October 2025

Hey everyone, here's the October 2025 update!

As a quick summary, we...

released 7 new Phase Three Units
completed Phase Three (totaling 466 Units)
released Milestone 47
released the first 3 Units of Phase Four!
added 1 new Progression badges
did various content fixes (typos, clarity, etc.)

This is a big one ^^

Phase Three complete & moving onto Phase Four

Phase Four is out!

We released 10 new Units in October. That includes Phase Three Units 460-466 & wraps up Phase Three at 466 Units.

It also includes the first 3 Units of Phase Four!

The transition from Phase Three to Phase Four is marked by Milestone 47:

Milestone 47:
i+n
You've done it. You know Japanese.

If you're currently studying with NativShark, I'm quite willing to say you know Japanese even before reaching this Milestone... but! This Milestone marks the point where some of the final "locks" of the language, per se, become "unlocked".

First off, "i+n" refers to how content has introduced 1 new concept at a time up to this point, but now that Phase Four has begun, we're breaking free of that restriction.

At Phase Four, you're more than ready for that!*

*If you don't believe it, scroll down to the next section that shows you would have studied 21,018 Japanese sentences + 2,615 kanji by the time you've completed the first three Units of Phase Four ^^

Of course, that doesn't mean we're suddenly going to start doing 10 new words per sentence or anything – it just means we won't be as strict with keeping things to only 1 new concept at a time every time.

And while we've covered lots of colloquial language, cultural knowledge, history, etc., this Milestone also marks the point where we've explicitly covered every single grammar point you're likely to encounter on any level of the JLPT:

JLPT N5 Grammar ✔
JLPT N4 Grammar ✔
JLPT N3 Grammar ✔
JLPT N2 Grammar ✔
JLPT N1 Grammar ✔

Though it's likely you would have had a foothold to pass the JLPT N1 starting around Milestone 41 (~170 Units ago), your chances are much more solid now that all the likely* grammar points have been examined in detail, and your knowledge of the language is that much wider.

*I say "likely grammar points" because there have been no official lists of what is on the JLPT since 2010.

Once you reach this Milestone, you know more than 600 grammar points. That's no small feat ^^

Anyway, these new Units are full of the usual Japanese-study goodness you're used to and include...

12 new lessons
44 new lesson sentences
123 new vocab sentences
10 new Dialogues
1 new Milestone
1 new Progression badge

Here's the new badge contained in the above Milestone:

Phase Three, Unit 461
Well Rounded
You can use 丸 to say "fully" or "completely".

Content pace update

With Phase Four out, the content team is aiming for 2 Unit releases per week instead of 4. This is to help accommodate the rework of the first ~10 Milestones, which will be released in the NativShark 2.0 update. While we don't have a set release date, we're actively working on it every day

If this is your first news of this update and you're considering using NativShark, I would recommend just starting with the current system as it is now ^^

There will be ways to view/interact with the update and whatever content was added/adjusted once we get to 2.0, so no need to let that stop you from learning Japanese with the...

992 Units
991 Dialogues (containing 7,678 sentences)
1,151 lessons (containing 3,586 sentences)
9,754 vocab sentences &
2,615 kanji

...available to be studied right now.

That's a total of 21,018 sentences and 2,615 kanji.

All the above is full of functional knowledge and includes everyday situations, culture, history, media language, all the stiff examples you'll find in academic + textbook settings, and much more.

Again, all accessible right now, in a comprehensive system that's the only study resource you need. Just hit the Study Now button as consistently as possible ^^

P.S. Speaking of "992 Units available to be studied right now", it's looking like we'll pass the 1,000 mark next month. Exciting!

Thanks for studying with us & checking out the monthly update!

Happy studies,
The NativShark team