I am a digital nomad and entrepreneur specializing in the curation of online information focused on the fields of business and travel. I run numerous websites, including MBA Depot, MBA Boost, Management Ideas, dado que and Lengthy Travel. I received my MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
This website provides you with the reedited versions of “Basic Japanese for You” and “Brush Up Your Japanese” that are designed for the Internet users. Their original versions are on the air on NHK World Radio Japan, that is the overseas shortwave service of NHK.
Source: NHK | Subject: Video / Audio
Part of TJP’s WagaWiki, this site offers quite a bit of grammar explanations, mostly at the basic and advanced basic levels. Note that the main page says later grammar pages are under continuing revision and aren’t shown but in fact if you click the link on those pages at the top the content does exist…
Source: TheJapanesePage.com | Subject: Grammar
The Tanaka Corpus consists of roughly 180,000 parallel Japanese-English sentences and is the basis of the example sentences found in the WWWJDIC dictionary server. It is freely available at this site for you to use in any projects you may wish.
Sources: Jim Breen, Paul Blay, Yasuhito Tanaka | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Software / Tools
This site lets you input a URL and then it will display it with furigana.
Editor’s Note: with the development of tools like rikaichan I don’t see a strong need for this site, but it may suit some people’s tastes so I am adding it…
Source: Hiragana.JP | Subject: Translate
インターネットの電子図書館.
This site is completely in Japanese and is above my level, but I think it is an online library of Japanese writings that are no longer covered by copyright. There is no listing by level of difficulty but I guess all of the entries are for more advanced students. A downloadable ruby .zip version or an HTML version of each entry is available. … [ Read more ]
Source: Aozora | Subject: Reading Material
The University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center and the University of Pittsburgh East Asian Library are pleased to sponsor the Japanese Text Initiative, a collaborative effort to make texts of classical Japanese literature available on the World Wide Web. I haven’t read through the site yet, but it appears appropriate only for intermediate to advanced levels. There appear to be some really good … [ Read more ]
Sources: University of Pittsburgh, University of Virginia | Subject: Reading Material
Amusing, if not disturbing, video…
Source: learn japanese / YouTube | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio
Here is a collection of simple short reading stories about a character named BOTさん. The grammar and vocab appears appropriate for lower to intermediate level students.
Source: BOTSAN | Subject: Reading Material
A compilation of Japanese grammatical expressions – completely in Japanese.
Source: 日本語阜ｻ文型辞典編集小組 | Subject: Grammar
Some grammar notes posted back in 1996. The first three items are useful and easily comprehended but the last three items are more appropriate to a linqguistic conversation/study only.
Source: Yoko Hasegawa | Subject: Grammar
This site is fantastic. Masahiro Kudo posts famous old Japanese stories in both Japanese and English about once a month (there are more than 170 as of this writing). He has also posted some famous Japanese songs.
Source: Masahiro Kudo | Subject: Reading Material
Japanese TV on demand has been around for a while, at least in a limited sense with downloadable bulletins from NHK. All that changed last April with the launch of Gyao, a new free internet TV service which has everything from TV dramas to J-pop to cooking shows and anime. This is great for anyone curious about modern Japanese culture and of course students of … [ Read more ]
Source: Gyao | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio
The quiz is based on 727 words of vocab from the JLPT Level 4 Vocabulary List put together by Peter van der Woude (though keep in mind that there are no official JLPT lists of vocabulary). [hat tip to Nihongojouzu.com]
Source: manythings.org / Charles Kelly | Subject: JLPT Exam
This online tool/program is designed to help you practice and review basic Japanese grammar. It covers many of the grammar points taught in the book A Course in Modern Japanese (CMJ). [hat tip to Nihongojouzu.com]
Source: Nagoya University | Subject: Grammar
Adamu at MutantFrog Travelogue has written an excellent piece on the importance of developing good Japanese reading comprehension skills. Adamu points out a number of great resources for practicing reading and the discussions carried on in the comments sections make some good points too. [courtesy of Nihongojouzu.com]
Source: Mutant Frog Travelogue / Adamu | Subject: Reading Material
Don’t let the full title fool you: “Osaka dialect 大阪弁 Japanese lesson in English” – Mayumi K’s podcast is fully bilingual, with Mayumi speaking in Osaka-ben and then repeating the words in English. Along the way she also throws in vocab explanations and speaking tips. At 5 minutes a serve the podcast is a good length for repeated listens. The level is intermediate and it … [ Read more ]
Source: Mayumi K | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio
Will at Nihongojouzu.com details his method for learning new vocabulary in context. Maybe it will work for you as well…
Source: Nihongojouz.com / Will | Subject: Reading Material
A listing of locations offering wi-fi Internet access; broken out by prefecture with detailed legend.
Source: FREESPOT | Subject: Internet Access
Online resource guru Charles Kelly has just uploaded a Flash-based quiz on the ii-adjectives marked as commonly used in EDICT as of 2006-07-14. Straightforward stuff – you are given an adjective in kanji/kana and you have to pick the correct meaning from 4 or 5 options (depends on which quiz you pick). I gave it a whirl, did 100 questions and got paddled – only … [ Read more ]
Source: manythings.org / Charles Kelly | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases
The popular left-leaning Japanese newspaper Asahi has an excellent service provided on their webpage. WebUD provides an audio reading of any article on asahi.com as well as the ability to turn furigana on and off. It is a computerized voice reading the articles, but it’s actually not too bad. The program allows you to adjust the speed of the reading. The hiragana function gives you … [ Read more ]
Source: Asahi.com | Subject: News / Magazine