Learn Japanese online for free
Welcome to my site for learning Japanese! As a small incentive, here is something cool or interesting in Japanese that might motivate you to study. It will be updated often so come again!
Here you will find a wealth of information that will help you learn Japanese, all for free. This site has two guides to aid you on your way to full Japanese fluency with no compromises.
The Complete Guide to Japanese
If you’re new to learning Japanese, I recommend you start with the Complete Guide to Japanese. This guide avoids long and complicated explanations and teaches you essential grammar and vocabulary through examples, interesting dialogues, and suggestions for practical applications. Though it’s still a work in progress, the first five chapters are essentially done. Feel free to give me a shout if you get near the end and find that it’s still not finished.
Guide to Japanese Grammar
If you are taking Japanese classes and you want to get a better understanding of how things work, the Guide to Japanese Grammar is designed to supplement your studies and give you a solid understanding of the grammatical structure of Japanese. It thoroughly explains Japanese grammar by starting with the most fundamental ideas and building upon it layer by layer. It is much easier to understand than a traditional Japanese class which will likely skip straight to the polite forms without explaining where they come from. The grammar guide is also available as an Android or iOS app.
So you want to learn Japanese
Ok, I’m not going to go into all the reasons why Japanese is such a fun and rewarding language to learn because you’re already here and interested in learning it. If you’re still undecided or afraid that it’s too hard, don’t be! It can be one of the easier languages to learn in ways that will surprise you. So here’s what you need to do to teach yourself Japanese and how to do it by using this site.
- Learn Hiragana and Katakana (the Japanese “alphabet”).
- Learn vocabulary (with Kanji) and grammar with help from the either the Complete Guide or the Grammar Guide.
- Practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing with material that is interesting to you.
- Learn how to use various tools such as online dictionaries.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 with progressively more advanced topics.
Resources and Tutorials
Achieving full fluency of a language requires not just learning the language but regularly applying what you learned by listening, speaking, reading, and writing. There are many online tools such as online dictionaries that will help you read and watch Japanese books, comics, and movies. There are also sites that will help you connect with native Japanese speakers for language exchange as well as other sites that will help with correcting your writing. These tutorials go over how to use these various tools to effectively learn Japanese online.
Other Links
- Japanese from scratch youtube channel: Short and simple videos for learning Japanese from scratch. These videos eventually make their way into the site but will show up here first.
- My blog: I talk about various topics that are interesting to me, potentially useful resources, and other miscellaneous things.
- Bluesky: My Bluesky profile with random stuff.
- Facebook Group: My group for sharing things pertaining to learning Japanese.
Tae Kim taekim.japanese@gmail.com
Categories
';collapsItems['collapsCat-19-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Hiragana
- Katakana
- Additional Sounds
- Kanji
- Basic numbers and age
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-20-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- State-of-Being
- Topic Particles
- Addressing People
- Sentence-Ending Particles
- Adjectives
- Male/Female Speech
- Noun properties
- Negative State-of-Being
- Identifying the unknown
- Compound Sentences
- Listing multiple nouns
- Explanations and expectations
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-21-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Particles used with verbs
- Existence Verbs
- Negative Form
- Polite Verbs
- Desire and Volition
- Telling Time
- Question words and particles
- Adverbs
- Verb clauses
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-22-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Progressive Tense
- Past Verb Tense
- State-of-Being Past Tense
- Verb sequences
- Listing multiple verbs
- Phrasing verb clauses
- Experiences
- Transitive and Intransitive
- Polite Negative Forms
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-23-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- The Numeric System
- Counting and counters
- Dates and Time
- Various amounts
- Comparisons
- Directions
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-24-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Expressing potential
- Various degrees of certainty
- Appearances and hearsay
- Trying
- Unintended Actions
- Conditional
- Phrasing questions
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-25-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Consequences
- Required actions
- Giving and Receiving
- Doing favors for others
- Making firm requests
- Making suggestions
- Causative and passive verbs
- Making commands
- Chapter summary and practice
';collapsItems['collapsCat-26-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Common patterns in slang
- Other states using te-form
- Easy or difficult actions
- More amount expressions
- Recent Actions
- Inaction
';collapsItems['collapsCat-9-block-3'] = '
- ►Before you start
- ►Writing Systems and Pronunciation
- ►Nouns and Adjectives
- ►Verbs
- ►Verb tenses and clauses
- ►Numbers, amounts, and directions
- ►Potential and uncertainty
- ►Optional and required
- ►Other useful expressions
';collapsItems['collapsCat-10-block-3'] = '
';collapsItems['collapsCat-12-block-3'] = '
';collapsItems['collapsCat-14-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Expressing state-of-being
- State-of-being Practice Exercises
- Introduction to Particles
- Particle Practice Exercises
- Adjectives
- Adjective Practice Exercises
- Verb Basics
- Verb Practice Exercises
- Negative Verbs
- Negative Verb Practice Exercises
- Past Tense
- Past Verb Practice Exercises
- Particles used with verbs
- Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
- Relative Clauses and Sentence Order
- Noun-related Particles
- Adverbs and Sentence-ending particles
';collapsItems['collapsCat-15-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Polite Form and Verb Stems
- Addressing People
- The Question Marker
- Compound Sentences
- Other uses of the te-form
- Potential Form
- Using する and なる with the に particle
- Conditionals
- Expressing \"must\" or \"have to\"
- Desire and Suggestions
- Acting on relative clauses
- Defining and Describing
- Trying or attempting something
- Giving and Receiving
- Making Requests
- Numbers and Counting
- Casual Patterns and Slang
- Review and more sentence-ending particles
';collapsItems['collapsCat-16-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Causative and Passive Verbs
- Honorific and Humble Forms
- Unintended Actions
- Special Expressions with Generic Nouns
- Various degrees of certainty
- Expressing Amounts
- Similarity or hearsay
- Using 「方」 and 「よる」
- Actions that are easy or hard to do
- More negative verbs
- Hypothesizing and Concluding
- Time-specific actions
- Expressing a lack of change
';collapsItems['collapsCat-17-block-3'] = '
- Chapter Overview
- Formal Expressions
- Things that should be a certain way
- The minimum expectation
- Showing signs of something
- Expressing non-feasibility
- Tendencies
- Advanced Volitional
- Covered by something
- Immediate Events
- Other Grammar
';collapsItems['collapsCat-8-block-3'] = '
- ►Before you start
- ►The Writing System
- ►Basic Grammar
- ►Essential Grammar
- ►Special Expressions
- ►Advanced Topics
';collapsItems['collapsCat-27-block-3'] = '
- Resources
- Setting up Japanese for your computer
- Your name in Japanese
- Finding Kanji the smart way
- Developing conversation skills
- Effective writing practice
- Learning new words
';collapsItems['collapsCat-32-block-3'] = '
- The difference between 「は」 and 「が」
- Is there a subject in Japanese grammar?
- 的: A very useful ally
- Debunking the Japanese sentence order myth
- Cut it out with 「切れる」!
- Don\'t README
- What\'s the best way to learn Japanese?
- You can\'t \"learn\" Kanji!!
- Using 「マジ」 for real
';/* Collapse Functions, version 3.0 * *--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/String.prototype.trim = function() { return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,"");}function collapsCatCreateCookie(name,value,days) { if (days) { var date = new Date(); date.setTime(date.getTime()+(days*24*60*60*1000)); var expires = "; expires="+date.toGMTString(); } else { var expires = ""; } document.cookie = name+"="+value+expires+"; path=/;SameSite=Strict";}function readCookie(name) { var nameEQ = name + "="; var ca = document.cookie.split(';'); for(var i=0;i < ca.length;i++) { var c = ca[i]; while (c.charAt(0)==' ') { c = c.substring(1,c.length); } if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0) { return c.substring(nameEQ.length,c.length); } } return null;}function eraseCookie(name) { collapsCatCreateCookie(name,"",-1);}function addExpandCollapseCat(widgetRoot, expandSym, collapseSym, accordion) {widgetRoot.querySelectorAll( 'span.collapsing-categories').forEach(item => {item.addEventListener('click', event => {let theLink = item.querySelector('a');if ( theLink ) {// This is to support the option of expanding and collapsing only, and// not linking to the category archive (linkToCat=false)theLink.removeAttribute('href');}if (accordion) {let theSpan = item.parentElement.parentElement.querySelector('span.collapse');// If we are collapsing the one item which is expanded then we don't// want to change the other items, thus we only do this when the item// and theSpan are differentif ( theSpan && theSpan != item ) {let theDiv = theSpan.parentElement.querySelector('div');let divId = theDiv.getAttribute("id");theDiv.style.display = 'none';theSpan.classList.remove('collapse');theSpan.classList.add('expand');collapsCatCreateCookie(divId, 0, 7);} widgetRoot.querySelectorAll( '.expand .sym').forEach(item => { item.innerHTML = expandSym;});}expandCollapseCat(item, expandSym, collapseSym, accordion );})});}function expandCollapseCat(symbol, expandSym, collapseSym, accordion ) {let newDiv = symbol.parentElement.querySelector('div');let divId = newDiv.getAttribute("id");newDiv.innerHTML = collapsItems[divId];// calling again here to add to sub-categories, which may not have been in the DOM beforeaddExpandCollapseCat( newDiv, expandSym, collapseSym, accordion );//newDiv.style.maxHeight = newDiv.scrollHeight + "px";if (symbol.classList.contains('expand')) {newDiv.style.display = 'block';symbol.classList.remove('expand');symbol.classList.add('collapse');symbol.querySelector('.sym').innerHTML = collapseSym;collapsCatCreateCookie(divId, 1, 7);} else {newDiv.style.display = 'none';symbol.classList.remove('collapse');symbol.classList.add('expand');symbol.querySelector('.sym').innerHTML = expandSym;collapsCatCreateCookie(divId, 0, 7);}return false;}collapsCatRoot = document.querySelector( '#widget-collapscat-block-3-top' );addExpandCollapseCat(collapsCatRoot, '►', '▼', )// ]]>