learn japanese
I’ve been studying Japanese for about 6 months now and along the way I’ve found lots of free online resources. I don’t study Japanese much anymore due to lack of time. I’m trying to start studying again but due to college I don’t have a lot of time. All resources are free unless marked with a music note ♬.
You can find all my posts about learning Japanese here.
Before you start studying Japanese read this.
☆Learn Hiragana and Katakana☆
How I learned Hiragana and Katakana
☆Learn Kanji☆
Kanji Koohii (If you’re using James Heisig’s method of learning kanji this is a great site to use. I don’t personally use this method.)
☆Grammar☆
Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese
♬ Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication (I highly recommend this book, its a great beginners guide to Japanese grammar.)
☆Fun Stuff☆
☆Vocabulary Lists☆
☆Online Dictionaries☆
Denshi Jisho (Do not use the example sentences in this dictionary, read this for more info.)
Excite (My favourite Japanese dictionary. Just click the tab that says 辞書, then click the first bubble for English to Japanese, the second for Japanese to English, then the third for all Japanese.)
Goo Dictionary (This page is entirely in Japanese. Click the bubble under the search bar that says「和英」or for english definitions of Japanese words. This dictionary is more accurate than Denshi Jisho and ALC.)
ALC (Be careful when using sentences and phrases from this site, many of them sound unnatural.)
Furiganizer (Adds hiragana readings on top of kanji, all you have to do is copy and paste the text you want to read.)
Hiragana Megane (Paste a Japanese website in to the box, press enter, and it adds hiragana readings on top of all the kanji.)
Rikaichan (Browser extension for Firefox and Chrome that allows you to hover over a Japanese word and get the meaning and reading of it.)
☆Blogs☆
Tofugu (Japanese language learning and culture)
All Japanese All The Time (motivational website with language learning tips.)
IMABI Japanese Learning Center
Nihongo Dekimasu 「日本語できます」(Free Japanese textbooks, audio CD’s, etc. for learning Japanese. There’s a lot of random stuff here and some of it isn’t all that good. I recommend looking up reviews of a textbook before you take the time to download it.)
☆Other☆
Anki (Digital flashcard program, I highly recommend it for studying vocabulary and kanji.)
Kanji Koohii forum (Great forum to go to for advice and information about learning Japanese.)
Rhinospike (Hear sentences and paragraphs recorded by native speakers.)
Forvo (Allows you to listen to a native speakers pronunciation of a word.)
Lang 8 (Write journal entries in Japanese and have a native speaker correct them.)
JLPT Resources (JLPT=Japanese Language Proficiency Test. There are lots of resources on this site for all skill levels.)
Tatoeba (Example sentences, once again, be careful with these. Many of them are unnatural or inaccurate Japanese.)
How to type Japanese on a Mac computer
How to type Japanese on a Windows computer
Google’s IME (another way to type Japanese for both Windows and Mac)
