Last updated: 11.18.2019
Updated! I’ve decided to reformat the links on this page into sections, as well as add a ton of new links I have come across. Most are free, but the ones that aren’t are denoted with a ($). I’ve also noted the ones that I have found to be particularly useful with a (*). A special thanks to Aikibujin for quite a few of the links in this list. Enjoy!
Phone Applications (Android)
Note there may be equivalents for iOS, but I’m not sure since I don’t use it.
- Duolingo (kana, kanji, vocab, sentences with audio)
- Drops (kana, audio, vocab)
- AnkiDroid – Generic flashcard program
- Japanese Dictionary Takoboto
- Wanikani (kanji, website not an app but works well on mobile)
Textbooks ($)
- Genki* ( Japanese Language Series)
- Japanese for Busy People (Japanese Language Series)
- Remembering the Kanji* (Kanji Series) [link]
- Remembering the Kana* (Kana Series)
Kana Learning Tools
- Real Kana – http://www.realkana.com
- Drag-n-Drop – http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/sheaa/projects/genki/hiragana-timer.html
- Easy Japanese – http://easyjapanese.org/kanaquiz.html
Grammar
- TextFugu* ($) – http://www.textfugu.com/
- EtoEto ($) – http://etoeto.com/
- Imabi* – http://www.imabi.net/
- Tae Kim* – http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/
- Visualizing Japanese Grammar – http://www.gwu.edu/~eall/vjg/vjghomepage/vjghome.htm
- Stack Exchange (for Japanese) – http://japanese.stackexchange.com/
Japanese Practice
- WaniKani ($) – http://www.wanikani.com/
- Anki*** – http://ankisrs.net/ (This one gets multiple stars for being awesome)
- Lang-8* (writing) – http://lang-8.com/
- Skype (speaking) – http://www.skype.com/en/ (Use Lang-8 to find Japanese Skype partners)
Vocabulary
- Core 2k/6k Optimized Japanese Vocabulary Deck (Anki deck) – https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1102215805
Online Dictionaries
- Jisho.org* – http://beta.jisho.org/ or http://jisho.org/ (the beta is a new and improved version of the regular jisho.org)
- Tangorin – http://tangorin.com/
- Tanoshii Japanese – http://www.tanoshiijapanese.com/dictionary/
- Romajidesu – http://www.romajidesu.com/
- ALC – http://www.alc.co.jp/
- Weblio – http://ejje.weblio.jp/
- JLPT Dictionary – http://www.jlptdictionary.com/
- OCJS – http://www.yamasa.org/ocjs/kanjijiten/english/
Alternate Dictionaries
- Verb Conjugator* – http://www.japaneseverbconjugator.com/
- Sentence Dictionary – http://tatoeba.org/eng/
- IT Terminology (in Japanese) – http://e-words.jp/
- Advanced (Business/Industrial/Scientific) Terminology – http://www.kotoba.jp/
Japanese Learning Games
- Syndorea – http://syndorea.behemyth.com/
- Slime Forest Adventure (kana/kanji) – http://lrnj.com/
- Digital Dialects – http://www.digitaldialects.com/Japanese.htm
- Kana Invaders (v1)* – http://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/
- Kana Invaders (v2) – http://easyjapanese.org/invaders.html
Browser Extensions
- Rikaisama (Firefox Deluxe Version)* – http://rikaisama.sourceforge.net/
- Rikaichan (Firefox Standard Version) – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rikaichan/
- Rikaikun (Chrome Standard Version) – https://code.google.com/p/rikaikun/
Japanese Culture
- Tofugu – http://www.tofugu.com/
- Chokochoko – http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/
- What Japan Thinks – http://whatjapanthinks.com/
- Metropolis – http://metropolis.co.jp/
- Wow Japan – http://www.afachan.asia/wowjapan/
Japanese Newspapers
English
- The Japan Times – http://www.japantimes.co.jp/
- Japan Today – http://www.japantoday.com/
Japanese
- Asahi – http://www.asahi.com/
- NHK – http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/
- NHK Easy – http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/ (another version of previous site that includes furigana)
- Rocket News 24 – http://rocketnews24.com/
Native Japanese Exposure
- Fengyunzhibo – http://www.fengyunzhibo.com/space/japan.htm
- Niconico – http://www.nicovideo.jp/
- TBS Newsu – http://news.tbs.co.jp/
- B! – http://b.hatena.ne.jp/
- 4Gamer.net – http://www.4gamer.net/
- Livedoor – http://www.livedoor.com/
- Sanspo – http://www.sanspo.com/
- Kotobank.jp – http://kotobank.jp/
J-blogs (Japanese Blogs)
- V2K Japan – http://www.v2k-jpn.com/
- All Japanese All The Time* – http://alljapaneseallthetime.com/
YouTube J-vlogs (Japanese Video Blogs)
- Bobbyjudo – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDjZZt5vFib4QIot82bUbg
- CulturalExchangeChan – http://www.youtube.com/user/CulturalExchangeChan/videos
- Kyarorin – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGjMgcbgLpH8KO5fVl1ywkw
- Micaela* – http://www.youtube.com/user/Ciaela
- PDR – http://www.youtube.com/user/PDRKabushikigaisha
- QuickRhino* – http://www.youtube.com/user/QuickRhino
- Rachel and Jun* – http://www.youtube.com/user/MyHusbandisJapanese
- Sharla in Japan – http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLfbmGhvu7xTHXktmMWdfvw
- Gimmeaflakeman* – http://www.youtube.com/user/Gimmeaflakeman
Immigrating to Japan
- Turning Japanese – http://www.turning-japanese.info/
Additional Resource Sites
- Nihon Shock* – http://nihonshock.com/
- Renshuu – http://renshuu.org/
- About.com* – http://japanese.about.com/
- LearnJapanese.com – http://www.learnjapanese.com/
- Japanese From Zero – http://www.yesjapan.com/
- 123 Japanese – http://www.123japanese.com/
- Nihongo Resources – http://redesign.nihongoresources.com/
- Irasshai (Video Lessons) – http://www.gpb.org/irasshai/japanese-i
- Live Mocha – http://livemocha.com/
- Remembering the Kanji Forum – http://forum.koohii.com/index.php
- Google Japan – https://www.google.co.jp/
- Fluent Future – http://www.fluentfuture.com/learn/japanese
- JapaneseClass.jp (RPG text-style learning) – http://japaneseclass.jp/
- JapanesePod101 ($) – http://www.japanesepod101.com/ (Note: they do have a free word of the day feature that is nice as well).
- iKnow (smart.fm) ($) – http://iknow.jp/
- AllNihongo Kana Tables – http://travisvroman.com/kana.php
- Installing and Typing Japanese on Vista / Windows 7 (YesJapan) – http://www.yesjapan.com/install_japanese/
- Japanese Input on Windows XP – http://blog.greggman.com/blog/japanese_input_on_windows_xp/
- Japanese Input on Mac – http://www.kanjimi.com/write-in-japanese-with-mac-os-x-kotoeri/
- Japanese Playstation Manuals – http://www.jp.playstation.com/support/manual/manual_list.html
Japanese Audio Books
Japanese Audio and Podcasts
- last.fm – http://last.fm/
- TBS Radio 954 Podcasts – http://www.tbsradio.jp/index.html
- TuneIn (Japanese Radio Streams) – http://www.tunein.com
- Grooveshark (Can search for Japanese Music) – http://grooveshark.com
- サイマルラジオ (saimaru rajio/simul radio) – http://www.simulradio.jp/
Audio Courses ($)
Another List Like This One (Compiled by Koichi)
If there are any links you find useful and would like to see posted, please send me an email at torabisuburoman[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]jp.
Added some links and various updates. 🙂
I’m not sure what third year student means, or what your riadeng level is.However. I can say that textbooks for foreign language learners will only get you so far (and it’s not too far, IMHO). Eventually you will need to switch your learning method to a more permanent and open-ended thing, namely just consuming a lot of data and processing it as it comes in – once you have the basics down, there isn’t any real “order” to stuff. It’s more of a change in thought process, I suppose.And, this sort of “I’m still in a class but I’ve got extra time I want to use” situation might be the perfect time to start! :)For that, what you need isn’t actual textbooks[1], but rather REFERENCE books. The minimum basic set you’ll need is:
(1) 国語辞典 (or if you still need it, 和英辞典) – this is where you look up words you know how to pronounce, in aiueo order. You might want to start with a 国語辞典 aimed at elementary students, or junior high students, at first – you can use it in parallel with a JE dictionary, and you can get used to how definitions work in Japanese. If you have the ability to browse, you should try to pick a dictionary that gives the part of speech (品詞) and example sentences for all words.
(2) 漢和辞典 – you need to learn how to look up characters in a regular character dictionary, by 部首 (part) and stroke count. This is where you will look up characters you can’t pronounce (or look up information on single characters, generally). When I was in school, we learned this starting in elementary third grade (but that was ages ago now). I can try to see if there are some good guides online, but if you look for 国語 resources aimed at that group, you can probably find something.
(3) 文型辞典 (sentence patterns dictionary) – This is the one most people don’t think of. But for second-language learners it’s really valuable. I can recommend highly a book 「日本語文型辞典」from くろしお出版。 This is where you’ll look up “glue pieces” like 「Xといい、Yといい」or 「Xしようにも」type stuff.So then, pick some riadeng source (which can be anything at all!) among all the regular riadeng you do, and fully digest it, looking up everything you don’t understand. Ideally you pick something where you can follow the story for at least a few pages only marking down the places to look up, and then look the stuff up at the end of the session. If that means comics, that’s fine. I would suggest then putting the new words you learn into some SRS, so you can review them. If you do, it’s very important to put example sentences into the SRS and really concentrate on being able to reproduce and remember those example sentences – the original sentence you found the word in, plus any from the dictionary you copy out (or google up). That way you remember the words in context, always. The nice thing about computerized flash cards is you can have more than two “sides” – so you can have the example sentences always show up with the “answer,” whether your prompt is the word (going one way) OR the definition (going the other).As you do more of these, you’ll want to vary the genre because the vocabulary used and writing style used varies by genre quite a bit. Alternate between fiction and not, or whatever.Is your teacher or TA someone who went through Japanese schools? If so, they can probably help with some advice on good lower school references to use when you’re first starting out. [1] In fact if you look at a lot of “advanced” textbooks for English-speaking college students, pretty much what they are is just predigested forms of this data gathering – they have old news articles from 2005 or whenever, with the new vocabulary and grammar patterns taken out and explained. Well, if you have your own references, you can do this on your own, and read CURRENT news articles where you’ll have the benefit of context (presuming you already read the news in your main language too).
I agree with this, and it is in fact very similar to my current process. I need to update this page again sometime soon with more links.
Thanks for your suggestions though!
These links are great! This will definitely help round out my immersion environment.
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