MaruMori Knowledge Base

How is the adventure study list structured? AKA why do I get words/kanji X and Y at this time in my journey?

How is the MaruMori kanji and vocabulary study list structured?

If you've been studying vocab/kanji on MaruMori and have ever wondered: "Why am I learning this word?" or "When will I ever use this?" then read on!

The main MaruMori vocab and kanji list was assembled based on the following:

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  The JLPT level of Kanji

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  The JLPT level of Vocab

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  Frequency (commonness) of kanji/vocab

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  Which kanji you need to learn first in order to learn other kanji (as kanji are sometimes used as components/radicals in other kanji)

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  School grade of kanji/vocab

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  Stroke count (i.e. difficulty) of kanji

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  The MaruMori team's own input

But the most important thing is that we give you at least two vocabulary per kanji that you learn. After all, the absolutely best way to learn and remember kanji is to learn them in context!

Other important things to note

We are constantly improving the list

When dealing with a list of 10 000 + vocabulary and kanji, there's bound to be room for improvement, no matter how much we nailed it with our first iteration.

That being said, we are actively improving the list by adding items, moving things around, and generally making adjustments based on our own observations, as well as user feedback.

Japanese =/= English

As a learner of Japanese, you will encounter many words that may not seem very relevant from an English perspective, but are quite important from a Japanese perspective.

For instance, you may wonder why there are so many Japanese words that mean "New Year's day", "the first day of the new year", "New Year's Eve", etc. Well, New Year's is a big deal in Japan! In fact, it's like, the most important holiday of the year. This means that there is a ton more New Year's-related vocabulary in Japanese than there is in English.

And this is just one small example. So if one were to consider all of the ways Japan differs from the rest of the world, it makes sense that the most common vocabulary may not exactly match one-to-one with English!

Not all useful vocabulary is common, and not all common vocabulary is useful

There's something to be said for learning only mega-common words, but there's also something to be said for learning interesting words that may be more niche.

For instance, you'll learn the word for "Milky Way" fairly early on, and you may think, "Why am I learning this before other, more useful words, like 'chair'?".

"Milky Way" in Japanese is 天の川, or "the river of heaven", and I'd say this is a pretty neat way to:

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  Reinforce two simple kanji through context

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  Learn an exceptional reading of 天

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  See an English word in a new light through the unique lens of Japanese!

We're not like other resources!

At MaruMori, our aim is to take people from zero, to mastery in Japanese, and this is (for most people, anyway), a long-term goal.

This means that our main vocab and kanji track is a bit less condensed than, say, a casual course you might want for your upcoming trip to Japan. In other words, with MaruMori, you get a more comprehensive vocab track, but we do assume that you're going to put in the time!

This also may make it seem like it's taking a long time for you to learn all of the "essential" vocab, but rest assured, it's in there!

Just remember, it's a Maru-thon, not a race!

In summary...

You can rest assured that:

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  We are constantly iterating the main study list to make it as awesome as possible

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  Everything on the list is worth learning

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  The list was crafted with care and considers many different factors