Minna no Nihongo Lesson 1 — Greetings (Free Practice)

Minna no Nihongo Lesson 1 — Greetings (Free Practice) Minna no Nihongo Lesson 1 introduces the polite basics you need on day one: greetings, simple self-introduction patterns, and the sentence frames beginners reuse every day. You can practice the lesson free online and lock the patterns with short drills instead of only reading the textbook page once. This guide explains what Lesson 1 is for, which phrases to master first, and how to turn the chapter into speaking and quiz practice you will still remember next week. What does Minna no Nihongo Lesson 1 cover? Lesson 1 is the on-ramp for absolute beginners who already know (or are learning) hiragana. The focus is everyday polite Japanese: saying hello, stating your name and nationality or occupation in simple form, confirming information, and using the core です / ですか patterns that show up again throughout the book. You are not aiming for fluent conversation yet. You are aiming for clean, reusable frames — the kind you can adapt when someone asks 「お名前は？」 or when you introduce yourself in class. Minna Nihongo’s free practice for this chapter lives here: Minna no Nihongo Lesson 1 — greetings and self-introduction . It is unofficial supplementary practice for learners following the textbook series, not an official 3A Corporation product. Why start with greetings instead of jumping ahead? Greetings and self-introductions teach more than politeness scripts. They train the rhythm of polite Japanese: topic + は, the copula です, and question form ですか. If those pieces feel automatic, later lessons on location, time, and verbs are much easier because the skeleton is already familiar. Skipping Lesson 1 to “save time” often backfires. Learners rush into vocabulary lists, then freeze when they need a natural opening line. Ten solid minutes on greetings pays off every time you join a language exchange or classroom icebreaker. Which Lesson 1 patterns should you practice first? 1. Core greetings you will actually use Prioritize high-frequency openings and closings: おはようございます, こんにちは, こんばんは, さようなら, and simple thanks or acknowledgements your textbook presents in the chapter. Say them aloud until the mora timing feels natural — greetings are music as much as vocabulary. 2. Name and identity with です Practice 「〜です」 and 「〜ですか」 with your real name, country, and job or student status. Keep sentences short. Accuracy beats long speeches. Record yourself once; awkward pauses disappear quickly when you repeat the same frame daily. 3. Confirmation and classroom survival lines Lesson 1 often includes ways to check understanding and respond politely. Drill those as call-and-response: question → short answer → follow-up. This is the difference between memorizing a monologue and being able to react. 4. Particles that appear early Even in greetings-focused pages, は and か do heavy lifting. When you miss a particle in practice, rewrite the sentence immediately rather than only rereading the English gloss. How do I study Lesson 1 in one week? A practical beginner week looks like this: Day 1–2: Read the lesson dialogue, shadow each line, and complete the free lesson practice for greetings and self-introduction. Day 3–4: Cover the English, produce the Japanese from memory, then check. Swap names and countries so you are not only memorizing the textbook characters. Day 5: Take a short related Japanese quiz on beginner vocab or particles to pressure-test recognition. Day 6–7: Revisit weak lines, then browse the full Minna no Nihongo course so Lesson 2 is ready when Lesson 1 feels automatic. If you already know some Japanese and are unsure whether Minna Lesson 1 is the right entry point, take the free Japanese placement test first. How does free online practice differ from only using the book? The textbook gives you a trusted sequence and classroom-tested dialogues. Free online practice adds immediate checks: can you select the right form, hear the difference, or rebuild the sentence without peeking? That feedback loop is w…