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.
Denshi Jisho is a web-based Japanese dictionary with word, kanji and sentence databases drawn from the WWWJDIC project. The site has a simple, clean design, but beyond that it also has a number of helpful features which make it more than just a pretty interface for Jim Breen’s dictionaries.
1. search results also link to Example Sentences, Kanji Details, Goo Jisho, Yahoo Jisho, Google, Google … [ Read more ]
Source: Kim Ahlström | Subject: Translate
Want to study kanji but you left all your flashcards at home? Help is at hand because your iPod is not only musical but literate too.
kanjiPod is a program for generating sets of files for studying kanji on the iPod via the Notes feature. Programming maestros can download the Python based source code here and get cracking putting together personalised files, while code allergic … [ Read more ]
Source: curious | Subject: Kanji
The Mixxer is a free educational site for language learners and teachers to find a language partner for a language exchange. The language partner is someone who speaks the language you study as their native language and is studying your native language. The partners then meet online to help each other practice and learn a foreign language.
Source: The MIXXER | Subjects: Connecting (Groups, Forums, Language Exchange, Meetups, etc.), Language Exchange
Learning in context makes sense – the relevancy of the words helps aid memorisation and use. The problem of learning words as you meet them is that you will never learn words you never meet! One way is to supplement contextual learning with some good old fashioned word lists. Then the question becomes “What words should I learn?”
A Swadesh list is a list of … [ Read more ]
Source: Wikipedia / Maurice Swadesh | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases
A blog about “Stumbling through Japanese”
Source: Scott | Subjects: Blogs, Language Study
This website is the personal web journal of Paul Davidson, intended primarily as a place to jot down discoveries made during the course of learning Japanese and living in Nagoya, Japan.
Source: Paul Davidson | Subject: Blogs
Tae Kim, the author of the useful Japanese guide to Japanese grammar offers up this site. What you will find here are tidbits about Japanese that he hopes will be useful for those studying the language. He plans to separate posts into three major categories: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. The beginner category will talk about the fundamental principles of Japanese such as particles, parts of … [ Read more ]
Source: Tae Kim | Subject: Blogs
Will Jasprizza offers this informative and useful blog focused on topics relevant to learners of the Japanese language.
Editor’s Note: Inactive for many years but the archives should still be useful.
Source: Will Jasprizza | Subject: Blogs
Here is a Kanji dictionary geared for the serious learner or for anyone with a curiousity about the historial etymology of the characters. The dictionary covers the 1945 Joyo Kanji.
Each entry is organized as follows. The character; the number of strokes, ON reading(s), KUN reading(s), ancient forms (where applicable) and the etymological explanation. Present-day meanings in Japanese are in boldface. As is customary … [ Read more ]
Source: Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto | Subject: Kanji
Japanese Lifestyle bills itself is one of the most comprehensive guides to Japan and Japanese culture on the Internet and from what I can see it probably is. There are lots of topics covered, such as city information (which includes VERY extensive information on Tokyo and its districts), culture, fashion, food, language (basic) and more.
Source: mi marketing Pty Ltd | Subject: Comprehensive
365日物語 (365 Days of Stories – my translation) is a series of three minute readings from the book of the same name. Each episode ties into a historical event linked to the same date – I listened to episodes about Mary Shelley’s publication of Frankenstein, Churchill’s take on the Iron Curtain and how Franklin Roosevelt was never photographed in his wheelchair. Very easy on the … [ Read more ]
Source: Sofia Podcasting Studio | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio
At 140 pages this is a wonderful collection of set phrases for all manner of situations. Set phrases? Shouldn’t I just say things in my own words? Well, a lot of the time, no. The blurb on the back explains:
“Words don’t exist in isolation, to be placed willy-nilly in grammatical slots by a speaker exercising absolute freedom of choice. Rather, words come in neatly bound … [ Read more ]
Sources: John Brennan (Translator), Sanseido | Subject: Books
Will at Nihongojouzu thought it would be fun to insert examples of sound words (onomatopoeia) into an account of an average day in the life of an Assistant Language Teacher in a public school in Japan. This way readers can see immediately how to use these nifty word devices in context.
Source: Nihongojouzu.com | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases
Is your audio cupboard looking bare? You may be interested in this cache of listening goodies. mp3japan is an archive of mp3 files from the NHK audio series “Basic Japanese for You” and “Brush Up Your Japanese” which are only available in streaming form on the NHK site. 100 and 50 episodes respectively, 3-4Mb per episode. Knock yourself out. [courtesy of Nihongojouzu.com]
Source: mobile.hack | Subject: Video / Audio
Charles Kelly, Aichi Institute of Technology Professor and the man behind Charles Kelly’s Online Japanese Language Study Materials, has grabbed 900 photos of real life Japanese signs and stuck them on the web so people outside of Japan (or people in Japan who can’t pry themselves away from the computer) can practise reading them. The photos don’t come with translations (you have to do some … [ Read more ]
Source: Charles Kelly | Subject: Miscellaneous | Other
Translations of Public Opinion Polls and other surveys of Japanese opinion, and comment on said polls.
Source: Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson (Seron) | Subject: Culture
KanjiGymLight is a Java based application for reviewing the 2042 kanji introduced in Jim Heisig’s book Remembering the Kanji. It is designed to aid in kanji review via either 56 pre-set lessons or using the Heisig numbers. KanjiGymLight comes in a laptop/PC and a Palm version, needs the Java Runtime Environment and all you need do is register to download it.
The interface is straightforward … [ Read more ]
Source: Jim Heisig Vittorio Klostermann | Subject: Kanji
Bite size pieces of intermediate Japanese for your ears 神田Podsayings is a daily podcast featuring Japanese sayings with brief explanations, which at 30-60 seconds per episode won’t spoil your listening appetite. The site is all Japanese, but nothing a judicious application of rikaichan or LiveDictionary can’t fix. [courtesy of Nihongojouzu.com]
Source: 神田 Podsayings | Subject: Video / Audio
This book is a clearly laid out and well explained collection of idioms. The main part of the book devotes a page per expression to a wide variety of common Japanese idioms like とことんまで (to the bitter end) and しらぬ が ほとけ (ignorance is bliss). Each page contains a sample two line dialogue incorporating the idiom, an English translation of the dialogue, a paragraph explaining the idiom, … [ Read more ]
Source: Mizue Sasaki | Subject: Books
A podcastin both English and Japanese, geared mostly toward beginners (based on my very limited sampling).
Source: TalkSushi.com | Subject: Video / Audio