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Japanese Folklore and Mythology: Comic & Graphic Novel Recommendations

Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy by Ken Niimura

Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy is a collection of three stories from Ken Niimura that are rooted in well-known Japanese folk tales, such as Urashima Taro and The Crane Wife. Each story delves into the concept of the taboo, asking questions such as “Why are these rules meant to be followed?” and “Who and why sets these rules?” Taking inspiration from the Japanese folk tales told to Ken Niimura as a child and combining them with his unique and captivating art style, Never Open It: The Taboo Trilogy is a must read graphic novel for fans of beautiful literary comics.

Tamamo the Fox Maiden and Other Asian Stories by Kel McDonald (Editor)

“And they lived happily ever after … I assume.” Vengeful spirits, flying ogres, helpful teapots, ghost pepper ghosts, and trickster tigers? That’s just the start of this lively collection of Asian folktales, reimagined and retold in comics! This second volume of the “Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales” graphic novel series is a thrilling, funny, and totally unexpected take on stories spanning the entirety of the Asian continent, with loads of lesser-known myths and legends from Tibet, India, Indonesia, and beyond. Featuring the work of Gene Luen Yang, Nick Dragotta, Blue Delliquanti, Carla Speed McNeil, Nina Matsumoto, and many more!

The Girl Without a Face by tearontaron

Her boyfriend thinks she’s the cutest girl around, but her expressions can be a bit hard to read…Despite the miscommunications, there’s one thing that always comes across—their love for each other.

Onibi: Diary of a Yokai Ghost Hunter by Atelier Sentô, Cécile Brun,  Olivier Pichard, Marie Velde (Translation)

Part fantasy, part travelogue, Diary Of A Yokai Ghost Hunter follows the adventures of two foreign visitors as they tour Japan. When they buy an antique camera along the way, they discover they can capture images of Japan’s invisible spirit world. The forgotten spirits they meet can be kindly, mischievous, and some, downright dangerous. Everywhere they go from forests to Shinto temples to fishing villages they are met with Yokai, the Japanese word for supernatural monsters, ghosts, and demons. The subject of Yokai is wildly popular right now and is featured prominently in books, websites, and online videos. Google receives thousands of searches on the topic daily. Readers 10-18 who cherished books like Cool Japan Guide and Diary of a Tokyo Teen will delight in this comic book style adventure. The graphic novel format will appeal to diehard anime and manga fans while stressing the importance this ancient spirit world is to the Japanese culture.

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JLPT N1 Lesson 7-1 Vocabulary【日本語能力試験】

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Knitting and crocheting vocabulary in Japanese

More knitting vocabulary can be found here and here!   編み物 [あみもの] - knitting 編む [あむ] - to knit 織り [おり] - weaving 織る [おる] - to weave  かぎ針編み [かぎばりあみ] - crocheting ガーメント - garment アクセサリー - accessory あみぐるみ - amigurumi 棒針 [ぼうばり] - needle 編み針 [あみばり] - needle 輪針 [わばり] - circular needle 縄編み針 [なわあみばり] - cable needle かぎ針 [かぎばり] - hook 段数計 [だんすうけい] - row counter ほつれ止め [はつれどめ] - stitch holder マーカー - marker ゲージ - gauge 鋏 [はさみ] - scissors  糸 [いと] - yarn 毛糸 [けいと] - knitting wool 毛糸玉 [けいとだま] - ball of yarn 編み図 [あみず] - knitting pattern; crochet pattern 模様 [もよう] - pattern  技法 [ぎほう] - technique  作り始める [つくりはじめる] - to cast on, to bind on 編み目 [あみめ] - stitch 輪 [わ] - loop 段 [だん] - row 表編みをする [おもてあみをする] - to knit (knitwise) 裏編みをする [うらあみをする] - to purl 減らしめをする [へらしめろする] - to decrease 増し目をする [ましめをする] - to increase 拾い目をする [ひろいめをする] - to pick up 分ける [わける] - to divide 飛ばす [とばす] - to skip ひっくり返す [ひっくりかえす]   - to turn 滑らせる [すべらせる] - to slip 表側 [おもてがわ] - right side 裏側 [うらがわ] - wrong side 平編み [ひらあみ] - flat knitting 輪編み/丸編み [わあみ/まるあみ] - circular knitting メリヤス編み [メリヤスあみ] - stocking stitch ガーター編み [ガーターあみ] - gather stitch ゴム編み [ゴムあみ] - ribbed knitting 解く [���どく] - to unravel; to unstitch 編み終わる [あみおわる] - to cast off, to bind off 糸を切る [いとをきる] - to fasten off, to break yarn 色 [いろ] - colour ボタン - button ポンポン - pom-pom; tassel リボン - ribbon

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Putting all my Japanese Resources in one place.

Well, I wanted to make my life easier by cataloguing my resources, and I guess it might be helpful to someone so… This is gonna be  long. (sorry for spelling mistakes)

Main Tools: what I use frequently

Dictionaries

Jisho (Web) - Classic, Clean and Easy, probably the best Dictionary out there.

Takoboto (App/Web) - really like this one it has a grammar section, and the App has JLPT lists.

Akebi (App) - You can search by writing the Kanji, very useful, but not a very eye pleasing design.

Memorization

Memrise - LLJ Series of decks (Kanji, Tae Kim’s Grammar and Core Vocab), a think because Memrise uses a multiple choice system it works better for me, more than Flashcards.

Anki -  With Anki, I use Mostly Anime decks, for example, Japanese Like A Breeze. Jo-Mako decks: Core Anime Deck, Yotsuba, Your Name (Jo-Mako decks are really well done).

YouTube

Comprehensible Japanese -  AMAZING resource, her videos are all in Japanese and they range from complete beginners to intermediate.

Japanese Ammo with Misa - Explains grammar, has Pacific vocab videos and even breakdown music lyrics.

Cure Dolly - More grammar, she has the most eye-opening explanations I’ve ever seen, some might get annoyed by the robotic voice but ITS worth it.

The Japanese Page - Less Known but cool short videos about kanji, vocab, idioms, etc.

Game Gengo - Learn with games, his N5 Grammar video is great if you’re lazy like me

Japanese with Shun - Great Genki Podcast.

Immersion (aka. The best part)

Anime (How you can study with anime)

Immersion Kit Dictionary - PLEASE USE THIS! If you’re like me and the sentences provided by normal dictionaries never stick in your brain, this is perfect for you, you insert a word or sentence and it will find an Anime/drama/game with it. You can even send sentence cards to Anki.

Animelon - Made to Learn Japanese with dual subtitles, translation history and quizzes.

Animebook - Video player Works With Yomichan and Anki, I use this notation type (Eminent Note Type V2) drag video file and subs in this page and Done.

Kitsunekko - Subs for Anime and J-drama

Nyaa - Anime Raw Files (No subs)

Japanese with Anime -  If I could hug this person I would, very informative  Manga/Anime Slangs and grammar in general.

Japanese Anime & Manga - Cool site with an interactive manga, kanji games, and quizzes.

JPDB beta - Has already Built decks of Animes, Texbooks, Novels and more, also if you insert a sentence, it explains each part of the sentence to you.

Ichi.Moe - Same thing  it explains each part of the sentence to you, but it’s easier to use.

Manga (and reading in general I guess)

Manga.reader.to - I use this site to read my anime it has quite a big collection. Better Scans, and has Japanese options in most mangoes

Docsumo Free OCR Software - Now let’s say you don’t know a word and want to search for it use this OCR, really easy to use and works quite nicely. There are better  options specifically for manga, but again, I’m lazy so…

Aozora - This site is for public domain novels (EX The Little Prince) Audiobook on YouTube.

Japanese.io -  You can read articles and news

Raikun - Pop- up dictionary for Words and Kanji. Simple and Quick

Yomichan - Now this one is a little more complicated, pop- up dictionary, but you have to download and set up the dictionary, Much more customisable than Raikun and create Anki cards

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Websites for Japanese Learners

! click on website name to be redirected !

all websites can be used for free and without subscribtion (thats why japanese101 isnt included)

-> apps for japanese learners (soon)

1. JLPT Sensei

study guides (N5-N1)

includes grammar, kanji, vocabular, adjective, verb and other lists for orientation when studying

free JLPT practice tests

2. Japanese Verb Conjugator

automatic verb conjugator

verb database

kanji database & kanji tester

over 180,000 example sentences with sound

3. Tanoshii Japanese

japanese-english dictionary (with stroke order!)

pratice games & interactive lessons (Kanji Mahjong etc.)

learning resources (japanese novel, textbook, magazine, movie recommendations)

4. Jisho

fast and smart japanese-english dictionary

draw and radical function apart from keyboard search

searching by topic and categories by adding #[topic/category]

JLPT levels, sentences, particles, counters, names included

5. Map Quiz

world map quiz in japanese

divided into continents and north, east, south and west

6. Japanesetests4you

free JLPT N5-N1 reading and listening tests

free JLPT N5-N1 vocabulary, kanji and grammar lists + tests

7. Shiritori Online

Shiritori (しりとり) is a popular japanese word game and is ideal to exercise vocabulary for japanese learners. 2 or more players take turns saying a word that starts with the last kana of the previous word. The game ends when someone answers with a word ending with -n (ん) because there are no words starting with ん.

it is up to the players whether all forms of a hiragana (kana and its diacritics; は,ば and ぱ etc.) are allowed or not (e.g やぎ -> きよう).

example: りんご (apple) -> ごりら (ゴリラ) (gorilla) -> らーめん (ラーメン) (ramen). The last person who said ramen loses because the word ends with -n (ん). Instead the person could have saidらま (ラマ) (llama) (e.g).

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Free Online Language Courses

Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos.  You can always check the audit course or no certificate option so that you can learn for free.

American Sign Language

ASL University

Arabic

Arabic for Global Exchange (in the drop down menu)

Arabic Without Walls

Intro to Arabic

Madinah Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Catalan Sign Language

Intro to Catalan Sign Language

Chinese

Beginner

Basic Chinese

Basic Chinese I. II, III, IV , V

Basic Mandarin Chinese I & II

Beginner’s Chinese

Chinese for Beginners

Chinese Characters

Chinese for HSK 1

First Year Chinese I &  II

HSK Level 1

Mandarin Chinese I

Mandarin Chinese for Business

More Chinese for Beginners

Start Talking Mandarin Chinese

UT Gateway to Chinese

Chino Básico (Taught in Spanish)

Intermediate

Chinese Stories

Intermediate Business Chinese

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Dutch

Introduction to Dutch

English

Online Courses here

Resources Here

Faroese

Faroese Course

Finnish

A Taste of Finnish

Basic Finnish

Finnish for Immigrants

Finnish for Medical Professionals

French

Beginner

AP French Language and Culture

Basic French Skills

Beginner’s French: Food & Drink

Diploma in French

Elementary French I & II

Français Interactif

French in Action

French for Beginners

French Language Studies I, II, III

French:Ouverture

Intermediate & Advanced

French: Le Quatorze Juillet

Passe Partout 

La Cité des Sciences et de Industrie

Frisian

Introduction to Frisian (Taught in English)

Introduction to Frisian (Taught in Dutch)

German

Beginner

Beginner’s German: Food & Drink

Conversational German I, II, III, IV

Deutsch im Blick

Diploma in German

Rundblick-Beginner’s German

Advanced

German:Regionen Traditionen und Geschichte

Landschaftliche Vielfalt

Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew

Know the Hebrew Alphabet

Teach Me Hebrew

Hindi

A Door into Hindi

Business Hindi

Virtual Hindi

Icelandic

Icelandic 1-5

Indonesian

Learn Indonesian

Irish

Introduction to Irish

Italian

Beginner

Beginner’s Italian: Food & Drink

Beginner’s Italian I

Introduction to Italian

Italian for Beginners 1 , 2, 3 , 4 , 5, 6 

Intermediate & Advaned

Intermediate Italian I

Advanced Italian I

La Commedia di Dante

Japanese

Genki

Japanese JOSHU

Japanese Pronunciation

Sing and Learn Japanese

Tufs JpLang

Kazakh

A1-B2 Kazakh (Taught in Russian)

Korean

Beginner

First Step Korean

How to Study Korean

Learn to Speak Korean

Pathway to Spoken Korean

Intermediate

Intermediate Korean

Nepali

Beginner’s Conversation and Grammar

Norwegian

Introduction to Norwegian

Norwegian on the Web

Portuguese

Curso de Português para Estrangeiros 

Pluralidades em Português Brasileiro

Russian

Beginner

Easy Accelerated Learning for Russian

Advanced

Reading Master and Margarita

Russian as an Instrument of Communication

Siberia: Russian for Foreigners

Spanish

Beginner

AP Spanish Language & Culture

Basic Spanish for English Speakers

Beginner’s Spanish:Food & Drink

Fastbreak Spanish

Introduction to Spanish

Restaurants and Dining Out

Spanish for Beginners

Spanish for Beginners 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Spanish Vocabulary

Intermediate

Spanish:Ciudades con Historia

Spanish:Espacios Públicos

Advanced

Corrección, Estilo y Variaciones 

Leer a Macondo

Spanish:Con Mis Propias Manos

Spanish: Perspectivas Porteñas

Swedish

Intro to Swedish

Swedish Made Easy 1, 2, & 3

Ukrainian

Read Ukrainian

Ukrainian Language for Beginners

Welsh

Beginner’s Welsh

Discovering Wales

Multiple Languages

Ancient Languages

More Language Learning Resources & Websites!

Last updated: March 1, 2017

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I’m on a roll today, so I bring you, my personal recommendations for Korean language learning! Most of the stuff/links here are what I used myself, and for me, it’s quality over quantity. (Though quantity over quality comes to when you actually have to learn it, in which, repetition is key, etc.)

So, here we go! And yes, all of them are free!

First of all, learn hangeul. 

90daykorean (a hangeul pdf)

busyatom (hangeul-learning yt playlist!)

how to practice your hangeul/kana (on my wordpress blog)

personally, I forgot how I learned or what site I used, but I think reading kpop idol’s tweets (or fanart artists’ twitter) helped a lot. So once you get a gist of how to read hangeul, just try your hands (or eyes?) on reading the simple tweets! It doesn’t matter if you can’t understand most of it yet, but learning the alphabet will help you a lot in the long run. ^^

Romanizations don’t always sound the same with the Korean pronunciation when you read it, so hangeul is the answer, alright? 

if you have any recommendations, feel free to tell me!

Next, my favourite, grammar. Most of these are downloadable PDF files.

TTMIK lessons (it seems intimidating at first but trust me, you won’t know unless you try! the lessons are bite-sized and straight to the point and i find them very helpful! also, i have the full pdf until level 8, so if you guys want me to upload it in bulks then do tell me~)

Monash University textbooks (book 1, book 2). //my fave!!! (the actual website is down, so the download links are mine, for now.)

Korean From Zero! (you can also learn hangeul in this pdf)

I’m not a fan of online lessons but you can try koreanclass101!

I used to hoard almost EVERY online pdf for language-learning, but when I think again, “when the hell am I going to use these?!”, so yeah, stick with quality over quantity ;)

Aha, vocabulary! 

LearnWithOliver (flashcards, helpful flashcards, neat flashcards that are not in flashcards form. haha.)

Memrise

Anki (I don’t use this but it might be helpful for you!)

Naver Dictionary 

Google Translate (though a full sentence translation is usually bullshoot and I don’t recommend it, the pronunciation function and one word translation are very helpful.)

My method: Learn a grammar lesson from any of the pdf files, make my own notes, then use post-its/sticky-notes for new verbs and put it where I’ll see them. 

You can also learn from hearing a vocab multiple times in K-pop songs/K-variety shows. You guys know what ‘사랑’ means, right? ;)

Videos to aid your learning (though I prefer reading than watching, but these are the ones I really recommend!)

BusyAtom (also has hangeul lessons huhu.)

TTMIK (see how much I love them)

GO! Billy Korean

Websites/Blogs you gotta check out, for language exercises and helpful tips!

ohmykorean (omg i love this, though you have to have a firm grasp of hangeul first and bits of vocab here and there.)

90daykorean

Master3Languages

learn-hangul

TTMIK also have free workbooks for the first few levels. 

Not to forget, motivational/useful tips posts!

Language hacking tips on fluentin3months

10 effective language learning strategies

10-ways to language learning success

not improving? wrong. 

25 ways to stop feeling overworked and overwhelmed (because I think this is important as well)

Also, my personal language-learning methods: 

When studying, I read the whole grammar lesson, try to understand it, then write down the notes word by word as I pronounce the vocabularies along the way. I understand better after making notes as I process the lesson in my brain. (well, since I’m a read-write learner hehe.)

I use Memrise for vocab. 

I read Korean manhwa raws (manga, but Korean version. you can google these.)

I try to form my own sentences like, “She has a cat”, “I have three brothers”, since I don’t have any language-learning partners (sadlyfe) but if you’d like to, let’s be friends and practice together!! 

Always, always pick up bits and pieces from songs and k-variety shows. (2d1n gives me lyfe!!) 

Scheduling language-learning into your life is the way to go! Even if it’s as short as 30mins a day or 2hours full of concentration, as long  as you do it continuously. There will be days when you think you can’t make it, so it’s fine to take a break once in a while! 

Last but not least, my personal tips/motivation: 

Language-learning doesn’t have to be a chore. It’s something you should enjoy! I remember stumbling over the pronunciation of words like ‘후회할‘ and ‘되‘ yesterday and I laughed at myself, but it was fun! So take things one step at a time, okay?

“Don’t learn too fast for the sake of finishing the textbook.” 

If you think you’re slower than everyone else at reading hangeul or even remembering grammar, don’t worry. You’re NOT dumb nor slow, you’re a wonderful human being! Even trying to memorize one letter/verb a day shows that you’re working hard on it, and I’m proud of you! Good things come to those who work hard! ♡

Always remember to pick yourself up again. Take your time, and believe in yourself! If you really want it, go and get it! You can do it!!!

Even a session of Memrise course a day goes a longgg way, you know. ;)

Shia LaBeouf’s “JUST DO IT” because we all need it. 

I’ve been learning Korean on and off for almost three years (wow even i cannot believe) and although it’s hard, I’m getting there. It’s never too late or too early to start what you love, you know. It’s your life, so you decide whatever you want to!!!

Also, instead of looking for more resources and motivation, I think you should really start on opening that textbook/pdf/memrise course, you know. ;) Eheheh. 

I remember the moment I read a whole tweet of an idol (Red of M.Pire, I doubt you guys even know him aha) and actually understood it. The joy!! brought tears!! to my eyes!!! 

If you have anything else to add, then please feel free to do so! You can also drop me a message if there’s anything you’d like to know, or if I’m missing something, etc. I can also do a Japanese resources masterpost (lol nadia pls) if someone asks for it. But anyway, hope this post has been helpful, even if it helps just one person! 

Stay positive yall, and remember, if you can dream it, you can do it!!! Thank you so much for reading my first masterpost, byeom~!

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In Japanese, maa ii まあいい, or maa ii まぁいい, is often translated as “whatever.” It’s used when the speaker doesn’t care anymore about something and wants to change the subject or go back to what’s important.

maa ii wa… まぁいいわ･･･ Whatever… (never mind that.)

hajimemashou 始めましょう Let’s start. (already.)

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Physical Media

Textbooks

Genki

Nakama

Tobira

Kanji Learning

Remembering the Kanji

Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course

Dictionaries

Kodansha’s Furigana Japanese Dictionary (Japanese-English)

Sanseido Kanji Dictionary (Japanese-Japanese)

Grammar

Dictionary of Basic Grammar

Dictionary of Intermediate Grammar

Dictionary of Advanced Grammar

Online Resources

(B) = Beginner, (I) = Intermediate, (A) = Advanced

Dictionaries

(B) Nihongodict

(B) Glosbe

(B) ALC - Many example sentences with English translations

(B) Websaru - Fewer examples as ALC, but added definition in Japanese and English

(B) Tangorin - Great overall dictionary

(B) Jisho - Basic dictionary

(B) Etymology

(I) Yahoo Dictionary - Japanese dictionary with examples and English translations.

(B/A) Japanese in Anime and Manga - Useful for character dictionaries.

(B/I) 漢字辞典オンライン (kanji dictionary online)

(I) 漢字辞典 (kanji dictionary)

(I) http://jigen.net/

(I) http://www.weblio.jp/

(I) http://ja.bab.la/%E8%BE%9E%E6%9B%B8/

(I) http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/

(I) アニメ (anime)

(I/A) Kotobank

(I/A) ニコニコ辞典 (NicoNico)

(I/A) http://ejje.weblio.jp/

(I/A) Excite

(I/A) スラング (slang)

(I/A) 語源由来辞典 (etymology dictionary)

(A) 四字熟語 (four-character idiomatic compounds)

Kanji

(B) Stroke Order - Basic stroke order guide

(B) Kanji writing search - A quick way to search for Kanji by writing it

(B) Quick Kanji - Simple and intuitive interface

(B) Nihongo Master - A simple dictionary with conjugations and examples

(B) Kanji Damage - One way to look at learning Kanji

(I) Top 2000 Kanji

(I/A) Four-character idiomatic compounds

(I/A) 彩雅 Saiga - List of all the Kanji ordered by grade

Grammar

(B) Japanese Reference - Basic grammar overview

(B) Tae Kim’s Guide

(B/I) Jgram - Grammar database with examples

The Nihongoresources Book

Pitch Accent

(A) http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~linguistics/no1/accent.html

(A) http://accent.u-biq.org/

Helpful Websites

Q/A

(I/A) Yahoo Chiebukuro - Japanese equivalent of Yahoo Answers. Good to ask questions about the language e.g. nuances.

(B/I/A) Japanese StackExchange - StackExchange Q&A site for Japanese language.

Blogs/Forums

(B) Koohii - RTK based forum

(B) Nihonshock

(B) HTLAL - General language forum

(B/I) Japanese Level Up

(B/I) Jeffben

(B/I) AJATT

Online Courses

(B) Memrise - Flashcard based community

(B) YesJapan - First five videos are free to watch, a chat room and Q/As

(B) Nihongo Master - A simple course for picking up basic Japanese

(I) Lingq - Neat site for learning within content

(B/I/A) Koipun - Online Japanese classroom using video-conferencing ($$$,trialavailable)

YouTube & Videos

(B/I/A) Nihongonomori - Short lessons usually based on the JLPT.

(B) Irasshai - teaches Japanese language and culture skills. See here for discussion on this site.

(B/I) http://video.fc2.com/jp/

(I) ニコニコ

Online Tools

Reading Tutor - Allows you to enter a whole passage of text and look up the words by usage and JLPT grade level

Tatoeba.org - A free collaborative online database of example sentences geared towards foreign language learners. Its name comes from the Japanese term “tatoeba” (例えば tatoeba), meaning “for example”. Unlike other online dictionaries, which focus on words, Tatoeba focuses on translation of complete sentences.

Furiganizer.com - Allows you to automatically add Furigana to Japanese text easily and it can do so based on JLPT and Jōyō skill level or specific kanji. Also has built-in translations if you click on a word. Can export to MS Word.

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[App Review]—Beelinguapp

Is this more of an app review or a book review? Today I bring you a review of Beelinguapp, an audiobooks app for language learners.

Sometimes studying can be a boring drag and you just want to do something a little less tedious than drilling grammar or a ton of vocab flashcards. Maybe you want to get into reading books in your language of choice, but you’re worried that it might be too hard to just pick up a book written in your chosen language and read it without guidance. In that case, I could recommend this app to you!

As I already said, this is an audiobook app. There are free stories and paid ones both available to choose from. There are stories of all different types and difficulties, including classics and even sciency stuff, as you can see in the above image! The cool thing is that when you choose a story, you can also choose which languages to download it in! So far, I’ve downloaded all of my stories in English, Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese. When you go to listen to a story, you can choose what you want your learning language to be and what your reference language is. When you listen to the book, it will be read and displayed to you in the learning language, and you can do split screen so the learning language is on top and the reference language is on bottom. You can mix and match languages, so you could even have two learning languages up at once!

There are a lot of things you can play with as you read. As I already mentioned, there’s the split screen option, and there is a night mode, text magnifier, voice speed control, and text highlight that follows the reader. The text highlight sometimes isn’t timed correctly, however, and of course if the languages you have set as your learning and reference have different word order or other major grammatical differences, you won’t be able to really use the highlight to, for example, match words you don’t know. Still, the highlight does make it easier to follow where the speaker is in the text with your eyes even if the timing is a little off.

As for the actual audio quality, I’ve found it to be passable in all the stories and different languages I’ve tested so far, though some aren’t the absolute best quality. That isn’t to say the audio is bad, just that you can expect to hear some noise in some recordings. I’m assuming that the audio quality will be better with stories that you have to pay to download, but I’m too cheap so I haven’t tried any of those yet :B Anyway, in all of the stories I’ve listened to so far, the narrators speak at reasonable storytelling speeds, and if you aren’t super picky about audio quality, there should be no big problem.

The major downfall of this app is, in my opinion, the lack of a dictionary function. You can long-press words to add them to your own dictionary in the app… but then you have to add a meaning for the word yourself, which is obviously not too helpful at all if you don’t already know what the word means! Sure, maybe you could take a look at the reference language text to see what the word means, but these stories aren’t translated word-for-word and sometimes matching up words between different versions of the same text could be hard. What I think this app really needs is an easy-access dictionary that, if you long-press a word, it pulls up a dictionary entry for that word. Of course, since there are so many stories in so many languages on this app, providing dictionaries for all of them might be hard…

Verdict:

Ultimately, I think this is a pretty good app with a few flaws that, if fixed, would make this a really excellent language-learning tool!

PROS:

Multiple languages available

Can read along as you listen to the story

Can choose your display languages so you can even study more than one new language at once

Lots of little options to play with to optimize your experience

CONS:

No integrated dictionary :<

Audio quality is decent but a little lacking

Text highlighting sometimes isn’t synced properly

As always, happy studying <3

[pearls-and-petals]

pronunciation rules in Korean & further reading

a lot of this stuff you learn naturally but it’s nice to know about it beforehand. if you’re barely learning hangul then don’t worry about it tbh! it’s just a reference for some of the rules in case there’s a word with pronunciation that you don’t understand

[pearls-and-petals]

pronunciation rules in Korean & further reading

a lot of this stuff you learn naturally but it’s nice to know about it beforehand. if you’re barely learning hangul then don’t worry about it tbh! it’s just a reference for some of the rules in case there’s a word with pronunciation that you don’t understand

[pearls-and-petals]

language learning made easy

I’ve summarized professor  Alexander Arguelles’ video, because I think this is crucial for language learning. 

There is no magic trick that will help you become fluent in 1 month, but there are very effective approaches to learning a new language and if you combine them, you will surely become fluent.

If you’re learning a new language, the most important thing you need to consider is – what type of language learner are you? 

1. If you:

have a more deductive approach, which means that you’re better at listening to and observing the language first and learning through that, rather than starting with plain grammar points from a textbook

have a fair degree of intuition

like to observe a phenomenon

feel somewhat comfortable with ambiguity for a while, until things become clear

are someone who can feel comfortable being corrected when they realize they were wrong, rather than getting confused and frustrated because they went down an initial path that turned out not to be correct (so you actually learn from being corrected and you don’t get confused by it)

then, these manuals are best suited for you: the Assimil Language Series, the Linguaphone Series, the Cortina Methods.

2. If you:

have a desire to have things explained to you beforehand in a nice and clear way

have a logical and analytical mind (which is usually the product of education in general)

have a need for a systematic approach (basically if you’re most comfortable with a book which is going to introduce the grammar according to an agreed set of methods or an organized plan)

then, you should try out some of these manuals: the Hugo Series, the Made Simple Series, the Teach Yourself Series, the Buske Series. 

3. PAY ATTENTION TO PATTERNS!!!

the most important part are the patterns of a language

no matter what type of language learner you are, I think it’s really clever to incorporate this method into you learning. 

a language is actually made up of patterns which constantly repeat themselves and that is THE KEY TO FLUENCY

repeating the patterns over and over again, until they become natural, until you no longer have to conjugate the verbs in your head before speaking

when you become really good with patterns, your sentences will come out naturally, and patterns are what will get you to fluency

I’ve provided the links, where you will find a review of the books, so that you can have an idea of what they look like. You can find most of these on amazon.

There is also an amazing blog on here, which provides free books, and I think that you can find half of these series for free there.  @lovelybluepanda

[pearls-and-petals]

Hello! A lot of you have been asking me where and how I’ve learn multiple languages and well, after a few hours of digging through my browser history and bookmarks, I was able to collect all of these resources. I have personally used all of these, so I can assure you they are useful! If there is something wrong with a website or a link, please let me know. Also, if you have any questions or if you want a learning buddy, my ask box is open. (I speak English and Spanish. I’m learning Korean, German, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, and Esperanto)

Note: Learning a new language requires a lot of dedication, more than you actually think! Especially if you’re learning multiple languages at the same time. It isn’t impossible, but it will take time. And by time I mean months and/or years! So please, be patient. Take your time. Don’t rush. Keep in mind that you will mess up and that’s okay. Practice as much as you can. Practice out loud. Talk to yourself if you can. It doesn’t matter if people think you’re crazy. They won’t be thinking the same when you become a polyglot, so don’t mind them. This is for you and your future.

Get started:

Everything listed below is FREE! Some sites do require you to sign up, but that’s for you to keep track of your own process.

Tips to get you started

Language Hacking tips (blog)

More language hacking tips (blog)

The Polyglot Project (Library with foreign books that lets you translate while reading)

How to Learn Any Language

Effective Language Learning

Ankidroid (flashcard maker)

Multiple languages, one website

Duolingo (Latin American Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Ukrainian, and Esperanto)

BBC Languages (40 languages)

Learn A Language (18 languages)

Conjuguemos (French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish)

L-lingo (21 languages)

101languages (167 languages)

Languagepod101 (31 languages)

Foreign Services Institute (44 languages)

My Languages (95 languages)

Surface Languages (43 languages)

Lingualia (Spanish)

Linguanaut (16 languages)

OmniGlot (All languages [basic info for some of them])

Memrise (Various languages) (flashcard system)

Livemocha (Various languages)

Polyglotclub

Sharedtalk

Interpals (specify in your profile you only look for language exchange because there can be some creeps in this one)

Couchsurfing

Babbel

Specific Languages

Korean:

Learn to read Korean in 15 minutes! - Really helpful as well

Learnkoreanlp - Focuses on grammar

k-is4korean

Talktomeinkorean

Learn-korean

korean-flashcards - Focuses on vocabulary

Easytolearnkorean

Korean.go.kr/ - Focuses on pronunciation

Lang-8 - Community to correct your entries

Dongsa - Conjugations for verbs

Howtostudykorean- EXTREMELY helpful when it comes to learning hangul and writing structure!

hangulpractice - This blog has some useful posts.

letstteok-korean

Talktomeinkorea (YouTube channel)

fluentkorean

sweetandtasty

seoulistic - For culture lessons

GenkiKorean

Korean Word Game

English-Korean Vocabulary Quizzes

Hangul Keyboard - This is also EXTREMELY helpful with Hangul/romanization. It also converts any romanized syllables into hangul

Korean - Reddit threat

Chinese/Mandarin:

Hackingchinese

Chinese-tools - Pretty helpful with pronunciation.

Chinese Open courseware

Chinese Language - Reddit threat

Chinese Textbook

Chineasy

Learn Mandarin

Chinese Hacks

yoyochinese

How can I learn Chinese

Why is Chinese so damn hard?

Japanese:

Learn Japanese I / II - YouTube

Guidetojapanese

Free Japanese lesson

Japaneseclass.jp

thejapanesepage

Japanesepod101

Tofugu

Erin’s Challenge!

Jplang

Yesjapan

Marugoto - Includes culture lessons

Kana Invaders - Fun game for learning Kana

Another great masterpost for Japanese - So many resources!!!

Esperanto:

Note: I did a research and supposedly Esperanto is an easy-to-learn language that helps you with other languages.

Esperantofre

Esperanto “library”

Esperanto Grammar

Esperanto (Duolingo)

German:

Learn German Online

German Language Guide

Mission Berlin - Mystery adventure game

Basic German

Deutsch Lernen

Slow German

Kids’ Games - For vocabulary

Italian:

MIT Open Courseware

Italian Language Guide

Italian Grammar

Italian For Beginners - YouTube

Latin:

Some Latin grammar

Latin Course - YouTube

Portuguese:

Oneness

Ta Falado

Portuguese (Duolingo)

French:

Learn French Guide

Coffee Break French

University of Texas: Francais interactif

Podcastfrancaisfacile

French Language Guide

Lingopolo/french

Le Journal en français facile

News in Slow French

Francolab

Cliffs Notes

Native French Speech

French Podcast

Spanish:

Spanish - About.com

@spanishskulduggery

Study Spanish

Cliffs Notes

Destinos

One Minute Spanish

One Minute Spanish (Latin America focused)

Thai:

Learn Thai Podcast

Woman Learn Thai

Let’s Talk Thai

Thai 101

Lingopolo/thai

Arabic:

Books to Learn Arabic

Mandinah Arabic

Arabic Verbs (PDF)

al3arabiya

Arabic Pronouns (PDF)

Arabic Alphabet / Also Here / And Here!

Arabic For Language Exchange

Peace Corps

Hindi:

A Door Into Hindi

Learning Hindi

NYU Hindi Course

Quillpad - Great for typing

Namaste Dosti

SU Hindi Course

ispeakhindi

Hindi Script

Vietnamese:

VietnamesePod101

Survival Phrases

seasite.niu.edu

Learn Vietnamese Online

Greek:

Some Greek Grammar (New Testament)

Romanian:

Rolang

One Minute Romanian

Welsh:

Say Something in Welsh

Welsh Vocab

Dutch:

Lingopolo/dutch

Learn Dutch

Russian:

Speak Russian

Russian Alphabet

Taste of Russian

Master Russian

Russian Open Courseware

Russian Handwriting

Swedish:

Klartext

SwedishLingQ

Survival Phrases

That’s it. That’s all I have right now. I’ll try to search for more and will keep updating this list! If you have a request for a specific language, just send me an ask. Have fun and good luck! 

[pearls-and-petals]

Fun ways to study Japanese (Part One)

Hello everyone!

We all know that using text books and listening to speaking can help us study a new language, but the best way to learn is sometimes the fun way! Sure, a text book will help you gain knowledge, but sometimes it’s easier to retain information if you have fun with it!

Here’s part one of our ‘Fun Ways to Study in Japanese’ post!

Shiritori しりとり

Our favourite game to play in the car (yes, more than ‘I Spy’) is a game called ‘Shiritori’ しりとり which literally means ‘taking the end’. It;s a fun word game that will help you practice your knowledge and memory of words in Japanese. Get a friend (or friends) who is also studying Japanese, or someone who knows Japanese fluently, and play this game together!

How to play ‘Shiritori’:

1. The person who decides to go first says ‘shiritori’.

2. The second person will say a word beginning with ‘ri’ (eg. Ringo りんご- Apple).

3. The first (or next) player will say something beginning with go (eg. Gorira ゴリラ- Gorilla).

Each person will take turns saying a word beginning with the last character. If a word like ‘jitensha’ (bicycle) is used, always use the last character of the word, which in this case is ya　（や）．

The main rule of Shiritori is to make sure you don’t say words ending with ‘n’　（ん). 

Another fun way of studying Japanese is by watching children’s shows! Although watching anime can help a bit with learning phrases and words, you’ll be surprised by how much more you can pick up by watching a show designed for children! It helps you practice your listening skills, as well as hear simple phrases and words.

Here are a few shows that we both recommend:

Juppon Anime  じゅっぽん　あにめ

This show is a silly short show about 10 sticks (yes, sticks) who go on adventures. Although that may sound a little boring at first, this show has funny little skits that will make you giggle. It’s a fun show to watch when you have a little bit of spare time.

Hotch Potch Station　ハッチポッチステーション

This show is a very similar to Sesame Street. It’s a show with lots of songs and music. You’ll be surprised at how much you’ll learn, and how you’ll end up getting the catchy theme song stuck in your head!

Yatter Man　やったーまん

Although this show did get a revamp in 2008, the 1977 original anime is amazing and has simple Japanese to help with your studies. It’s a crime fighting anime so it’s always exciting!

Chi’s Sweet Home　チーズスイートホーム

I’m sure most of you know about this adorable anime! Chi’s Sweet Home is all about the adventures of a little kitten named Chi. Prepare for many ‘aww’ moments and cuteness! 

(All pictures from Google).

You can also find episodes of The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants and other shows dubbed in Japanese! You know the shows well, and if you know an episode off by heart, watch it in Japanese and see how well you remember it! You may even pick up a few phrases and handy words.

That’s it for this blog post! Stay tuned for part two next week!

As usual, we’re here to answer any questions you have. Happy studying!

Clare and Yu.

[pearls-and-petals]

Article: Verbs in Japanese - How do They Work? - Conjugation Grammar