About GZen

GZen is a daily language learning site designed around a simple idea: one focused lesson a day is more powerful than occasional marathon study sessions.

Inspired by Advent of Code’s one-puzzle-per-day format, GZen presents language learning as a daily advent calendar — open a new lesson each day, study for 20–30 minutes, and track your progress.

Languages

🇯🇵 Japanese (N3 → N1) — Designed for Traditional Chinese Speakers

30 days of grammar patterns, vocabulary, and reading practice designed to take you from JLPT N3 to N1 readiness. Lessons are tailored for Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) speakers — vocabulary tables include Traditional Chinese translations so you can leverage your existing Chinese knowledge to accelerate Japanese learning. Each lesson features:

• Vocabulary with furigana (ruby) annotations and Traditional Chinese (繁中) translations
• Grammar pattern with nuance notes — including how patterns relate to or differ from Chinese usage
• Natural example sentences with both English and Traditional Chinese translations
• A reading passage using the lesson’s target grammar
• Practice quizzes with reveal-on-click answers

🇷🇺 Russian (Beginner → B2)

20 days from the Cyrillic alphabet all the way through the 6-case system, verb aspects, and reading comprehension. Russian vocabulary includes English phonetic pronunciation in brackets to help you sound out words before you have Cyrillic reading fluency.

How to Use GZen

1. Start from Day 1 — lessons build on each other
2. Study for ~20 minutes — read, understand, repeat examples aloud
3. Do the practice quizzes — try to answer before revealing
4. Mark it complete — your browser saves your progress
5. Come back tomorrow — consistency beats intensity

Built With

GZen is a static site built with Hugo — pure HTML, no JavaScript framework required. Lessons are written in Markdown with Hugo shortcodes for reusable components like {{< furigana >}} and {{< quiz >}}.