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FREE GUIDE

Learn Japanese Free

11 SECTIONS · 225 RESOURCES · STATUS: [ ALL LINKS FREE ]
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Learn Japanese Free
JAPANESE GRATIS GLOBAL ARCHIVE
► INSIDE THIS GUIDE 11 SECTIONS
01

Free Learning/Studying Apps

8 RESOURCES
LingoDeer lingodeer.com

This app is a fantastic and structured introduction to Japanese, featuring HD audio by native speakers. Users can learn in Kana, Kanji, and Romaji, and it works offline.

Drops, Learn Japanese languagedrops.com

This simple but powerful app is entertaining, educational, and free. With a focus on visual learning and 5, minute lesson limits, this app is easy to integrate into your daily language learning regimen and is very effective.

Duolingo duolingo.com

Duolingo has become a leader in the language learning world and for good reason. It’s fast, fun, well designed, suitable for all ages, and turns learning a foreign language into a challenging and pretty addictive game.

Memrise memrise.com

Memrise is a really fast, fun, and free language learning app/website that is sure to get you hooked. There is a visual flashcard component that also incorporates audio from a community of native speakers. Memrise uses spaced repetition and is really effective at drilling vocabulary and phrases into your memory.

Clozemaster clozemaster.com

This popular app uses gamification and is a great addition to your language learning regimen, no matter what your level. It is very effective for vocabulary acquisition and billed as a great app to use after Duolingo.

Anki Flashcards ankiapp.com

This app allows you to make your own flashcards or download a premade “deck” from a selection of over 80 million.

TangoRisto tangoristo.com

This app is a Japanese reader that features daily news articles, along with furigana and English definitions, to help learners build Japanese language skills.

Internet Polyglot internetpolyglot.com

This free app uses lessons, games, and pictures to teach foreign languages to beginners. Although Internet Polyglot is far from a standalone language learning tool, it is a useful supplement to help you to learn and retain vocabulary.

02

Free Japanese Dictionary/Translation Apps

3 RESOURCES

Japanese English Dictionary & Translator, iTunes, Google Play, This free app works offline and provides detailed definitions, example sentences, and pronunciation guidance for Japanese & English words, as well as flashcards for learning.

Dictionary Linguee linguee.com

This fast and free Japanese translation app works offline, is accurate and trusted by millions of people.

Takoboto Japanese Dictionary takoboto.jp

This free dictionary app is ad, free and it works offline. Users can search using kanji, kana, romaji, and Latin alphabets.

Weblio ejje.weblio.jp

Weblio is a free, large Japanese English and English Japanese dictionary covering everyday words and specialist terminology.

03

Free Japanese Video Lessons

36 RESOURCES
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101 youtube.com

This is a fun and helpful set of videos to add to your regular Japanese language learning regimen.

Erin’s Challenge! I Can Speak Japanese by The Japan Foundation erin.jpf.go.jp

The Japan Foundation created these Japanese language lessons to promote Japanese language and culture to those learning Japanese as a foreign language. The website contains 25 lessons, each with seven sections, “Basic skit, ” “Advanced skit, ” “Key phrases, ” “Develop vocabulary, ” “What’s this?, ” “Let’s see, ” and “Let’s try.” It also offers a lot of learning materials and plenty of opportunities to practice with exercises.

Let’s Learn Japanese Basic I youtube.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episodes of the “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic I” course in the eighties to teach Japanese as a foreign language. This video series uses dramatized skits to teach vocabulary and grammar, designed to help the viewer memorize, and practice using new words and grammatical structures. Three textbooks accompany the Basics I Course, and .

Volume 1 scribd.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episodes of the “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic I” course in the eighties to teach Japanese as a foreign language. This video series uses dramatized skits to teach vocabulary and grammar, designed to help the viewer memorize, and practice using new words and grammatical structures. Three textbooks accompany the Basics I Course, and .

Volume 2 scribd.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episodes of the “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic I” course in the eighties to teach Japanese as a foreign language. This video series uses dramatized skits to teach vocabulary and grammar, designed to help the viewer memorize, and practice using new words and grammatical structures. Three textbooks accompany the Basics I Course, and .

Volume 3 scribd.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episodes of the “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic I” course in the eighties to teach Japanese as a foreign language. This video series uses dramatized skits to teach vocabulary and grammar, designed to help the viewer memorize, and practice using new words and grammatical structures. Three textbooks accompany the Basics I Course, and .

Let’s Learn Japanese Basic II youtube.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episode course “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic II” in the nineties, as a follow, up to the first course. Two textbooks accompany the Basics II Course, and .

Volume 1 scribd.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episode course “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic II” in the nineties, as a follow, up to the first course. Two textbooks accompany the Basics II Course, and .

Volume 2 scribd.com

The Japan Foundation created the 26 episode course “Let’s Learn Japanese Basic II” in the nineties, as a follow, up to the first course. Two textbooks accompany the Basics II Course, and .

Japanese Ammo with Misa youtube.com

This YouTube channel has a lot of high, quality video lessons that cover topics in depth. Check out the, and playlists.

Grammar Lessons for Absolute Beginners youtube.com

This YouTube channel has a lot of high, quality video lessons that cover topics in depth. Check out the, and playlists.

Grammar Lessons for Upper Beginner / Lower Intermediate youtube.com

This YouTube channel has a lot of high, quality video lessons that cover topics in depth. Check out the, and playlists.

Japanese Vocabulary youtube.com

This YouTube channel has a lot of high, quality video lessons that cover topics in depth. Check out the, and playlists.

Tae Kim youtube.com

Tae Kim, the creator of the website, has produced a number of helpful Japanese language learning videos to help you to learn Japanese from scratch.

A Guide to Japanese guidetojapanese.org

Tae Kim, the creator of the website, has produced a number of helpful Japanese language learning videos to help you to learn Japanese from scratch.

Dogen youtube.com

Dogen describes his Japanese language lessons as “mostly comedy, mostly about Japan”, and viewers consider them to be really original, entertaining, and informative.

Learn Japanese from Zero youtube.com

This extensive collection of video lessons are hosted by George Trombley, a professional Japanese interpreter, textbook author, and teacher. Visit his website (the Internet’s longest, running interactive Japanese education site) for a ton of Japanese language learning resources, like lessons, videos, and games.

YesJapan.com yesjapan.com

This extensive collection of video lessons are hosted by George Trombley, a professional Japanese interpreter, textbook author, and teacher. Visit his website (the Internet’s longest, running interactive Japanese education site) for a ton of Japanese language learning resources, like lessons, videos, and games.

Learn Kanji Videos youtube.com

These animated Kanji videos use mnemonics to teach Kanji.

Let’s Le arn Japanese Series by NHK youtube.com

Japan’s Public Broadcasting company created this language learning video series in the eighties.

Takanori Tomito’s Japanese Lessons youtube.com

This YouTube channel teaches Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana symbols, and how to speak Japanese.

Edupedia World youtube.com

The Edupedia World YouTube channel offers a very comprehensive set of free Japanese language videos.

Travel Linguist Japanese 101 Video Lessons youtube.com

This series of 20 short videos covers basic introductory vocabulary.

Easy Japanese youtube.com

These YouTube videos are the work of a non, profit project which uses lighthearted street interviews as a method to teach languages. Each video has a topic and the host asks questions to native Japanese speakers on the street based on the theme. Each video contains subtitles in both Japanese and English.

Nihongono Mori youtube.com

This YouTube channel offers a large selection of lessons categorized by difficulty level (N1, N5). All lessons are entirely in Japanese, so a foundational knowledge of the language is required.

LangMedia langmedia.fivecolleges.edu

LangMedia provides language learning resources, including videos, audio, study guides, etc. LangMedia is run by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and its mission is to share examples of linguistic and cultural diversity with language learners. In the “ ” section of the LangMedia website, they provide videos that focus on practical aspects of everyday life (For Ex, Basic Communication, Shopping, Transportation, Culture and Social Life). The conversations often include colloquial language and all videos are accompanied by translations and transcripts.

Language by Country langmedia.fivecolleges.edu

LangMedia provides language learning resources, including videos, audio, study guides, etc. LangMedia is run by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and its mission is to share examples of linguistic and cultural diversity with language learners. In the “ ” section of the LangMedia website, they provide videos that focus on practical aspects of everyday life (For Ex, Basic Communication, Shopping, Transportation, Culture and Social Life). The conversations often include colloquial language and all videos are accompanied by translations and transcripts.

Kanji Link kanji-link.com

This YouTube Channel features a helpful playlist.

Japanese Grammar youtube.com

This YouTube Channel features a helpful playlist.

Shiro Neko Japanese youtube.com

These helpful video tutorials will help beginners learn Japanese with the help of a Japanese, speaking cat, Shiro, who is an assistant for a Japanese instructor teaching Japanese classes at a U.S. college.

Nihongo con Teppei youtube.com

Teppei's free podcast style videos use slow, simple spoken Japanese aimed at beginner and intermediate listeners.

ToKini Andy youtube.com

This free YouTube channel teaches Japanese grammar following popular textbooks like Genki and Quartet.

Japanese with Shun youtube.com

Shun posts free easy Japanese immersion videos, vlogs, and interviews aimed at N5 to N3 level learners.

Sambon Juku youtube.com

This free YouTube channel is run by qualified Japanese teachers covering grammar, listening, and JLPT preparation.

Japanese w Yuki youtube.com

Yuki's free YouTube channel teaches Japanese vocabulary and grammar in a lighthearted, beginner friendly style.

Onomappu youtube.com

This free YouTube channel explains Japanese onomatopoeia with visuals and sound, a notoriously tricky area for learners.

04

Free Japanese Audio Lessons

19 RESOURCES
Easy Japanese by NHK nhk.or.jp

Japan’s Public Broadcasting company NHK World Radio Japan created the Easy Japanese language learning program to teach basic grammar and useful expressions through a series of 48 lessons. The lessons center around a character named Anna who is learning Japanese while attending university in Tokyo. Audio files in MP3 format and texts in PDF format can be downloaded. In addition to the Japanese language lessons, you can access, and .

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101 japanesepod101.com

This is a fun and informative podcast to add to your regular Japanese language learning regimen. Every lesson is free for a period of time, each new audio and video lesson (3, 5 lessons are published per week) is free to access for 3 weeks before being locked into their library, which can be accessed only with paid membership.

Spotify open.spotify.com

Learn Japanese by Complete Language Lessons, 10 free Japanese lessons on Spotify.

Spotify open.spotify.com

Learn Japanese Fast by Language Superstar, This podcast on Spotify has many hours of Japanese language instruction spread over 20 lessons.

Rhythmic Japanese Volume 1 on Spotify open.spotify.com

230 Core Words and Phrases.

Rhythmic Japanese Volume 2 on Spotify open.spotify.com

350 Core Words and Phrases.

Rhythmic Japanese Volume 3 on Spotify open.spotify.com

350 Core Words and Phrases.

Spotify open.spotify.com

Learn How to Speak Japanese, Beginner Japanese words and phrases.

Colloquial Japanese, The Complete Course for Beginners routledgetextbooks.com

This collection of audio files, each a few minutes in length, provides concise and clear Japanese language instruction for beginners. These free audio lessons were made to accompany the Colloquial Japanese, The Complete Course for Beginners textbook, which is a book aimed at teaching Japanese to beginners in a practical way to prepare them to effectively communicate with confidence in everyday situations.

Bilingual News bilingualnews.libsyn.com

Bilingual News is a free English and Japanese news podcast covering a variety of topics and using informal language. The apps features the transcripts for the podcast and enable users to find word definitions and save voabulary lists.

iTunes Podcast itunes.apple.com

Bilingual News is a free English and Japanese news podcast covering a variety of topics and using informal language. The apps features the transcripts for the podcast and enable users to find word definitions and save voabulary lists.

iTunes App itunes.apple.com

Bilingual News is a free English and Japanese news podcast covering a variety of topics and using informal language. The apps features the transcripts for the podcast and enable users to find word definitions and save voabulary lists.

Easy Japanese: Conversation Lessons (NHK WORLD-JAPAN podcast) podcasts.apple.com

This free Apple Podcasts feed carries NHK World-Japan's Easy Japanese conversation lessons for beginners.

05

Free Online Japanese Courses

19 RESOURCES
Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Japanese FAST Course livelingua.com

The FSI Japanese Fast Course was created as an intensive and challenging course that would yield the best language learning results in the shortest period of time. It was originally designed to be a 6, week program to prepare someone to live and work abroad in Japan. FAST stands for Familiarization and Short, term Training and this course aims to get you speaking Japanese from day 1, and prioritizes verbal communication over grammatical accuracy. The Japanese FAST course simplifies grammar lessons in order to expedite the use of spoken Japanese in a very practical way. The 30 lessons emphasize culture in addition to language and primarily focus on teaching someone to confidently speak Japanese in very practical situations. The FSI Japanese Fast Course includes e, textbook with 522 pages in PDF format.

Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Japanese Headstart Course livelingua.com

The Foreign Service Institute (U.S. Department of State) originally created this and many other language learning courses to train government employees and members of the foreign service in preparation for a post abroad. All FSI courses are wonderfully thorough and a treasured free resource for all language learners! The FSI Japanese Headstart program includes ten modules over 26 audio lessons in MP3 format with a running time of 9 hours and 40 minutes, as well as a glossary, flashcards, 2 module guides and Student Guide, all in PDF format. This is a self, paced course which provides a good introduction to beginner Japanese, with an emphasis on giving you the tools to navigate conversations in everyday, basic situations.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Open Courseware ocw.mit.edu

MIT offers a ton of free classes, several of which are in Japanese, spanning beginner through advanced levels. If you already have a strong foundation in Japanese, you can move on to a number of other free MIT Japanese courses that focus on many subject matters, like gender and culture, literature and cinema.

Advanced Japanese I ocw.mit.edu

This undergraduate university level Japanese language course was taught in 2005 at MIT. This course should be taken following the completion of Intermediate Japanese II and focuses on building oral proficiency, expanding vocabulary and improving grammar.

Japanese E, Learning Minato Platform by The Japan Foundation minato-jf.jp

This website not only offers numerous free Japanese language courses but also serves as an online platform that facilitates interactions with communities from around the world.

A1 Beginner Japanese Language Courses minato-jf.jp

These are self, study course using interactive e, learning materials.

A2 Beginner Japanese Language Courses minato-jf.jp

These are self, study course using interactive e, learning materials.

Japanese, Lessons.com japanese-lesson.com

This website offers several courses which were created by a Japanese teacher as a free resource for Japanese language students. This site also offers information on Japanese, and other supplemental that you can access in addition to the courses.

characters japanese-lesson.com

This website offers several courses which were created by a Japanese teacher as a free resource for Japanese language students. This site also offers information on Japanese, and other supplemental that you can access in addition to the courses.

vocabulary japanese-lesson.com

This website offers several courses which were created by a Japanese teacher as a free resource for Japanese language students. This site also offers information on Japanese, and other supplemental that you can access in addition to the courses.

resources japanese-lesson.com

This website offers several courses which were created by a Japanese teacher as a free resource for Japanese language students. This site also offers information on Japanese, and other supplemental that you can access in addition to the courses.

Basic Japanese Course japanese-lesson.com

The Basic Japanese Course has 10 beginner lessons and each one takes about 45, 90 minutes to complete. No prior knowledge of Japanese characters is necessary since Rōmaji (Roman characters) is used throughout.

Hiragana Course japanese-lesson.com

This course teaches students how to read and write Hiragana Letters and introduces more than 500 commonly used words and phrases . It has 10 beginner lessons and each one takes about 45, 90 minutes to complete.

Katakana Course japanese-lesson.com

This course teaches students how to read and write Katakana Letters and introduces more than 500 commonly used words and phrases . It has 11 beginner lessons and each one takes about 45, 90 minutes to complete.

Elon.io Japanese Course elon.io

This comprehensive language course employs spaced repetition as a learning tool and consists of 17 units with 149 lessons. Students can also learn from the extensive vocabulary lists provided as well as create their own word lists.

Free Japanese Lessons freejapaneselessons.com

This site offers free structured Japanese lessons for beginners covering grammar and vocabulary.

JP-MIRAI Free Online Japanese Language Class portal.jp-mirai.org

JP-MIRAI lists free online Japanese language classes aimed at foreign workers and learners in Japan.

Wikibooks Japanese en.wikibooks.org

This free, community written open textbook covers Japanese grammar, reading, writing, and vocabulary for English speaking learners.

LingQ Japanese lingq.com

LingQ offers a free account to learn Japanese from real podcasts, videos, and articles with built in vocabulary tracking.

06

Other Free Japanese Resources and Services

91 RESOURCES
Wanikani knowledge.wanikani.com

This online program offers a great path to learn essential kanji and vocabulary. Although the entire program isn’t free, the first three levels are. Levels 1, 3 cover about 100 kanji and 200 vocabulary words, and as such is a great foundation for further learning.

BBC Languages, Japanese bbc.co.uk

The BBC Japanese Language website is a treasure trove of wonderful resources and information. It is high, quality, comprehensive, and provides a lot of intelligently presented and produced materials. All BBC language learning pages were “archived” a few years back due to cost, cutting measures, which means they are no longer adding new information or updating the pages. However, you should have no problem accessing the existing information.

Goethe Verlag goethe-verlag.com

This website offers 100 Japanese lessons for beginners, each with words, phrases, and corresponding audio files.

LanguageGuide.org languageguide.org

Explore the world of Japanese by learning an abundance of vocabulary in a sound integrated, animated guide. After learning the vocabulary you can take part in games to test your comprehension.

Babadum babadum.com

A free language learning website that features fun flashcard games to help you brush up on your vocabulary.

Polly Lingual pollylingu.al

This website offers some fun games, exercises, and beginner, level instruction with lessons that include text and audio.

Learn101 learn101.org

This website features free beginner lessons to guide you through learning Japanese, step by step, starting with the Alphabet, moving on to grammar, vocabulary, and phrases, and finally offering simple quizzes to test your progress. These lessons are a basic introduction to the language and have images, text, and audio.

CoolJugator cooljugator.com

CoolJugator is a verb conjugator website that makes conjugation easy and straightforward.

Ilanguages ilanguages.org

This site is designed to teach Japanese with free vocabulary, phrases, grammar, and flashcards while focusing on highly used words and phrases necessary for everyday living.

Verbix verbix.com

Online Japanese verb conjugator.

Joshu laits.utexas.edu

This website by the University of Texas at Austin provides a ton of lessons and educational resources to Japanese language students. Joshu means “tutor” in Japanese and JOSHU is also an acronym ( J apanese O nline S elf, H elp U tility).

Kyo, kotoba laits.utexas.edu

This University of Texas at Austin website provides lessons relating to the grammar and accent patterns of Kyoto Japanese (Kyo, Kotoba).

Kanji Radicals laits.utexas.edu

This University of Texas at Austin website is a wonderful resource dedicated to helping students learn Kanji radicals. By teaching how to recognize patterns among a small group of Kanji radicals, this site aims to help students to learn new Kanji more easily while helping them to retain what they have previously learned.

Cultural Interviews with Japanese, Speaking Professionals by UT Austin sites.utexas.edu

In addition to touching on various cultural issues and business topics, these interviews with Japanese executives provide a variety of examples of natural spoken Japanese, which is helpful to language learners. This free educational resource is brought to you by the University of Texas at Austin.

Kansai, Ben kansaiben.com

This website was created by Ikue Shingu (MIT and Harvard Professor) as a self, study site for students learning the Kansai dialect (a group of Japanese dialects in the Kansai region).

A Guide to Japanese guidetojapanese.org

This amazing Japanese language learning resource site was created by Tae Kim and is a go, to guide for beginners.

Imabi imabi.net

This incredibly thorough website offers extensive lessons for beginners, intermediate, advanced, and veteran level learners.

Yookoso! yookoso.com

Yookoso! is a portal for Japanese language students and learners of Kanji, as well as all those who are interested in visiting Japan and in Japanese culture.

Wake Forest University Kanji Exercises for Yookoso users.wfu.edu

This site provides online Kanji exercises for the textbook Yookoso!

Charles Kelley’s Japanese Study Materials manythings.org

Charles Kelly, a resident of Japan who moved there as a young child, created this site to offer free online resources to help people learn Japanese. You will find a ton of learning materials from flashcards and quizzes, to vocabulary and reading materials.

Quizlet quizlet.com

Quizlet, an online learning community that allows you to create and share digital flashcards, features a ton of study sets focusing on the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

Japanese in Anime & Manga anime-manga.jp

This e, learning website was created by The Japan Foundation as a way to teach Japanese language and culture in a fun way through Anime and Manga. Students can learn expressions that are characteristic of the 4 genres of Anime and Manga (romance, school, ninja, samurai) as well as phrases and onomatopoeia. Quizzes are offered for all learning levels from beginner to advanced and a Kanji game is available for either beginner or intermediate levels. This site definitely offers learning opportunities that are not present in a typical textbook or classroom setting.

Marugoto Plus marugotoweb.jp

MARUGOTO+ is a website created by The Japan Foundation to teach about Japanese language and culture. The materials on this site are based on the official textbook of the Japan Foundation, “MARUGOTO, Japanese Language and Culture, ” which is associated with the JF Standard for Japanese Language Education. The website is geared towards A1 and A2 levels and allows you to practice Kanji, vocabulary, and grammar, and provides videos to aid in the learning of conversational Japanese as well as lifestyle and culture.

Marugoto Coursebook Dictionary words.marugotoweb.jp

You can also consult this Japan Foundation website which allows you to search for the meaning of words and phrases from the “MARUGOTO, Japanese Language and Culture” textbook as well as make organized lists of the words/phrases you want to study. Here you can practice vocabulary which is organized by topic and category, and listen to the audio to improve pronunciation.

Nihongo de Carenavi nihongodecarenavi.jp

This free Japanese language learning tool was created by The Japan Foundation and to support nurses and healthcare providers. It features a dictionary and a search tool with over 8000 words and about 4400 example sentences with audio. It also allows you to create your own list of vocabulary and phrases.

Hirogaru, Get More of Japan and Japanese hirogaru-nihongo.jp

This is an interesting site created by The Japan Foundation which helps students learn about Japan and the Japanese language by perusing subjects that suit their own interests. Choose from one of twelve topics (Stars and the Night Sky, Outdoors, Martial Arts, Cafés and Tea, Sweets, Supermarkets and Markets, Calligraphy, Anime and Manga, Books and Libraries, Temples and Shrines, Music, and Aquariums) and read, listen or watch to interesting content with subtitles.

AJALT Online Japanese Lessons ajalt.org

The Association for Japanese Language Teaching offers free lessons, games, and other handy resources to help you learn and practice your Japanese skills, whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced student.

Real World Japanese by AJALT ajalt.org

The Association for Japanese Language Teaching created this site for language students to practice Japanese by listening to realistic conversations categorized by proficiency level and based on 3 categories, General, Business, or Kids.

One World Japanese Quizzes yuko-nakaishi.net

This website offers quizzes to help you learn about intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, and onomatopoeia.

Hinoki Project hinoki-project.org

This web interface is a learning tool developed by the Tokyo Institute of Technology that provides more insight into how a particular Japanese word is actually used than a common dictionary. The tool searches a large database of Japanese newspapers, academic papers and blogs thereby determining the frequency and context of its use, and whether it’s more of an academic word or a word commonly used in conversation, etc.

Japanese Typing Exercises by The University of Washington faculty.washington.edu

This simple site was created as a tool to practice typing Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji and to review Kana and Kanji.

Japanese Language Study Site by Osaka University el.minoh.osaka-u.ac.jp

Osaka University Global Language Research Center created this site to help Japanese language students learn and practice skills. There are 15 lessons in total and they feature video skits, interactive exercises, vocabulary and grammar explanations, and more.

Japanese Lessons by Takanori Tomita learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com

Japanese language teacher Takanori Tomita created this website which offers free beginner lessons to teach students Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, phrases, and grammar using illustrations, audio, and video.

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Language Modules coelang.tufs.ac.jp

TUFS (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) created the Japanese Language Modules as web, based educational resources for students and they are available in English, French, Chinese, Mongolian, Korean or Turkish. This website features video kits and tutorials that teach listening, speaking, and writing skills.

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies JPLang jplang.tufs.ac.jp

This e, learning site is brought to you by TUFS (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) and it provides comprehensive Japanese education resources covering topics like grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, and listening skills for beginners and intermediate level learners.

Tokyo Metropolitan University Resources for Japanese Language Instruction nihongo.hum.tmu.ac.jp

TMU created these Japanese language resources for their international students but has made them available for free to the public.

Keigo Tutorial by The Japanese Ministry of Culture warp.da.ndl.go.jp

The Japanese Ministry of Culture created this website to teach Keigo (respectful language), and because all of the content is in Japanese, it is geared towards students who can already speak and understand Japanese at an intermediate level or above. The videos show people using Keigo in real, life situations and speaking Japanese at a natural speed.

Waiwai Kyoushitu Japanese School Learning Site yynihongo.jp

This Japanese language learning site features interactive games, audio, and illustrations as well as a dictionary and teaches useful vocabulary and phrases.

Kanji Alive kanjialive.com

Kanji Alive is a really useful web app that helps Japanese language students to learn to read and write Kanji. This Kanji learning resource allows you to search in Japanese, Romaji or English and also by meaning, pronunciation, stroke number, etc.

Kids Web Japan web-japan.org

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) created the Kids Web Japan site as a way to introduce Japanese to children in other countries. There are 8 lessons that teach basic phrases and conversation skills, vocabulary, grammar, and Kanji, and although the target age group for the site is 10, 14, it can be a helpful supplemental Japanese language resource for all beginners.

Minna no Nihongo Renshuujoo geocities.jp

This free website provides quizzes for you to learn and practice basic vocabulary and grammar skills.

Renshuu renshuu.org

This is a great learning resource where you will find quizzes and study tools, a forum that connects you to other Japanese language learners, and the ability to practice vocabulary from popular sources like the Genki textbook and the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

J, Learning, Learn Japanese Online j-learning.com

This free website offers 50 Japanese grammar lessons for beginners, divided into multiple sections like phrases, slides with grammar explanations, exercises, PDF worksheets, Kanji, and Kanji exercises. The site also has a dictionary, Kanji dictionary, and Kana reading tool.

Online Japanese Tests test.u-biq.org

This site offers a lot of quizzes to test your Japanese grammar, vocabulary, Kanji, listening, and reading comprehension skills and the site interface is available in either Chinese, Korean, or English.

Visualizing Japanese Grammar www2.gwu.edu

Visualizing Japanese Grammar is a Japanese language learning resource with 66 units that explain fundamental grammatical concepts with animations and audio. Additionally, 12 appendices are available for download which provide supplemental grammar explanations. The 66 videos can also be viewed on .

Visualizing Japanese Grammar, Visualizing Japanese Grammar is a Japanese language learning resource with 66 units that explain fundamental grammatical concepts with animations and audio. Additionally, 12 appendices are available for download which provide supplemental grammar explanations. The 66 videos can also be viewed on youtube.com

Visualizing Japanese Grammar is a Japanese language learning resource with 66 units that explain fundamental grammatical concepts with animations and audio. Additionally, 12 appendices are available for download which provide supplemental grammar explanations. The 66 videos can also be viewed on .

Japanese, Nihongo.com japanese-nihongo.com

This free website teaches Japanese conversation, grammar, and culture and provides learning tools to study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

Japanese Stories by BookBox youtube.com

Cartoons have always been a wonderful asset to language learning, particularity for children. These animated children’s stories are great because the viewer can read along with the narration, which is shown on, screen as “Same Language Subtitles (SLS).” Each word is highlighted in time with the audio, which helps with comprehension and retention.

Loecsen loecsen.com

Loecson offers a free mini, course consisting of fun lessons that provide a basic introduction to Japanese with the help of text, audio, simple illustrations, and quizzes to test your progress. You will learn high, frequency vocabulary words and commonly used phrases relating to 17 themes that are relevant to everyday life.

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Japanese Tutorial fieldsupport.dliflc.edu

This Language Survival Kit Module for Japanese contains basic vocabulary with audio. Both the audio files and the PDF text can be downloaded.

Quiz Tree quiz-tree.com

This website offers educational games and simple quizzes to test your Japanese language skills.

I Love Languages Japanese Lessons ilovelanguages.org

This site provides 17 beginner Japanese lessons designed to help you improve your speaking, reading, and writing skills. Supplementary resources include, and .

vocabulary ilovelanguages.org

This site provides 17 beginner Japanese lessons designed to help you improve your speaking, reading, and writing skills. Supplementary resources include, and .

grammar tips ilovelanguages.org

This site provides 17 beginner Japanese lessons designed to help you improve your speaking, reading, and writing skills. Supplementary resources include, and .

phrases ilovelanguages.org

This site provides 17 beginner Japanese lessons designed to help you improve your speaking, reading, and writing skills. Supplementary resources include, and .

NINJAL, LWP nlt.tsukuba.lagoinst.info

This Japanese web corpus tool is brought to you by The University of Tsukuba and The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics.

Japanese Test 4 U japanesetest4you.com

This website offers hundreds of free online practice tests for Japanese students.

The Kanji Map thekanjimap.com

This site, which is free to use and free of ads, was created to help students learn Japanese by providing “a visual map of the connections between kanjis”.

Steven Kraft’s Japanese Projects steven-kraft.com

This website is dedicated to providing free Japanese learning lessons. It is a work in progress, but at this point, it features verb conjugation practice and numbers and counters tutorials.

Eigo Ganbare eigoganbare.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Grammar & more! decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Vocabulary decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Grammar & more! decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Vocabulary decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Grammar & more! decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Vocabulary decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Grammar & more! decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Vocabulary decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Grammar & more! decks.memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Vocabulary memrise.com

This free website offers Japanese tutorials with audio. These JLPT resources target ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) but are perfect for anyone seeking to improve their Japanese skills. They have created a number of JPLT Memrise courses, JLPT N5, &, JLPT N4, &, JLPT N3, &, JLPT N2, &, JLPT N1, &

Kakijun kakijun.jp

This handy web tool work is great for checking character stroke order.

Japanga japanga.com

Japanga.com offers a free and fun way to learn more about Japanese culture and language. It offers a variety of free tools and resources like a, dictionaries, and to help you practice kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

Japanese japanga.com

Japanga.com offers a free and fun way to learn more about Japanese culture and language. It offers a variety of free tools and resources like a, dictionaries, and to help you practice kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

converter japanga.com

Japanga.com offers a free and fun way to learn more about Japanese culture and language. It offers a variety of free tools and resources like a, dictionaries, and to help you practice kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

quizzes japanga.com

Japanga.com offers a free and fun way to learn more about Japanese culture and language. It offers a variety of free tools and resources like a, dictionaries, and to help you practice kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

flashcards japanga.com

Japanga.com offers a free and fun way to learn more about Japanese culture and language. It offers a variety of free tools and resources like a, dictionaries, and to help you practice kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

worksheets japanga.com

Japanga.com offers a free and fun way to learn more about Japanese culture and language. It offers a variety of free tools and resources like a, dictionaries, and to help you practice kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

Marshallyin marshallyin.com

This fantastic free website was created by Marshall, a student at the University of Tokyo, to help people learn Japanese independently. It includes 1984 Japanese language lessons and 5556 quizzes to help guide you along in your Japanese language journey.

NIHONGO e-na nihongo-e-na.com

This portal for learning Japanese indexes free lessons, tools, and media aimed at learners at every level.

Free Japanese Lessons at Open Culture openculture.com

Open Culture curates a free directory of Japanese lesson resources, podcasts, and courses.

Kanji.sh kanji.sh

This free tool provides downloadable stroke order worksheets for every kanji to practice writing.

JGram jgram.org

JGram is a free crowd-sourced database of Japanese grammar points with example sentences.

Tofugu Japanese Learning Resources Database tofugu.com

Tofugu maintains a free directory of Japanese learning tools, apps, podcasts, and courses with short reviews.

Aozora Bunko aozora.gr.jp

Aozora Bunko is a free digital library of thousands of public domain Japanese books and stories, useful for reading practice at every level.

JLPT Official Site jlpt.jp

This is the official Japanese Language Proficiency Test website, with free sample questions and level guides for every JLPT level.

KanjiDamage kanjidamage.com

This free site teaches over 1,700 kanji by breaking each one into its components with memorable mnemonics.

Maggie Sensei maggiesensei.com

Maggie Sensei is a free blog with hundreds of clear lessons on Japanese grammar, vocabulary, and everyday expressions.

Real Kana realkana.com

Real Kana is a free quiz tool for drilling hiragana, katakana, and kanji recognition.

JapanesePod101 Blog japanesepod101.com

This free blog publishes articles on Japanese phrases, grammar, and culture for learners at every level.

Kana Pro kana.pro

Kana Pro is a free quiz based tool for memorizing hiragana and katakana characters.

Kanshudo kanshudo.com

Kanshudo offers free lessons, flashcards, and games for learning kanji, vocabulary, and grammar with a login.

07

Practice Japanese with Native Speakers

5 RESOURCES
Lang, 8 lang-8.com

This free network is a nice tool to support your language learning. Native speakers are available to make corrections to your text and provide feedback. In return, you provide help to others.

HiNative hinative.com

HiNative is an app brought to you by the creators of Lang, 8 that allows you to ask questions to native speakers from around the world using your smartphone. HiNative was created to be used alongside Lang, 8 and is different from Lang, 8 in that it focuses on a Q&A type of learning while Lang, 8 is a journal writing experience.

RhinoSpike rhinospike.com

RhinoSpike is an interesting website that connects language learners from all over the world allowing them to exchange audio files to help improve pronunciation skills. It allows you to submit text that you would like to hear read aloud by a native speaker, and in turn, you receive the audio file. In exchange, and to speed up the process, you can, in turn, provide audio files in your native language for other learners.

MyLanguageExchange.com mylanguageexchange.com

This online language learning community connects you with other learners so that you can practice speaking in your second language with a native speaker and vice, versa.

Italki italki.com

A community of over 2 million language learners that facilitates free language practice with native speakers. You simply exchange time teaching your native language for time learning a foreign language, making it mutually beneficial and free.

08

Japanese Language News and Media

12 RESOURCES
BBC bbc.com

The British Broadcasting Company provides news in Japanese.

Google News news.google.com

Read the world news in Japanese with Google News.

CNN Japan cnn.co.jp

Read CNN articles in Japanese.

Easy News by NHK www3.nhk.or.jp

Japanese public broadcaster NHK created the News Web Easy website for those who are learning Japanese as a second language. It contains articles about current events in simple Japanese.

Asahi Shimbun asahi.com

One of Japan’s oldest and largest national daily newspapers.

Yomiuri Shimbun yomiuri.co.jp

Read one of Japan’s most widely circulated newspapers or watch .

streaming video yomiuri.co.jp

Read one of Japan’s most widely circulated newspapers or watch .

NTV News fnn-news.com

A major 24, hour news station in Japan.

FNN News fnn-news.com

The Fuji News Network is a major TV news network in Japan.

TBS News news.tbs.co.jp

A major TV news network in Japan owned by Japan News Network.

Hiragana Times hiraganatimes.com

This Japanese magazine targets foreigners living in Japan and features content in both Japanese and in English.

SBS Radio Japanese Program sbs.com.au

SBS is an Australian broadcasting company that targets non, native English speakers and creates programming in many languages. This podcast allows you to listen to interviews, features and community stories from the SBS Radio Japanese program, including Australian and world news.

09

Japanese Dictionaries and Pronunciation Guides

20 RESOURCES
WordReference wordreference.com

There is no need for a Japanese, English dictionary if you have WordReference. Featuring good translations of words and solid definitions, this site also has helpful forums where Japanese speakers from around the world contribute to explaining subtle nuances or more obscure words.

Forvo forvo.com

This crowd, sourced site is a great tool to help with pronunciation as it allows you to listen to words and phrases spoken by native speakers.

Bad.La en.bab.la

This “language portal” boasts 44 dictionaries for 28 languages, as well as a wealth of other language learning resources, such as helpful articles, games and quizzes, verb conjugations and phrase books.

Lexilogos lexilogos.com

This is a unique concept, just type a Japanese word into the search field and then choose from one of several dictionaries.

LearnWithOliver learnwitholiver.com

In addition to a dictionary, this site offers games and flashcards to support your Japanese Language learning.

Tatoeba tatoeba.org

Tatoeba is a large, crowdsourced database of sentences and translations. This free resource allows you to search for a word and get results showing that word in sentences with translations.

Talkify talkify.net

This free, multilingual website is a very interesting and valuable resource that allows you to listen to text in foreign languages. Simply insert a URL into the search field on Talkify and it will automatically detect the language and read the text of that website aloud in a natural sounding voice.

OJAD gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

OJAD is an online Japanese accent database which helps Japanese language learners to understand the Japanese pitch accent. OJAD includes vocabulary lists from textbooks like Genki with audio to show pronunciation.

JMdictDB by EDRDG edrdg.org

This is the most comprehensive Japanese dictionary and conjugation online.

database edrdg.org

This is the most comprehensive Japanese dictionary and conjugation online.

Tangorin tangorin.com

This free online Japanese dictionary allows you to search in many ways (English, Japanese, Rōmaji, Kana, Kanji, etc.) and offers fast results from its millions of entries.

Kanji Dictionaries laits.utexas.edu

This tutorial from the University of Texas at Austin will teach you how to use Kanji dictionaries.

ALC alc.co.jp

This Japanese dictionary is popular among translators because it contains many technical terms and phrases that you might not find in other dictionaries.

Jisho jisho.org

This free Japanese, English dictionary provides quick and easy results to searches for words and Kanji, along with sample sentences.

Honyaku Star honyakustar.com

Honyaku Star is a great, free online dictionary offering over 2, 240, 000 results.

Kotobank kotobank.jp

This website is a great resource that provides search results from 51 Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias with a total of approximately 470, 000 entries.

Kanji.Jitenon.Jp kanji.jitenon.jp

This Japanese dictionary offers a number of search options.

RomajiDesu romajidesu.com

RomajiDesu is a free online Japanese dictionary with lots of functionality, including a Kanji dictionary, Japanese to English/Romaji translator, Romaji to Kana converter (or Romaji to Hiragana and Katakan) and a browser extension for on page translations.

Tagaini Jisho tagaini.net

This free, open, source Japanese dictionary and Kanji lookup tool is a great study tool for any Japanese student. It is derived from the EDICT database and features stroke order animations for 6000+ Kanji.

Cambridge Online Dictionary dictionary.cambridge.org

Here you can access the online version of the popular Cambridge Dictionary.

10

Free Japanese Language Textbooks

5 RESOURCES
Learn Hiragana, The Ultimate Guide tofugu.com

This free textbook by Koichi of Tofugu.com is a comprehensive and illustrated guide to learning Hiragana.

An Introduction to Japanese Syntax, Grammar & Language pomax.github.io

This textbook by Michiel “Pomax” Kamermans provides a comprehensive overview of Japanese grammar for beginners.

Colloquial Japanese, The Complete Course for Beginners 2nd Edition archive.org

This beginner Japanese language book by H.B.D Clarke and Motoko Hamamura focuses on colloquial Japanese (as it is spoken now) and teaches how to communicate with confidence.

Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners, First Steps to Mastering the Japanese Writing System archive.org

This Japanese language textbook by Timothy G. Stout uses mnemonics to teach students how to read and write the basic 92 hiragana and katakana characters.

Making Sense of Japanese, What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You archive.org

This book by Harvard University professor Jay Rubin is well reviewed for its usefulness in explaining difficult concepts and providing clear insight and explanations that are particularly helpful to beginner and intermediate level learners.

11

Free Japanese Language Tests

7 RESOURCES
J, CAT Japanese Language Proficiency Test j-cat.org

The J, CAT (Japanese Computerized Adaptive Test) evaluates your proficiency level in the areas of listening, vocabulary, grammar, and reading.

Japanese UP japaneseup.com

In addition to a language proficiency test, this site has games for learning Japanese alphabet (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji) among other great resources for learning Japanese phrases, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

Transparent Language transparent.com

Free online language level testing is offered by this language learning software company.

Marugoto Online Test marugoto-online.jp
Goethe Verlag goethe-verlag.com

Free tests in 25 languages and 600 language combinations. You will find 120 Japanese vocabulary tests.

Cactus Language languagecoursesuk.co.uk

This UK based language study abroad organization offers free online language level testing.

Language Trainers languagetrainers.com

This language training company offers free online language level testing.