56 Posts Found

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

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

Short comedy sketches of Ayaka trying to teach an English phrase…

Source: Google / Mat Swadling | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio

If you find any interesting videos on the Google video search, use this site to enter the URL and it will convert the file to a .FLV file which you can download and view offline.

Source: fM | Subjects: Multimedia, Video / Audio

This forum serves as a directory of podcasts under the topic Japanese, which includes those in the Japanese language and those in other languages about Japan related topics. A particularly interesting one looks to be Kanda Podsayings which offers short lessons on business Japanese complete with transcripts.

Source: Podcasting News | Subject: Multimedia

Source: karekora | Subject: Blogs

“Blog for news stories from Japan that might or might not gain coverage in English-language sources. If you’re examining social trends in Japan and don’t have the primary language skills, let me know. Maybe I can help.”

Source: Lawrence J. Howell | Subjects: Blogs, News / Magazine

one of the most popular Japanese search engines

Source: NTT Resonant Inc. | Subject: Search / Directory

One of the most thorough and useful sites on the Internet – I have links to various sub-sections of this site elsewhere, but this is for the directory page.

Source: Japan Reference | Subject: Search / Directory

English directory that you can search with keywords and by categories.

Source: Web Japan | Subject: Search / Directory

I’m not the biggest fan of blogs, but I somehow stumbled upon this one a while back and I actually was impressed with the writing and the topics covered – so much so that I decided to add an entire section on blogs. Fittingly, this is the first entry.

Source: Jonathon Delacour | Subject: Blogs

American writer living in Kyoto (duh).

Source: Nils Ferry | Subject: Blogs

Patrick Benny, the guy who created Petit Kanji (and helped me get EDICT and KANJIDIC into MySQL) has a blog here. It covers various topics, but the major focus is on music.

Source: Patrick Benny | Subject: Blogs

The Modern Language Association (MLA) “Language Map uses data from the 2000 United States census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and seven groups of less commonly spoken languages.” The site features maps with data displayed by county or ZIP code. “Visit the Data Center for information about numbers of speakers of languages in a specific … area … or … [ Read more ]

Source: Modern Language Association (MLA) | Subject: Other Useful Resources

Many of you may already know about Engrish.com, a parody site that highlights improper (and usually funny) use of English in Japan. This is a powerpoint slideshow of some of the examples found on that site. I received it via email and am not certain who created it exactly…

Source: Engrish.com | Subject: Humor / Amusement

Magazine focused on Japan and Japanese that is very useful for students of the language.

Source: Mangajin | Subjects: News / Magazine, Other Useful Resources