Free Vs Paid Japanese Courses: Which One Is Right For You?

Which is best when it comes to a Japanese course: free or paid?

Free offers are often enticing - who doesn’t love a free sample of gourmet chocolate at the supermarket or department store?

However, things are a little different when it comes to your Japanese learning journey.

Learning Japanese isn’t a one-off event like eating chocolate. It’s a process that you commit to, and it might be something you pursue for years or even decades.

I’ll say this straight up: free courses and materials are fine as long as they improve your Japanese and the target skills (like reading, writing, listening, and speaking) you actually want to improve.

On the other hand, if you’re not learning grammar, vocabulary and phrases that are relevant to your life, your goals, or the skills you’re trying to improve, then the free option isn’t worth your time.

I’ll give you a short breakdown to help you decide which option is right for you, and to help you avoid wasting your time, money and effort on options that might not work.

These ideas are taken from my 20 years of experience teaching Japanese, as well as from my own experience of learning English.

Here’s what I’ll cover in this article to help you decide between free vs paid Japanese courses:

1. Free courses can be great in certain situations
2. Paid courses can be great in certain situations
3. It’s the quality of the course that matters more than the price

Once you’ve read this article, you’ll be much better prepared to make an informed choice about a Japanese course that will help you make steady progress towards your goals.

I’ve included a checklist later in the article to help you evaluate whether a course is a good fit for you or not.

1. Free courses can be great in certain situations

Free Japanese courses can help you get a taste for the language before making a decision to invest your time, money and effort into it.

It’s easy to get started and it’s a great way to see if you actually want to learn the language properly.

However, there are some downsides to free courses.

Free courses are often one-size-fits-all, meaning that they’re not tailored to your goals or learning style.

They might not teach you how to improve your speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills in a way that most benefits you. They’re also very unlikely to teach you phrases and expressions directly relevant to your life situation and goals.

There’s also a psychological element to free things: if something is free, it’s rarely seen as being valuable. 

For example, researchers at the University of Texas discovered that mobile apps promoted for free were adopted at a much slower rate than paid apps.

In the context of a Japanese course, this means that a much higher proportion of students tend to give up earlier if they study a free course.

Free courses are easy to start but they’re also easy to stop.

This is something to keep in mind if you want to study Japanese long-term and achieve any level of fluency.

2. Paid courses can be great in certain situations

If you know that you want to commit to learning Japanese long-term, a paid course is probably the best option for you.

It’s important to choose a paid course that will support your goals. If you want to focus on being able to speak, an intensive kanji course won’t be helpful to you. A course focused on speaking like the Master Speaking Japanese course would be perfect.

Likewise, if you want to focus on writing, a course with a strong audio component won’t be helpful.

With a paid Japanese course, you’ll find many more options that can suit or be customised to your level, goals and situation.

Just as a free course is easy to start and often too easy to give up, a paid course can be more difficult to start but it usually motivates you to study longer.

For example, the average student at the Arai Academy of Japanese Studies stays on for about 5 or 6 years due to the high level of support they receive and the progress they make towards their goals. I even have one student who is in his 14th year of study with me!

You don’t have to commit to studying for a decade right now. 

But, if you’re going to commit to learning Japanese and you don’t want to give up, investing in a course that will support your dream is the way to go.

3. It’s the quality of the course that matters more than the price

Whether you choose a free or a paid Japanese course, your priority should be finding one that will actually help you achieve your goals. It should improve the target skills you want to work on.

Use this checklist to make sure the course you’re thinking about is a good fit for you:

▢ Will the course improve your target skills? (speaking, listening, reading or writing)

▢ Do the topics and expressions covered in the course match your needs?

▢ Can you make progress step-by-step or are there big jumps in difficulty level that might trip you up?

▢ Does the course offer you plenty of opportunities to practice your target skills?

▢ If it’s a paid course, can you afford to keep paying long-term?

▢ Can you contact the teacher who designed the course?

▢ Can you get support from the teacher who designed the course?

Answering these questions are vital to figuring out whether a free or a paid course will work best for you. 

If you want to dive more deeply into what types of courses might work best for you and your learning style, read my article on How To Choose The Best Japanese Course For You.

I hope you found this article useful in supporting your Japanese learning journey!

Mineko Arai

Hello! I'm Mineko Arai. I’ve been teaching Japanese for about 20 years. I was a lecturer at top UK universities like the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, the University of Sheffield, and King's College London. 

I was also employed by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to prepare diplomats for postings to the British embassy in Tokyo.

I'm now the director of the Arai Academy of Japanese Studies. The academy has provided corporate training to the British Museum, as well as executives and business leaders at companies like Deloitte, Sony, Dentsu and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank.

I was also voted #1 online tutor at Vidalingua.

I have an MA in applied Japanese linguistics from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and an MBA in Education Management from King's College.

Most textbooks and courses lock you in to stock examples and phrases, which are unusable, and sound stiff and unnatural. However, the Master Speaking Japanese course empowers you to say exactly what you want naturally and fluently from the very beginning! Get started for free!