Various Online resources

[kinch]

Over the past few months, I've tried dozens of different webpages, programs, games, textbooks, and methodologies for studying. I thought I'd share a few with you so that other people might put them to use.

Wakan (http://wakan.manga.cz). This is an excellent tool for kanji lookup. It features vast databases, a pretty clear and intuitive interface, multiple search methods, a 'popup' tool that can read kanji in a number of external programs and popup information on it (including menus, buttons, games, etc), examples, and alot more. Check it out if you ever have to lookup kanji, or if you use programs that display kanji (as text).

Yookoso (http://www.yookoso.com). This handy little website has some very good mailing lists, particular kanji-a-day, and grammar-a-day. You can choose which level of grammar you want (1-4, which ranges from simple basic particles to some advanced stuff I've never seen before). It features examples, user comments and more. The kanji-a-day lets you choose which level you want to study, and provides readings, stroke order diagrams, and compounds of some popular words using that kanji. Check it out.

LearnJ (http://www.lrnj.com). I'm sure most of you are familiar with this, and I know that some people don't like it. The only reason I mention it now is because once you've played with it a little, you soon realise how helpful mnemonics (those little stories he uses for descriptions) really are. And you'll start to use them in all facets of learning, not just kanji.

Dreamkana (http://www.dreambreed.com). A clear, concise, and easy app for drilling hiragana/katakana. The character pops up, you type in your answer and hit enter, and on to the next one. Small, compact, and doesnt need japanese fonts installed (well, I don't *think*).

Japanese-Kanji (http://www.japanese-kanji.org). A nifty little site, with some pre-made flashcards (that, literally, you just open up, print, turn the printed page over, and print the 2nd picture, and you have 20 flashcards to cut out), and some 'random kanji a day' to study.

DoCoMo Digital Library (http://www.digital-lib.nttdocomo.co.jp/kikakuten/mukashi/mukashi1/index.html). This site features several childrens books online, in flash format. They have cute little animated pictures, and are written mostly in hiragana. However, there is some kanji, but they all have furigana. Tales are the 'common' ones, such as Momo the peach boy. Some of them also are accompanied by a voice reading the text, but not all. Great for reading practice if you can't find childrens books in your town or they're too expensive.

Tae Kim's Grammar Guide (http://www.geocities.jp/nihongoguide/) This is a lengthy but very easy-to-understand grammar guide. It mostly avoids those stupid words like "causitive passive" and "copula" (what the hell is a copula anyway?). It explains in nice, simple language what a particular grammar construct does. It also features lots of example sentences written in kanji/hiragana, but has the useful functionality of popping up a text message giving the kanji reading/meaning if you just hover the mouse over the kanji. Very useful for reading kanji text and not having to jump back and forth to dictionaries.

I also have a few dozen urls for grammar/vocab/study lessons, and more. I have a few dozen documents, textfiles, lectures, notes, and more. Various dictionaries, learning tools, games, etc. But I felt the above resources would be the most helpful to others.

It would be great if other people could post the resources they found useful or helpful too, so we can build a comprehensive library that will be of help to just about everybody.

-Andrew

[matsupine]

Thanks, kinch. I found the wakan program most valuable to my studies..

[Harisenbon]

I want to throw in my support for wakan as well.It actually makes studying mass amounts of words fun (for some reason or other).

[mandolin]

I'd check before posting, but I'm lazy. If you haven't already, you should put this list in the "Hey, that's a useful site" thread in the learning tools forum, too. It's quite a nice handbook already, so the more the merrier.

[tgmerritt]

Hey man - looks like you made the forum FAQ!