Useful websites

1. The Tokyo Nihongo Volunteer Network

( http://www.tnvn.jp/indexe.shtml)(bilingual )

( http://www.tnvn.jp/data/index.cgi )

The TNVN is a clearinghouse organization of Tokyo-area volunteer Japanese classes, and "share the concept of accepting and supporting people through language assistance. Some of the volunteers might be trained as language teachers, however, the nature of activity is not to teach Japanese, but to help learners' daily life in the community by offering informaion and helping to solve problems." The TNVN recommends attending a formal Japanese language school if you want to "study Japanese efficiently."

2. Japanese Reading Materials Bank

http://language.tiu.ac.jp/index_e.html

Click on the above and you will find yourself at an English page introducing “ ‘Reading Tutor’ designed to help JFL/JSL learners improve their reading skills in Japanese.” On this page are links to level checks, dictionary tools, reading resources bank and quizes on reading comprehension.

3. Dictionaries and on line translation resources

3 resources to use when doing translation work on line

4. Kanji Step

KanjiStep was born out of the idea to provide in-depth language study materials for all levels of students of the Japanese language on the Internet. KanjiStep, as the name suggests, offers a step-by-step introduction to the Japanese Language. This site is not dedicated to the teaching of Kanji (Chinese Characters) only but covers all aspects like reading, writing, grammar and other Japan or culture related topics. Within KanjiStep we tried to divide the study materials into four skill levels (Step 1-4) according to the definitions of the Japanese Proficiency test . This site contains over 600 spoken sound examples as well a reading and writing materials for self-study. KanjStep is created and maintained by the Japanese Language Resource Center (JLRC). JLRC is a group of certified Japanese teachers, offering their help to foreigners. The Japanese Language Resource Center has set itself the following goals when starting this project. Providing a professional Japanese language learning program on the internet. Creating a global community of people interested in the Japanese language and its culture. Providing all services for free or at a very low cost. Creating / producing Internet or Multimedia based language learning tools.

5. Books and articles on Japan

http://japanreview.net/index.htm

This website offers reviews of books in English about Japan on a variety of topics, both fiction and non-fiction as well as interviews with authors and other respected Japan scholars. The producers of the site are American and Japanese-speaking Japanese Americans with experience of living and working in Japan. Their site is not a business and aims to be as objective as possible in their reviews. This looks to be a very useful source of information about books on Japan. You can also sign up for an e mail newsletter.

6. Great Literature Made Easy and Audible!

http://www.speaking-japanese.com/literature.html

The paragraph below is from the website above.
Breaking into Japanese Literature is designed to make great works of Japanese literature accessible. It features four stories by Natsume Soseki, the father of modern Japanese literature, and three stories by Akutagawa Ryonosuke, the Japanese master of the short story. The book presents the seven stories with the Japanese original and the English translation side-by-side, with a dictionary running along the bottom of the page. To get maximum enjoyment and benefit from this site, it is best to have read the book first. You listen to the stories free but to read you need to buy the book which can be easily done on line. This web site offers sound files of all seven stories in the book. Download a file and see if you can keep up, reading the kanji at native speed as you follow the text. If you feel really confident you can just listen to the story without looking at the text. Note that audio is provided as a single soundfile for Soseki's Ten Nights of Dreams (Nights 1, 3, 5, 7). Akutagawa's In a Grove, The Nose and Rashomon are much longer and so are divided into six or so soundfiles each.

http://www.speaking-japanese.com/lite_01.html takes you straight to Soseki’s Nights of dreams no 1 which you can listen to in Japanese free. It is short and easy to listen to. The web page gives the following introduction in English to the story.

A man sits by the deathbed of his lover, unable to believe that so young and beautiful a woman as she could be doomed to perish. Before dying, she makes the man promise to wait faithfully for a hundred years at her graveside until she comes back.
The man dutifully places her body in a hole he digs out with an oyster shell, and marks the place with the fragments of fallen stars. He watches the sun rise and set again and again until he finally loses count of the days and the years. He is just beginning to doubt her promise, when a flower sprouts up from the grave and presses itself to his lips. He looks up at the sky where a single star shines. She has returned.

7. Kanji Gold

http://web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/

Free download software program. The following introduction is from the website.“This program revised in June 2004 contains several improvements and a bug fix. With a Japanese word processor like JWPCE you can easily customize your kanji and vocabulary studies to match any text you are currently using. The program is suitable for all levels of Japanese study.

Features:

  • Automatic and customizable review system.
  • Custom color selection.
  • Kanji choices available in On , Kun and English.
  • All Level 1 and Level 2 Japanese Kanji (about 6000).
  • Compounds sorted into Grade levels (0 -9) kanji. (over 44,000 compounds).
  • Custom Dictionaries for compounds (can be made with JWPCE).
  • Custom Dictionaries can be used for vocabulary study.
  • Custom kanji lists and dictionaries (can be made with JWPCE).
  • Includes Kanji lists for many popular kanji texts (with page numbers).
  • Kanji POPUP feature that automatically flips through kanji and/or compounds while you are using other programs.
  • Unique kanji study list method to help in memorization of Kanji.”