600-800 vocabulary points, my listening and reading are still utter poop level.

I’ve seen many reco, but so far nothing helpful for my own case. Listing a few :

  • Reading/Listening to content you know in your own language. Issue : I don’t remember them in the first place or they’re only in english/french, no japanese for me to switch to.
  • Podcasts. Issue : I will not focus on whatever is said, i’m not at the passive listening level.
  • Youtube videos. Issue : While not against, many don’t provide actual written support independantly from the video itself. Some put it ON the video, which is a nightmare to navigate, and some prefer to promote a paid course in the description rather than putting anything useful.
  • Yomu/Bunpro reading. Issue : “Tom is my friend. Tom is also a student.” I’m not going to go far with this kind of stuff. Usually, i complete them but don’t make any actual progress.

I’ll try any reco before giving feedback.
For now my goals are :

  • One minute of audio without any written support by the end of this month
  • 300 words text at 80% comprehension (for comparison, bunpro third reading pratice n5 had like 30~ words in a single text based on a words counter site) by the end of november

End of “this month” (May 2026) update :
I can indeed go well above the one minute mark for videos, my biggest issue here remains lacking vocabulary.
I’ve been using a bit of every resource mentioned, depending on topics i fancy learning about.

I’m now focusing on reading, which is still slow, while learning grammar and vocabulary. I’m looking into buying novels.

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#2

Not to discourage you but I’m doing N3 and my listening skills are not good either. :laughing:
I also have the same issue with podcasts - I cannot focus if there’s nothing for my eyes to follow along. I mean, sometimes even with a video, my mind wanders.

However, here’s something you might enjoy: よつばと! You can access the chapters here:

Try reading 1 chapter then watch the Comprehensible Input videos here:

I started out not understanding most of what I read and his videos helped. But I can now read and understand on my own so I stopped watching his videos after #17.

Also, try the free, beginner videos of Comprehensible Input Japanese on Youtube.

I’ve watched most of their free content so paid for a 1 year subscription to go through their Intermediate videos. I can watch without subtitles or slowing the speed down. However, I still find myself not understanding anything if a native speaker just said something and I don’t know the context. It may partly be explained by my nervousness and panic but I do know that if they came with subtitles and kanji in those subtitles, I’d understand them more. :laughing:

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#3

Tried them, they’re great !

Comprehensible has a complete beginner one which i watched first. Made me laugh, i had seen the joke coming since the start. I didn’t expect such a clear and calm rhythm.
The beginner level is a bit harder but i still understand what was happening in the first video without getting every word.

Yotsuba is a little harder but still understood a good chunk of the first video (would say only half of the second one).

Thank you, this is great studying material.

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#4

I can’t recommend Tadoku enough:

The books you buy are amazing too I have all of them, they come with listen along CDs but the mp3s are available online (however shipping was expensive to the UK).

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#5

Read a few books (Lv0) on it, it’s really nice though I’m not sure about the “don’t use a dictionnary” part (I’ve encountered words that even with pictures, I didn’t understand what they were supposed to be).

I’ll probably make a deck for vocab I’ve encountered reading to not forget it even if I don’t see them again.

Thank you!

#6

Cram feature in audio format for grammar points you’ve passed can be a good intensive listening practice, as well as it will solidify your grammar

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#7

The “don’t use a dictionary” is just to encourage you to keep reading, rather than letting unknown (and maybe insignificant) words spoil your flow. I do use a dictionary sometimes, do what feels right.

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#8

I think two ressources helped me a lot for going from “OMG, I will never pass the JLPT N5 listening part” to “Ha, it’s actually not that difficult!”

  1. daily a little bit CIJ (https://cijapanese.com) - after watching a few videos I also began reading the transcripts. So you have listening and reading practice at once. On their website you can switch between hiragana only, kanji and kanji with furigana, so it’s more helpful than their youtube channel. And a lot is for free.
  2. working through a JLPT N5 Listening book (e.g. ISBN 9784883198993 with audio free online: https://www.3anet.co.jp/np/en/resrcs/388820/). Since the books have the transcripts of the audios, you can first listen to the audio (and try to answer the question), then read the transcript and make sure that you understand the words and grammar, and finally read while listening to the audio (probably the first few exercices with slower speed) till you understand everything. In the end it’s like memorizing the texts through repetition and getting used to the speed. But it worked wonders for me.

What I also like as an extra:

  1. the Genki 1 level based podcast Japanese with Shun: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUqu4MKiV5q83qPR7zI7w7ucLWerAT0R5&si=0nYA89IT6-xE7PEv
    not for passive listening but active - since I don’t understand anything if I don’t listen actively. I don’t know every word and sometimes it’s too fast, but there are a lot of phrases and sentences that I do understand and that’s enough. If I don’t understand a sentence, I try to listen again with a little less speed, but it’s okay, if I still don’t understand it at all.
    If you want to have the transcripts, you must pay, but you can just support him for a month and download all the transcripts you want. It’s just a lot to “click” - but if it’s not too difficult to understand for you then the transcripts are just a nice to have. I actually tried to write the transcripts by myself for the first episode. It was quite the challenge and a good writing practice :'D
  2. aside from bunpro I use the deck “kaishi 1.5k” with anki. There you have the word and one example sentence so you can practice reading while you’re learning vocabs. While showing the answer you listen to the audio, both for the word and the sentence. So you also practice listening. And the best is, the sentences mostly use only the words you already learned with the deck. Bunpro is similar but … I just like the optics/style (?) from the anki deck more. You also could use the reading and/or listening mode for the bunpro N5 deck but… for me bunpro is more difficult and I don’t want to switch between the settings all the time.
  3. YT short stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzF98wkEAg0&list=PLaP0qk0rp_KYVw6qUfNYrng-Q8z08RtzT
    Too lazy to explain the concept behind these videos, just give it a try :slight_smile:
  4. audible: Short stories with free pdf (so you just need to buy the audiobook and not also the printed book): e.g. available for ISBN 9781951949228
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#9

Very similar to Tadoku, I highly recommend JGRPG Sakura! It has books ranging from beginner to intermediate. Many of the A/B range (where I recommend you start) have audio you can follow along with. You can also take a short comprehension test afterwards.

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#10

There’s an app I have been using for ages called Todaii. It has lots of features but the main thing is it aggregates news stories in Japanese and categorises them by N level. You can toggle furigana on and off (but note that they are not always correct anyway), it highlights the N levels of different words in the article by underlining them in a certain colour, and you can also tap on words you don’t know to get a translation.

What’s more, you don’t have to read it: there’s a function to play back the article with adjustable speed.

I got a lifetime membership ages ago when it was on sale, so I don’t get any adds, but they recently added AI features which I am constantly spammed about.

What I like about this app vs readers in general is that it is giving me actual news, which I find engaging. Also, because of the nature of it, you are going to get words from various N levels which you will gain passive, contextual exposure too.

Edit: turns out they have a web version too Todaii Japanese – Learn Japanese through real content

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#11

Is there a reason why you don’t just read Japanese novels?
You dont need to read stuff you are already familiar with; You can just pick up any beginner book somewhere online. If you are fine with taking your time, you can even read some more advanced stuff as a beginner (with its limits of course). My first books were キノの旅 and 嫌われる勇気 which I would both recommend… but it depends on your current vocab.

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#12

Right now, I’m using Japanese Listening Podcast with Yusuke & Yuma

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