The best online Japanese course is the one you finish: a 10-point checklist

There is no single best online Japanese course, and any page that claims to be one is doing marketing rather than teaching. There is a best course for your level, your deadline and your week, and the only reliable way to find it is to ask the same ten questions of everybody and compare the answers. All ten can be answered in one message by an institute that has nothing to hide.

One: is it live, at a fixed time?

If there is no scheduled hour, it is a video library. That can be fine and it should be priced like one. Study at your own pace, in practice, means finish it at your own pace, and most people never do.

Two: how many people are in the group?

Ask for the actual number, not the word small. It determines whether you speak in every lesson or listen to other people speaking, and that single variable separates courses that produce speakers from courses that produce certificates of attendance.

Three: is it the same instructor throughout?

One teacher from the first class to the last means somebody knows where you are stuck by week four. Rotating instructors means nobody ever does.

Four: which JLPT level, and which sitting?

A good course names both. The exam runs in July and December and registration closes months ahead, so a course that cannot tell you which sitting it is preparing you for has not planned backwards from anything.

Five: will I be placed, or does everyone start at lesson one?

If you already know kana you should not pay to be taught them again, and if you do not, starting at N4 because your timeline is tight will waste the whole fee. Placement is a sign the institute is teaching people rather than running a playlist.

Six: what happens if I miss a class?

You will miss one. Recordings, and somewhere to ask the question you missed, are the difference between falling a week behind and falling out.

Seven: is there homework, and does anybody read it?

Homework that is set and never looked at is a formality. The correction is the teaching.

Eight: how much of each lesson will I spend speaking?

This is the question people are too polite to ask and it is the most revealing one. Japanese you can only recognise is not Japanese you can use, and speaking is the skill that does not develop on its own.

Nine: can I sit in before I pay?

A free trial class, not a counselling session. An institute confident in its teaching will show you the teaching. One that will only talk to you about fees is telling you where its attention goes.

Ten: what does it cost, in full?

Materials, exam registration, any level you have been told you need first. Compare total routes to a pass rather than monthly figures, because the cheapest monthly fee attached to a course that takes twice as long is not cheap.

Then stop comparing

Ten questions can be asked of three institutes in an afternoon. After that, more research is not diligence, it is delay, and delay has a specific price in this subject: the exam is twice a year, so a few months of hesitation costs a sitting, and a sitting is usually six months of your plan.

Our courses run from N5 to N1 as live cohorts with a fixed weekly time, one instructor throughout, recordings, and a group you can ask questions in between lessons. Every one of the ten questions above has a straight answer, and the fastest way to get all ten is to join a free trial class and see the thing running. Groups are small by design, which is why they close, and the sitting you can still reach is the one you start preparing for now.