Resources and Tutorials
There are many tools and resources that are helpful for learning Japanese (and perhaps some that are not as helpful). For the beginner, it's not obvious exactly what resources are available and how to use them.
Here, we will go over some of the best tools and resources for learning Japanese along with a simple tutorial of how to use it and for what purpose.
Quick Links
For those who don't want to read the entire tutorials, here's a list of all the resources which are covered.
- Setting up Japanese for Windows
- Setting up Japanese for Mac OS X
- Setting up Japanese for Ubuntu
- Common first names in Japanese
- Japanese-English Dictionary and mirrors
- Another Japanese-English Dictionary
- English-Japanese Dictionary
- J<->E and J<->J Dictionary
- Firefox plugin dictionary
- Finding Japanese meetup groups
- Finding Skype conversation partners
- Writing practice
The KanjiStrokeOrder font
The KanjiStrokeOrder font http://sites.google.com/site/nihilistorguk/ shows stroke order in a great way. Small numbers at the beginning of each stroke. Once you have installed the font, you can use it anywhere.
For my own convenience, I put up a simple page where text can be pasted, and the stroke order shown: http://www.satovonrosen.net/nihon-go/magic-paper.html
It's just a text box, the magic is of course performed by the KanjiStrokeOrder font.
zkanji -
zkanji - http://sourceforge.net/projects/zkanji/
It's open-source software, full of useful and highly nifty features for such a lightweight download. It's got multiple dictionaries and drilling programs with a lot of customization range, for kanji, kana, and general vocabulary. There's also stroke-recognition feature for kanji look-ups that's excellent for practicing stroke order; as long as you have that correct it's pretty forgiving of shaky mouse-sketching, and it'll be very accurate.
Kanji Box application
Kanji Box application http://www.facebook.com/kanjibox could be useful for people who want to practice single kanji or Japanese words. It's web-based FB application that has quite bit of features for learning. Dave is also developing alternative version of the tool for iPhone.
hi,i'm new here.hopefully
hi,i'm new here.hopefully i'll be able to lean japanese using this guide.
anyway,i wanted to ask for your opinion on these two sites:
http://www.kanjisite.com/
http://www.japanese-kanji.org/
and this application:
http://nihongonobenkyou.com/JLS/
Where are all the links at ?
Where are all the links at ?
Another helpful resource
For people using *nix-based systems, chances are there is an installed program which makes use of Jim Breen's EDICT, as well as KANJIDIC.
For anyone using KDE, there is a pretty capable application, called Kiten (http://edu.kde.org/kiten/); for GNOME users, there are two programs, one of them is Gjiten (http://gjiten.sourceforge.net/) and gWaei (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gwaei/), the latter more promising and actively developed.
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