Meetup is an online service that allows people with similar interests to find each other and “meetup” to share those interests. This is the Japanese language page. Use it to find others interested in studying and practicing Japanese in your town.
Source: “Meetup.com” | Subjects: Connecting (Groups, Forums, Language Exchange, Meetups, etc.), Language Exchange
This site features a new Kanji each weekday (and a randomly selected kanji from the prior week on weekends). Unfortunately, the site doesn’t offer an email newsletter so you have to actively remember to visit the site each day. Also, though there is a section for examples, the few times I have visited none were actually available.
Source: “Incors” | Subject: Kanji
This is a discussion list designed for Japanese teachers and students to discuss different textbooks. The books are segregated by level and some important ones are missing while others don’t have many comments. Still, it is a good idea and I recommend you use and contribute to it.
Source: “Alliance of Associations of Teachers of Japanese” | Subject: Books
As you may know, MIT has committed to putting all of their course materials online. To benefit from that, visit their Japanese materials site, which is navigable by year/course#
Source: “MIT” | Subject: Online Lessons
A basic overview of the characteristics, history, and varieties of the Japanese language.
Sources: “Massachusetts Institute of Technology”, “Shigeru Miyagawa” | Subject: General
Tanabata is an online supplement to the Star Festival CD-ROM. By using the internet and its multimedia functions, Tanabata provides you with an interactive graphical interface to learning Japanese.
Tanabata was originally intended for students with at least two years of Japanese, but English translations and Furigana are provided for all of the text, so the most important element should not be skill, but rather … [ Read more ]
Source: “StarFestival Inc.” | Subject: Online Lessons
This happens to be my current professor and her site has some good content, especially on the course materials page. Most of the content is in .pdf files that you can download. Some examples, balnk kanji and sakubun practice sheets (genkooyooshi), tutorials on how to use different classroom materials, a description of Oriental Zodiac (with associated personalities) and the horoscope in Japanese, tongue twisters, reviews … [ Read more ]
Source: “Naoko Suito” | Subject: Professor / Course
English speakers who study or use Japanese acutely aware of the lack of good, comprehensive Japanese-English dictionaries. The best paper dictionaries either are intended for native speakers of Japanese or list only words written in kanji. Free online dictionaries such as EDICT and Eijiro offer a good alternative, but because they provide only word equivalents, not explanations, their usefulness is limited.
In May 2000, a … [ Read more ]
Source: “jeKai” | Subject: Translate
Welcome to the NHK World Japanese Lessons web site!
NHK airs Japanese lessons for people of various languages on its international shortwave RADIO JAPAN service. On this site, you can listen to those lessons.
Languages included: English, Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, German, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese
Source: “NHK” | Subject: Online Lessons
WWOOF Japan allows travelers to stay at places around Japan, receive meals, boarding, and learning with the local people at no cost, in return for helping the people with their work.
By the way, WWOOF originally stood for ‘Weekend Workers on Organic Farms’
Source: “WWOOF Japan” | Subject: Miscellaneous | Other
Seventeen free online lessons to teach the beginnings of reading Japanese. Introduces hiragana and katakana in early lessons and kanji in later lessons, building your vocabulary and knowledge. Includes links to software and other sites for Japanese.
Source: “Sonia Murphy” | Subjects: Kanji, Language Study
This site is a bit odd but useful for finding different Japanese fonts to use with your computer.
Source: “Pete” | Subjects: Language Study, Software / Tools
Kansai Ben is a dialect of Kansai area,and the most powerful dialect. Learn more about it here (though the site is not too extensive)
Source: “Hidetoshi Tokumaru” | Subject: Miscellaneous | Other
This store has been Northern California’s premier Asian goods store for almost 100 years but you can also order their products online to have shipped. Product categories include: Martial Arts, Fabrics, Fashion, Home Decor, Crafts, Books, and For the Kids.
Source: “Nichi Bei Bussan” | Subject: Products
Unless you happen to live near a specialty bookstore, a good selection of Japan-related titles is hard to find. That’s why, in association with Amazon.com, O-Hayo Sensei has researched, collected and now offer 1800+ handpicked titles — we think it’s the best selection of the best books about Japan, anywhere.
Source: “O-Hayo Sensei” | Subject: Books
This site is an absolute god-send for those studying Japanese! I live by it. Use it as a simple dictionary or use its much more advanced features which include:
– Translate (great for inputting an entire email sent to you in Japanese for example)
– Find Kanji (multiple methods)
– Handwritten Interface
– Mobile phone access
– Check out … [ Read more ]
Source: “Jim Breen” | Subject: Translate
Claims to be the prime resource for Kanji learners but mostly exalts the (admittedly quite good) Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (KALD). I recommend you check out the Guide to the Japanese Writing System section.
Source: “Kanji Dictionary Publishing Society (KDPS)” | Subject: Kanji
The Kanji SITE was launched in September 1999 as a way for its author, Chris Jennings, to practice his kanji in preparation for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). It originally covered only the 80 kanji required for Level 4 of the JLPT, but has since grown to include a total of 1,000 kanji, namely the entire official syllabus for Levels 4, 3 and 2 … [ Read more ]
Source: “Chris Jennings” | Subject: Kanji
This company sells a variety of Japanese language computing solutions for people in the U.S. While some, like their KanjiKit seem irrelevant with the latest versions of Windows and office, some, like their Meishi-Port (the first English and Japanese business card scanner with OCR) seem interesting. They also sell a couple of educational programs to learn Kanji.
Source: “Pacific Software Publishing Inc.” | Subjects: Kanji, Products
The Japanese Language Institute (JLI) is managed by the International Education Center, which was established in 1947and authorized as a nonprofit organization by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The IEC is the parent organization of both the Japanese Language Institute and Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin.
Editor’s Note: This is the school where I studied for one 10-week term. I highly recommend it. One very nice aspect … [ Read more ]
Source: “IEC” | Subject: Schools