I ‘ve put together a number of free Japanese language lessons and language courses for those interesting in learning Japanese or just brushing up your existing Japanese language skills. While the list is brief, the list will grow significantly over time. So check back periodically.

I have also included a number of Japanese online newspapers, some Japanese dictionaries, as well as a Japanese internet radio station, to vary your list of resources as well as to keep your Japanese learning interesting.

Japanese Courses

Absolutely Learn Japanese-Online
Since 1996, Japanese-Online.com has been providing free learning services to people who wish to study the Japanese language. We also now provide a means for Japanese learners to find and talk to one another, as well as seek language exchange relationships with Japanese speakers. Japanese speakers seeking language exchange partners are also invited so you will soon find people to study with Advanced Japanese Exercises For the advanced Japanese student, 15 lessons in listening comprehension.

ApologiesinJapanese The website presents the ins and outs of apologies in Japanese as you move through examples and exercises. In apologizing, the speaker recognizes the infraction or offense caused through his/her fault and attempts to repair the relationship with the hearer. The site includes MP3 audio of Japanese apologies in various situations.

Charles Kelly’s Online Japanese Language Study Materials
Various free online materials developed for the study of Japanese.

eLanguageSchool.net
Free Japanese lessons, Japanese podcasts, and videocasts, ranging from beginner to advanced levels.

Free Japanese Lessons
If you want to learn Japanese, you’ve come to the right place! On this site you will find such things as the Japanese alphabet (including Hiragana and Katakana) as well as Kanji, Japanese grammar, sentence structure, and useful Japanese phrases.

Free Japanese Learning Resources
A listing of free learning resources for the learners of the Japanese language. All are freely available on the web – no payments, no logins (with one exception which works with anonymous guest login), no subscription requirements.

Japanese Language Study Materials
Japanese language course study materials for classes at the Massachuesetts Institute of Technology.

The Japanese Page
This includes sections on Japanese grammar, language lessons, vocabulary, hiragana & katakana, kanji, culture, dioms and phrases, and even Japanese furniture!

Japan-Studies.com
For beginners, this site includes eight basic lessons, as well as sections on hiragana, katakana, kanji, pronunciation, and useful phrases.

JP Net – Japanese Language and Culture Network
A variety of Japanese language resources for students and teachers from the Massachuesetts Institute of Technology.

Learn-Japanese
A Japanese language forum with a beginner student’s section and plenty of comraderie with other Japanese language students.

Lesson/J Dictation Quizzes for Japanese Speech
This provides spoken sentences, words, syllables, special morae and accent.

Practice Japanese Online
With practice sessions in first and second year Japanese, vocabulary and kanji practice (with stroke order), useful phrases, numbers, etc. Requires Flash and QuickTime for some exercises.

Reading Tutor
Reading Tutor was designed to help JFL/JSL learners improve their reading skills in Japanese.

Shin Nihongo no Kiso: Japanese-English Vocabulary
A simple list of basic words in Japanese, in kanji and kana, together with their English definitions.

Survival Japanese
Survival Japanese is for people who are interested in communicating in Japanese but have no knowledge of the language. If you plan to visit Japan, this site make your stay much more interesting and enjoyable.

Nihongo o Narau (Learn Japanese)
Nihongo o Narau is a site dedicated to teaching Japanese for English speakers.

Nihongo Resources
This site includes a number of resourcs for learning Japanese, including a grammar textbook and a series of Japanese lessons.

Talk Japanese Now
One of the best foreign language sites around, the BBC website provides materials for learning Japanese, focused primarily for teachers needing lessons.

Teach Yourself Japanese
This site features a textbook for learning Japanese through independent study.

Kanji and Kana Script

Charles Kelly’s Kanji Study
Fast-loading, uncluttered pages with Kanji, their readings, quizzes, and high-frequency example words, along with direct links to the same kanji on other websites.

 

The Japanese Writing Tutor
This page is meant to help students of Japanese practice their writing skills. By following along with the motion of several animated GIF files, you can hone your writing skills, making your katakana, hiragana, and kanji more legible.

Java Kanji Flashcards
Welcome to the Java Kanji Flashcards homepage. This Java applet will help you learn the 500 most commonly occuring Japanese Kanji. If you would like to use an online dictionary to learn more and study other Kanji, please try Kiki’s Kanji Dictionary which has thousands more Kanji, definitions, and compounds in an easy to use, browsable dictionary format.

Charles Kelly’s Japanese Kana Quizzes: Hiragana & Katakana
A variety hiragana and katakana oriented quizzes, flashcards, newspaper vocabulary, and games.

Dartmouth Kanji Practice
A Kanji review with example sentences in Japanese along with English translations.

 

Understanding Written Japanese
A learning strategy based on sound research contributing to conversational skills. Start enjoying Kanji today.

Kanji-A-Day
This website displays a new kanji character each day. It also provides lists of kanji, hiragana, katakana, and kanji quizzes.

 

KanaChart
Kanachart.com is a free kana reference site for English speakers learning Japanese at the beginner level.

Kanji Clinic
Kanji Clinic is a column appearing the third Tuesday of every month in The Japan Times. Its purpose is to provide practical advice and inspiration to non-Japanese adults striving to achieve literacy in Japanese by learning the 1,945 general-use kanji (“Chinese characters”).

 

KanjiLearn
This website provides an electronic set of 2135 two-sided flashcards.

 

The Kanji Site
This provides several resources for studying kanji, katakana, and hiragana scripts

Outline of the Japanese Writing System
A history and exposition of the kanji writing system.

Rikai Kanji Flashcards
An interactive flashcard dedicated site for learning Japanese vocabulary.

Rikai Kanji Map
The Rikai Kanji website provides displays a kanji character and shows its relationship to other kanji in pictorial display.

Memorising the Hiragana and Katakana
This website introduces a powerful way of remembering the Japanese kana alphabets. For a novice Japanese learner, knowing these from the outset is a great boost to ones confidence. The mnemonics outlined here will allow you to learn each alphabet in just a few hours, so hold tight…

Japanese Vocabulary

Many Things Japanese
Japanese-English Quizzes in Romaji

 

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Vocabulary Lists
Japanese vocabulary lists.

 

KA Japanese Vocabulary
This site displays the lists of vocabulary, by lesson, for a number of popular textbooks.

Randomly Chosen Japanese Words
Randomly Chosen Japanese words to enhance your existing Japanese vocabulary base.

English-Japanese Vocabulary Quizzes
English Japanese vocabulary quizzes in Romanized Japanese.

Japanese Grammar

A Guide to the Functions of Structural Particles in Japanese
From the website: Structural particles are the central aspect of the Japanese language, as there are no “sentences” in Japanese in the sense that there are in English. Basically, the Japanese language is a series of utterances that are linked together by structural particles along with verbs and a few connecting words.

Japanese for the Western Brain
A Japanese tutorial covering the fundamentals of Japanese Grammar.

A Logical Japanese Grammar.

A Japanese Grammar focused website.

 

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Japanese
The Quick and Dirty Guide to Japanese is a canonical classic of the internet.

 

Some Notes on Japanese Grammar
Short introduction to the grammar of Japanese.

A Japanese Guide to Japanese Grammar
This site explains Japanese grammar in a systematic step-by-step process.

The Japanese Language
This website provides a history, characteristics, and dialects of the Japanese language.

Japanese Language Communities

Polyglot
Polyglot is a non-profit community dedicated to language exchange. Polyglot allows you to find the right person ready to exchange languages with you. You will search for penpals according to age, gender, location, hobbies, etc.

 

Speak Any Language Online Community
Speak-Any-Language.com is a web-based, global community dedicated to making the world a smaller place through understanding of languages and cultures.

Other Japanese Language Resources

Online Japanese Dictionaries and Glossaries
An impressive collection of links to online Japanese dictionaries.

If you’re just starting out on your trek to enhance your Japanese language skills, you may want to check out Pimsleur Japanese Language Courses.

Tags: Asian Languages, Japanese, Main, Free Japanese Courses, Hiragana, Japanese Free Lessons, Japanese Grammar, Japanese Language Courses, Japanese Language Resources, Japanese Websites, Kanji, Katakana

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