Resources for Japanese

Japanese is an East Asian language with approximately 128 million natives speakers, primarily from Japan. Although there is no linguistic genealogical relationship with Chinese, Japanese makes use of written Chinese characters, known as kanji, and borrows a significant portion of vocabulary from Chinese. Japanese has its own unique syllabic scripts known collectively as kana, with hiragana being used primarily for Japanese-origin words and katakana primarily for foreign words. According to the Foreign Service Institute, Japanese is considered one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn (Level 5 or about 2,200 hours), which is why 90% of Japanese speakers are native to Japan with only an estimated 7 million speakers foreign-born.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH JAPANESE

Currently, I am casually working through N5 level Japanese textbooks because Japanese is a “dabble” language for me. So I would absolutely not call myself an expert! I have gathered these resources from my own studies as well as suggestions from more advanced learners (such as our partner Jazmine, who is a Japanese major). My focus right now is on becoming conversationally fluent in German, but I like to watch anime, listen to Japanese music, and study new Japanese characters in my free time. Just for fun!

You can follow my language learning journey on YouTube (Melissa Jetzt Languages) and Twitter (@JetztMelissa).

GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY

DICTIONARIES

Reading & Writing

BOOKS

* Note: Some sites may not ship to your country. Most of the books I’ve found I bought while visiting the country. I recommend searching using key words in Japanese or using language filters.

WRITTEN NEWS SOURCES

BLOGS & SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

speaking & Listening

AUDIO PROGRAMS

Entertainment & Immersion

TV & MOVIES

  • Browse Netflix by Audio (select Japanese in dropdown list)

  • Unogs can show you a list of what’s available on Netflix in Japan (requires Netflix and VPN)

  • Crunchyroll (legal anime streaming with regular simulcasts)

JAPANESE YOUTUBERS

 Worksheets & Planners

 

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Have your own resources to share?

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