Free tools that make learning Japanese a little more fun
I couldn't wait to share these free tools with you.
Hi! I want to welcome my new subscribers, I am really happy you are here!
Let me first briefly summarize my experience with Japanese. Well, I have lived in Japan for a few years before, for a masterâs degree, but that was a little while back. Unfortunately, I didnât take studying Japanese seriously, even though, like I said in my previous post, shared below, I did enjoy Japanese classes so much compared to my masterâsâ. I was living just fine, okay maybe struggling a bit, but I didnât feel that I need to study the language. I wasnât really thinking for the future. Anyway, now I am seriously studying Japanese, planning for a full-time self-study to eventually reach N2, hopefully N1 in the next few years. Wish me luck cause Japanese is one difficult language and requires consistency, patience, and obsession with the language.
For a little over a year, I have been seriously studying the language, not full-time though. I wanted to take N3 this December but I couldnât make it. My main goal for next year is to take N3 test, publicly declaring it so I can commitđŹ. To continue on my previous post, I wanted to find ways to make studying Japanese less stressful, more fun to study and feel the privilege of studying Japanese again. So I decided to forget about the test and just think about learning the language.
To find ways, I kept searching for how others are learning the language, the tools they are using and what am I doing wrong in my studies.
This post is about the interesting tools and websites I found while searching, I believe they will make learning more fun and they are available for us for free.
1. Immersion kit (Came across this on ăŸă ăŸă Jared YouTube channel)
This tool is really fun. You just enter a phrase or a word and it gets you tons of examples from anime scenes along with the audio, the reading and the meaning, of course. You get to see how this word is used in context and in a fun way. You can download it and add it to Anki as well with a flashcard is already made for us.
2. Japanese Sentence Analyzer
I love this one so much, maybe because I like to analyze and overthink everything, lol. You just enter a sentence, it will breakdown the sentence word by word, its role in the sentence, reading and meaning along with the literal translation and the natural translation. This tool will help us know exactly how the Japanese sentence is structured.
3. Forvo (Found this on Tofugu website)
Do you want to know how a particular word or a phrase sounds like by actual Native speakers? This is the website for you.
4. Challenge with Erin (Found this on Japanlivingguide website)
This website is actually pretty awesome, better for beginners. It contains video skits and manga about a student in high school. It is like a mini Japanese drama along with activities.
BTW, this Japanlivingguide page has more great tools, you can check them out.
5. Marugoto Words (Found this on Japanlivingguide website)
This one feels it is like for children, but I donât think so. You can make a pdf for the list of words that is in their textbooks and there are collections of some words with simple illustrations, along with their audio. This one is for absolute beginners.
This one is a part of a Japan foundation free curriculum that is available online; it has a lot of online courses. I donât actually know whether they are good or not. But here is a review from tofugu about their textbooks. BTW, the courses use these textbooks.
6. Happylilac website (Found this on Nippon website)
This one is so precious. It is actually for Japanese elementary and junior high students not for foreigners. It has tons for kanji flashcards, posters, and exercises. The website is written all in Japanese, of course, but you can translate the page using the translation icon in the address bar. I found lists of idioms and proverbs as well, but these are really difficult and they are N2/N1 level.
Part of their side menu:
Grade 1 Kanji along with vocabulary:
Idioms list pdfs:
Kanji activites:
Kanji writing drills:
Grammar websites
7. Maggiesensei (Found this on Tofugo resources database page)
Look at this dog, Aww âš
This website teaches Japanese in a fun way with the assistance of a French bulldog. The dogâs name is Maggie. The website has lots of examples and looks really interesting.
8. Tae kimâs guide (Reminded by it on ăŸă ăŸă Jared YouTube channel)
I knew this website a while back, but didnât really study from it before. When Jared mentioned it on one of his videos, I checked it out again and read a little. I think it is a really great free resource that is different from traditional textbooks. Studying only from textbooks wonât make having a conversation easy or natural because of the way the textbooks are designed. It is up to us to take this matter into our own hands and change this. This resource felt different, it is supplementary to your studies, you shouldnât use it alone though. Okay maybe this one is not that fun, but still worth mentioning.
Reading websites
9. Dokusho bookclub
This blog is really great for reading Japanese. It has lists of reading websites organized by JLPT levels. Ariane, the blogger, has reviewed a lot of books and novels as well on her blog.
10. Web exclusive novel (Found this on Tofugo resources database page)
This one is self explanatory, it is a web novel that is exclusive on the web, not in the original printed novel and it is based on an actual novel called Mysterious Candy Store Zenitendo (ă”ăăé§èćć± é怩ć ). I found out that it isnât just one book. It is a series of more than 20 books that has just finished, and another series has just started. I am thinking of buying this one the next time I am in Japan. It is a childrenâs book that is around N3 level, according to learn natively website, which is a great website for categorizing anime, books, novels and manga to their respective JLPT level.
Images Src: All the images are screenshots from each website.
Thank you for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed this one. See you next time!
Did you like what you see here? Please feel free to head to part two:
Thank you for sharing! I started learning Japanese about 6 months ago and already have collected a few useful resources here and there in my toolbox, but I did not know most of those you mentioned. I saved those links straight up on my Notion Toolbook. Thank you very much, really! đ
OMGđ±What a treasure I just stumbled upon! âšđ
Thank you so much, Raydaăă!!!! for generously sharing these tools and your learning journey so honestly. I love how you focus on enjoying Japanese again, not just chasing tests. Iâm sure Iâll be sharing this with my students and friends~thanks a ton!!!! for putting this together đđ„°