Reading Corner Read real Japanese essays and texts. My Favorites View tagged kanji, words, examples and grammar points. Collections Kanji, words and names grouped in various ways for easy access. How-to Guides In-depth guides to studying Japanese, learning kanji, and using Kanshudo. Kanji Challenge The most effective way to study a kanji, with key words and examples.
Kanji Quiz Take the Kanji Quiz to assess your level. Kanji Match Match kanji with their correct meanings. Kanji Builder Build kanji from their components. Kanji Draw Practice drawing kanji. Try to beat your high score! Kanji Keywords Type the most important words for each kanji reading. Word Quiz Take the Word Quiz to build or test your vocabulary. Word Match Match words with their correct meanings. Sentence Builder Drag words to build sentences. Sentence Complete Drag kanji to their correct places to complete sentences.
Answer Type Type the readings of words to build your vocabulary. Grammar Match Identify the correct inflection for each sentence. Kanshudo Component Builder. Draw a component:. Type a component or its name:. Choose from a list:. Change component list. By default the Component Builder shows the most common Joyo kanji components ie, components which are themselves Joyo kanji, or which are used in at least 3 other Joyo kanji.
Starting with an explanation of the importance, purpose and functions of particles, this dictionary covers over particles complete with example sentences, making it a valuable reference tool for those tricky terms. Designed to be used by beginning to advanced Japanese learners, all particles featured are ones that are found in modern Japanese. Entries are written in romaji as well as kana for universal accessibility.
The contents are arranged in English alphabetical order, so looking up just the particle you need is a snap every time. I guarantee you have a few in your native language! For those that seriously plan on getting to an advanced level in the Japanese language, this book is a great addition to your resource collection.
Basically, all the kanji you could ever want to know are bound in one convenient spot. Meanings are given in order of importance and provide plenty of example words that contain the kanji. Some kanji serve as prefixes and suffixes, and this dictionary goes into how those are used as well. Its most noteworthy feature is its unique system called SKIP System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns , which organizes kanji based on patterns, rather than radicals.
Reading Japanese stories allows you to explore ways of thinking that you may have never considered before, making for a wonderfully captivating experience. Translations are provided line by line, meaning that you get a line of Japanese followed by a line of English underneath. This book features eight short stories by famous as well as up-and-coming Japanese authors like Banana Yoshimoto, Kasushige Abe and Hiromi Kawakami.
Three of these stories have never been published in English before—making for brand new material that you can enjoy! With stories that cover a variety of themes and page-by-page parallel translations in English, engaging literature in the Japanese language is right at your fingertips.
This book is an extremely flexible tool for those with a bit more Japanese knowledge under their belts. Furigana for kanji are included, but only once, so this material is designed to push you towards kanji fluency. As the title suggests, this book provides modern Japanese stories by some of the top authors in Japan today. For those of you who want to know what Japanese people are really reading, look no further. Stories are arranged based on difficulty, with furigana provided for all kanji.
While there are no full English translations, only detailed notes on each page, this format makes for a good challenge and allows the reader to focus primarily on the Japanese language. There is also a section for each story that explains certain literary elements found in the stories. This book features classic Japanese stories that focus on Japanese culture and literary tradition. Designed for intermediate and advanced students, these stories are laid out in a way that enables you to study from them.
For those of you learning with others, there are also discussion questions that enable you to check your interpretation of the material. Try this book for your next study group! There are certainly more Japanese textbooks for learning the language out there, but this list includes some of the most authoritative, popular and effective titles and publishers in the industry.
If you love learning Japanese with authentic materials, then I should also tell you more about FluentU. FluentU naturally and gradually eases you into learning Japanese language and culture.
You'll learn real Japanese as it's spoken in real life. FluentU makes these native Japanese videos approachable through interactive transcripts. Tap on any word to look it up instantly. All definitions have multiple examples, and they're written for Japanese learners like you.
Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list. And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples. The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. The FluentU app is now available for iOS and Android, and it's also available as a website that you can access on your computer or tablet.
But in truth, most of these myths are simply not true. Kanji is one of three elements used in the Japanese writing system. They are a set of characters that have been adopted from the Chinese writing system and are used together with the Japanese hiragana and katakana characters.
After all, Japanese children learn to speak the language long before they have an advanced mastery of kanji. Additionally, kanji is easier to learn the longer you study it. Did you know that even native Japanese speakers forget kanji characters sometimes? The good news is that all kanji knowledge is cumulative. The more kanji you learn, the more words you know. And the more kanji you know, the faster you learn new words.
But the logic underpinning it is not. Japanese people think, talk about, and do the same things you do. They just express their ideas in a slightly different way.
Most Japanese people will just be amazed and impressed that you are going to the trouble of learning their language in the first place. They are aware that it can be difficult — because Japanese people struggle with English too! Experience has taught me that people are rarely judgemental when it comes to foreigners speaking their language.
The Japanese even have a whole system of honorific language for this called keigo. A second concern is the nature of social hierarchy in Japan and the appropriate manner of speaking to those who are above or below you in social status. The most important thing to remember is this: the Japanese have different standards for native speakers than they do for non-native speakers.
As a non-native speaker, you are not generally expected to speak with the appropriate politeness level at all times. Japanese has a total of 3 writing systems :. Mastering kanji is easily the most challenging part of Japanese, and learning it properly requires commitment— but it is entirely within your grasp!
Firstly, to distinguish between homophones. There are many homophones in the Japanese language, and kanji helps to distinguish between different words. For example:. Secondly, kanji helps to condense the language , make it very information-dense and easier to read. Japanese can pack more information into a limited space than most other languages can.
The fact of the matter is that hiragana is actually quite difficult to read by itself, so kanji is used to speed up reading. Japanese does not use any spaces between words, so another of the primary functions of kanji is to help distinguish where words begin and end.
The Japanese are well-aware of the difficulty of kanji , and so in certain books and TV shows, etc. When you are looking for reading material, make sure you check to see if furigana is available, as they will no doubt aid you in the early stages of learning to read Japanese. Study Every Day: Carve out some time to sit down and focus on Japanese for at least 20 minutes each day.
If you can find more time, great! Break your study goals down into reasonable chunks and work towards them a little each day. One of these elements is a set of characters called radicals. There are radicals and these are the base characters from which all other more advanced characters are built. When you tackle k anji , learn these radicals first. It will then be much easier to go on and learn the other characters and the words themselves.
Regularly expose yourself to new materials and try different learning exercises. Some days you can practice writing the characters out on a page, other days you could mix things up by studying characters with flashcards or practising some reading. Beware Of Beginner And Intermediate Plateaus: There are two common plateau phases in Japanese and both are closely tied to learning the writing system.
This is one of the most critical phases for staying motivated. Your rate of progress will feel slower but stick with it and you will quickly adjust. The second plateau comes once you have a mastery of grammar and have to focus on mastering kanji and increasing your vocabulary. But when you do reach this plateau, the important thing to do is to start consuming as much Japanese-language material as you can and learning new kanji.
Japanese is a tricky language to get started with. Frankly, getting started with Japanese might be the hardest part. So I want to talk about a few traps that beginners fall into. There is a LOT of knowledge to cover in Japanese, and the fastest way to burn yourself out is to try and learn too fast.
Remember that in order to achieve fluency, you need to build a strong foundation in the basics of the language. Japanese is a very rich and deep language— think of it as a marathon and not a sprint to the finish line. If manga is what you love, then you should read it whenever you want, just be aware that it will be quite challenging as a beginner. Entertainment media often involves non-standard grammar and casual expressions which can rapidly overwhelm a new learner and leave them lost and confused.
But be warned that the way characters speak in fiction is often very different from how people talk in real life. And if not, you can find partners online to practise speaking with. Big mistake!! Your progress in the language will be MUCH faster if you have regular assistance from a Japanese native speaker , rather than trying to work everything out by yourself!
Want to download a PDF of this article to read later? Click here to get your FREE copy. One important thing about learning a language is that it must come from the learner, not the teacher.
This means you will need the necessary tools to learn, and a good beginner course is indispensable. Get started now with a FREE 7-day trial. Identifying your goals will help you stay on-target and help you figure out what you need to focus on at each stage of your Japanese learning.
Type any word that forms part of a construction or describes the type of construction. For example:. To quickly identify inflections and conjugations for different parts of speech, use the Inflection Showcase. Inflection Showcase. NEW We regularly add new articles on grammar and other points of interest, and add more material to existing articles.
Use these links to see what's been added or updated recently:. NEW Track your knowledge of grammar points using a 'mastery score' for each grammar point. Mastery scores will be updated automatically as you study grammar flashcards, and you can edit them manually from your mastery summary or from a grammar point.
You can view a summary of your mastery of grammar points by usefulness or JLPT level. You can also combine searches for a specific grammar point or type of grammar point with a JLPT level by adding jlpt:x to any search:. You can also search for grammar points by Kanshudo's rating of how useful they are to you.
Grammar points have usefulness levels from 1 to 6. Some grammar points have a Kanshudo usefulness rating but no JLPT rating because they do not appear in standard JLPT lists, but you would be expected to know them when your Japanese is at that level. For help getting started with Japanese grammar, and structured lists of articles, see:. Getting started with Japanese grammar. To see which grammar points are available for grammar games, use the special keyword examples:true.
Need a new grammar point? Not sure how to look something up? Send us details and we will gladly help! The Kanshudo usefulness level shows you how useful a grammar point is for you to learn.
Grammar point has a Kanshudo usefulness level of. You can view a summary of your mastery of grammar points at different usefulness or JLPT levels here. Grammar points in our system are rated from 1 to 6, where 1 is the most useful.
A usefulness level of 1 roughly corresponds to the first level of the JLPT, level 5 - i. Some useful grammar points do not have a JLPT badge. These means that you would generally be expected to know the grammar if your Japanese was at that level, but the grammar point does not appear in standardized lists which are not necessarily comprehensive.
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