Course · 20 days

Numbers, properly.

Most courses give numbers a chapter and move on, which is why so many learners can hold a conversation and still freeze at a till. Japanese groups digits in fours rather than threes, so 90,000 is nine of something and a million has no word of its own. That one difference, plus counters, is worth twenty days on its own.

By the end you can handle a price, a timetable, a rent quoted in 万, a discount sign, a population figure and a road trip of 123 km.