japanese
Japanese
Japanese
Essays
So you want to learn Japanese?
- Humorous essay about the difficulties of Japanese. Don't take it too seriously though!
So you really want to learn Japanese?
- Advice for beginner students of Japanese.
- Covers language difficulties, usefulness, info about speakers etc.
Japanese - Preliminary Considerations
- Interesting video with a linguist and native speaker discussing the language, relationship to other languages and issues in learning Japanese.
- Information on the sounds, grammar, vocabulary, writing system, dialects and lots more.
- Information on the script with hiragana, katakana, kanji
and other specific pages.
- Article with diagram on the history, dialects, script, grammar and role in society of Japanese.
Five Tips for Learning Japanese by Peter, 2003
- Tips for successful study of Japanese, based on the author's experience at university.
- Overview of the language, writing system, politeness levels, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Courses Beginners+
- Elementary & intermediate multimedia lessons on everyday situations. Register for free to keep track of your progress. Very useful & thorough course. Learn through other languages here.
Let's Learn Japanese I episodes 1-22
- A TV series that teaches you Japanese through the experiences of a foreigner living in Japan. Fun way to pick up the basics. Episodes may be found from torrent sites.
NHK Japanese lessons Available in Ar, Be, Bu, Zh, En, Fr, Hi, In, Ko, Pe, Po, Ru, Es, Sw, Th, Ur & Vi
- Many short audio lessons with accompanying text.
- Huge video course with 136 episodes. Great for complete beginners, fun teacher but pace is rather slow.
L-Lingo Japanese Available in English, French, German & Spanish
- Interactive course with 40 lessons using pictures, audio and exercises to teach Japanese phrases and vocabulary.
- Teaches entirely in Japanese through audio and pictures. Lots of activities and an active community.
- Beginner's, grammar and multimedia Japanese lessons and a vibrant community. Note: Free registration required.
Survival Japanese from AJALT
- An online textbook with audio teaching Japanese phrases, grammar, vocab and conversation.
Japanese Reader for the Middle Years from the Australian government
- An interactive course for Australian students with audio and pictures. Some basic knowledge of Japanese may be needed. BROKEN LINK
Courses Intermediate+ / Sustainment
Self Assessment of Japanese Listening Skills BROKEN LINK
- Real life audio to listen to with exercises, different levels available. Nice for checking how well you would survive in Japan.
Self Assessment of Japanese Reading Skills
- Uses Japanese text from real life, with exercises and different levels. Nice for checking how well you would survive in Japan.
- 138 videos with scripts and exercises. Mostly news items or monologues, be warned, this is fairly advanced material!
Japanese Listening Comprehension Exercises
- Beginning level conversations and intermediate level lectures to listen to, with pictures and exercises to check understanding.
GLOSS Japanese by the Defense Language Institute
- Improve your Japanese with listening & reading lessons from authentic material. Intermediate level and beyond.
Bilingoz BROKEN LINK
- Flashcards and games for learning specialised vocabulary (dentistry, business etc), with kanji and sound. Basic to advanced.
- Fantastic site teaching Kansai pronunciation, grammar & expressions, with audio, video & exercises. You will need to know basic Japanese grammar before you attempt this.
Advanced Modern Standard Japanese
- Advanced level texts with grammar notes and exercises in Japanese, as well as vocab lists.
- A website designed to improve your reading skills in Japanese with difficulty level checker, dictionary tool, reading resources, etc.
- Conversations with animations and transcript available in romaji and kana. No translations but nice for practising listening.
Audio-Visual Resources in Jp, En, Ko, Ch & In
- Listening quizzes, practice using keigo, pronunciation practice, onomatopoeia, advanced reading material, video interviews, JLPT listening practice etc.
Websites
- Revision sheets on different aspects of Japanese grammar/language.
- Nice collection of links, a bit old now though.
- Community with articles, vocabulary lists etc.
- Flash based exercises for learning Japanese vocab.
- Tests on hiragana, katakana, kanji and grammar for people studying for the JPLT tests.
- Loads of useful tests; great for brushing up on your Japanese.
- Frequently updated links for Japanese. Lots of useful resources.
- Lots of vocabulary on different themes with pictures and audio.
- 2 months worth of Japanese lessons, grammar e-book, guides on Kansai-ben , writing, onomatopoeia etc.
- Interactive exercises on vacab and grammar, as well as a proficiency test.
- Teaches basic Japanese with a linguistics approach. Also available to download.
- Follow a student's progress and learn some beginner's Japanese along the way.
Advanced Japanese Listening Materials from University of Cornell
- 45 conversations available to listen to. Try listening and see how much you can understand.
Meguro Japanese Language Centre
- Worksheets, quizzes, conversations, grammar sheets etc for beginning to intermediate level, and material for the JPLT tests.
- A collection of four-character idioms with translation and example sentences.
- Interesting website with articles on learning how to read in Japanese, as well as recommendations for books.
- Fantastic collection of links for study materials, authentic materials and Japan related sites. Very useful.
- Interactive exercises with audio for learning Japanese vocabulary.
- Text lessons teaching everyday Japanese for beginners, with basic grammar, phrases useful for everyday life and vocabulary lists.
Kanji & Kana
Outline of the Japanese Writing System by Jack Halpern, 2001
- The history and development of kanji and kana in Japan.
- Flashcard website to use alongside Heisig's book. Users submit mnemonics to help remember kanji.
- Articles and reviews of materials to learn kanji.
- Great blog exploring kanji in depth, introduces kanji compounds and vocabulary, with quizzes and examples of kanji in real life.
Memorising the Hiragana and Katakana
- Mnemonics to help you remember the kana.
- An RPG-flashcard-style game for learning kanji, kana and vocab.
- Another RPG game to learn kanji & kana. Gameplay is pretty difficult though.
- Kanji flashcard program, 6,000 kanji, can be arranged according to lists from popular kanji books.
- An online course for learning JPLT kanji and kana.
- Check how many kanji you know with this quiz.
- A Firefox add-on that changes English words on the internet into kanji with a similar meaning, to practise kanji you already know, e.g. 読ead, 練ractise.
- If you spend a lot of time on Facebook, then try this app for testing kanji, kana and kanji compounds. Addictive stuff.
- Practise kana & kanji recognition by typing in the correct pronunciation.
- Kanji & kana stroke order, flashcards, worksheets and drag & drop exercises.
E-books
Tae Kim's Japanese grammar guide
- Accessible book that covers most of Japanese grammar.
- Try an extract of Heisig's book on how to learn kanji quickly. The full 1995 edition is available to view here. Reviews here.
Quick & Dirty Guide to Japanese
- Short guide on the basics of Japanese grammar and rules. Romaji version here.
An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar and Language by Michiel Kamermans, 2010
- Concise guide to Japanese grammar, useful constructions for conversation, formality etc. Lots of grammar tables, a bit technical.
A Logical Japanese Grammar by Mash Soutou
- Technical grammar on verbs, nouns, sentences, English loan words, particles etc. Incomplete.
Japanese for the Western Brain by Kim Allen
- A layman's guide to Japanese, explaining politeness levels, writing system, particles, sentence structure and further resources.
FSI Japanese FAST 1988
- Teaches Japanese for everyday life, with conversations, culture & grammar notes and lots of drills. Uses romaji & characters. No audio.
More Japanese e-books are listed in the Language e-books page.
Podcasts
- Loads of lessons teaching conversational Japanese for many different levels.
Learn Japanese with Beb and Alex
- Useful beginner lessons and podcasts on Japanese culture.
- Learn Japanese language and culture through examples from anime and everyday conversation.
日語自遊行 - 1 & 2 (extra material 1 & 2)
- Learn basic Japanese words and phrases for travel and everyday life. Note: Only available in Cantonese.
- Teaches more advanced Japanese words and phrases for travellers. Note: Only available in Cantonese.
- Advanced Japanese podcasts with transcripts explaining common difficulties of learning Japanese.
- Bilingual podcast explaining Japanese culture and language; with English translations and transcripts on website.
- Learn the very basics of Japanese in 1 minute lessons.
- 10 lessons and PDF guides available free, 50 more to pay for.
Forums
- Huge forum about almost everything to do with Japanese.
- Ask questions about word meanings and Japanese usage.
- Small forum but many useful topics on Japanese resources and learning methods.
Blogs
- Interesting posts on Japanese phrases, vocabulary, kanji, culture and life in Japan.
- Carlie journeys towards Japanese fluency via lots of procrastination, drama watching, and staring at Japanese boys.
- Lots of useful posts about kanji, life in Japan, how to study, mnemonics, teaching Japanese and more.
- The experiences of a Japanese translator living in Japan.
- Posts on Japanese culture, language learning, online resources, news from Japan and videos.
- Lots of helpful information from a Japanese enthusiast.
- Articles, reviews and information on learning Japanese.
- Thoughts and advice on practical learning.
- Grammar explanations, useful phrases for conversation, kanji with mnemonics, links, and vocabulary posts.
- Interesting language stuff, like signs, websites, videos, thoroughly explained & dissected. Nice for getting exposure to authentic Japanese.
- Interesting and very pretty blog with reviews of learning material, grammar & vocabulary posts, as well as reading material and other things to download. Unfortunately posting is sporadic.
- Posts on cuisine, culture, grammar, holidays and travel.
- Blog explaining the Japanese language, from a Japanese teacher. Note: In Japanese only.
- Blog from a Japanese teacher, with posts on the language, daily life, vocabulary etc. Note: In Japanese only.
- Blog on learning Japanese, productivity, Japanese culture, entertainment and society. Note: All posts are now entirely in Japanese.
- Interesting news from Japan.
- Enthusiatic host describes how he learnt Japanese in 18 months.
Technical
- The only Japanese dictionary you will ever need.
Japanese Dictionary from Yes Japanese
- English to Japanese dictionary, alphabetically arranged and searchable. Uses romaji and kanji.
- Type in a Japanese website address and get pop-up readings and definitions of every word.
- Pop-up dictionary Firefox extension, shows reading and definition of Japanese words.
- A downloadable word processor that lets you type in Japanese.