Jan
15
2013

6 Sites All Japanese Learners Should Bookmark

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone! Did you see Mt. Fuji, a hawk and an eggplant in your first dream of the year? …yeah, neither did I. Let’s hope for a good year anyway, ね?

Today I’m going to share a collection of websites that I think are absolutely amazing resources which everyone learning Japanese should know about. A few of them I don’t use (because I’m already fluent in Japanese), but they’re all sites that I either have used, currently use, or wish I had known about when I was still at the beginner-intermediate level.

This is my first link-roundup article, and in general I dislike link-roundup articles, so you know that I wouldn’t write it unless I thought it was truly a worthwhile collection.

I hope that at least one of these links is helpful to you.

1. Furigana Webglasses

I’ve had this link in this site’s sidebar for a long, long time. Hopefully some of you have discovered it already.

Furigana Webglasses (http://www.hiragana.jp/en/) is a site which can add furigana (you know, the little hiragana pronunciation guides over the top of kanji) to any website you want. It’s not perfect (especially when it comes to personal names), but it’s damn good and a real lifesaver for learners. And it’s free.

Of course, it can’t add furigana to text embedded inside images, but that’s to be expected.

2. Alc.co.jp

(http://www.alc.co.jp/) This site is an advanced learner’s/translator’s best friend. Different from a dictionary, it searches an index of short translations. It always seems to give you plenty of useful results, often including some context that helps you better understand the meaning and usage. You can even search things like proverbs and multi-word expressions.

The site itself is in Japanese, but you can search both English or Japanese and get great results.

3. Imabi.net

(http://imabi.net) Looking for free lessons on any topic, offering awesome detail and tons of examples? I found this site a few months ago, and it’s impossible not to be impressed at the sheer volume of what’s available here. I’ve seen a lot of sites that offer free Japanese lessons, but nothing that compares to this.

It’s designed as an ordered course that will take you from absolute beginner to Japanese nerd-master (seriously, the lessons even get into classical Japanese eventually). If you’re familiar with the content or have a little patience, you can also locate some specific topic or lesson you’re interested in.

The guy who made and maintains the site (a prodigy/student from the University of Texas) is really helpful too, so you might want to sign up for the forums.

4. Japanese.stackexchange.com

(http://japanese.stackexchange.com) This site is the ultimate learner’s Q&A forum. Need a question about Japanese answered? I’ve not found a better platform for getting a quick and satisfactory response than this site. You don’t even need to register in order to use it.

Of course, you’re often in the dark about the qualifications of whoever answered your question, but from what I’ve seen on the site the information is generally very accurate.

5. Google Japan Image Search

(http://www.google.co.jp/imghp?hl=ja&tab=wi) Google Japan image search can be extremely helpful for words (or phrases, even) that you’re having trouble understanding.

For example: 殺風景 (sappuukei). The dictionary defines it as “tasteless, dreary”, but it’s hard to get a real grasp of the meaning until you actually see some images which are described as being 殺風景 (click here to see the results). Think of it as the world’s biggest picture dictionary.

6. Wikipedia

Yeah, I know. You’ve already got this one bookmarked. Why even mention it? Well, whenever I need to know the correct Japanese rendering of words like “Los Angeles”, “Mila Jovovich” or “The Emancipation Proclamation”, I first look it up on English Wikipedia, then switch to the corresponding Japanese page (the language links are in the sidebar on the left).

So I use it as a dictionary of proper nouns, or of words that aren’t in the dictionary, if that makes any sense. Remember this trick the next time you need to know the title of  “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” in Japanese.

Final word

I didn’t include Nihonshock on this list, since quite honestly my site isn’t a massive resource in the same way as the others are. And I know you have me bookmarked already anyway, right? ;-)

Do you have any sites you’d add to this list? Please leave a comment and let me know!

 

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Posted under Language & Study by Nihonshock.

24 Responses


  • Ah, why thank you for the nice comment. The best thing about my place is that you know it will be better somehow each day. :)
    I encourage everyone to at least give it a try.

    by: Seth, Jan 15th at 12:14 pm

  • Thank you for this one! I love http://www.hiragana.jp/en/ so much! This i what I actually need. :)

    by: Jovelle, Jan 16th at 1:27 am

  • @Seth: It’s my pleasure, mate. Your site’s a great accomplishment and deserves the credit.

    @Jovelle: glad you like it! Someone on Facebook mentioned Rikaichan, which is a Firefox add-on that makes it easy to look up readings/definitions of words.

    I forgot to mention one of the great things about Furigana Webglasses (as opposed to Rikaichan) is that you can print out a site with the furigana.

    by: Lloyd Vincent, Jan 16th at 6:51 am

  • I haven’t heard of Furigana Webglasses before, but the Rikaichan plugin for Firefox or Rikai-kun for Chrome is an absolute necessity for navigating Japanese websites as a learner.

    by: Anonymous, Jan 17th at 5:53 pm

  • The language, culture, and entirety of Japan is a very big hobby of mine, and I was sad to see that resources I consider necessary to learning this wonderful language were not included on this list. The first one being jisho.org. I use this dictionary to look up everything.

    Another great site I use all the time is Tofugu. If you don’t regularly visit this site, or haven’t heard of it, (gasp!) it’s a must! Check out it’s reviews of various Japanese learning resources and you will be sure to find lots of gold.

    by: Tim Corcoran, Feb 4th at 1:04 pm

  • renshuu.org took my vocabulary and kanji to a whole new level. It’s a bit hard to get it started but once you’re rolling it’s a great resource.

    by: Ryan, Feb 18th at 10:51 pm

  • I found imabi a great site to learn every thing…from particle to kanji!!

    by: Stanzin Wangchuk, Mar 2nd at 2:55 am

  • I’d also like to put a vote in for jisho.org. Yes, it’s just a dictionary, but it’s a very good one, and very clean (well formatted). Also (although it’s mostly a pay site) I’ve found JapanesePod101.com invaluable. Whenever I get stuck, they get me back on track. (^_^)

    by: Josie, Feb 8th at 11:21 am

  • I think you forgot about Japanese999.com
    They have free Japanese learning audio files

    by: John, Feb 10th at 2:20 am

  • I really like realkana.com. It’s an excellent site to practice your kana when you’re a beginner.

    by: Ena, Jun 15th at 8:23 am

  • I recommend http://www.romajidesu.com/, which includes a Japanese & Kanji dictionary, Japanese-English analyzer&translator as well as Romaji to Kana converter.

    by: Hai, Jul 1st at 4:32 pm

  • I recommend http://japanesetest4you.com. It has many grammar, vocabulary and Kanji exercises in multiple levels as well as JLPT practice tests.

    by: Van, Sep 21st at 2:43 am

  • I just wanted to thank you for this post. I recently launched my own startup to help English speakers enjoy Japan though real, everyday situations.

    Even though I’ve been living in Japan 18 years, I bookmarked everything you posted – can never learn enough. :)

    Thanks again!

    by: Chad Thiele, Nov 8th at 5:16 pm

  • Guys also check out this Android app called Verse, which lets you practise your pronunciation in Japanese.. tested with native Japanese speakers :)

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seesaw.Verse

    by: Gideon Simons, Nov 26th at 4:21 pm

  • I recommend to bookmark Online Japanese dictionary to look up meanings and kanji readings.
    http://jisho.org/

    by: Aravinth, Dec 30th at 6:05 pm

  • I have had a lot of success with lang-8.com
    It is one of the greatest language learning sites out there. It is not specific to 日本語, it works with all languages. You must be a member (free) and then you can write blogs, correct other blogs, and even make friends for language exchange online or in-person.

    by: John, Feb 13th at 8:56 am

  • This tool seems just the best for furigana: http://furigana.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi

    by: furious, May 8th at 3:47 pm

  • Thank you for sharing.
    I’ve also surf here and there. I suggest add to this list: http://akirademy.com/

    by: Miharu, Oct 14th at 5:53 pm

  • And if you are stuck on your Android phone, there is always yondle browse – the Kanji X-Ray on your mobile mediavrog.net/apps/yondle_browse/

    Disclaimer: I programmed this app – let me know how you like it :]

    by: Maik, Jan 20th at 11:42 pm

  • You might also try https://elon.io, which is like Duolingo, but with better grammar explanations.

    by: Erik Gerrits, Apr 12th at 4:37 am

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    by: JamesGlover, Jun 1st at 3:13 pm

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    by: สุขภาพ, Jun 5th at 6:48 pm

  • Hi all,

    Thank you for compiling these online resources.

    I would like to add my site which aims to help learners find the right Japanese textbook for their level and learning style. Check it out here: http://japanesebythebook.wordpress.com/

    by: JapaneseByTheBook, Apr 12th at 11:24 pm

  • Hello, its nice post regarding media print, we all understand media
    is a great source of data.

    by: Florine, Jun 2nd at 6:39 pm