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This page contains advice on how to speak Japanese.
- For more resources in Japanese, please visit our page on the Japanese language.
Categories
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Basic Japanese Phrases
- This video has a very quick overview of Japanese:
Key Japanese Phrases
- Chiron's Survival Japanese Course has great basic dialogues.
- Check out a few phrases:
- Good morning: Ohayo gozaimasu
- Good evening: Konbanwa
- Good-bye: Sayonara
- Express gratitude for meal (before eating): Itadakimasu
- Express gratitude for meal (after eating): Gochisoosama
- Thank you: Arigatoo-gozaimasu
- Excuse me: Sumimasen
- How much is this?: Kore-wa ikura desu-ka?
Japanese Pronunciation and Speaking Tips
- Although it can be difficult to learn, pronouncing Japanese is not difficult, as many of its sounds are similar to English.
- Survival Japanese also has a page of pronunciation tips.
- Remember that Japanese is very different from English:
- Pronouns are often not used
- People are addressed with honorific titles, such as san or sensei
Hiragana Writing Tutor
- The hiragana writing tutor has the sounds of each character written out.
Hiragana Writing Tutor - Choose "both" to view the characters and their sounds displayed together.
- Then click "hiragana" and try to remember the sounds with the characters displayed alone.
- To progress in hiragana, create your own flashcards. Writing the symbols out yourself will allow you to practice stroke order.
- Take flashcards with you to test yourself whenever you can.
- You can practice your kana (hiragana and katakana) comprehension with these online activities.
Japanese Grammar and Study Approaches
- Before starting an intermediate or advanced course of study, the information at these sites may be useful.
Intermediate Japanese Video Activity
- Think you understand intermediate Japanese? Try watching Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon! This version has subtitles so you can check your progress.
Learn Japanese with Akira Kurosawa
- Check out Mahalo's Learning Japanese with Akira Kurosawa
Japanese Podcasts
- Learn Japanese has a series of podcasts.
- Each podcast has a short dialogue, with a transcript posted online for more complex lessons.
- Check the archives from October 2005 for the first lesson!
- You can either listen to the podcast online, or download an MP3 to take with you.
- For more advanced students, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri has online video podcasts. Watching and listening these is a great way to test your comprehension.
Resources for Studying Japanese
- Australia's Griffith University has kanji and grammar resources online, which provide answers to basic grammatical questions and a way to check kanji meanings.
- Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server has a great an online dictionary and a kanji look-up page.
- Kantango lets you look up a Japanese word (in kanji, kana, or romaji) to see its meaning in English.
- Rikai.com provides translations into hiragana and English for kanji. If a site has Japanese characters you need translated, you can type in the web address. The page will reappear, but this time you can hover over any Japanese word and get an English translation!
- Also check out Mahalo's Guide to the Japanese language
