From #japanese

A list of resources for learning, practicing, and using Japanese.

Contents 1 Learning and Training 1.1 Books 1.2 Online Lessons 1.2.1 Beginner 1.2.2 Intermediate 1.2.3 Advanced 1.2.4 General Resources 1.3 Blogs 1.4 Audio and Podcasts 1.5 Writing 1.6 Tests 1.6.1 Kana 1.6.2 Kanji 1.6.3 General 1.6.4 Other 1.7 Software 1.7.1 Flashcard and Quiz Programs 1.7.2 Training and Learning Games 2 Dictionaries and Translation 2.1 Online Dictionaries 2.2 Dictionary Programs 2.3 Online Popup Dictionaries 2.4 Grammatical Analyzers 3 Discussion 3.1 IRC Channels

Learning and Training

Books

• Remembering the Kana (ISBN: 0824831640) Amazon.com
• Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1 (ISBN: 0824831659) Amazon.com (3 Volumes, each with their own amazon entry.)
• Japanese For Busy People (ISBN: 4770018827) Amazon.com (3 Volumes and 1 Kana workbook)
• Pimsleur Japanese (ISBN: 0743523539) Amazon.com (3 Volumes)
• Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese (ISBN: 4789009637) Amazon.com (2 Volumes, 2 workbooks, answer key all in separate amazon entries.)
• The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary (ISBN: 4770028555) Amazon.com (Great dictionary if you're looking for an offline one.)

Online Lessons

Beginner

• About.com Japanese Language (by Abe Namiko. Highly recommended for beginner Japanese language learners)
• Japanese-Online.com (Registration required. Free service. Highly recommended. Features 16 Basic Japanese Lessons focused around an American expatriate family in Tokyo. Also features 15 grammar lessons with examples on its usage. There are also five audio lessons requiring Macromedia Flash. Service also includes free web mail and a forum for language Q&A. You can cancel membership at any time)
• FreeJapaneseLessons.com (Nine lessons reviewing the basics of Japanese)
• Maktos: Japanese Is Possible! (An intensive crash course on Japanese)
• Meguro Language Center (Excellent Japanese language center based in Tokyo with lots of free downloads available. Flash required. Other files include PDF documents and .WMA audio files)
• NHK Online - Japanese Lessons (Real Player required. Audio lessons with text. Some lessons appear to be missing)
• Yamamoto Tomoko's Online Japanese Lessons (Website teaching katakana. You will have to switch encoding between EUC and Shift-JIS to display the fonts correctly. There are some good example katakana words)

Intermediate

• Pera Pera Penguin's 5-minute Japanese Class (One-page slides per lesson in the PDF format explaining certain usages of Japanese words)
• Reiko-chan's Japanese for Anime Lovers (Example sentences using .WAV sounds from Japanese cartoons with explanations on their meanings and nuances)
• Tae Kim's Japanese guide to learning Japanese grammar (download 2.85 MB; Author: Tae Kim (webmaster); HTML format; 226 pages)

Advanced

• Japanese 1-2-3.com (Some proverbs, business Japanese and more specialized vocabulary)
• Cours de Japonais (In french; a complete formation from the basics to graduate level)

General Resources

• TheJapanesePage.com
• Jim Breen's Japanese Page
• Omniglot - Japanese writing system
• Nihongoresources.com (download 1.13 MB; Author: Michiel Kamermans (webmaster); Title: An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar and Language; PDF format; 285 pages)
• JappLeng, currently in Beta, looks promising
• Lang-8 Write journal entries in Japanese and let natives correct it while you correct their English.
• Tim's Takamatsu Home
• Reviewing the Kanji Community and online app to accompany Heisig's Remembering the Kanji.

Blogs

• 3Yen
• Nihongojouzu
• Gaijin Smash An American from UC Davis detailing his experience teaching English to junior high students in Japan.
• All Japanese All the Time (AJATT) Tons of useful stuff on his site/blog even though I personally don't fully agree with his method.

Audio and Podcasts

• Michiyo's Japanese Lessons Podcasting (Flash required. Example setences include business vocabulary)
• JapanesePod101 (Excellent podcasting website with many lessons using MP3 audio and PDF text)
• Tae Kim's Learn Japanese (There are a few MP3 files where Tae Kim and his friends discuss in Japanese the usage of Japanese words)
• Breaking into Japanese Literature (Features audio for a number of short stories by Natsume Souseki and Akutagawa Ryuunosuke)
• [Guzen Media] (A one man team project that shows life in Japan through the eyes of an American.) -Podcasts too!

Writing

• きれいな字を書こう= 小学生の漢字!! (Let's write nicely= Elementary Kanji!!)
• 漢字文化資料館 (Kanji Cultural Data Pavilion)
• 漢字楽園 (Kanji Paradise)
• 教えて進路Q&A　国語 (Q&A forum on Japanese language)
• Kanji Alive (Requires QuickTime Player. Has just over 1,000 Kanji and also shows the animated brush stroke order as well as audio clips for example words)

Tests

Kana

• KanaFlash
• myjapaneselessons.com

Kanji

• Drill the Japanese kanji (Java required)
• Speedanki

General

• eManabu
• The Japan Foundation - Internet Japanese Test (Flash required)
• Michiyo's Japanese Exercise Quizzes (Only two quizzes are available)
• Quizlet: Japanese Kana, JLPT4 Kanji, Romaji, verbs, etc. Sign up to add new tests.
• JLPT Download Center Previous JLPT availible from different years and of different levels.
• Another JLPT Archive Seems to have the same stuff as the above link so might as well use it as a mirror.

Other

• BBC - A fan in Japan

Software

Flashcard and Quiz Programs

• KanaQuiz (31 KB)
• Kanji Gold (1.89 MB)
• PyJflash (3.5 MB no longer maintained)
• Flazzle (8.24 MB successor to <raw>PyJflash</raw>)
• Anki Windows, Linux and Mac
• Mnemosyne Windows, Mac OSX, Linux

Training and Learning Games

• Knuckles in China Land (Rapidshare.de download 3.09 MB)
• JRPG (12 MB)

Dictionaries and Translation

Online Dictionaries

• WWWJDIC
• nihongobenkyo.org a DICT server containing JMDict and other dictionaries
• Yamasa Online Kanji Dictionary
• 英辞朗 on the Web
• kotowaza.org Japanese proverbs with translations
• [1] A geneology chart of Chinese character radicals, as well as characters and word definitions
• [2] It's a pretty good dictionary, and it lets you search by word or Kanji, either English or Japanese, and when you put in Japanese using romaji, it automatically converts it into Hiragana for you when you start the search.
• EUdict Does Kanji, kana and romaji.

Dictionary Programs

• JWPCE (5.1 MB ~ 18.3 MB)
• WaKan (10.8 MB)
• Kiten (Linux only - KDE)
• GJITEN (Linux only - GNOME)
• JpDic v1.0 (3.28 MB; Requires .NET framework; Rewrite in C++ planned)
• JLookUp (185 KB)
• CJEDictionary (4.26 MB; Requires .NET framework; Chinese-Japanese-English)
• StarDict (1.20 MB; dictionary files are separate downloads; Extract dictionary archives to C:\Program Files\StarDict\dic\ subfolder. Restart StarDict to load the dictionary files.)

Online Popup Dictionaries

• Rikai.com (Firefox extension)
• Jisyo.org

Grammatical Analyzers

• JUMAN
• KNP
• ChaSen

Discussion

IRC Channels

• #japanese on 2Ch
• #japanese on Rizon
• #japanese.utf8 on Rizon
• #japanese on IRCHighway
• #nihongo on IRCHighway
• #nihongo on Freenode
• #japanese on Freenode
• #learnjapanese on Rizon
• #japan on RusNet - Talking in Russian, English and Japanese. (UTF-8 port: 7770; SSL UTF-8 port: 9996)