Language Training

  • Genki Series Textbooks – These are the same textbooks used by the Carleton Japanese language classes. They are also very suitable to self-study as they have clear and precise explanations.
  • On-line Japanese Lessons for Beginners
  • Kyudo 弓道 in Minnesota
  • Grammar Review Tests
  • Saboten’s Tools for Japanese Learners
  • Duolingo – Free courses for people on the go. Memorize vocabulary, improve pronunciation and understand grammar. For beginners, intermediate and advanced levels. Uses fill in the blanks, typing, voice recording and images.
  • Memrise – Learn from beginners to advanced, improve pronunciation and conversation flow.
  • Loecsen – Method of rapid assimilation of the foreign languages that can be learnt over the internet or on other mobile devices. It is intended for people who want to manage in most situations of everyday life without having to go through a lengthy learning process.
  • 101 Languages – Includes links to different resources such as radio stations, vocabulary lessons and builder, keyboards, news, common words, translators, conjugators, flashcards, travel guides, pronunciation, phrases and vocabulary.
  • Goethe Verlag – Phrase book, vocabulary, download bilingual audios, download monolingual audios.  Includes 100 easy lessons (100 lessons are free). All dialogues and sentences are spoken by native speakers. No prior grammar knowledge is needed. You can start learning immediately. Improve your language skills for work, travel or as a hobby.
  • Live Lingua Project – Learning materials that contain courses, ebooks and audios. 
  • Games – Language learning games. Numbers, phrases, colors, days, months, fruits, animals, vocabulary, food, verbs, clothes, times and nouns.
  • My Languages – Site which focuses on grammar and vocabulary. Lessons, grammar tips, vocabulary, phrases, language tools, and audio files to download.
  • Master Any Language – Learn playing games, take tests, audios, alphabets, numbers, greetings, food, months, days, native speakers and links to resources such as music, foods, apps, books and movies.
  • Unilang – Free courses, podcasts, videos, phrasebooks, games and exercises.
  • Open Culture – Links to various language learning sites.
  • Forvo – Pronunciation examples.

Grammar Resources

Dictionary/Vocab Resources

  • Jisho Online English-Japanese Dictionary – The definitive and most comprehensive online Japanese dictionary. Should be used for everything.
  • Wanikani – A highly effective kanji memorization tool. It does cost money, however is highly rated.
  • Anki Core2k Deck – A deck of the 2000 most commonly used Japanese words, Anki needs to be installed to use this vocab deck (it is free)
  • UniDict Multilingual Dictionary Search Engine – Unidict is a great tool to look up words and characters.
  • Tangorin – Comprehensive dictionary that includes the following features:Japanese-English and English-Japanese word dictionary.
  • Monash University JReader – The JREADER program provides a PC with the capability to read and display a text file containing Japanese characters (kana & kanji), with the option of looking up the displayed words in a Japanese/English dictionary file or in a kanji-to-kana yomikata file.

Reference Materials

Newspapers and Cultural Readings

Curious About the Japanese Study Abroad Programs?

Linguistics and Culture in Kyoto, Japan