Fundamental Vocabulary to Learn Japanese

Are you studying Japanese? OH BOY, do we have a great tool for you! Our optimized and beautiful immersion-focused vocabulary deck will kickstart your Japanese comprehension and get you understanding native Japanese speakers in no time.

What's included

  • 100 days of vocabulary practice

  • Hand-picked example sentences

  • Authentic native audio

  • Downloadable Anki flashcard deck

  • Access on desktop, mobile, or web

USD $19.99

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The most critical vocabulary to learn Japanese

At Refold, we’re focused on teaching you to understand real Japanese. The biggest obstacle to understanding a language is vocabulary. We created this deck so you can learn the most important words and kanji as fast as possible. Before you know it, you’ll be watching anime in Japanese and LOVING it.

Kanji fluency

Japanese is more difficult than other languages because you need to learn both vocabulary AND the kanji that represents that vocabulary. In the past, learners would study kanji and vocabulary separately. They would consciously break down the kanji into its component parts (aka. radicals) as a way to help them remember.

We’ve taken a different approach and combined these two activities into a single process. The goal of this deck is to take advantage of your brain’s pattern recognition so that you can learn to recognize a kanji the same way you’d recognize a human face.

By using this deck, you’ll learn to understand more than 1,000 words in Japanese, and you’ll learn to recognize ~700 unique kanji.

Optimized for your learning

You’ll be happy to know that over 90% of the example sentences used in this deck only introduce one word at a time. This is great because when there’s only one new word, the sentence will be much easier to understand. If the sentence is easy to understand, the word will be a lot easier to remember!

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The hardest part of learning a language is basic comprehension. Once you can understand enough to have fun, you'll never want to stop.

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Features of the deck

Native audio

Learn what Japanese is supposed to sound like with high-quality audio recorded by a native Japanese speaker.

Descriptive images

Reinforce what you learn with concrete high-resolution visuals.

Example sentences

Learn words in context with real example sentences, handwritten by Japanese teachers and sorted by difficulty to optimize your learning.

Learners love the deck

Frequently Asked Questions

  • What's new in v3?

    • High-quality Images: Now, as you go through the deck, you can use clear, high-resolution pictures to help you remember what you’re learning.
    • Better card order: Our data wizards worked their magic to improve the card order in the deck! Now the sequence of cards is even better at building on words and concepts you have already learned.
    • Brand new design: The JP1K has received a complete makeover! Now the deck is as beautiful as it is functional.
    • User-friendly customization: Want the deck to match your personal aesthetic? We made it easier than ever to change the text size and color.

  • Can I upgrade from v2 to v3?

    Yes! It’s a bit complicated so we created a tutorial video for you. Watch the tutorial here.

  • Couldn't I build my own deck?

    Yep! It just takes time, energy, and effort. The Japanese deck took our team of data scientists, high-level Japanese learners, and Japanese natives about 250 hours to create. We’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to.

  • Why shouldn't I use Duolingo?

    If it’s your first time studying a language, then you probably should.

    Duolingo is a language-learning video game. It’s a great way to try out a language to see if you like it and to build a daily habit of engaging with the language.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t get you very far, and definitely won’t help you understand Japanese.

  • Aren't there free decks available?

    Yep! But they have a few problems:

    • They aren’t focused on helping you understand TV shows and casual conversation.
    • They don’t have native audio.
    • The words are not in an optimized order to make learning faster and easier.
    • The example sentences are crowdsourced and usually low quality.

    If you want to use a free deck, here’s the best we’ve found: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1146263310

  • Will this make me fluent?

    NO! This just builds the initial foundation for understanding Japanese. Fluency comes after thousands of hours spent with the language.

  • What content should I consume with the deck?

    Check out our Japanese quickstart guide for content recommendations.

  • I finished the deck, now what?

    Congrats 🥳! Head on over to our guide on sentence mining to learn how to make cards directly from your immersion.

  • How were the words chosen?

    We analyzed the frequency of words within 16 slice-of-life anime series and then only chose words that were common within a series AND across many series. We cross-referenced this list against a database of thousands of Japanese dramas to guarantee that the words were applicable across other media domains. A Japanese learner and Japanese native then reviewed the word list to manually filter out any words that didn’t seem useful.

  • How many kanji are taught throughout the deck?

    You’ll learn about 700 kanji using this deck.

  • Are the sentences 1T?

    Yes, over 90% of the sentences in this deck are 1T. This means that for over 90% of the example sentences you will already know every word in the sentence, except for the new word you’re learning. This makes learning new words much faster and easier!

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