A Minna no Nihongo roadmap from beginner to intermediate

Locate your stage by lesson number

Nihongo Desk lists Beginner I as Lessons 1–25 and Beginner II as 26–50. Intermediate I restarts numbering at 1 and ends at 12; Intermediate II continues with 13–24. These ranges match the publisher’s second-edition beginner and intermediate structure. Taiwanese volume names, editions, and pagination still need a separate check.

Use this route if you intend to continue with Minna. Kana recognition is recommended preparation, not an access requirement. If every character requires a lookup, practice reading short words while trying a sentence or two. Returning learners should test a recently accessible lesson rather than automatically restart every book.

At beginner level, check whether you can change the information

In Beginner I, build short expressions and the habit of listening for useful facts. Choose a function for each lesson: an introduction, a location question, or a schedule. Replace names, times, or places in an understood example and explain your new sentence. If you can recite but cannot change it, consolidate the lesson instead of counting finished pages.

In Beginner II, check new patterns alongside earlier forms. Take two recent lessons and make sentences with different times and positive or negative conditions. Listen to a studied segment and record people, actions, and times. If errors cluster around past or negative forms, repair those specific beginner points instead of restarting the whole volume.

After Lesson 50, connect information across a passage

Finishing Beginner II does not prove stable intermediate comprehension. Take a familiar short passage or conversation and explain its events, reasons, and outcomes without a translation. Then listen to the matched recording and identify information you missed only when listening. Intermediate I asks you to connect information; increasing daily vocabulary targets alone is not a transition plan.

Try one short section of Intermediate I. Identify topics and connections before reading explanations. If you cannot find the structure of individual sentences, revisit beginner inflections, particles, and modifiers. If sentences make sense but the passage does not, write one summary per paragraph. Preserve the distinct purposes of speaking/listening and reading/writing tasks rather than turning every task into translation.

Check readiness for Intermediate II with three tasks

Choose two recent Intermediate I lessons. After reading, distinguish the main topic from supporting details. After listening to a studied section, record essential facts. Then use keywords, not the original text, to give a short Japanese summary and write one unresolved question. This is a study check, not an official placement test.

A few troublesome words or one pattern need not stop you starting Intermediate II with targeted review. If both lessons require sentence-by-sentence translation and full transcripts for listening, shorten the passages and keep practicing Intermediate I before checking again. Natural expression and appropriate interaction require external feedback; a reader’s completion record cannot provide a teacher’s assessment.

Estimate time from your pace and adjust bottlenecks

Record the time for two lessons, including explanations, practice, corrections, and review. Estimate remaining time as “remaining lessons × actual hours per lesson ÷ available weekly hours.” Starting the 50 beginner lessons at five hours each with five weekly hours gives 50 weeks; 20 lessons left would give 20 weeks. Five hours is an assumption, not a universal standard. Add space for breaks and review.

For Beginner I alone, 25 lessons at an assumed five hours each and five available hours weekly gives 25×5÷5 = 25 weeks; at 2.5 weekly hours, about 50 weeks. Allow separately for kana preparation, breaks, and additional review. Replace the five-hour assumption with your own measured lesson time.

Try one lesson a week initially, split a difficult lesson over two weeks, and still revisit easy ones. After two sessions that fail to produce the planned outcome, reduce the task to a passage or expression and name the obstacle. Racing through lesson numbers does not recover missed learning. Check official JLPT requirements and sample questions separately; a textbook volume is not an N-level certificate.