Single Sentence Summary: A website where you post journal entries in your target language, native speakers correct it and vice versa.
Why You Should Use It:NATIVE. SPEAKERS. CORRECTING. YOUR. ENTRIES!!!! It also has an abundance of native Japanese speakers which is always a plus and forces you to actively utilise what you’ve learnt vs. your knowledge just passively withering away.
Possible Pitfalls: Correcting other people’s grammar is weirdly addictive and you might find yourself spending hours on it or maybe that’s just me whoops.
Single Sentence Summary: A web browser add-on that automatically translates Japanese if you hover over words.
Why You Should Use It: It’s extremely useful when reading articles online, especially when it comes to unknown kanji. It provides an efficient way to access definitions.
Possible Pitfalls: They’re potentially a little too helpful – you could get reliant on them and not actually learn the kanji D:
Single Sentence Summary: A site filled with Japanese lessons taught by ‘Maggie Sensei’, a French bulldog.
Why You Should Use It: The grammar lessons are really helpful as they provide a lot of context rather than just telling you how to form the structure. Maggie Sensei is also ridiculously cute.
Possible Pitfalls: I don’t actually use it on a super regular basis so I’m not sure how many resources there actually are, but the explanations I HAVE used from the site are all A+.
Single Sentence Summary: Japanese newspapers written with simple vocabulary and grammar that are aimed towards children.
Why You Should Use It: Because the articles are aimed towards children, they’re much easier to digest and take in. Also keeps you up to date with how awful the world is haha 😉
Possible Pitfalls: The articles all come with furigana above basically ALL the kanji which can get a tad annoying. If you’re looking for something more challenging, consider trying the original newspapers such as The Daily Asahi and NHK News.
Listening
Japanese Youtubers //
Native Japanese speakers with English subtitles:PDRさん
Native Japanese speakers without English subtitles:MAHOTO //
Non-native Japanese speakers with English subtitles:MIMEI
Note: There are probably plenty more Youtubers out there but for time and convenience’s sake, I’ve only listed the ones that a) make videos mainly in Japanese and b) I actually watch myself.
Why You Should Use It: Youtube videos are short and snappy so they don’t take up as much time as say, watching a film. Furthermore, because a lot of them are humorous, you can pick up more natural sounding phrases.
Possible Pitfalls: You might get sucked into an irredeemable blackhole of no return and never leave your house again.
Japanese Anime, Dramas and Variety Shows //
Why You Should Use It: Dramas/anime/variety shows come in episodes so they are also quick and easy to watch. COVER THE SUBTITLES (or better yet, have no subtitles) so you’re actually learning from the experience, not just wasting time. Don’t hesitate to replay sections again if you didn’t quite catch everything the first time.
Disclaimer: Anime characters (and certain drama characters) say some pretty weird stuff so please use your common sense when picking up phrases. DO NOT run around screaming 「だってばよ」 like Naruto or referring to yourself as「
俺様
」just because Atobe from Prince of Tennis does. Always check that what you’re learning is actually applicable to real life.
Possible Pitfalls: See the disclaimer above. Also just as a general rule, slice-of-life stuff tends to have more vocabulary that you can actually use in real life for obvious reasons.
Single Sentence Summary: An app that allows you to connect with native speakers of other languages. You can do so by text, audio messages and voice + video calls.
Why You Should Use It: Essentially you can practice reading, writing, speaking and make new friends all at the same time. What’s not to love?
Possible Pitfalls: This is a minor thing but I keep forgetting to reply on HelloTalk because I want to reply properly but I never have the time to do so. Apart from that it’s been great so far. 🙂
Single Sentence Summary: An all-purpose forum about Japanese culture but it’s particularly useful for finding language learning partners.
Why You Should Use It: As stated above, it’s good for finding penpals and language learning partners. You can filter by age, gender, country, language etc. which is pretty good. Also, all messages are sent through the site so on the off chance that you do meet a creepy weirdo, they won’t have access to your contact details.
Possible Pitfalls: Since all the messaging is done through the website, I tend to forget to check my inbox a lot of the time. Also they automate the passwords which makes them easy to forget too. For these reasons, I would recommend messaging on LINE or something once you’ve ascertained the other party isn’t a serial killer or something along those lines. 😉
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