Roadmap
The goal is 1,000 languages, all 5 JLPT levels, every worksheet free
and printable forever. Here's the realistic path.
Phase 1 — N5 trilingual
Target: 2026 in-progress
✅ Done / In progress
- 200 N5 worksheets defined (50 hiragana / 50 katakana / 80 kanji / 20 grammar)
- Site live at japaneseness.com
- 4 full-content languages: en/id/yo/ja
- 50-language UI rollout — all 50 languages localized
⏳ Remaining
- Generate all 800 PDFs via XeLaTeX pipeline
- Upload to Cloudflare R2
- Native review of machine-drafted UI translations
Phase 2 — N4 + more languages
Target: 2027 planned
✅ Done / In progress
- N4 published: 158 kanji + 50 grammar worksheets live in 50 languages
- Phase 2 will fully translate the 27 ui-ready languages into worksheet content
⏳ Remaining
- Run translate.py for 27 ui-ready languages → full content
- Generate ~5,400 PDFs (27 langs × 200 sheets)
- Add audio support (TTS, QR codes on PDFs)
- Open Collective for donations
Phase 3 — N3 + tier 2 languages
Target: 2028 future
✅ Done / In progress
- N3 kanji published: 354 kanji worksheets with stroke order (kanji-data + KanjiVG)
- N3 grammar published: 136 grammar points, each with formation rule + 3 example sentences
- N2 kanji published: 361 kanji with stroke order, Japanese gloss and example words
- N2 grammar published: 150 grammar points with formation rules + 3 example sentences
- N1 kanji published: 1,231 kanji — every JLPT kanji (N5–N1, 2,184 in total) now has a worksheet
- N1 grammar published: 165 points — every JLPT level, N5 to N1, is now complete
⏳ Remaining
- Japanese explanations + example words for N3 kanji
- Tier 2 languages: 50 → 200 (add minority + indigenous languages)
- Mobile app companion?
- Print-on-demand workbook editions (KDP)
Phase 4 — N2/N1 + 1000 languages
Target: 2030+ vision
⏳ Remaining
- Cover all 5 JLPT levels (N5 → N1) with worksheets
- 1,000 languages — the original mission
- By Phase 4 we'll need a non-profit foundation, sustainable funding,
- and a global volunteer translator network. We'll cross that bridge then.
Principles
- Print-first: low-bandwidth, low-device classrooms.
- Native-reviewed quality: machine translation ships as beta only when a native speaker has committed to review.
- Always free: CC BY-SA 4.0, no signup, no ads, no tracking.
- Solo until necessary: Phase 1 runs solo; Phase 2 opens donations; Phase 3 incorporates as a non-profit if scale demands it.