Japanese Resources
I have been studying Japanese on my own since I took a class a bit before I graduated. Since then I have developed and found some resources for myself, since it's hard to learn on my own.
Links
Denshi Jisho
This is a good dictionary. It has a page for looking up a kanji by any radical it contains. This is especially useful when the kanji is fuzzy or something and you can't make the whole thing out well enough to be sure of all of the radicals.
Rikaichan
This is a Firefox add-on dictionary that pops up when you hover over a Japanese word or word section. I found it on Tofugu in fact, but it seems fairly comprehensive. Helpful for the lazy person who doesn't want to keep a Jisho tab open at all times.
Tofugu
This seems to have good articles for learning some random helpful sociolinguistics and culture...and some that aren't so helpful =P
Tofugu - Typing Japanese Special Characters
This is useful for referencing how to get fun things like:
☆■◎♥
Wanikani
A kanji and vocabulary learning web application by the guy behind Tofugu. It's still in beta, but you can sign up there with your email address, and you'll get a link to set it up. After Level 2, you have to pay to continue, either by the month or year (New Years 2015 Lifetime Subscription limited time deal aside). Some of the mnemonics for the readings are just plain weird (or inappropriate; I mentioned that on the community forums), but occasionally can be somewhat helpful sometimes. Although I know most of the kanji at the beginning so it's hard to say how much the mnemonics would help a completely new learner.
I do have to say that it would work well for highly visual learners such as myself; I have been able to read and even recognize aurally things I couldn't before. I was concerned about not writing the kanji, but that was boring and repetitious and frankly not very helpful for me past a certain point in the kanji wasteland.
It includes audio as well for those audio learners, which can be set to automatically play when you're learning the kanji and vocabulary.
I also have to warn you, you might want to put notes for radicals, because some of the names are fabricated for Wanikani. Basically, the ones with clear, concrete names are generally correct, while the ones without names or abstract, hard-to-remember names are given different ones. There are even some that Wanikani calls radicals that are technically multiple radicals, or aren't even pieces that would be called parts of radicals. I dislike this (because everyone else would know it by its real name if it is a radical, and as the building blocks of kanji, I want to know the real name for practical reasons). There is a way to put synonyms by clicking the radical tab at the top and clicking a radical, which is good (even though changing the name entirely would be best), but putting notes is probably more helpful for the multiple-radical radicals. I would suggest this:
Skritter
I hear tell that for stroke order, this works pretty well. You can even use a tablet I guess. I haven't used it myself yet though.
Lang 8
Lang 8 is a place where you can post in the language you are learning, and someone else can correct it. You can do the same for someone else as well. It's pretty fun to try out. This is my page: Bre on Lang 8.
Kantango
This is good for making lists of kanji you need to learn so that you can test yourself on them. You can grade them by how well you think you remember them, so you can skip them if you already know some in a list better than others.
Nihonshock:
Particles: the difference between WA and GA
This is helpful for getting an idea of how the ambiguous particles は and が work.
Denshi Jisho
This is a good dictionary. It has a page for looking up a kanji by any radical it contains. This is especially useful when the kanji is fuzzy or something and you can't make the whole thing out well enough to be sure of all of the radicals.
Rikaichan
This is a Firefox add-on dictionary that pops up when you hover over a Japanese word or word section. I found it on Tofugu in fact, but it seems fairly comprehensive. Helpful for the lazy person who doesn't want to keep a Jisho tab open at all times.
Tofugu
This seems to have good articles for learning some random helpful sociolinguistics and culture...and some that aren't so helpful =P
Tofugu - Typing Japanese Special Characters
This is useful for referencing how to get fun things like:
☆■◎♥
Wanikani
A kanji and vocabulary learning web application by the guy behind Tofugu. It's still in beta, but you can sign up there with your email address, and you'll get a link to set it up. After Level 2, you have to pay to continue, either by the month or year (New Years 2015 Lifetime Subscription limited time deal aside). Some of the mnemonics for the readings are just plain weird (or inappropriate; I mentioned that on the community forums), but occasionally can be somewhat helpful sometimes. Although I know most of the kanji at the beginning so it's hard to say how much the mnemonics would help a completely new learner.
I do have to say that it would work well for highly visual learners such as myself; I have been able to read and even recognize aurally things I couldn't before. I was concerned about not writing the kanji, but that was boring and repetitious and frankly not very helpful for me past a certain point in the kanji wasteland.
It includes audio as well for those audio learners, which can be set to automatically play when you're learning the kanji and vocabulary.
- There is a Userscript that you can use to hide the mnemonics. First install the Firefox add-on Greasemonkey (or Tampermonkey if you use Chrome) and then click "Remotely hosted version" on the Wanikani Hide Mnemonics link, and it should install.
I also have to warn you, you might want to put notes for radicals, because some of the names are fabricated for Wanikani. Basically, the ones with clear, concrete names are generally correct, while the ones without names or abstract, hard-to-remember names are given different ones. There are even some that Wanikani calls radicals that are technically multiple radicals, or aren't even pieces that would be called parts of radicals. I dislike this (because everyone else would know it by its real name if it is a radical, and as the building blocks of kanji, I want to know the real name for practical reasons). There is a way to put synonyms by clicking the radical tab at the top and clicking a radical, which is good (even though changing the name entirely would be best), but putting notes is probably more helpful for the multiple-radical radicals. I would suggest this:
- Table of Japanese Kanji Radicals to get the real radical names.
- There is also a book called The Key to Kanji, which can give more insight into the origins of kanji and their radicals.
Skritter
I hear tell that for stroke order, this works pretty well. You can even use a tablet I guess. I haven't used it myself yet though.
Lang 8
Lang 8 is a place where you can post in the language you are learning, and someone else can correct it. You can do the same for someone else as well. It's pretty fun to try out. This is my page: Bre on Lang 8.
Kantango
This is good for making lists of kanji you need to learn so that you can test yourself on them. You can grade them by how well you think you remember them, so you can skip them if you already know some in a list better than others.
Nihonshock:
Particles: the difference between WA and GA
This is helpful for getting an idea of how the ambiguous particles は and が work.
Books
"Japanese Kanji and Kana" by Hadamitsky, ISBN 9784805311165
"Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary", ISBN 9780199298525
"Yookoso! Invitation to Contemporary Japanese" by Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku (I spell it this way because that's how it is spelled on the book, and I don't know if it's Toosaku or Tousaku), ISBN 9780072408157.
*There is an older edition of the book that is not as expensive and is pretty much identical, Yookoso! Getting Started with Japanese", ISBN 9780072902402.
This does a decent enough job at teaching you basic grammar. I wouldn't consider it always the best order in which to learn things and things aren't always explained well at first, but it does give a lot of examples so that you can understand grammar well enough, even if you don't yet know why something is the way it is. It has some useful tables in the back as well.
"Japanese Kanji and Kana" by Hadamitsky, ISBN 9784805311165
"Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary", ISBN 9780199298525
"Yookoso! Invitation to Contemporary Japanese" by Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku (I spell it this way because that's how it is spelled on the book, and I don't know if it's Toosaku or Tousaku), ISBN 9780072408157.
*There is an older edition of the book that is not as expensive and is pretty much identical, Yookoso! Getting Started with Japanese", ISBN 9780072902402.
This does a decent enough job at teaching you basic grammar. I wouldn't consider it always the best order in which to learn things and things aren't always explained well at first, but it does give a lot of examples so that you can understand grammar well enough, even if you don't yet know why something is the way it is. It has some useful tables in the back as well.
Files
*I may, when I'm done with my Book 2 grammar guide, arrange information from both books into one guide in a more useful order. That way you can see all the uses for certain constructs/particles/etc. together in one place.
Japanese Vocabulary - Yookoso! Book 1 |
This spreadsheet includes most of the vocabulary from "Yookoso! Invitation to Contemporary Japanese", separated by chapter, complete with English, hiragana/katakana, and kanji. I made this for myself so I left out the easy words I hear a lot and know fairly well.
Grammar Cheat-sheet - Yookoso! Book 1 |
This is a grammar cheat-sheet that I fixed up. I originally got it from my boyfriend, who got it from a classmate. I did a lot of adding and editing myself though, and took from some of my boyfriend's tutoring papers as well. I just went back and checked everything today (April 17), so it should be even better now.
Kanji
On kantango, you can look for previously-made lists. I have a number of them:
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 1-3
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 4
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 5
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 6
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 7
Yookoso! Book 2 - Chapter 1
I think that this should be useful, since I had to look them up if I didn't know them, and sometimes that took a good amount of time. Some of the words have kanji that one wouldn't learn yet, but it's so you remember the kanji you do know are in those words and you can remember their readings.
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 1-3
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 4
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 5
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 6
Yookoso! Book 1 - Chapter 7
Yookoso! Book 2 - Chapter 1
I think that this should be useful, since I had to look them up if I didn't know them, and sometimes that took a good amount of time. Some of the words have kanji that one wouldn't learn yet, but it's so you remember the kanji you do know are in those words and you can remember their readings.
Typing tips:
- To get small vowels, ya's and tsu's, type "l" or "x" first.
- Du = Dzu, tu = tsu, si = shi, etc.
- On English keyboards: CTRL + Caps Lock to begin Hiragana mode. Alt + Caps Lock to begin Katakana mode, or just press F7 while in Hiragana mode to convert to katakana.
- Alt+Tilde toggles between current mode and half-width Alphabet mode.
- Alt+Shift changes keyboard language setting.