日本語
Learn Japanese
Japanese on NewWave Fluent is a language you can study in published CEFR courses and Memory, keep following in Community (still thin), and take further with native tutors.
Polite Japanese and casual Japanese are both Japanese
Course Japanese often starts from polite forms (です / ます) because they are a safe public register: shops, strangers, first meetings. That is real Japanese. With friends, or in messages, endings shorten, particles carry feeling (よ, ね), and pronouns drop when the situation already makes the subject obvious. ‘わかりません’ and the casual spoken contraction ‘わかんない’ are related, not a fake language versus a real one.
A large part of the work is social: how close are you, who is senior, did the other person already go casual? Being too stiff with a friend or too casual with a senior is often a social miss more than a vocabulary miss.
Natural Japanese is not ‘skip politeness.’ It is having both registers available — for example a job interview versus drinks with friends — and knowing which one the situation is asking for.
Japanese on NewWave Fluent
You can place your level, follow published CEFR courses, and review with Memory. Native tutors who teach Japanese can contribute in Community. That feed exists; it is still thin.
Community
Japanese Community exists but is still thin. Treat it as a place to follow what is there — not as a large archive of Japanese media and conversation yet.
Native tutors
Native tutors who teach Japanese can contribute in Community. Watching how they explain register is part of choosing whether to learn with them one-to-one.
Learn
Japanese has published CEFR courses. Use them for a path through the language, including the polite forms you will still need in public life.
Memory
Memory sits next to Japanese courses, so review can keep script, words and patterns available between lessons.
Find your Japanese level
Placement sets a starting level. Courses, Memory and tutors are the surfaces in place; Community is there but still thin.
Find Your Level