Nafai's Japanese language pages

Japanese is a very fascinating language, and compared to other languages it is relatively easy to study by yourself without actually living in Japan. The words are easy to pronounce and the pronunciation usually follows the spelling.

The study of Japanese can be divided into four different areas:

1. Pronunciation
2. Grammar
3. Getting a vocabulary
4. Learning the kanji (Japanese characters)

To get started click on one of the below links:

For the beginner

• Introduction to Japanese for beginners (Japanese-enabled browser not required)
• Various reading exercises
• Japanese word games (Japanese-enabled browser not required)

Learning Japanese

• List of about 480 yoji jukugo (yojijukugo/�l���n��) sorted by frequency - very useful for building vocab!
• Answering telphone calls - useful expressions when using a telephone
• Japanese phrases (discontinued) (Japanese-enabled browser not required)
  A document of phrases and grammatical constructs I started creating a long time ago. Everything is in romaji (that is, no Japanese characters) , so it should be easy to use even for the beginner.

Learning kanji

• Verbs in hiragana
  Lists of verbs that end in the same syllable. The first verbs are easy to read, but as you proceed they become more difficult. Use this to train the really rare kanji.
  
• Words with same pronunciation but different spelling
• Japanese Kanji exam
• Usually written in hiragana
  A fun list of words which are usually written in hiragana, but where a kanji counterpart actually exists!
• Tid-bits of information I have gathered with kanji
• Funny Japanese "tongue twisters"
• Frequency list of Japanese kanji

Other

• The Romaniser
  This little tool which I created can translate all Japanese katakana and hiragara words into western letters! This can be very helpful if a text contains many foreign loanwords and you want to get an idea of what the page is about but can't read Japanese.
  
• Japanese foreign loanwords with a twist
• Say it!
  Create a simple Japanese sentence...
• Slang and other powerful expressions
  Some Japanese slang and other expressions in Romaji
• List of Japanese emperors

Very useful links

• Living in Japan
  Links about living in Japan, mainly intended for newbies! Also contains various cultural links that used to go in the language section.
• Clothes and shoe stores in Tokyo for big people!
  For all you basketball players out there, and for the average gaijin too.
• Online Japanese language resources
  Links to online resources for learning Japanese, translation engines and text resources.