Alright, I noticed that everyone has their own little website that they visit for their Japanese learning needs, be they dictionaries or learning sites. I want to bring them all into one thread so that people who wants access to them don't have to look all over the place for them.

Now, to keep the thread clean, I want people who post their links do so in a certain manner:

First, categorize your link, is it a dictionary, learning site, or a resource site? Perhaps it's a forum? Maybe even a Japanese page for those who are more advanced?

Second, attach your comment after the link to describe what it contains, and who it might be useful for.

As a format example, here are the links I provided in another thread:
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Learning Website:
Teach Yourself Japanese
I haven't used this site myself, but from what I have seen, this is what you should check out if you haven't gotten the kana symbols down yet. The webpage has a simple layout that shouldn't give you too much pressure. Work through it slowly, and by the time you are done with this site, you'll have the same amount of Japanese experience as a typical high school student with a couple years of Japanese class. ^^;
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Dictionary:
Jeffrey's Japanese⇔English Dictionary
I cannot stress how important this dictionary was for me. This dictionary beats all others on the net simply for its ease of use and superior vocabulary database, uncommon or obscure words/terms that won't show up elsewhere will in this dictionary. By the way, I probably have over 100,000 word queries logged for this dictionary, it was vital for me when I was beginning. I rarely have to use it now, but it still remains an incredible tool for me.
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Dictionary:
Kiki's Kanji Dictionary
A very good Kanji dictionary that contains almost all Kanjis currently in use in Japanese, check here if you stumble upon a kanji word that you don't know how to pronounce and unable to copy and paste to Jeffery's dictionary.
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Forum:
I want to learn Japanese thread
This thread is from the Hæleþes áwendende forums, which is the site of Haeleth, who translated the whole game of Kanon. There's a few links that he gave out in the beginning that might or might not interest you as well. I picked this forum because most popular site's forum's "I wanna learn Japanese" thread tends to get filled with useless junk and spam after a while. Every thread on Hæleþes áwendende is clean and intelligent, so there should be some good advices there as well.
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Resource Website (Japanese):
Space Alc English Expressions Encyclopedia
A page primarily made for Japanese users in their learning of daily expressions in English. However, it's also potentially useful for English speakers who are trying to learn the Japanese equivalents of these expressions by "reverse learning".
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Basically, this kind of format. Any of you with sites that you'd like to share, please post them in here, even if you have already posted them elsewhere before.

...I know another good learning site.

http://www.thejapanesepage.com/news.php

it looks cheesy, but take it one page at a time, and really look. they have grammer, lessons, the alphabet (almost done with katakana, they have a few pages to go) and many other things. may not be the best, but thats where i learned hiragana.

of course, you can feel free to shoot me down ^.^

I have my resource of resources to post good old Jim Breens Japanese page.

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html

This is a directory of sites designed to help you learn Japanese.
Jim Breen is the guy who wrote the Edict program that a lot of software use for translating. He also includes links to a lot of software and everything else for learning Japanese.

Here's where I've been spending all my time in the past day:


Learning Site:
Extreme Guides - Learn Japanese

This is a good site for building one's grammar. It has three main grammar sections: basic, essential, and special. The basic one will ease people who aren't too familiar with the language into the earliler parts of constructing sentences, while the special section has grammar that isn't used all too often on its own, but is useful to know as a whole.

I actually took a look at Keigo last night. It's amazing how much more sense some things make now. ^^;;

Learning Website:
Japanese Guide to Japanese Grammar
For intermediates and above, I looked through a few sections and actually found it to be very useful as a "rule book". Even if you know what something means, reading through this guide will tell you how it works and how it came to be like that. A must read.

Thanks for the link Sushi. I'll be sure to go through it.

On another note, I've uploaded some of the links I had previously found and some of the ones that had been given here to my del.icio.us account here, in case someone is interested:

http://del.icio.us/jjtapia/japanese

I'll upload more as I have time :P

I don’t know where to post this so in the doubt…

http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~grosenth/c_download.html

A very useful (free) program for those who can’t type kana and kanji easily (my case), especially when you can’t connect to the net, it also contains a small dictionary (that you can update or even add some of your own dictionary, eg: SFX, manga slangs). Of course you better know the kana tables <_<

I guess only the beginners will find it interesting but oh well… I hope it'll help someone at least.

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried or heard of YesJapan? I met some of the people from the company at a couple anime conventions around the US and we talked at length about their website/product.

It's an interesting idea to have this large repository of information, including very clever ways of learning all the kana and key kanji. Mind you this is not a free site as their business revolves around their website and their textbooks. They also have video lessons which are amusing. The material is kinda...silly and not really useful unless you already have a grounding in Japanese though.

Frankly speaking, I stand by the belief that the only way to really learn the language is through a set course (ie. university or community classes) rather than a book or other some such method. I say this more for the fact that I am lazy as sin and thus the books didn't help me squat in the beginning. Of course, if any of you have a strong work ethic (a background in any other major Asian language like Chinese or Korean is plus plus points) and sufficient time it shouldn't be so difficult.

Of course I just noted the topic again and realize that we are talking about online resources here, so my above paragraph is kinda moot. Please ignore it, okay? ^_^;;;;

But if anyone does give YesJapan a go, let me know how it works out for ya. :T

-Shinikenshi, LVL20 Mangler of Japanese

EDIT: Oh, and I second Jim Breen's awesome dictionaries. Very useful during those times when you get stuck on a random word or sounds and need to piece things to together coherently. ^_^

Actually, I'd argue that the only way to learn a language is to live with it: live in the country where the language is demanded from you (Japan, in this case), or, lacking that option, place that demand onto yourself.

A structured learning course can only get you an "understanding" of the language, to actually "know" the language requires effort from each individuals by placing themselves in an environment that would foster such learning. A police officer learns how to police in the training academy, but it's in the streets where he/she learns how to BE a police. Sometimes, a casual tip or advice passed down from a veteran or experiences gained by yourself can be more valuable than anything you can learn in a school system.

I agree that in the beginning, a structured course system is the best because it provides you with direction and clarity in the basics. The curve for learning a language is almost like a plane taking off: it's best to have guidance when you're still down low on the runway for that initial period, but once you're done with the basics, it's up to you to leave the place and move higher up.

I regularly purchase Japanese medias: games, mangas, novels, CDs, DVDs, magazines; I visit Japanese websites (doujin artists' personal sites, for example) and regularly leave messages in BBS boards or webclaps (the webmasters are the friendliest people you can find anywhere); I visit Japan itself, where I learned everything from popular culture trends to subtle customs (many of which makes appearances in mangas/animes). Those are what helped me learn Japanese, not school (the two years of Japanese I had in high school did nothing that the "Teach Yourself Japanese" page (at the top) didn't do).

Sushi-Y,

I agree with your points completely. Now that I looked it over, I realize I forgot to mention the whole "go there, get emersed" bit. ^_^;;;

I mean, with my university knowledge, I was able to get an academic grounding in the grammar and language structure. Actually living and working in Japan allowed me to learn how to apply it all and make sense of it.

That probably makes more sense now. Especially knowing how much I bag on my alma mater's Japanese program. >_>;

-Shinikenshi, LVL20 Mangler of Japanese

BTW, bilingual education is not allowed for ESL students in the US,
but is allowed for American's to learn a foreign language bilingually.

ie: ESL students are not allowed to learn English in their own languages, and are required to learn English in English (law in CA).
Americans can learn foreign languages in English.

Outcomes?? ESL students learn way faster and better than American college students learning something else.

I forgot what my point is...sry :P

hey hey I found out a Japanese slang site
http://www.coolslang.com/in/japanese/index.php

Unfortunately I can't rate it but if that's like the French slang section of this main site, not all the definitions are true… not very interesting in some ways… Japanese translators must rate this site then ^^;

This site is for japanese and english language learners. This include chat with other people who wants to practice the language


http://www.apricotweb.com/

A page that can test your Japanese reading speed.
http://www.zynas.co.jp/genius/sokudoku/sokutei.html

I got an average of around 1100 words/min in 3 different tests (一般). Not bad. ^^;

.... I don't know if I can even read that fast in English. :unsure:

She's a demongod, I tell you! A demongod!

鬼神の如くです.

When you have read dozens and dozens of novels (and visual novels and light novels) over the years like me, your Japanese reading speed tends to go up. ^^;

To be more fair, I tried the test a few more times (with different articles), and my average are really more like 900 - 1000 words/min.

That speed-reading test has a weakness in it: the fonts are too large and the reading area is too small. This means each line could only contain a few words, and a lot of your time is spent moving your eyes from the end of one line to the beginning of the next line.

実は聞きたいのがあるんです。

When did you first start learning Japanese, Sushi-san?

(Also, would you happen to know of any sites where I can practice/learn more kanji? It's one of my biggest weakpoints. >.>)

I think I already mentioned this before. ^^;

I started learning Japanese seriously a few years ago (late 2003, I think), before that, I had no Japanese knowledge whatsoever other than 2 years of Japanese class back in high school (which I had mostly forgotten by then).

It began with Key's famous visual novel, AIR (as well as Type-Moon's Tsukihime). I stumbled across both by chance, and after learning a little bit about their story, I decided to buy the games. I managed to work through AIR (with great difficulty ^^; ), but although I had a hard time understanding it (especially the Summer arc, which took place in Heian period), I absolutely loved it. Wanting to understand the story fully, I began to study Japanese on my own.

I wrote a "Sushi-style" Japanese learning guide on AnimeSuki's Japanese learning thread (I think it's gone from that database crash though). Basically, the point is immersion: surround yourself with Japanese, read, listen, watch, play, browse everything in Japanese. The point is, rather than seperating Japanese learning from your "normal life", you should make Japanese part of your life.

Short of actually going to Japan and living there, I believe this is probably the fastest way to learn the language.

Oh, but if you have the chance, it's definitely a good idea to visit Japan. Even if you only stay there for a short period of time, it does wonders for your Japanese skills.

As for the kanji stuff, I can't think of anything off of the top of my head right now (I'm not home right now), but there is a list of kanjis here:
http://www.nuthatch.com/kanji/demo/radicals.html
it features pretty much all the most commonly used kanjis in Japanese. There ARE a few words that aren't contained in it, but they're quite rare. Perhaps you can look through it and try to become familiar with them, radical by radical? ^^; There's really no good way to memorize them, so it can be a bother. ^^;

Ah crap, 3 min until class, it takes 5 min to get from where I am to the classroom. ^^;

I see. That's certainly helpful, so I'll keep your notes in mind. I'll also start taking a look at those radicals. I know if my kanji skills improve, I'll be able to take those "speed tests" a lot faster.

Thanks for the enlightenment. Sorry if I caused you to be fasionably late. ^^ (Also, my apologies extended if you needlessly repeated old information. I have a tendency to pay little attention sometimes. :ph43r: )

a very interesting site, especially to memorize some kanjis through a game:
http://www.msu.edu/~lakejess/kanjigame.html

Thanks a lot to Pux who gives us that useful and entertaining link ;)

Here is another source but this is meant to be downloaded, it is the basic Japanese level 1 course from MIT.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Language...eHome/index.htm
This is part of their opencourseware program which allows people to download actual MIT courses for study reference.

heh, this topic is making me want to take this up again...

...I think I will ^_^

I've been trying to learn Japanese for about 3 months now but I can pretty much read any hiragana or katakana.Just need to know kanji...

I'm fluent in Chinese, so what's the difference between Chinese characters and Kanji characters?

Wiki is your friend (although i don't get really what you want....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#On.27yo...nese_reading.29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character

hoping it helps.

...........I can't get into Wikipedia... Damn internet....

Kanji is literally Chinese characters so there is similiarity. Now keep in mind that certain characters over the years have been simplified so there are characters which are specific to Japanese only.

When you get to learning kanji, you will notice the differences and similarities. If you are like friends I know who are fluent in Chinese, kanji will be a breeze regardless of the variation.

And thus I bow down muchly to your Japanese ability. I tried the reading test (the passage sounded a bit like Natsumi Souseki...emm...forgot the book title though...doh.) and I got 401 words per minute.

I am impressed about how much you learned given the time you took to learn Japanese. I think this is probably a testament to your sheer determination versus my um...weak motivation.

As a general background note, I studied Japanese at a junior college during my senior year of high school (1999-2000) then proceeded to drop out of 2nd year Japanese my freshman year of univ (the one year of JC japanese was equiv. to only 2/3 year of univ level apparently) and went to study at Tohoku Univ. for half a year (2001). After that I came back and took 2nd year Japanese (2002-2003), failed JLPT level 2 with a 43% (2003) and went on to do the JET Programme for 1 year in 2004.

Doesn't sound as impressive as I might tell people otherwise I think. ^^;;