The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List!

Added KanjiTomo to Software section.
Updated descriptions of some items in Software section, slightly.

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Hope this is okay but I added a Memrise course: “JLPT N5 Vocab”. It’s about 600 vocab words. I find it helpful as It teaches the hiragana and the word and then the kanji version of that word.

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I really like Udemy N5-N2 courses (paid). It should be added to the list.

@polv This topic is a wiki, so you can add it yourself if you want. And I think putting a link in a new post would be good too so it’s clear what you added. :slight_smile:

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Added to paid audio course, though I am not sure I should put it there.

Noted that when I bought it, it was about 90% discount for some reasons.

As a begginer, do you have any suggestions of where and with what should I start with?

I recommend you start with one of the online textbooks that are listed here. Once you start with any resources it’s usually much easier to start checking out other ones and you’ll find something that works really well for you.

Just have a look around and if any of the links intrigue you, click them!

Link to “How To Learn Any Language forum post” is dead.

I like Textfugu as it is very beginner friendly- note that it is incomplete and should probably be only used as a starter. Human Japanese is also okay if it is your first foray into Japanese grammar.

A Japanese native speaker suggested this one to me:

The tutoring part is paid, but there’s a wealth of free resources for self learners as well. It even has the PDF versions of a manga (Give My Regards to Black Jack) for reading practice.

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I second this (I second adding wasabi-jpn.com to the list I mean, since the formatting of this forum does not make it apparent who I am responding to without extra buttons being clicked). I use it as my primary grammar resource. It has a huge free self learning section as well, and is one of the few places out there with N5-N4 reading AND listening AND speaking material. It has a whole set of instructions for the self learner to use to learn to listen and speak better.

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I put wasabi under online textbooks as a general source, but also under listening practice to make sure it doesn’t get overlooked as a good source for that.

Edit: Also removed that dead link (http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forumposts.asp?TID=6241&PN=1&TPN=1)

Not really sure myself what it was going to.

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If it hasn’t been mentioned already, I just wanted to add that there’s also a Human Japanese deck/course for Anki. Some of the vocab is a bit odd to start with, but it does a good job of gradually introducing Japanese grammatical concepts and has audio to help with beginner level listening practice. I think it’s pretty useful around the beginner level where you have a little knowledge and need basic examples (maybe even when you’re just starting out, but I think at least a little grammar knowledge helps so you have an idea of what you’re reading/listening for)

I want to thank whoever created the core 10k breakdown by wanikani level anki deck SO MUCH. I was using KaniWani for a bit but got really burnt out on it because of synonym problems and the fact that I just don’t want to drill myself on uncommon vocab. This is EXACTLY what I was looking for - extra recognition/recall practice with common vocab that exists in WK plus sentence cards. Plus common kana vocab and example sentences of those. The sentences are simple and have furigana too! There’s still kind of the synonym problem (I’m looking at you, “please”) but at least there are sentence cards to drill that stuff. The only thing I need now is a katakana vocab deck for loanwords and onomatopoeia!

Edit: like seriously, this resource is so good I feel like I should be paying for it.

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Pretty sure this was @hinekidori.

Pretty awesome person.

And Ankiholic.

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Does anyone know of some free fonts that resemble neat and clean handwriting? I picked up あんずもじ, but was kind of hoping to find some more options to switch between.

I only glanced through here, but checkout: http://www.freejapanesefont.com/

There are many options, maybe you can find one that suits you

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I’ve enjoyed the Kanji Study app (on android - for some reason the android one is way further along in its version than the apple one).
I definitely recommend it.
Explore the app for free, and click everything, you will see an extensive learning platform (seriously it just keeps going everytime you click something differently, like swiping up on a kanji to learn stroke order and practice writing it).
You get the first 80 kanji for free (they are the first graders set of kanji - Elementary 1). When you open the app and choose the Elementary 1 selection, you can click on the left side of the line and see all the kanji in that group, or you can click the study link on the right side. Then you choose between flash card study, multiple choice quizzes, and writing challenges. Both the multiple choice, and the writing options are tests. If you want to study, select flash card study.
Then it will show you one kanji at a time, and you can swipe left or right to go through the list, or you can swipe up for writing practice. If you click the kanji showing, it will take you to a list of common readings.
From there you can click on the reading to see words that use that reading (it will also show you what level of the JLPT that word falls into), when you expand those you can see the definitions. In this screen, you can click the word, and you will get a screen that breaks down each kanji in the word. From that screen you can click a kanji and see a full break down of that kanji, including reading examples, vocabulary, and example sentences.
You can basically click on most anything to dive deeper into the program. I love it. You can break up sections in to 10 kanji groups so you don’t have to study all of them at once (and then regroup them together after you’ve gotten profient).
I feel that it’s well worth the $ to unlock the whole program.

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Sounds neat. Bummer about the different versions for Android/iOS, though. Still, I guess I’ll check it out.

Edit: Meh…the Android version sounds neat, but as an iPhone user I was definitely underwhelmed. Too bad…