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 (27 hand-translated, 23 pending)
⏳ Remaining
- Generate all 800 PDFs via XeLaTeX pipeline
- Upload to Cloudflare R2
- Run translate_ui.py for 23 remaining UI translations
Phase 2 — N4 + more languages
Target: 2027 planned
✅ Done / In progress
- N4 content prep started: 156/158 kanji + 50 grammar topics defined
- 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
⏳ Remaining
- N3 content (~600 worksheets per language)
- 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.