Japanese Language Resources

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by Moncader

JLPT Practice - Home

They allow you to take tests that they have made online (the system is really good! Just like the real thing!), and you can see the answers right away. They even have the listening sections of the test!

They have tests for JLPT level 2, 3 and 4.

They also have many links and resources (practice sheets, etc...) for taking the JLPT and a bit for Japanese in general.

AKHKGLHKG I can't believe I didn't already know about this! Thanks for the link

[foxerish]

I found an incredible website with 100 lessons explained very well when in every lesson there is a useful phrase in japanese...
you can also download a text book for this!!!

here's the website
Learn Japanese

(I hope you understood me, I might have some mistakes...)

[takakomb]

Recently opened the site for "Free Worksheet for Learning Japanese".

http://canadalondon.web.fc2.com/free...heet_jafl.html

I am tutoring Japanese language to English speaking people in North America.
In the site, I am suggesting learning steps with using free worksheet.

I wish my site will help your learning Japanese.

[nikujaga]

Created an account just to make one addition to the vocab building / kanji resources listed in this thread.. it's Speedanki kanji flashcards. Simple and easy way to study words and kanji. From the JLPT Study forum:

This is not exactly breaking news, but I thought I'd announce it here as well that the old and venerable JLPT flashcard site Speedanki is under new management. We've made some updates and improvements and will continue to do so at a leisurely pace. We've also opened a blog where you can leave comments and voice your opinions on Speedanki to the developers (all two of us).

For those who are not familiar with it, Speedanki is a popular online flashcard system for memorizing JLPT vocabulary from level 4 to 1. It's completely free to use (although we might add some ads at some point). Speedanki's strengths are its simplicity and great example sentences that help in memorizing the cards.

Check it out and tell your friends, too!

You don't have to study for the JLPT test to use it. I don't.

http://www.speedanki.com

[dime100]

All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency.

Great victory!

[Ririnsama]

Just for the record, I am using Japanese for Busy People to learn Japanese, as well as Heisig's Remembering the Kana & Remembering the Kanji. Thinking of trying Rosetta's Stone software sometime soon, since I need to converse with someone, even my PC ^^

[darthlobo]

I don't know if it's been said yet (because there are 14 pages to this thread) but Learn to speak Japanese like a Rocket with Rocket Japanese Premium has a basic free 6 day email lesson plan for everyday phrases. Other than that, I'm working out of books. If you'd like the titles, authors, and ISBN's, I can give them to you.

[jbradfor]

Thanks to all for posting the links here. I was looking for a good site to help learn Hiragana, and found some good ones here.

In exchange for your help, I thought I would post a "write-up" of all the learn Hiragana sites listed here, to save others the time of looking through all the posts and trying the different ones. It's quite possible I missed some, if you know of one that is good and I missed, please let me know.

Most are pretty similar: it presents a Hiragana letter, you need to provide the correct Romanji

The way they differ is:

• do you need to type in the Romanji, click on one of several choice, or click on the table
• what it does when you get it wrong
• how flexible is it in selecting subset of kana to learn
• Does it also do Katakana? Does it also do Romanji -> kana in addition to kana -> Romanji?

After playing with these for a while, my personal preferences are as follows.

• Type in Romanji. When I need to click one of several choices I can usually eliminate some, which means i don't learn it as well. When I need to click on the kana table I start to learn by position, not letter.
• Ability to select subset of kana is a requirement. When just starting, trying to distinguish among ALL the hiragana (especially the ones that also include expanded hiragana) is just too much, and leads to frustration. So when starting, need one that lets me pick a reasonable number (e.g. 10-20). Once you know them all and just need to practice, this is less important.
• I like ones that just says "nope!" when wrong, and makes me work on the correct answer.
• Romanji -> kana is not very useful to me, as I'm focusing only on reading, not on writing. For others, however, this might be important.

The other thing to note is that by-and-large these are not games (as I define it), but more computer-aided instruction. So once you get familiar with Hiragana and/or Katakana, you might want to find something more interesting.

Also, as far as I can tell, none of these take past correct/incorrect into account when picking the next letter. That is, whether you got a given letter wrong the last 10 times or correct the last 10 times, the probability of getting that letter is the same. I see room for improvement here.



Real Kana -- Hiragana and Katakana Practice — Real Kana

Format: need to entering romanji until you get it right

Pros:

• Lets you select any sub-set of the Hiragana and/or Katakana. Only one that does both at the same time.
• Has 7 typefaces, lets you select one or multiple of them. I think this is a very useful feature, as if I get used to only one font it's hard to read other (e.g. real world) kana
• If you mouse over the letter it shows you the answer, which you then need to enter.

Cons:

• Can press enter to go to the next letter, but does not show you the correct letter, so you yon't really learn it
• Does not do Romanji -> Kana

Conclusion: This is the one I used, due primarily to the flexibility in selecty sub-sets of the Hiragana to practice.


KanaSensei KanaSensei


Format: java applet. Need to click on table

Pros

• Lets you select any subset of Hiragana or Katakana, but not both.
• Does romanji -> kana or kana -> romanji
• After a couple of wrong clicks, it shows correct one and waits for you to click it. This is the best design I've seen for when you don't really know a letter

Cons

• Did not work for me! The Kana did not show up. [Showed up elsewhere]

Conclusion: This one looks promising, if you prefer to click rather than type in, but it did not work for me so I can't comment much


Hiragana and katakana drill, learn kana fast and easy!

Format: shows Kana, need to type Romanji
Pros:

• has "show me the answer" button
• Can select Hiragana in parts, or Katakana in parts. But not able to select *any* subset like Real Kana does
• Only one that can also give multiple characters (not sure how useful this is)

Conclusion: Also looks good, but as the selection of which kana to show is not as flexible as Real Kana, I used that one instead


KanaQuest -- KanaQuest.com - Hiragana and Katakana practice

Format: shows kana, need to click on one of 4 buttons.

Pros:

• Says can do subset of kana, but need to register to do that, and I didn't bother.
• Also can select font if you register

Conclusion: Didn't bother to register so not sure how complete it is


The Kanji Game -- https://www.msu.edu/~lakejess/Kana_Page.html?bg=1

While it's called "The Kanji Game", it's not a game, and it doesn't teach Kanji. Oh well, zero-for-two isn't bad :-)

Format: shows letter, need to press one of 8 buttons. If wrong, correct one flashes for about 1 second.

Pros:

• Also does English to Kana

Conclusion: not useful to me. When wrong, it shows the correct answer for such a short period of time that I don't learn much.


Learn Hiragana Flash-card Game -- Learn Hiragana Flash-card Game

Format: enter kanji until until you get it right

Pros

• Has a good hiragana chart

Cons

• no show me
• Only does all basic hiragana (which IMHO is too much to learn all at once)
• Does not do advanced Hiragana

Conclusion: Not bad, but no real reason to use. I do like the hiragana chart, and I often keep it open for reference while using other sites.


Oaxoa Blog

This one is more of a game, and is not very good for learning. Need to see how many you can get right in 60 seconds. Does not tell you correct answer. Gives you Hiragana, need to click correct romanji from choice of 6

[StonerPenguin]

Fellow Air Force personnel can download various audio books for learning Japanese for free here. Air Force Digital Media Program - Search Results
NOTE THAT THIS IS COMPLETELY LEGAL, you just have to delete the files at the end of your lending period (and sharing for most files is forbidden, you will be given rules for each file). Contact your local Air Force base library and make an account, after which you will be given a code which can be used to log in. This is available for military dependants too.

The courses on here are hardly 'advanced' but might help begginers, although I'll say right now avoid "Dr. Blair's Japanese In No Time" it is mind-meltingly retarded, with some of the stupidest mnemonic devices I have ever heard D: "Eat the ducky moss" for "Itadakimasu" "Cone knee cheese wa" (Konnichiwa) etc.

By the way, does anyone know some good intermediate audio-only courses for learning Japanese? I have been searching high and low for a good audio course to listen to while I work but it seems like a lot of audio courses don't get very in-depth, and they call a lot of audio courses "Advanced" that aren't even lower-intermediate. Any recommendations for good audio-only courses that are truly intermediate to advanced?

[globetrotter36]

Here's something else which seems very useful (haven't used it that much so will let others judge);

Japanese Kanji Dictionary