Resources and Tutorials

Posted by Tae Kim

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. In addition, NIHONGO eな is also a good site to go for learning how to use various online sites and tools for learning Japanese.

  1. Setting up Japanese for Windows
  2. Setting up Japanese for Mac OS X
  3. Setting up Japanese for Ubuntu
  4. Common first names in Japanese
  5. Japanese-English Dictionary and mirrors
  6. Another Japanese-English Dictionary
  7. English-Japanese Dictionary
  8. J<->E and J<->J Dictionary
  9. Firefox plugin dictionary
  10. Finding Japanese meetup groups
  11. Finding Skype conversation partners
  12. Writing practice

For Mac, JEDict - features

For Mac, JEDict - features kanji lookup, translates english words and japanese words. Great dictionary program.

For Windows - WaKan (wakan.manga.cz), features the same as JEDict.


About firefox pop-up

About firefox pop-up translator, also try using perapera-kun.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3343/
It`s almost the same as rikai-chan but also allows to translate from chinese (You can switch between japanese and chinese)


http://www.musuu.com has some

http://www.musuu.com has some nice links for learning Japanese.


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.


Post new comment

Important
Wait! Are you about to ask a question about Japanese? You will have a better chance of getting your question answered at the forum instead.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options