I have mention before that learning the the most common Japanese words first is an essential part of learning to speak Japanese quickly. You want to learn the words that you will use, not just the ones that are ordered in a book.

However, wouldn’t it also be great if there was a simple way to learn the words that didn’t require just pure repetition. A way to remember the words are pronounced and what they mean without having to look at it 20 times, finally remember it, only to forget it because you didn’t use it for a week?

The link to the program below focuses on exactly this problem. Unlike a lot of  the programs available Speak Japanese Fast doesn’t try to be a full Japanese learning suite. Instead it focuses on teaching you vocabulary quickly and remember them by using interesting stories to learn the meaning and the pronunciation. Remember the Kanji uses a very similar method in teaching Kanji and it works pretty well.

You can check out the program here.

Disclaimer: I get a percentage of all sales purchased from this link and appreciate your support. The money is used to keep Japanese Words up and running and allow me to spend more time writing and developing the site.

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So you finally figured out how to read and write Japanese on your computer (if you haven’t, do this right away). The problem is that the standard fonts for Japanese aren’t very good. In addition to just being plane bad looking or difficult to read, there may occasionally be characters that don’t show up. Since you will see Japanese words written in all different kinds of fonts and handwriting, it is also a good idea to get used to lots of different ones. But don’t worry. This post is all about choosing a new font.

Michele Romanini (the same person who turned the 1000+ common Japanese words into an SRS list) has found a great list of fonts that can be downloaded. Since there are quite a few different kinds of fonts, you should be able to find something to your liking.

Installing fonts will vary depending on the OS you are using, but there is a a lot of documentation on the web. Simple type “installing fonts in (name of your OS)”.

You can find the Japanese Fonts at the link below

Japanese Fonts

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I am always on the lookout for good Japanese learning tools. With all the available channels there are a lot of different types products, but to be honest, many fall very short of really teaching you the language. But every once and a while, I happen to stumble across one that really impresses me. What’s even better is that this particular video series is completely free.

Now I will admit that Let’s Learn Japanese is a little bit outdated, but the over all content is great (and I did mention free right?).

The videos do a great job, of putting the Japanese words and conversation in context so you can get an understanding even if you don’t understand the Japanese. They then break it down and explain the meaning and have you practice the various Japanese phrases and words .

The other thing I like is that the series is shot as a funny and interesting little story. While it isn’t a blockbuster, I thought the film crew did a good enough job that I wanted to keep watching. The story line follows Yan, a foreigner coming to work and live in Japan.

There was also a companion book for the video series called “Let’s Learn Japanese”, but it seems to be out of print now. I was able to find some PDF copies on Scribd.

You can find the rest of the Japanese videos below:

Japanese Basic I- I am Yan

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The most popular post on JapaneseWords.net has been 1000+ Japanese Words List. As the title suggests, the post contains a list of over 1000 common Japanese Words and Kanji. I am proud to announce that the list has just gotten much better.

Thanks to the hard work of Michele Romanini and his wife Bika Fujioka, the list is now available for download for Anki and Mnemosyne. In addition to making the list usable in Anki and Mnemosyne, he has also divided the original into multiple lists (english to hiragana, hiragana to English, English to Kanji, etc). The ability to use Anki will allow you to study over 1000 common words and kanji in a very efficient manner.

I have included two files below. One is in “mem” format (Mnemosyne format) and the other in txt format. Either one can be imported into Anki.

 

Japanese Word Lists

Click Here to download Mnemosyne format

Click Here to download txt format

Japanese Study Tip

When dealing with a list of this size it can be a little bit overwhelming. Setting up a study schedule and a goal will prove to be very helpful. For instance, you might try to learn 5 or 10 new words a day. Or choose the date of completion and then figure out the number of words you will need to remember each day!

Special Thanks

Thanks once again to Mr. Romanini and Mrs. Fujioka for their  hard work! Putting this list into a format usable by Anki and Mnemosyne greatly improves it’s value

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I have mentioned several times that studying Japanese should be fun. If it’s not fun then it is going to be much harder and take you longer to learn. An ideal method would be one that makes you feel like you aren’t studying at all. Over the last few weeks I have been playing with a Japanese learning tool called NihongoUP. And I say “playing” in the literal form, because NihongoUp turns Japanese study into an addictive game.

NihongoUp is made up of 4 different games (kana, kanji, words, and grammar). In the kana game, little balloons with kana fall from the top of the screen and you have to type them before they hit the bottom of the screen. With the other three games you are given a sentence and must click the falling balloon containing the correct answer before it hits the bottom of the screen. The balloons fall faster and faster with each correct answer and slow down again after you miss one. The advantage to this method is that you will constantly be challenged to read and answer quicker each time.

The game is designed in Adobe air which means it can be played on on any Operating System. The game itself is beautifully designed and runs fast. I didn’t care much for the music, but luckily there is an option to turn it off. Rather than music, I would prefer readings of the sentences or characters. I think that would be much more helpful.

NihongoUp isn’t a full Japanese language suite and the author of the program is the first to mention this. For instance, the kana feature doesn’t tell you how to type the characters you get wrong. Kanji and words that you missed are only shown briefly. And by that time you are already working on the next word or character. Adding a review or a report showing the correct answers would be a very helpful addition.

Having said that, what it is designed to do, and what I think it accomplishes very well, is to help you study material you already know in a fun way. It gets you to focus on getting the next high score and in doing so makes you forget you are studying. Though you will definitely learn some new words and kanji along the way.

The program costs a total of $4.99. I think this is pretty cheap for the amount of study you will get out of it. There is also a trial version available.

You can find NihongoUp at the link below:

NihongoUp

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