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Awesome Japanese Awesome

A curated list of Japanese language learning resources.

Update: mobile alpha version is now available, mobile.md, I'd like to have community input on selecting the best mobile resources for each category. Please see Issues section for more information.

Contents

How To Use These Resources

Indicator Description
πŸ‘Ά beginner
πŸ‘¨ intermediate
πŸ‘΄ advanced
πŸ“± mobile app
πŸ’» computer software
πŸ“‘ browser extension
πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅ Japanese UI only
πŸ—Ύ Japan IP restricted
πŸ’° costs money
⚠️ warning
πŸ“– book
πŸ“‡ Anki deck

Beginner Guide

**New to Japanese?** Start here!

  1. All beginners should start with one of the guides below (the top two are the best in my personal opinion).
  • Starter's Guide - From /r/learnjapanese subreddit.
  • DJT guide - A well-written guide.
  • Japanese Walkthrough - A visual learning guide.
  • Grammar Guide to Japanese - By Tae Kim (there also exists the "Complete Guide to Japanese" by Tae Kim, this is a work in progress/not yet complete).
  • The Moe Way - A Japanese guide outlining the fundamentals as well as guides on setting up various language acquisition software tools such as visual novel text hooks.

  1. A summary of the guides is basically this: first, learn hiragana and katakana using the links in Hiragana/Katkana section further down this page. The Tofugu links is a good starting place.

  2. Next is grammar/vocabulary. You can either use a structured textbook or a more free-form online grammar guide like Tae Kim. Either one works, try one or both and stick with the one you like the best.

For vocabulary, three nice options are Wanikani, Memrise, and Anki. If you go with the Anki route, consider using this deck, which is the same as the deck in the above link, but with the front and back flipped around to display sentences on the front rather than single words, as this will force you to learn words in context.

For translation, try to avoid Google Translate. Instead pick another one from the Dictionary list.

  1. That's it. There are many, many paths to learning Japanese. The most important thing is to choose the one you enjoy. If you don't enjoy your study, you won't succeed, so keep searching until you find the resource or study method that you enjoy. Look through all the resources below, ask someone if you need help, and good luck.

Textbook

Textbooks provide you with structured learning material.

Genki πŸ‘Ά

Everyone's favorite Japanese textbook. Recommended for beginners. Description: The second edition of the most highly regarded teaching textbook on the Japanese language, covering speaking, listening, reading, and writing to cultivate overall language ability. Each lesson in the revised edition features a new section dubbed "Culture Notes", and now includes the audio CD companion which is in mp3 format ready to install on any music player. In Japanese/English.

Tobira πŸ‘΄

The "Tobira" textbook combines the practice of all four language skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) and is designed for use by students who have completed a beginner level Japanese textbook, or in terms of classroom time, have taken somewhere between 250 to 300 hours of Japanese study. The primary goals of this textbook are to solidify the grammar, vocabulary and kanji foundation studied during the beginner level and to develop all 4 language skills. What makes this book unique is that you can learn Japanese using multimedia besides the textbook.

  • Official - Unlock multimedia content and Anki deck with special code in the textbook.
  • Amazon:moneybag:

Minna no Nihongo πŸ‘¨

Similarly to Tobira, Minna no Nihongo is intended for intermediate-level students.

Other textbooks

Google Drive A | B - contains links to many textbooks such as Japanese for Busy People, Japanese - The Manga Way, and An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese. Additionally, there's some reading resources such as Yotsubato, and some listening material.

Course

  • Easy Japanese - Made by NHK in multiple languages πŸ‘Ά

  • Erin's Challenge - Video based Japanese lessons πŸ‘¨

  • LingoDeer - Japanese course on a new learning app similar to Duolingo, but made with a focus on East Asian languages. πŸ“±

  • NativShark - All in one Japanese learning platform, combining vocab, grammar, kanji and speaking practice. πŸ’°

  • NHK ι«˜ζ ‘θ¬›εΊ§ / NHK High School Course - Video or audio of high school course made by NHK.Easy to study the basic glossaries of different field. πŸ‘¨

  • Drops: Language learning app - Duolingo-like app which offers 5 minutes/day free flashcards-based app separated by categories. πŸ“±

Hiragana and Katakana

Alphabet of Japanese language.

Kanji

Vocabulary

  • Anki - Popular flashcard based software. πŸ“± πŸ’»
  • Memrise - Popular online/app flashcard platform. πŸ“±
  • jpdb) - jpdb is a powerful Japanese dictionary and all-in-one learning system for kanji and vocabulary.
  • japanese number converter - japanese number converter (Kanji - Hiragana - Romanji)
  • SakeSaySo - A Japanese-English dictionary app featuring SRS flashcards, daily news translations for sentence-based learning, vocabulary inspection, and example sentences. Supports offline use. πŸ“±

Grammar

Reading

  • NHK Easy News - News for elementary, middle school, and foreigners with audio and video.:baby:
  • θͺ­γΏη‰©γ„っぱい - Reading materials for elementary learners. πŸ‘Ά
  • Tadoku - Illustrated books for elementary learners. Some books require purchase. πŸ‘Ά πŸ’°
  • 青空文庫 - A Japanese digital library encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. πŸ‘΄
  • Japanese Folktales - Japanese folktales with drawings and audio. πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅
  • Hukumusume Fairy Tale Collection - A website where you can read and hear traditional folk tales, legends and fairy tales - from Japan and all around the world - read aloud for you in Japanese.:jp:
  • Kyoko Shinbun - Fake Japanese News(similar to The Onion), podcast available. πŸ“± πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅ πŸ‘΄
  • 用例.jp - Search engine for Japanese sample sentences. πŸ‡―πŸ‡΅
  • Japanese in Anime & Manga - Learn Japanese from anime and manga.
  • Satori Reader - Japanese reading and listening practice, first two chapters of each article is free. πŸ’°
  • Keio University Reading Materials Bank - The site is mostly in Japanese, but follow the 1-stars for the easiest reading materials. It's great because there is an English glossary integrated into the articles.
  • Japanese IO - Learn Japanese through fun and easy reading practice. πŸ‘΄
  • PressReader - This website/app offers 毎ζ—₯ζ–°θžγ€€ Mainichi Shinbun digital daily newspaper and other Japanese language publications for free with many American libraries, please check local library to see whether it is available. See detail. Otherwise paid plan available. πŸ‘΄ πŸ’°
  • ImaWakatta - You can start reading real Japanese today, regardless of your level. ImaWakatta has stories with audio that include native speakers and professional voice overs. Every story has dynamic highlighting so you can follow the audio line by line. Includes 4 free stories. πŸ‘Ά πŸ’°
  • LearnNatively - The Natively community grades each book, movie or TV show to an approximate language proficiency level. This helps you find content that's appropriate for you.

Listening

  • SuperNative - Trains you to hear, read, and speak Japanese using over 10,000 bite-sized clips from TV and movies. ⚠️ Only Chrome browser supports voice recognition practice.
  • Delvin - Practice Japanese listening and reading with authentic Japanese video.
  • mykikitori - Practice your Japanese learning skill.
  • Tsunahiro - Website for Foreign Nationals as Residents to Learn Japanese Language
  • Podcast
    • Podcast Ranking - Japanese Podcast ranking website, discover Japanese language podcasts.
    • Learn Japanese Pod - Japanese language learning podcast.
    • JapanesePod101 - Japanese language learning podcast with multiple levels and web platform.
    • News in Slow Japanese - Listen to Japanese News in slow speed. πŸ’°
    • NHK News Podcast - Three podcasts available: Japanese news:older_man:, English news, and Easy Japanese.
    • Bilingual News - Bilingual English and Japanese news podcast. Casual and unedited colloquial language learning experience through a weekly review of relevant news topics. πŸ‘΄
    • Nihongo con Teppei - Japanese podcast for beginners

Speaking

Community

Video

  • YouTube
  • News
  • Stream
    • QVC Japan - QVC Japan Shopping Channel Live stream.
    • Keylabo - Free Japanese TV Live stream listing. ⚠️ Some channels may not work, and 3rd party streaming service.
    • Abema TV - Live Japanese TV stream. πŸ“± πŸ—Ύ
    • GYAO! - Japanese TV programs on demand. πŸ“± πŸ—Ύ
    • FRESH! - Japanese streamer platform. πŸ“±
    • NicoNico - Japanese streamer platform. πŸ“±
    • DaiWEEB - Japanese anime with both Japanese and English subtitles.
  • Players
    • Memento - An mpv-based video player for studying Japanese
    • animebook - In-browser video player for learning Japanese with subtitles
    • asbplayer - Browser-based media player and Chrome extension for subtitle sentence mining
    • miteiru - Miteiru is an open source Electron video player to learn Japanese and other languages πŸ‘΄
  • Subtitles
    • kitsunekko - Repository of Japanese subtitles for many series

Dictionary

  • Web

  • Software

    • Houhou - The dictionary doubles as a learning tool.:computer:
    • Takoboto - Android Japanese dictionary app, also has web and computer based version. πŸ“± πŸ’»
    • imiwa? - iOS Japanese dictionary app. πŸ“±
    • Tagaini Jisho - Open-source Japanese dictionary and kanji lookup tool for Windows, MacOS X and Linux.
    • Jiten - Android Japanese dictionary and kanji lookup app, also has web version. πŸ“±
    • Japanese - Dictionary, stroke order and flashcards for iOS πŸ“±
    • Midori (Japanese Dictionary) - Dictionary, stroke order and flashcards for iOS πŸ“± πŸ’»

Software

  • Computer
  • Browser Extension:satellite:
    • Firefox
      • Rikaichamp - Japanese to English/German/French/Russian dictionary. Just hover the mouse on top of a word, and a popup appears. This add-on is more compatible with latest Firefox version and comes with dictionaries files.
    • Chrome
      • Yomitan - Yomitan turns your browser into a tool for building Japanese language literacy by helping you to decipher texts which would be otherwise too difficult to tackle.
      • rikaigu - Rikaikun enhanced. Translate Japanese by hovering over words.
      • IPA furigana - Looks up the readings for kanji words and inserts them as Furigana.
      • ReadNihon - ReadNihon generates website Furigana by JLPT level. It also allows you to save known words that are ignored from Furigana conversion.
    • Safari

      • Safarikai - Rikaichan's Safari extension version.

      • Toucan - Language Learning - When you visit a website, Toucan automatically translates certain words and phrases on the page into the language you're trying to learn. πŸ“±

Contribute

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.

License

CC4

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Awesome Japanese Learning Resources

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katakana hiragana japan kanji japanese-language

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