Guide
What is JLPT N5?
What JLPT N5 covers, how hard it really is, and how to start listening to real Japanese at N5 level.
The JLPT (Japanese-Language Proficiency Test, 日本語能力試験 nihongo nōryoku shiken) has five levels. N5 is the first one: the level where Japanese starts to make sense.
What N5 means
The official description is that you can understand some basic Japanese. In practice, at N5 you can:
- read hiragana, katakana and around 100 basic kanji;
- recognise roughly 800 everyday words;
- follow slow, clear speech about familiar things: greetings, numbers, time, food, family, shopping;
- understand simple sentence patterns like 〜です, 〜ます and 〜たいです.
You don’t need to take the test to use the level. Plenty of learners use N5 simply as a label for “I’m a beginner”.
How to get there
- Learn the kana first. Hiragana (あいうえお…) is the foundation. Most people learn it in one to two weeks with a little practice each day. Katakana (アイウエオ…) comes next.
- Listen early. Don’t wait until you “know enough”. Videos made for beginners, where the speaker points at things, draws and repeats, are understandable from week one. This is often called comprehensible input.
- Keep the words you meet. When a word comes up in a video you enjoyed, save it. Words you met in context stick far better than words from a list.
- Review a little every day. Spaced repetition flashcards bring each word back just before you’d forget it. See How spaced repetition works.
Listening practice at N5
HitaruJP’s N5 picks are slow, clear videos made for beginners: a trip to a convenience store at midnight, これ・それ・あれ taught by pointing at real objects, simple daily routines. Every line has a transcript, and you can tap any word to see what it means.
Try it with a real video.
Pick your level, choose a character and start watching. It takes about a minute.