These are web resources that you might find useful in studying Japanese. Big thanks to Rico who wrote the
following guide.
>> Download the
entire Guide for Japanese Learners
(Includes more information on Books, Grammar, Tests,
Electronic Dictionaries, and Television)
Rikai
http://www.rikai.com
Rikai is one of the most useful tools for
learning Kanji. Using Rikai, you are presented with a pop-up window that
presents information on Kanji that appear on a webpage.
Information is given on the word as a whole and for each individual Kanji. The
definitions are taken from Jim Breen's WWWJDIC dictionary.
When using Rikai.com for the first time (or
if you ever clear your cookies), be sure to click on the drop box on
the upper right and select "Japanese to English."
Rikai presently comes in two flavors:
Web Site:
The Rikai web page gives you two options. You
can either type in URL or paste a block of text and Rikai will
process the data immediately.
Rikai XUL Plug-in:
This plug-in only works with Firefox. With the
Rikai XUL, you no longer have to visit the Rikai webpage. When
visiting a page, you simply choose "rikaixul." Processing will take place
in the same matter as on Rikai.com.
Pop Jisyo
http://www.popjisyo.com
Basically, the same thing as Rikai. You might
like this better. This site can also process Spanish and
Korean.
WWWJDIC
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.htm
For those who don't know, this is the web's
premier Japanese-English dictionary. In fact, many
web tools (for ex Rikai) make use of Jim's EDICT dictionary. You can
search for Japanese words, either in Japanese, Romaji, or
English.
Flashcard Exchange
http://www.flashcardexchange.com
This site is perhaps the largest flashcard
study site on the web. There are over a million flashcard sets
available (covering many topics, not just Japanese). Luckily for us,
Kanji seems to be a fairly popular topic. Of particular interest is that
there are flashcard sets for James Heisig's Remembering the Kanji
Vol.1 book. Of course, There are many other Kanji sets as well. This is the perfect site for creating web
flashcards and quizzing yourself. You can quiz yourself either in the
order that your set was created or at random. For the studious, I would suggest making
flashcard sets for articles that you read and just periodically come back
to the site and quiz yourself.
JLPT-Kanji
http://www.jlpt-kanji.com
For those studying for the JLPT exam, this is
the best site for studying. Similar to Flashcard Exchange, you can create
flashcards. However, the real power of this site comes in the fact
that it is organized by JLPT level. It takes the Kanji required for
every level and organizes them into sets of 30 Kanji. You can study
these sets in either normal or random order.
Tensei Jingo
http://www.asahi.com/paper/column.html
Another common way to build vocabulary is by
reading newspaper articles. One of the most famous newspaper
columns used by Japanese learners is "Tensei Jingo."
Essentially, this is a public opinion article that discusses views on
current events affecting Japan. Since it's an opinionated column, the
language is somewhat more liberal than the conservative, dull
manner in which most articles are written.
One major benefit is that there is a new
article every weekday. From Monday to Friday, you can wake up in the
morning and have a new article to read. This is great for Japanese
learners that prefer to set aside a chunk of time everyday for
studying. Lastly, the size of the article is usually only three or four
small paragraphs. So it's very manageable read.
Nuthatch
http://www.nuthatch.com/kanji/demo/radicals.html
This link here is a rare find. It is a
listing of Kanji organized by radical. When you click on a Kanji, you're presented
with all sorts of useful information. An interesting use of this site
is for attempting to decipher handwritten Kanji. As you may soon figure out
(unless you're from Kanji-reading country), deciphering
handwritten characters is nearly impossible. For those special cases, a good
strategy is to try to figure out what the radical is and look
through this index. In most cases, you'll find that only one or two Kanji
look similar to what was written down.
Another cool feature is that this site has a
"Kanji Jump" feature. When looking at Kanji compounds, you can click on
any individual Kanji and study that character.
Pera Pera Penguin
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/ppp-e/
Without a doubt, this is perhaps the best
grammar review on the web. "Pera Pera Penguin" appears once every 5
weeks in the Daily Yomiuri, one of the most popular Japanese
newspapers.
Foreigners from all over Japan mail their
questions to the author and one letter is chosen to be the topic for a
column. Often, these articles focus on topics that have confused Japanese
language learners for quite some time. It's great for learning
material that you would never encounter in a textbook or course.
Even on simple topics, you will always learn
subtleties that you never even knew about. Finally, the author adds a
small column for vocabulary to ensure that you will learn new
words every week. Usually these words are related to the
article topic.
Kanji Clinic
http://www.kanjiclinic.com
If you've ever been frustrated with Kanji,
this is the site for you. Kanji Clinic is the de facto website for
researching approaches to studying Kanji. Through articles and book reviews,
Kanji Clinic critically evaluates various Kanji-learning methods.