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.
Dictionaries are like fibre – necessary, but not often consumed on their own. Why? Well dictionaries are boring. They have a set order, few if any pictures and they are written in school marmish seriousness.
But not the Kotoba Tsukaikata Ejiten ことばつかいかた絵じてん (Words in Use Picture Dictionary – my translation) by Sanseido – this guy is FUN. The first hint is the colorful cover – any … [ Read more ]
Source: Sanseido | Subject: Books
The purpose of the site is to help people learn “real, live” Japanese as a living language, through real-world examples.
Source: Eric Jackson | Subjects: Blogs, Language Study
Collection of material about Japanese comic books for girls and women. Includes an essay about the historical development of this genre of comics, a list of manga titles for girls, and a discussion of the facial look of manga characters. In English and Japanese. From a professor at Kyoto Seika University.
Source: Matt Thorn | Subject: Anime / Manga
JapanesePod101 is a well put together podcast aimed at beginner level students of Japanese. Each podcast is approximately 10 minutes long and just right for people starting out because:
-the lessons focus on one main concept and drill it solidly
-the lessons are very easy to understand
-even simple words like きれい are broken down and spoken slowly ”き れ い”、which is perfect for beginners
-the skits, despite being cheesy, provided good … [ Read more ]
Source: Erklaren Co. Ltd. | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio
Kick off your Japanese listening in the morning by listening to the NHK Radio News online. There are four broadcasts daily, 10 minute segments at 7am and midday and then 15 minutes at 7pm and 10pm. The speed at which the broadcasters speak can be adjusted to slow, normal or fast, making it handy for repeated listenings. The fact that the announcers – especially the … [ Read more ]
Source: NHK | Subject: News / Magazine
A group blog that touches on pretty much any aspect of Japanese learning, depending on the whim of the authors.
Source: Various | Subjects: General, Language Study
Another excellent podcast, but this one is aimed at intermediate and advanced students of Japanese. While Learn Japanese mixes wry English commentary with samples of Japanese conversation, Nihongo-Juku is an all Japanese affair. Narrator Rieko discusses common mistakes and areas of improvement garnered from her efforts teaching her American husband to speak Japanese. The material is relevant and practical – for example, how to accept … [ Read more ]
Source: Rieko | Subject: Video / Audio
Samurai Kanji is a 2042-kanji flash-card application for PDA’s (PalmOS, SymbianOS, or Windows CE) intended for drilling after studying James Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji I.
What primarily makes this kanji flash-card application different from other, similar applications is that the kanji are divided into the same lessons that Heisig uses in his book. The user can then choose which lessons to drill on as the … [ Read more ]
Source: Robert Baruch | Subject: Software / Tools
Jonathan Waller put together some useful resources to help him study for the JLPT exam and offers them for download on this site. Included are vocabulary and kanji lists for each level.
Source: Jonathan Waller | Subject: JLPT Exam
Not only does this podcast have the coolest title image ever it features some of the most laid back yet instantly useful Japanese lessons around. The lessons contain real samples of language as actually used by Japanese people plus commentary by host Alex Brooke, who is obviously having a good time recording the material – a point which makes the whole thing so much easier … [ Read more ]
Source: Alex Brooke | Subject: Video / Audio
A short but useful post by Will at Nihongojouzu.com about describing unknown Kanji via their radical.
Source: Nihongojouzu | Subject: Kanji
This site uses diagrams to explain the seven basic radical positions, providing examples and even mini Flash demos of the stroke order.
Source: KanzaSoft | Subject: Kanji
The pages of this site are meant as a brief introduction to the vast field of Japanese crafts, and, hopefully, will serve to entertain as well as to whet viewer’s interest in at least one of the numerous crafts represented. Categories include: Weaving, Buddhist Altars and Accessories, Dyeing, Other Fiber Crafts, Paper, Pottery and Porcelain, Stationary, Lacquer, Stone, Wood, Dolls, Bamboo, Metal, and Craft Materials. … [ Read more ]
Source: Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries | Subject: Arts & Entertainment
How many words do you know in Japanese? Take the 語彙数推定テスト (Vocabulary Assessment Test) and find out. You will be presented with a list of 50 words – just tick the boxes next to the ones you know (be honest!) and based on how many of these representative words you know the page will spit out an assessment of your vocabulary. Compare your score with … [ Read more ]
Source: Harada Yasunori | Subject: Vocabulary / Phrases
Another reason to migrate to Firefox – rikaichan, from Polarcloud.com , is a Firefox extension that displays a popup showing the English definition of Japanese words as your cursor passes over them. Enabled/disabled with a simple right mouse-click rikaichan is the perfect companion when you browse the 新聞、朝日新聞 or 日経新聞 online. But there’s more. Installing rikaichan puts a Lookup a Word item in the Tool menu – click … [ Read more ]
Source: polarcloud.com | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Translate
speedanki.com is an interactive flashcard system designed to aid in the memorization of Japanese kanji and kanji compounds for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Though designed for the JLPT, we believe this system of memorization will be useful to any students of Japanese looking to improve their Japanese reading ability. The flashcards can be viewed in kanji or hiragana form, and flipped back and forth … [ Read more ]
Source: speedanki.com | Subject: JLPT Exam
This site offers Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana study quizzes, flashcards and games.
Source: Ray Owens | Subject: Kanji
This Wired article discusses the pros of the Japanese public bathing and private bathroom culture/technology.
Source: Wired / Momus | Subject: Culture
This unique voice blog is great for reading and listening practice. Generally, posts are of various Japanese cultural topics (e.g. setsubun, business cards, geisha and maiko, Valentines day, etc.) and are long enough to be challenging but short enough to not be discouraging for less advanced students. And each post includes a native speaker reading the text. I recommend listening first to see how much … [ Read more ]
Source: Nippon VoiceBlog | Subject: Video / Audio
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about eating in a Japanese sushi shop (uh, sort of), but were too afraid to ask. Right here in this 8 minute documentary/comedy. For comments and more info about the original source, see:
http://joi.ito.com/archives/2005/12/20/silly_sushi_video.html
Source: Google / Choi Style Productions | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio