I know many beginners (including me!

) have been searching for something similar to the Japanese Graded

Reader series for a while. Japanese reading practice material for beginners is pretty scarce, and kids websites
aren't always suitable since they sometimes have more advanced grammar. Since we are beginners, it's also
difficult for us to search in Japanese and sort through the results. Google translate doesn't always cut it :-).
I found a few websites that have Japanese stories/articles that are suitable for semi-beginners, and are similar
to the Japanese Graded Reader series. I'll update this post as I find more websites and more resources are
suggested.
How to Read An Article in Japanese Using Evernote (very helpful!)
http://www.tofugu.com/2010/08/30/5-step-...-for-kids/
Japanese Reading Practice for Beginners (Similar to Japanese Graded Reader)
ChokoChoko (JLPT Levels 5 to 1, has wordlists)
http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-great-library/
Tokyo International University Reading Tutor (variety of levels, huge wordlist to the right of each story/article.
You can click on a word and it takes you to that part of the wordlist for a definition. The number of stars
represents the difficulty level, with 1 star being the easiest)
http://language.tiu.ac.jp/index_e.html
Hiragana Times Beginners - Hiragana Blog for Beginners (bite-sized articles)
http://www.hiraganatimes.com/hiragana_blog/
Hello Navi (very basic, interactive, short dialogues with animation for everyday situations)
http://www.hellonavi.com/foldera/index.html
Botsan
http://botsan.com/ (a bit primitive in style, but it has very simple vocab/grammar. Make sure your character
encoding is set to Japanese in your browser)
More Lists of Resources
I got them from this website: http://gakuu.com/resources/#grammar
The website Yookoso also has TONS more links to reading and audio practice:
http://www.yookoso.com/pages/study.php

A bit more advanced (some have been mentioned in other discussions):

Kids Websites
Yahoo News Kids Japan http://kids.yahoo.co.jp/

Mainichi Kids Newspaper http://mainichi.jp/life/edu/maishou/index.html

Yomiuri Newspaper http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/nie/note/
NHK Kids http://www.tvjapan.net/en/subcategory/kids.html
Goo Kids http://kids.goo.ne.jp/index.html?SY=0&MD=2
Hiragana Times (Articles in English and Japanese, not a kids website, but good) http://www.hiraganatimes.com/
Stories (some have audio too)
http://hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/index.html
http://english.franklang.ru
http://www.e-hon.jp/demo1/index1.htm
http://www.kankomie.or.jp/mukashi/ (Note: the stories seem to have moved, but they are probably still on the
website somewhere)
http://www.logoslibrary.eu/pls/wordtc/ne...num_row=20
If you have found other good reading resources, please list them here!

http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?pid=141812#pid141812
Learning resources
Tweet

Learning Japanese w/ Free & Cheap Materials: Study

Guide & Big List
2011-06-24, 1:37 pm

jishera
Free Japanese Resources/Materials:
Lately I've been compiling a list of free Japanese resources that look useful for my current and future levels of
Japanese learning. A lot of these are in stickies in the Learning Resources forum on Kanji Koohii, but I think this
format is nice because it groups them together by category (grammar, vocab, reading, listening, etc.) as well as
Japanese level (beginner and intermediate+), and it's all in one post! It's sort of like a lesson plan
overview/study guide with free resources. Since I spent so much time on it, I figured I should also share it with
others to make it doubly useful. Disclaimer: I'm only a beginner, so I'm far from being an expert in Japanese.
But a lot of these are recommended by advanced learners and fluent speakers on the Kanji Koohii forums, so if
you don't trust my judgment, you should trust theirs :-).
If you think anything should be added, comment away. I appreciate constructive feedback.
------------------------------------------------------------------Introduction
------------------------------------------------------------------TABLE OF CONTENTS
(use "Ctrl+F" with "(n)" to go to the section you want, e.g. "(5)" for grammar)
(1) Best Bang for Your Buck Books (these aren't free, but the rest of the list is)

(2) Essential Resources (includes links to even more lists of free resources)
(3) Beginners: Before You Start (Read these before you do anything else!)
(4) Hiragana/Katakana
(5) Grammar
(6) Vocab
(7) Kanji
(8) Reading Practice
(9) Audio/Listening Practice (Including Pronunciation)
(10) Communicate
This article was written with beginners in mind, but there are also lots of links to intermediate and advanced
materials. First I talk about some inexpensive books that you should definitely check out. The rest of the article
is a gigantic list of free resources.
I'm not going to give you a ton of detail in this article. I think part of the learning process is doing your own
research, and you need basic research skills in order to successfully learn a language. So if you don't know
what a term means, Google it (or Bing, or Yahoo! doesn't matter). Don't worry about making mistakes or getting
lost, just explore the websites and software listed. If there's a broken link, try Googling the title of the article or
keywords in the URL to see if the website has moved.
Some Advice for Beginners:
You need to have persistence! It's OK if something is confusing and you don't get it after reading it once (that's
normal, you ARE learning something new after all), just search for the answer and continue forward no matter
what. And read it once, read it again, and again, and AGAIN until you get it :-). Dictionaries (both for strange
English grammatical terms and Japanese) are also your friend. If you don't know a word, just look it up. It
shouldn't stop your learning. You WILL get it eventually, I have confidence in you!

------------------------------------------------------------------(1) Best Bang for Your Buck Books

------------------------------------------------------------------For a comparison of popular textbooks (including prices), please see the Comparison of Japanese Textbooks
wiki page here: http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Compariso...ooks_Table
I am using a combination of free and paid materials to learn Japanese. If I only had $100 to spend, personally I
would get Japanese for Everyone: A Functional Approach to Daily Communication ($20 - beware, it's fastpaced and not for everyone), Remembering the Kanji, Vol. 1: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the
Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters ($30), and All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function
Words (Power Japanese Series) ($10). I'd also buy A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar ($30-$50) if I
didn't mind spending a bit more. I am using all of those right now and I find they go very well together; these
are the books I've used the most in my studies so far.
If you want more ideas for "non-free" materials to buy, check out my Amazon list, The "Best" Books/Resources
for Learning Japanese: http://www.amazon.com/quot-Books-Resourc...GJ545AQDP0 . In that list I
compiled/summarized my own opinions for materials I own (I don't own them all) and also what people have
mentioned in reviews.
Alternatively, if you take a look at Japanese for Everyone or Remembering the Kanji and you dont think theyd
work for you, check out Elementary Japanese and A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters (Tuttle
language library) , which are both inexpensive compared to many other textbooks and good quality. (Update:
The 2nd edition of Genki now comes with the audio CDs, so it's a better deal than it was before. It's still pretty
expensive if you buy the workbooks and the teacher's guide with answers though.)
If you are looking for reading practice books similar to the Japanese Graded Reader series (but cheaper and
with more content), try:

-Chi's Sweet Home (Easy manga, recommended for beginners, about a cat who is adopted).
-Yotsubato! (Easy manga, normally recommended for beginners, about a girl who moves to a new home)
-10-pun de Yomeru Ohanashi (Stories You Can Read in Just 10 Minutes) (grades 1 to 6). There is also 10
(tales), and ?? (science), and (biographies) in the
same series (~$15 from either White Rabbit Press, YesAsia, or amazon.co.jp)
-JLPT reading comprehension books, like Nihongo So-matome N3 reading comprehension (~$22). These tend
to be graded in difficulty
-Dokkai Wo Hajimeru Anata E [Beginner/Inter. Reading Workbook] (~$20 from White Rabbit Press or The
Japan Shop)
-Japanese in Mangaland Workbooks 1, 2, 3. Each workbook includes an original short manga that is graded in
difficulty. ($10-$25). Goes along with the Japanese in Mangaland textbooks (which have manga examples but I
don't think it's a cohesive story).
If you are wondering about a good first light novel to read, some people have recommended:
-Familiar of Zero ()
-Kino's Journey (Kino no Tabi)
- (The Witchs Delivery Service) by Kadono Eiko (these short children's books inspired the movie
Kiki's Delivery Service).
------------------------------------------------------------------(2) Essential Resources
------------------------------------------------------------------Note: Make sure you know how to enable Japanese character encoding in your browser. Some websites won't
display Japanese characters correctly.
Go here for more info: http://redcocoon.org/cab/mybrowser.html
Must-Haves
Anki (flashcard software, you'll definitely need this! There are also premade shared flashcard decks)
Download: http://ankisrs.net/
Introductory Videos, User Manual, FAQs: http://ankisrs.net/docs/index.html
Kanji Koohii (good for learning kanji and for its amazing forums)
http://kanji.koohii.com/
Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese (one of the BEST grammar resource for beginner to intermediate
Japanese learning)
http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar
AJATT All Japanese All The Time. He has some cool articles that you should read, just to get different ideas
on how to learn a language
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blo...to-fluency

Dictionaries
http://www.jisho.org
Yamasa's Kanji Dictionary
http://www.yamasa.org/ocjs/kanjijiten/en...index.html

iPhone/Android Apps
Imiwa? Dictionary (Note 8/6/2012: Kotoba! has been pulled from the app store due to copyright issues.

However, the same app without copyright problems, called "Imiwa?" is now available:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imiwa-ja...99125?mt=8
Midori has also been recommended by other users.
Human Japanese Lite (kana, grammar, vocab, audio)
Learning Japanese (By Ronald Timoshenko) Portable version of Tae Kims grammar guide