Yookoso Audio Program Continuing With Contemporary Japanese

NOTICE: Grammar Email Service Status (April 2021)

DC, the guy behind jgram, accidentally let the domain name expire. Someone else rescued it and I think he is planning to revive it himself but the details are still unclear at the moment. I have the most recent copy of the database and will be using it for my daily emails but some of the links will not work. When everything gets settled I will try to edit the email template to use current/active links.

Welcome

Yookoso! is a portal for those who study the Japanese language (Nihongo) and writing (Kanji) and those who want to travel to Japan or learn more about Japanese culture, life, music (JPOP) and more. On the site you will find unique content (see below) as well as a hand-selected directory of useful online resources.

If you are interested, read more about the history of this site.

Original Content (You'll Find Only on this Site)

This site started off as a way for me to share notes from a few of my Japanese courses. Over time it has become a directory of useful resources but below are the things you won't find elsewhere on the Web.

Course Notes

I have digitized notes summarizing different courses and textbooks. Most of these are quite old now, but since language doesn't change that frequently, they should still be useful.

Yookoso! textbook summary notes (book 1 | book 2)
Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin course notes (advanced beginner or lower intermediate level)
An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese textbook summary notes (Chapters 1-8 | Chapters 9-15)
ビジネスのための日本語: Getting Down to Business &ndash Japanese for Business People textbook notes
Summary notes about the Causative, Passive, Passive-Causative and Natural Potential Verb Forms

Daily Kanji Email Service

Get a nicely formatted email every day with a new Kanji to study. Each email includes the readings, the meaning, a stroke order illustration, the Henshall mnemonic, and a list of common words that use the specific character. There is also a link to download a PDF version of the email.

Below are the latest Kanji:

Level	Kanji
N1	縁
N2	型
N3	座
N4	元
N5	学

Daily Kanji RSS Feeds

If you are a fan of RSS (if you aren't, you should be), you can access the daily Kanji levels that way instead of via email.

Daily Grammar Email Service

Similar to the Kanji email service, get a daily dose of Japanese grammar, courtesy of the jGram.org database.

Below are the latest grammar entries:

Kanji Study Tool

I created a Kanji study tool in conjuncion with the email lists but you can use it to randomly test and expand your Kanji knowledge. Choose by JLPT or school grade level or just any random Jōyō Kanji. The format is the same as for the emails. There is also a link to download a nicely formatted PDF version of the information for each character.

Japanese Popular Music to Study

Music is an excellent way to study and improve your language skills. In Japan, of course, karaoke is hugely popular so it will also be helpful if you know at least a few widely popular songs that you can sing to impress your local friends. I have collected 14 songs of varying styles that you can listen to and read the lyrics in original Japanese, romaji and English translation. Note : most of these songs are slow enough and clear enough that you can actually understand the words being sung.

Vocabulary Study

In addition to the course notes, I have created a basic study tool to review the vocabulary for some of the textbooks I have used, specifically:

Business Japanese Class Vocabulary
Limited Vocabulary from An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese

I have more vocabulary in a spreadsheet somewhere that hopefully I will get around to adding in the future.

Anki study decks

Anki is a popular free (except iOS) flashcard system that uses spaced repetition for more effective learning. Recently, it occurred to me that the kanji information sheets I use for my daily email service would make for a great Anki flashcard deck so I have done just that. In putting together my deck, I tried to take advantage of some of the program's useful features. In particular, I realized that many, including myself, will want to be able to study by JLPT or grade level, or possibly even by radical (bushu). In creating my deck, I included those as fields, but to study a subset of a deck you need to filter based on tags, so I also tagged each entry accordingly. Since there are more than the 1945 (old) standard Joyo, I have also tagged Joyo as well. The nice thing is that you only have to download one complete deck and then just use the "Custom Study" button. Once you click that, you can choose the "Limit to particular tags" option and then choose accordingly. You can also do more complicated filtered study with the search routine. Check out the user manual for more specifics.

Download Anki (.apkg) File (39MB)

I also offer the grammar content for Anki here in partnership with jGram.org

Download Anki (.apkg) File (NO Audio) (1MB)

Download Anki (.apkg) File (Male Voice Audio) (8.6MB)

Download Anki (.apkg) File (Femal Voice Audio) (8.7MB)

Pera Pera

This is NOT original content but tracking down the original files is a bit tricky, so I have made 99 of the 100 (cannot track down one of them) available to download directly from my server.

Recently Added Resources

中 vs 内: The Difference Between These Two Japanese Words for "Inside"

Come inside and learn when 中 and 内 are the same and when they're different
Onomappu

Onomatopoeia like ギリギリ and ドキドキ are so widespread in conversational Japanese and creative contexts that you're sure to have come across them if you chat to Japanese speakers or read fiction in Japanese. If you've mostly studied Japanese in a more academic context, though, you might not have come across them as much.

We've already covered books on onomatopoeia, but Onomappu is the first … [ Read more ]
Sakura Tips

Sakura Tips is a podcast that's been out for several months, so we're a little late to the game. Mari, the podcast host, amazingly and consistently releases one podcast episode per day. Each episode is only about four minutes long, so you can easily incorporate this as a practice activity for your daily studies, or speed through several episodes in one day.

Mari talks in a … [ Read more ]
Bunsuke's Newsletter

Bunsuke's Newsletter is a great way to add a dose of Japanese reading practice to your daily routine. After signing up, you'll receive a daily email with a short excerpt from Japanese literature, complete with vocabulary list, grammar explanations, and a translation of the text. Bunsuke includes an Amazon link for the book they took the excerpt from, so you can read on if one … [ Read more ]
popIn WAVE

popIn WAVE is an audio platform for multiple media outlets, including The Weekly Economist ( 週刊しゅうかんエコノミスト) and HUFFPOST Japan. Via this platform, you can listen to a wide range of "spoken articles," all based on corresponding written articles. These spoken articles examine the stories behind the original articles, and discuss related topics, often with the writer or editor of that article.

All the content is professionally … [ Read more ]

Most Popular

Kanji Study
A Japanese guide to Japanese grammar
Most textbooks try to teach you Japanese with English. That want to teach you on the first page how to say, "Hi, my name is Smith," but they don't tell you about all the arbitrary decisions that were made behind your back. They probably decided to use the polite form even though learning the polite form before the dictionary form makes no sense. They also … [ Read more ]
Mailing Lists
Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don't Tell You
This book was formerly available under the more intriguing title Gone Fishin': New Angles on Perenial Problems. I highly recommend this book for all intermediate- or higher students of Japanese. It has been one of the most helpful books I have ever read since it deals with perennial problems that Japanese students deal with.
Japanese Ads - Learning Japanese Through Print Ads
Harvey Beasley has produced a new blog based on the idea of learning Japanese through print ads and posters. Japanese Ads features one ad per post and Harvey's dissection of the meaning and cultural nuance therein. It is, like all great ideas, simple in its elegance and a great way to learn Japanese in the context of real word usage. Harvey does a great … [ Read more ]

harrisstalood.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.yookoso.com/