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447 lines
60 KiB
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<title>DJT resource guide</title>
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<script src="assets/script.js"></script>
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<div class="header_left"><span class="bold"></span></div>
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<div class="header_center"><span class="bold"><a href="/">Home</a></span></div>
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<div class="header_right"><span class="bold"><a href="#Table of Contents" >Table of Contents</a></span></div>
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</div>
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<p><h1>DJT Guide Resources</h1></p>
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<p><span class="italic">Live Google docs version found</span> <span class="bold"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/18KEAL0sz0lrWGJJpfZhhLG2jgP5GPyXXfmtp1i5V9vo">here</a></span></p>
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<p><span class="bold">This is an appendix to the</span> <a href="guide.html">DJT guide</a>. Commonly recommended resources are marked with an <span class="bold">※</span>. There is no "correct" way of learning, so you should try out the resources appropriate for your level and see which you feel are best. An old version of the DJT guide can be found <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ynwmcFwy0ccT70cVRp-G97fYlcf-GYZ86T62SvQMDdY/edit">here</a>. An alternative guide to Japanese with a more direct/opinionated approach can be found <a href="https://compellingcontent.neocities.org/longguide.html">here</a>.</p>
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<h2 id="Table of Contents">Table of Contents</h2>
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<ul id="toc">
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<li><a href="#Learning Resources">Learning Resources</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Kana">Kana</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Kanji">Kanji</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Vocabulary">Vocabulary</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Grammar">Grammar</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Practice">Practice</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Reading">Reading</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Anime TV">Anime & TV</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Listening Production">Listening & Production</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#Videos">Videos</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#Useful Learning Tools">Useful Learning Tools</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Typing Japanese">Typing Japanese</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Anki">Anki</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Dictionaries">Dictionaries</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Kanji Lookup">Kanji Lookup</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Ebook Tools">Ebook Tools</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Manga OCR">Manga/LN OCR</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Visual Novels">Visual Novels</a>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#Downloading VNs">Downloading VNs</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#Mobile Devices">Mobile Devices</a></li>
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<li><a href="#Misc Tools">Misc Tools</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="Learning Resources">Learning Resources</h2>
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<h3 id="Kana">Kana</h3>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="kana/index.html">DJT Kana</a> - Tests kana recognition. The recommended procedure for learning kana. Just grind until you know them. Optimal for pounding the readings into your head quickly.</p>
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<p><a href="https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson_1">Wikibooks</a> - Has stroke order and other resources. The stroke order is quite useful, although the mnemonics are not so much.</p>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/writing">Tae Kim</a> - This site has a ton on kana, includes a video lesson, stroke order, as well as a pronunciation guide.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.memrise.com/">Memrise</a> - Offers various SRS courses including kana courses which are perhaps the only thing the site does well in regards to the Japanese language.</p>
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<p><a href="https://mega.nz/#F!Wk8VjJ6K!icqt2OiW4Vhle7q4cGUf_Q">Remembering the Kana</a> - It only takes about 6 hours to learn both hiragana and katakana alongside it because it provides mental images with the kana to ensure you remember. Download the book and/or follow this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2A25F7399E8805ED">video series</a> made by an RTK forum member.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/tukkun/kana-warrior">Kana Warrior</a> - A game designed to help you recognise the kana. Best used alongside another method.</p>
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<h3 id="Kanji">Kanji</h3>
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<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji_and_Remembering_the_Hanzi">Remembering the Kanji</a> (RTK) by Heisig - A book that teaches kanji in an order based on the radicals of each character. It starts you off with simple shapes and gradually goes into more complex ones. It teaches stroke order and makes up pretty fancy mnemonic stories to help you memorize the kanji easier. It does not teach the readings until the second volume nor does it tell you how the kanji are used in context. (Most people do not use the second volume and instead learn readings through vocabulary.) As such, this method expects you to learn all the common characters before even getting started on learning vocabulary. Of course, you can still start learning vocabulary while doing Heisig.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://kanji.koohii.com/">Koohii</a> is a fansite that provides pre-made stories for RTK, generally superior to the ones in the book. (Note that some people find that creating their own mnemonic story can form stronger associations than trying to memorize someone else’s.) You can access these stories more conveniently from <a href="https://hochanh.github.io/rtk/">this interface</a>. Do not use the spaced-repetition-system on Koohii; Anki is superior. There is an Anki deck in the <a href="cor.html">Cornucopia of Resources</a>. You’ll also need to follow alongside the book PDF, since the deck does not teach the “primitive” kanji components.</li>
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<li>Read more about it from <a href="http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Remembering_the_Kanji">Koohii wiki</a> or <a href="http://www.guidetojapanese.org/blog/2008/01/31/final-thoughts-on-remembering-the-kanji/">Tae Kim</a>. <a href="https://nihongoshark.com/learn-kanji/">Here</a> is a detailed post about the mnemonic system, its advantages, and how to apply it, as well as how to incorporate Anki into it for added effectiveness (note: while this guy recommends using the kanji on the front of the card in Anki on the basis that it is easier, Heisig says, in all caps no less, in his book that <a href="assets/rtk.png">reviewing should only ever be done from the keyword</a>; the RTK deck in the Cornucopia of Resources has the keyword on the front of the cards, but is otherwise identical to the deck recommended on that page).</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a href="http://www.kanjidamage.com/">KanjiDamage</a> - Another kanji resource that uses a radical-based order. Unlike Heisig’s method it also teaches the readings and gives you examples of common words that use those kanji (great for adding them to your Anki deck right away). Take the introduction on the site with a grain of salt, as it isn’t very accurate, or is just plain wrong, as is the case with some other areas on the site, but that in no way makes this a bad resource in regards to learning. You may want to simply use the shared deck for Anki (see <a href="cor.html">Cornucopia of Resources</a>) instead of the website in tandem with another vocabulary deck in order to build up a big cache of words quickly.</p>
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<li><a href="https://mega.co.nz#!CQg0SKyI!Ufho0RKmmW8P6XRx8KiDY1JeAXoGOgmjrEscayil8cA">KanjiDamage+ (Anki deck)</a> The deck was created to solve some of the problems with KanjiDamage - namely the often criticized style of mnemonics. They're still there but often toned down or changed to something more logical/less crude. Some mistakes are fixed. Furthermore, the kanji base got significantly expanded, now the deck has 2136 cards (~1900 kanji, rest are radicals). The deck can be browsed online <a href="http://kanjidamageplus.neocities.org/">here</a>.</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a href="https://mega.nz/#!ncYFXTyJ!KXwmhJu4QogtPasf0wt_zxyGvIfnm4gXxKsmdIv51sQ">The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course</a> - KKLC follows in the RTK tradition but differs in several ways. Like RTK, it uses a mnemonic approach and teaches kanji components step by step. Unlike RTK, it teaches the most common kanji first, teaches their meanings through sample vocabulary rather than in isolation, and includes mnemonics for every kanji. (The RTK book stops providing pre-made mnemonics after the few first hundred kanji, but has a large number of community-made mnemonics available online.) Each entry includes 4 or 5 vocabulary words to illustrate the kanji's meanings and readings. These words consist only of previously learned kanji, so you can make sense of the words right away, and also get constant review of kanji studied earlier. Use it with an Anki deck such as <a href="https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/779483253">this one</a>. The author maintains a website <a href="http://keystojapanese.com/">here</a> with information and supporting tools for KKLC users.</p>
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<p><a href="https://mega.nz/#!IAVVlBab!qQazRubQ3VZ_WjjLS4CclxYQF-6QGRtnmwd_zGBZpIo">Kangxi Radicals</a> - An Anki deck with more accurate meanings for the radicals than other available resources. Comes with only recognition-style cards (radical on the front, meaning on the back) by default, but you can change them to recall-style cards (meaning on the front, radical on the back), because the deck disambiguates variants.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>You may wish to use <a href="http://pastebin.com/gzKyJXqr">this</a> customised layout which adds a mincho/serif font to the cards so you can see how the radicals look in that typeface. </li>
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</ul>
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<p><strong>For rote kanji study</strong>: Just pick whichever mnemonic deck (RTK/KKLC/KD) takes your fancy and edit the card layout to remove the mnemonics if necessary. The reason for this is that the mnemonic decks give much more concise meanings for the kanji, whereas rote decks often have far too many meanings to be realistically remembered for each kanji. It's worth doing <a href="https://mega.nz/#!uJsA1QwR!2z65jNf9lagIjvESUHHE-mMT3EXjfbRiBo91F9RpQwU">a radical deck</a> first so that if you encounter any kanji which you're really struggling to remember through rote, you can make up a mnemonic using the radicals.</p>
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<h3 id="Vocabulary">Vocabulary</h3>
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<p><span class="bold">Anki Shared Decks</span> - This is highly recommended to learn vocabulary. Obviously, you will need <a href="http://ankisrs.net/">Anki</a> to use it. There are decks, you may search for them and see which one will best suit your needs. The most commonly recommended vocabulary deck is <a href="anki.html">Core 2k/6k</a>.</p>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://foosoft.net/projects/yomichan/">Yomichan’s Anki integration</a> - Yomichan has a companion Anki add-on called <a href="https://foosoft.net/projects/yomichan/#anki-integration">AnkiConnect</a> which allows users to automatically create cards in Anki for the words which they hover over. Unlike with Rikaisama, this is done by clicking a button as opposed to pressing a hotkey.
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://rikaisama.sourceforge.net/#realtime_import_help">Rikaisama's Anki Real-Time Import Feature</a> - An invaluable tool for creating a mining deck. Allows you to automatically create cards in Anki simply by hovering over a word and pressing "r". <a href="anki.html#import">Here</a> is an explanation of how to set it up. </p>
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<h3 id="Grammar">Grammar</h3>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar">Tae Kim</a> - This is the most commonly used guide on DJT because it is faster than the others listed here. Use the grammar guide, not the “complete guide” (which is incomplete). Tae Kim only has exercises in the beginning, after which there are no exercises to work on.</p>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://mega.nz/#F!JVxQBRaK!8uG_L5tw-_hkzzM3rLZ_6Q">Japanese the Manga Way</a> - This book teaches grammar through examples from actual Japanese manga, breaking down each sentence into its components to explain the meaning. It covers most of the same material as Tae Kim with less technical language, and will teach you enough grammar to begin reading. </p>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://mega.co.nz#F!m5tU0QxJ!ML2OBq3waLUHrWg9HiWeSA">Dictionaries of Japanese Grammar (DOJG)</a> - A collection of three books, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. As the name implies, these are dictionaries rather than guides. It goes in-depth into the various grammar rules, more so than virtually any other resource.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>There is an index of the DOJG <a href="http://core6000.neocities.org/dojg/">here</a> with notes, example sentences and formation tables.</li>
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<li>There is also a <a href="http://dojgdeck.neocities.org/">DOJG Anki deck</a>. Those in favour of it suggest that it is a good way of exposing yourself to all the entries in the DOJG books and periodically reviewing them.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://core6000.neocities.org/hjgp/">A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Teachers and Learners</a> (HJGP) - A grammar dictionary similar to the DoJG, but with broader coverage.</p>
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<p><a href="http://pastebin.com/w0gRFM0c">Genki</a> - A textbook which has exercises that you can practice, which may help drill grammar rules into your mind. The obvious downside is speed, of course. This resource can be found on the bottom of the pastebin.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download/c6219m4xxxixj0x/Genki+1+%28Anon+edit%29.zip">Genki 1</a> - An edited version of Genki 1 with the distracting romaji edited out can be found here. This version is preferred over the one in the pastebin as it encourages the learning of kana.</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a href="https://www2.gwu.edu/~eall/vjgnew/vjghomepage/vjghome.htm">Visualizing Japanese Grammar</a> - A series of videos by a native Japanese linguist who works as a university professor in the US whichthat lucidly explain the basics of Japanese grammar. Each grammar concept has a quiz to test your understanding. Some basic prior knowledge, is presumed, thus this resource should be seen as a supplement to something like Tae Kim, not a replacement. The videos can also be downloaded from the <a href="cor.html">CoR</a> .</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.imabi.net/">Imabi</a> - Written by a guy with a linguistics degree. More factually accurate and comprehensive than Tae Kim's guide, but its length and abundant use of linguistics terminology may make it unsuitable for complete beginners and/or people who would like to just quickly get basic grammar down and move onto reading. Those who plan on doing <a href="anki.html">Core2K</a> before they start reading, however, should have ample time (~3 months) to get through it before they finish that deck. While it has some flaws as a beginner’s guide, it can be very useful as a reference resource, especially for things which aren't covered in Tae Kim's guide.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.japanesepod101.com/">Japanese Pod 101</a> - A free (mostly) castpod-like teaching Japanese grammar, vocabulary and culture. There is a 1 week free-trial to pdf containing tips and other features, like flashcards with lesson’s vocabulary. Good for storing in your phone and listening while in idle activities, buses, walks, etc. A large collection of lessons can be <a href="https://mega.nz/#F!HhQQVJRY!XGJ6-lTZ-qiaxrkFRqIexg">found here</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="https://sakubi.neocities.org/">Sakubi</a> - A guide that aims to be more precise than Tae Kim while using less academic language than Imabi.</p>
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<h3 id="Practice">Practice</h3>
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<h4 id="Reading"><span class="italic">Reading</span></h4>
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<p><a href="reading list.html">Reading List</a> - This is a list of books, games and manga which we have compiled. You can sort through the list by skill, platform, etc. We recommend you have a look, regardless of skill level. Please contribute anything you read as well to it so it can become a better resource. A particularly detailed summary is not needed.</p>
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<p><a href="http://livingjapanese.com/pages/reading_packs.html">Yotsuba Reading Pack</a> - This pack is designed for beginners who have just started reading. This is an accompaniment to the first two volumes of Yotsubato. This includes a vocabulary list and a pre-made Anki deck. Yotsubato! is a manga that is often recommended to beginners. Note that, if you don’t want to do the deck, following along the HTML file is still very helpful for slang.</p>
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<p><a href="http://pastebin.com/zqDeuDpS">Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei</a> - A partial transcript of the first volume of the beginner-friendly manga <em>Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei</em>, to make looking up words easy.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.aozora.gr.jp/">Aozora</a> - This site contains a collection of (mostly) Classic Japanese literature. This site is mainly for advanced readers and not recommended for beginners. <a href="http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/1049335.html">Here’s</a> some good recommendations of famous Japanese authors.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><span class="bold">Note to Kindle users:</span> A kind anon put together a guide on how to convert Aozora Bunko text files into the mobi ebook format, as well as a guide on how to convert mobi files into searchable AZW3 ebooks:</li>
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<li><a href="http://pastebin.com/8cRxRcQu">Aozora Bunko to Mobi</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://pastebin.com/qdaYzitJ">Mobi to AZW3</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p><a href="http://tss.asenheim.org/">Asenheim</a> - Another site for playing visual novels. Features older, officially released Visual novels.</p>
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<h4 id="Anime TV"><span class="italic">Anime & TV</span></h4>
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<p><a href="http://kitsunekko.net/dirlist.php?dir=subtitles%2Fjapanese%2F">Kitsunekko</a> - This site has a selection of Japanese subtitles for popular (anime) shows. The timing often does not match up with most available downloads, but you can try to retime it in a subtitle editing program or just look at it in the editor to compare with what you hear. There is a <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O24ILleeONJvnu8EFw-kPxo7Roq1pdlL9UZdhytIpz0/edit#gid=0">spreadsheet</a> with shows and their subtitle delay, please fill in whatever you find out while using Japanese subtitles.</p>
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<p><a href="https://animelon.com/">Animelon</a> - Stream anime with Japanese subtitles.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.d-addicts.com/forum/">D-Addicts</a> - This is a great site to find dorama with subtitles.</p>
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<p><a href="http://mov3.co/">Mov3</a> - A Chinese streaming site specializing in Japanese TV.</p>
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<h4 id="Listening Production"><span class="italic">Listening & Production</span></h4>
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<p><a href="http://lang-8.com/">Lang-8</a> - Here, you can write journal entries which are corrected by Japanese natives, and in return, you correct theirs. This is a great way to increase your writing/production ability and also meet people to talk to.</p>
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<p><a href="http://jpopsuki.eu/">Jpopsuki</a> - Great place to get and find any Japanese/Asian music, not just jpop. Requires that you get an account by either applying for one, or by having someone invite you. Sometimes you might be able to ask for a referral either in the threads or on /mu/.</p>
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<p><a href="http://skypech.com/">Skypech</a> - Here’s a site for finding some natives on Skype to talk to. This a Japanese site for Japanese people, so do not misunderstand and think that everyone here has an interest in learning English.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.nicovideo.jp/">Niconico</a> - A site with lots of Japanese videos and also a section for streamers if you want to see what a native sounds like. Ideal if you don’t want to actually commit to interacting with another person.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/feed/trending?gl=JP&hl=ja">YouTube</a> - As a result of the Virtual YouTuber (バーチャルユーチューバー) craze started by Kizuna Ai (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4YaOt1yT-ZeyB0OmxHgolA">A.I.Channel</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbFwe3COkDrbNsbMyGNCsDg">A.I.Games</a>), you can now find quite a lot of Japanese people on YouTube making Virtual YouTuber videos. There are various types of channels, with some focused on short videos about random subjects, others focused on video games, and some focused on live streams, though it's not uncommon for channels combine all 3 types of content to some degree. Of particular benefit to learners is that many Virtual YouTuber videos have Japanese subtitles as an option you can enable (many also have English subtitles but you will want to disable those if you actually want to learn anything, obviously). Besides Kizuna Ai's channel linked above, here are a few others to get you started: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQYADFw7xEJ9oZSM5ZbqyBw">Kaguya Luna</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCevD0wKzJFpfIkvHOiQsfLQ">Nekomiya Hinata</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3iwL9Yz8LcKkJsnLPevOTQ">Nora Cat</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMYtONm441rBogWK_xPH9HA">Mirai Akari</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLhUvJ_wO9hOvv_yYENu4fQ">Siro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp6993wxpyDPHUpavwDFqgg">Tokino Sora</a>. You can find more <a href="https://virtual-youtuber.userlocal.jp/document/ranking/">here</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="http://pastebin.com/3qH9MgZJ">Radio shows</a> - Radio shows provide a variety of themes and people speaking. But people also speak at a natural or even fast pace. Recommended for advanced listeners or people simply interested in listening to radio. One of the only means of hearing (and practicing listening to) genuine, conversational Japanese without actually going to Japan.
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<ul>
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<li>
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Radio stations from prefectures where the West <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant%C5%8D_dialect">Kanto dialects</a> (<a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A5%BF%E9%96%A2%E6%9D%B1%E6%96%B9%E8%A8%80">西関東方言</a>) are spoken with the Tokyo-style <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent">pitch accent</a> (<a href="https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E5%BC%8F%E3%82%A2%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BB%E3%83%B3%E3%83%88">東京式アクセント</a>):
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Tokyo-r100932/">Tokyo (東京)</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Kanagawa-r101688/">Kanagawa (神奈川)</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Radio stations from prefectures where the West Kanto dialects (西関東方言) are partially spoken with a mix of pitch accents:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Gunma-r100930/">Gunma (群馬)</a> - Spoken almost universally and with the Tokyo-style pitch accent.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Chiba-r101689/">Chiba (千葉)</a> - Spoken almost universally with the Tokyo-style pitch accent and a variant of the Tokyo-style pitch accent.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Saitama-r101798/">Saitama (埼玉)</a> - Spoken widely; pitch accent where spoken is Tokyo-style..</li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Yamanashi-r101792/">Yamanashi (山梨)</a> - Spoken only in the Gun'uchi (郡内) region; pitch accent where spoken is Tokyo-style.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Tochigi-r101777/">Tochigi (栃木)</a> - Spoken only in and around Ashikaga (足利) city; pitch accent where spoken is Tokyo-style.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Japan-r101255/">Japanese radio stations from other regions</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<em>Note</em>: Many online Japanese radios are region locked and cannot be accessed without a Japanese IP address. This includes the NHK radio and any online radio station which broadcasts via <a href="http://radiko.jp/">radiko.jp</a> (the site where most major broadcasters like TBS, MBS and ABC host their online radio; many of the radios which appear on the TuneIn pages linked above are not actually hosted on the site and are just links to radiko.jp pages). The region lock on radiko.jp appears to extend <a href="http://radiko.jp/#!/areafree">even to geographic areas of Japan</a> (meaning someone from Osaka cannot listen to radios from Hokkaido, etc.), though this lock can apparently be circumvented by purchasing a premium account on the site (assuming you can even use a premium account from a non-Japanese IP, which I’m not sure about). Using a VPN which can give you a Japanese IP address would allow you to circumvent region locks across all Japanese websites, but in the case of radiko.jp it seems that you would only gain access to radios in the vicinity of your Japanese IP address.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>Podcasts</strong> -
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="http://sokoani.com/">sokoani (そこ☆あに)</a> - A long-running Japanese podcast about anime. There are over 500 episodes constituting approximately 450 hours (and 10.7 GB) of listening material. Using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wget">wget</a>, it is possible to automate the process of downloading all the episodes with the following command:<br/>
|
||
<code>wget http://podcast.sokoani.com/SA/mp3/s{001..501}.mp3</code><br/>
|
||
(adjust the 501 number to match whatever the current number of episodes is)<br/>
|
||
There are also a number of special episodes (そこあに増刊号) which can be downloaded with the following command:<br/>
|
||
<code>wget http://podcast.sokoani.com/SA/mp3/z{001..038}.mp3</code><br/>
|
||
(again, adjust the final number to match the current number of episodes - note that episode 7 is split into two parts so this command will fail to download those; you will need to individually wget z007-1.mp3 and z007-2.mp3 for episode 7)</li>
|
||
<li><a href=""><a href="http://podcast.1242.com/">The Voice (ザ・ボイス)</a></a> - A frequently updated political podcast running since 2012, with a grand total of 1205 episodes at the time of writing (Oct. 2017). I estimate that there is somewhere around 700 hours of listening material here. The guests on the podcast are mostly male speakers who speak very quickly, so prepare yourself for a challenge. The best way to download the episodes seems to be from the <a href="http://podcast.1242.com/voice/index.xml">RSS feed</a> with a download manager like <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/downthemall/">DownThemAll</a> (total size of all current episodes is 29.3 GB). Don’t try to wget the URL range like with the sokoani podcast above, else you will end up downloading episodes of every other podcast on the site in the process.</li>
|
||
<li>More podcasts <a href="https://tunein.com/radio/Japanese-Talk-g349/">here</a>, <a href="http://www.geocities.jp/ra_te_media/link/641.htm">here</a> and <a href="https://forum.koohii.com/thread-14283.html">here</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Videos">Videos</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9987A659670D60E0">Namasensei's Japanese lessons (YouTube)</a> - Covers fairly little material but is a fun and very motivating introduction to the language for people who are just starting out. You bitch.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/lingosteve/videos">Steve Kaufmann (YouTube)</a> - Channel maintained by a Canadian polyglot who knows about a dozen languages and lived in Japan for close to 10 years. Contains lots of useful tips for language learning in general. Some recommended videos: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqfISgCQV-U">1</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5IPArDxO40">2</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFED4984055236DDE">3</a></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MATTvsJapan/videos">MATTvsJapan</a> - A YouTube channel which has come to the attention of the DJT threads recently (late 2017). Run by a guy who reached fluency following the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugrOTjzLTYk">AJATT</a> method, it contains various videos with tips on learning Japanese and a few about Japanese itself.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/freejapaneselessons3/videos">nihongonomori (YouTube)</a> - Channel apparently run by a group of Koreans with a bunch of video lessons on Japanese. Quite a lot of them seem to be related to studying for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-Language_Proficiency_Test">JLPT</a> exams. According to the anon who suggested the channel "[the] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLINFE8v4DOhtUkvfx3UrJ8CwD9U7xWbZA">Learn Japanese Grammar 1 playlist</a> is ok. It has a better explanation of particles than [Tae Kim's guide], but the stuff on verbs & adjectives are not given enough time."</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=334804">Let's Learn Japanese Basic I</a> / <a href="https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=339735">Basic II</a> - A video series produced by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Foundation">The Japan Foundation</a>, the first season in the mid-1980s, and the second season 10 years later. Apparently covers similar material to what can be found in Genki and Tae Kim's guide.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeK-ilb1gk6md2oCbjPh4Rl0lnXXOV22P">Dogen: Japanese Phonetics</a> - A series of videos explaining Japanese pitch accent and pronunciation.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhX3WQEkraW3VHPyup8jkQ">Langfocus (YouTube)</a> - A channel run by a Canadian polyglot living in Japan which, as the name suggests, focuses on various different languages. There is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9-e_3GHrzw">a video</a> on the channel about the history and structure of the Japanese language which would serve as a very good introduction for someone just starting out.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h2 id="Useful Learning Tools">Useful Learning Tools</h2>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Typing Japanese">Typing Japanese</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">Input Method Editor (IME) - It will allow you to type in Japanese using your keyboard. Required.</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">(Note: Both Mac and Windows have IME’s already pre-installed but it’s not as featureful as Google IME.)</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/ime/">Google IME</a> <span class="italic">(Windows, Mac OS, Android)</span> - Google IME generally includes a larger collection of words, inclusive of internet slang. The downside, however, is that its handwriting recognition is rather lacking (see ”sljfaq” below). To switch between romaji and kana press alt+` (just above tab key). Ctrl + Caps Lock for hiragana, hold shift while in hiragana mode to type in katakana. Alt + Caps is katakana. Shift + Caps reverts back to hiragana. This does not affect Caps Lock. You can also press F7 after typing something in hiragana to switch it to katakana without changing mode.
|
||
Protip: Type in kaomoji and hit space. Alternatively: read <a href="http://nihonshock.com/2010/04/12-japanese-ime-tips/">this article</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://github.com/google/mozc">Mozc</a> <span class="italic">(Chromium OS, Android, Windows, Mac OS, GNU/Linux)</span> - This is a project that stems from Google IME. <a href="https://github.com/google/mozc/blob/master/docs/about_branding.md">Unlike Google IME</a>, it does not have a function to report “user metrics” to Google and is available on a greater number of operating systems, but it is missing some features which Google IME has and there is no binary installer provided so Windows users must compile it from source (users of any of the more well-known Linux distros should be able to install it from their distro’s repositories).</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>If you have any trouble with Mozc for GNU/Linux read <a href="http://chris.bracken.jp/2011/10/installing-ibus-mozc-on-ubuntu-1110.html">this</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Packages also exist in Fedora, Debian, GNU/Linux Mint, and. For Arch, it‘s available in the AtwUR.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://www.localizingjapan.com/blog/2012/05/29/japanese-input-on-ubuntu-linux-12-04-lts-precise-pangolin/">iBus</a> - <span class="italic">(GNU/Linux)</span> - An IMF through which to use IMEs (e.g. Mozc). If you use (K/X/L)Ubuntu, <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/JapaneseInput">you probably already have it</a>. You just need to install the Japanese IME packages using the language support in the settings and select iBus as your keyboard input method system. You can select the keys to press to change the keyboard layout or do it manually using the icon on the panel. For the rest of us that don’t use Ubuntu or its variants, you can probably find iBus in the official repositories of your distribution. You can make iBus autostart when you boot by adding ibus-daemon to your ~/.xinitrc. And you will probably want to add & to the end, ala: ibus-daemon & (also your windows manager might have it’s own autostart file, use that instead) that you can find in your Home folder.</p>
|
||
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>If IBus doesn’t show up under “Keyboard input method system”, it may not have been installed automatically for some reason when you installed Japanese language support. Try opening a terminal and manually installing either ibus-mozc or ibus-anthy, and IBus should then appear as an option.</li>
|
||
<li>Don’t forget to configure Qt for input in Qt apps. See <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IBus#Initial_setup">this</a> and <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ibus#Plasma_5">this</a>.</li>
|
||
<li>For problems with other applications, see <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IBus#Troubleshooting">this</a>.</li>
|
||
<li>For the superior non <span class="bold">※</span>buntu users: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Internationalization/Japanese">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Internationalization/Japanese</a> (recommended Input Method Editor: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mozc">Mozc</a>. There is a version of Mozc in the AUR for those on Arch Linux called <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mozc#mozc-ut">mozc-ut</a> which comes with the <a href="http://www.geocities.jp/ep3797/mozc_01.html">UT dictionary</a>, adding 580,000+ words to the original, but be warned that compiling this version can take quite a long time.)</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Anki">Anki</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">Flashcard software. Also available for mobile.</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://ankisrs.net/">Anki</a> - Anki is a flashcard program which uses a method called spaced repetition to drill information into your head. It shows you a set amount of new cards each day (default 20) and will show you the same cards again when you are most likely to forget them, which is predicted through algorithms. This program has a lot of features that can’t be covered here, so <span class="bold">R</span>ead <span class="bold">T</span>he <span class="bold">F</span>ucking <a href="http://ankisrs.net/docs/manual.html"><span class="bold">M</span>anual</a> if you wish to totally utilize Anki. You can also get this on your mobile device and sync your deck between both versions. The official App Store version costs money (to support the devs) so you might just want to use Safari in that case instead.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>There are programs and add-ons that further increase its usefulness, see: <a href="http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/Morph_Man">Morph Man</a>, <a href="http://subs2srs.sourceforge.net/">subs2srs</a>, and <a href="https://ankiweb.net/shared/addons/">many more</a>. A popular add-on is <a href="https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/942570791">Kanji Grid</a>, which allows you to visualise your progress through the kanji and may help to keep you motivated in your struggle with them. Some more good add-ons are <a href="https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/803940993">Timeboxed Answers</a>, which allows you to set a timer on your answers which helps to keep you focused and stops you from wasting undue amount of time per card, and <a href="https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/266436365">Progress Graphs</a> which, among other things, shows you how many cards you have matured on a particular day.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>If you use GNU/Linux and you want to change the size of the Japanese characters, you need to install the appropriate Japanese fonts, if you don’t have them. Two high-quality fonts which should be available in the repositories of most distros are the IPA Gothic & Mincho fonts developed by Japan’s Information-technology Promotion Agency (the package in your distro’s repo should come with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface#Proportion">proportional</a> variants, IPAPGothic and IPAPMincho respectively, which have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning">kerning</a> and thus should be more visually-pleasing), and the Noto CJK fonts developed by Google (note that the latin glyphs in the Noto CJK font are different from those in the ordinary Noto font). Even Windows users should consider switching to these fonts as Microsoft’s own Gothic and Mincho fonts are quite poor. For more fonts, see the <a href="cor.html#fonts">CoR</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Anki is highly customizable, and you may change whatever you see fit to match your learning style, but for a quick start into learning vocabulary with Anki, the procedure in <a href="anki.html">DJT’s Anki start-up guide</a> is recommended.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://core6000.neocities.org/">Core6K/10K/5K index</a> - This site lets you browse the contents of various popular Anki decks online.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Dictionaries">Dictionaries</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">Use these to look up words. Jisho and Tangorin also have kanji lookup.</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="">Yomichan</a> - <em>(Firefox & Chrome)</em> - A browser add-on like Rikaisama which allows the user to hover over words in order to see their meanings. By default, its behaviour is quite different from Rikaisama’s, though it can be configured to behave in a similar manner by disabling the “Middle mouse button scans” option and setting the “Scan modifier key” to “None” (it is recommended if you do this to set the “Popup offset” option to either 0 or 1, else it will become very difficult to mouse into the popup before it automatically disappears). After installation, you need to import JMDict in Yomichan's settings by clicking the arrow next to the input box under the "Dictionaries" section. Has a companion Anki add-on called <a href="https://foosoft.net/projects/yomichan/#anki-integration">AnkiConnect</a> which allows users to automatically add words they hover over to their Anki deck. Can be used as an offline dictionary by clicking the Yomichan browser icon and then clicking the magnifying glass button which appears in the pop-up menu.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://rikaisama.sourceforge.net/">Rikaisama</a> - <span class="italic">(Firefox)</span> - This is a tool that shows you equivalent or close meanings (in English) of Japanese words in plaintext format, by hovering over them. Has many useful features such as audio playback and the ability to save words to a file or import it straight into Anki. <strong>Note: Rikaisama is abandonware and no longer works in Firefox since version 57.</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>There is also Rikaichan for Firefox, but there is absolutely no reason to use it since Rikaisama has all of its features.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rikaicake-jp-en-dictionary/">RikaiCake</a>: This is a dictionary file that adds 5,000 additional definitions, curated by a manga translator. Install the extension and then <a href="assets/rikaicake.png">give the dictionary priority</a> in Rikaisama’s settings.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rikaikun/jipdnfibhldikgcjhfnomkfpcebammhp?hl=en">Rikaikun</a> - <span class="italic">(Chrome)</span> - Essentially an inferior clone of Rikaichan, but still serviceable enough if you just can’t let go of the botnet. No Anki import feature.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rikaichamp/">Rikaichamp</a> - <em>(Firefox)</em> - A port of Rikaikun for Firefox which, unlike Rikaichan and Rikaisama, works with Firefox’s new add-on API. If you don’t like Yomichan for some reason and you can live without Anki integration, audio, EPWING support, etc., then you can give this a try instead. Feature-wise, basically the only thing it can do is show definitions of words and kanji from EDICT and KANJIDIC respectively.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://jisho.org/">Jisho</a> - Online J>E/E>J dictionary. It also contains information on kanji including a order, readings, etc. You can also search a kanji by handwriting or its radicals if you don’t know the correct stroke order. </p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://ejje.weblio.jp/">Weblio</a> - Principally a Japanese to English lookup resource, and consequently a decent source for Japanese > English phrases. Also has a <a href="http://www.weblio.jp">J-J version</a> .</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/en/">goo辞書</a> - Similar to Weblio. Also has a <a href="https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/">J-J version</a>. I believe all of its J-E results and example sentences are taken from the professionally-created <a href="https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/je/">プログレッシブ和英中辞典</a> (Progressive Japanese-English Medium-Size Dictionary), so you can probably trust them to be correct.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><strong>Kenkyusha J-E Dictionary</strong> - To quote <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenky%C5%ABsha%27s_New_Japanese-English_Dictionary">Wikipedia</a>: "Has long been the largest and most authoritative Japanese-English dictionary. Translators, scholars, and specialists who use the Japanese language affectionately refer to this dictionary as the Green Goddess or (GG) because of its distinctive dark-green cover. The fifth edition [...] published in 2003 [comprises] almost 3,000 pages; it contains about 480,000 entries (including 130,000 Japanese headwords, 100,000 compound words, and 250,000 example phrases and sentences), nearly all of which are accompanied by English translations." Download <a href="https://mega.nz/#F!dcoAlDSB!7ltFSsPmp1JfPhz6U5FaeQ">the EPWING version</a> and read it with <a href="http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/EPWING_software">EPWING viewers</a> like <a href="http://qolibri.osdn.jp/">qolibri</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>Kojien J-J Dictionary</strong> - The Oxford Dictionary of Japanese dictionaries. To quote Wikipedia: "It is widely regarded as the most authoritative dictionary of Japanese, and newspaper editorials frequently cite its definitions." Contains not only definitions of words, but also meanings and explanations of kanji along with their stroke orders. The 6th edition (2008) includes approximately 240,000 headwords. Note that some of its example sentences come from classical Japanese texts. Download <a href="https://mega.nz/#F!UxhhlKzb!9T8-35RugwmkuZ33oTqVrQ">the EPWING version</a> and read it with <a href="http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/EPWING_software">EPWING viewers</a> like <a href="http://qolibri.osdn.jp/">qolibri</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>Daijirin J-J Dictionary</strong> - Another authoritative Japanese dictionary, prefered by some to Kojien. To quote Wikipedia: "specifically created [...] to compete with Iwanami's profitable Kōjien dictionary[...] One of the biggest differences between Daijirin and Kōjien definitions is how they arrange meanings. A dictionary can arrange entries either historically with the oldest recorded meanings first (e.g., Kōjien and Oxford English Dictionary) or popularly with the most common meanings first (e.g., Daijirin and American Heritage Dictionary). Daijirin entries encompass diverse vocabulary, including modern and classical Japanese words, scientific terminology, proper names, alphabetical abbreviations (like NG "no good; outtake, blooper"), and yojijukugo idioms. Some definitions include semantic notes distinguishing homonyms and synonyms." Currently in its 3rd edition (2006) which contains 238,000 entries. Note that some of its example sentences come from classical Japanese texts. Available online for free provided by Yahoo (also contains definitions from other dictionaries besides Daijirin, such as Daijisen - the definition page in question will say which dictionary it is giving the definition from). <a href="https://mega.nz/#F!UxhhlKzb!9T8-35RugwmkuZ33oTqVrQ">The EPWING version</a> can be read with <a href="http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/EPWING_software">EPWING viewers</a> like <a href="http://qolibri.osdn.jp/">qolibri</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://www.jedict.com/">JEdict</a> - An offline dictionary application. Contains various dictionaries (you can download and add more) and handwritten Kanji lookup. It seems that it’s only available for Mac.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://www.tagaini.net/">Tagaini Jisho</a> - another offline dictionary program. Contains lots of functionality, including kanjivg stroke orders, much like Jisho.org</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://ichi.moe/">ichi.moe</a> - Like a dictionary but with the ablity to split entire sentences into words.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://gogen-allguide.com/">Gogen</a> - An etymological dictionary in Japanese.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://thejadednetwork.com/sfx/">Jaded Sound Effects Dictionary</a> - English translations of manga SFX.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://qolibri.osdn.jp/">qolibri</a> - Probably the best program for reading/searching EPWING dictionaries. Available on Windows, Mac and Linux, though Linux users are better off running the Windows binary via <a href="https://www.winehq.org/">Wine</a> than trying to compile qolibri from source as the most recent version of the program is almost 10 years old and thus depends on long-obsolete software in order to build and run. See <a href="http://rtkwiki.koohii.com/wiki/EPWING_software">here</a> for alternative programs.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Kanji Lookup">Kanji Lookup</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">Use these to look up kanji.</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> - Handwritten kanji lookup. Select Japanese and push the pencil button. No matter what kind of abomination you draw, google will recognize it. Amount of strokes and the order in which they are placed is irrelevant, just vaguely sketch what you want to look up and google will recognize it. Unparalleled when it comes to handwriting recognition.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">Google translate is a piece of shit when it comes to translating Japanese syntax. Don’t use it for that.</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/nihilistorguk/">Kanji Stroke Order Font</a> A font that shows the stroke order for kanji. <a href="http://pastebin.com/1rV3c2BB">Here</a> is a guide on how to set-up Rikaichan to use it. Not always correct, so be careful. <a href="http://kakijun.jp/">Kakijun</a> is a great website for checking the proper stroke order.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://kanji.sljfaq.org/">sljfaq</a> - Handwritten kanji search. Just draw the kanji using the correct stroke order and a list of possible kanji will appear. The results will link you to the <a href="http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1C">WWWJDIC</a> project by default, which is where the data for Jisho and most other online Japanese dictionaries comes from. You can go through the options page to redirect to your preferred service. What’s nice about this is that it saves your writing so it will still be there even if you close the page.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://kanji.sljfaq.org/mr-old.html">Multiradical kanji search</a> - Search kanji by radicals.</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Ebook Tools">Ebook Tools</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://pastebin.com/8cRxRcQu">Guide to Convert Aozora Bunko Text Files into Mobi Ebooks</a> <span class="bold">and</span> <a href="http://pastebin.com/qdaYzitJ">Guide to Convert Mobi Ebooks into Searchable AZW3 Ebooks</a> - two guides very useful for anybody who wants to read Japanese books on their Kindle or other e-reader that accepts books in azw3 format. Using them you can convert txt /mobi file into a searchable e-reader format (Kindle has a free Japanese dictionary available, you can also find some other dictionaries on the Internet and add them to your e-reader).</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/jnovelformatter/">JNovel Formatter</a>- Breaks down a .txt into bite-size (your choice of length) chunks and converts it to html. Makes the task of reading LN's less daunting. a utility that will convert Japanese novels (in .txt) to nicely formatted HTML files. It enables you to use text hookers (Rikaisama, Rikaichan) while reading LNs/novels. A massive collection of .txt books can be found in the <a href="cor.html">Cornucopia of Resources</a> (<a href="https://mega.co.nz#F!uRNGFDya!fVuFYuDW1vTuEDsPE0yzFA">'400+MB assorted books txt file format'</a>). Smaller collections are available in <a href="https://mega.co.nz#F!iJESRCJD!WM2kQRMwlgc8Asc3UiwBVA">azw3</a> and <a href="https://mega.co.nz#F!HMNgQLTI!agLeklx6Rqvpr9_j9Dsdfw">html</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://forum.koohii.com/thread-13948.html">NHK Easy News for Kindle</a> - A script that downloads the day’s news from <a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/">NHK Easy News</a> and converts it to MOBI or PDF format for your e-reader. Download automatically generated files <a href="http://web.uni-plovdiv.bg/vebaev/NHK/NHK.htm">here</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Manga OCR">Manga/LN OCR</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://www.kanjitomo.net/">KanjiTomo</a> - This is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. Scans for words on your screen and tells you what they are and what they mean. Essentially, it’s like Rikaisama/Yomichan but works on images too instead of just plain text. Success rate varies widely based on image / character quality. Highly recommended for reading manga and light novels.</p>
|
||
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/file/oo9dejl9a0uefc8/Kanjitomo+v4.zip">Here</a> (version 4) is a script designed to make KanjiTomo easier to use. Download <a href="http://ahkscript.org/">AutoHotkey</a> to use. It adds hotkeys for easily toggling automatic OCR, quickly copying words to a text file, etc. to streamline the word lookup process. Guide to properly setup and customize shortcut can be found <a href="https://pastebin.com/mrEf949T">here</a>.</li>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<li><strong>GNU/Linux users</strong>: run from the terminal with the following command:<br/>
|
||
<code>$ java -jar /path/to/KanjiTomo.jar -run</code></li>
|
||
|
||
<li>To increase accuracy, tell KanjiTomo what the text orientation and color are under the Settings menu. It is better to think of the text color settings as Dark on Light and Light on Dark than as Black on White and White on Black as the options actually appear.</li>
|
||
|
||
<li>While it is preferred to use ITHVNR when reading VNs (see Visual Novels section below), if you cannot use ITHVNR for whatever reason, it is possible to use KanjiTomo or other OCR programs with VNs instead. The best results will be had with VNs which use simple fonts with no weird outlines, effects, etc. applied to them, and which allow the user to reduce the transparency of the textbox (you usually don’t need to make the textbox totally opaque; KanjiTomo can work surprisingly well with textboxes which have a fair amount of transparency to them, especially if you tell it what color font it’s looking for as mentioned above - experiment and find the sweet spot).</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/capture2text/">Capture2Text</a> - Another OCR program.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Visual Novels">Visual Novels</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://visual-novels-general.wikia.com/wiki/Basic_Guide_to_Installation">VN installation guide</a> - Explains how to set-up your system locale to work with VNs. Ignore the parts about English patches.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://www.hongfire.com/forum/forum/hentai-lair/hentai-game-discussion/tools-and-tutorials/411001-ithvnr-ith-with-the-vnr-engine?p=5723219#post5723219">ITHVNR</a> - Extracts text from Japanese games as it's being displayed. This is <a href="http://www.hongfire.com/forum/forum/hentai-lair/hentai-game-discussion/tools-and-tutorials/185725-interactive-text-hooker-new-text-extraction-tool">Interactive Text Hooker</a> with the Visual Novel Reader (VNR) engine, allowing it to work with a wider selection of stuff (including non-VN stuff like 32bit media players for watching Japanese subbed anime). It doesn't require hook codes for most things, but if the game isn't hooking properly, you may need to put a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170819091116/agth.wikia.com/wiki/H-codes">hook code</a> in the input box. <a href="https://mega.nz/#!0Z5yEa6J!b16dxlwrDKHHoWE5bPdBgFkaTBcWNQhGnkHvOiA9fa8">Back-up link</a>. Latest version requires <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/download/details.aspx?id=48145">Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="bold">※</span><a href="http://pastebin.com/raw/DgZ84qwk">Firefox Auto-scrolling Rikai/Yomichan VN Texthooking with ITHVNR Setup Guide</a> - A guide on setting up ITHVNR so you can send VN text to Firefox and read it with Rikaisama or Yomichan (and use the convenient word mining function). The recommended method.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h4 id="Downloading VNs"><span class="italic">Downloading VNs</span></h4>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="https://nyaa.si/">nyaa mirror</a> and <a href="https://sukebei.nyaa.si/">sukebei mirror</a>. VNs are usually on Sukebei.</a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="https://rutracker.org/forum/index.php">RuTracker</a>: Often has torrents for popular VNs.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="http://bbs.mikocon.com/forum.php">Mikocon</a> and <a href="http://girlcelly.blog.fc2.com/">Girlcelly</a>: Torrents from the two biggest uploaders.</li>
|
||
<li>Pan Baidu: A Chinese filehost which has (usually slow) direct downloads for many VNs. Find links with <a href="http://www.pan115.com/">pan115</a> or Google.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="http://www.anime-sharing.com/forum/">Anime-Sharing</a>: An extensive catalogue of 10-part rars on shitty filehosts. A download manager like <a href="http://jdownloader.org/">JDownloader</a> can make this less inconvenient.</li>
|
||
<li><a href="http://www.clubbox.co.kr/">ClubBox</a>: Korean program that is cumbersome to set-up but has many rare games. <a href="https://pastebin.com/Q6Hf0X6W">Guide here</a>.</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wine">Wine</a> - A FOSS compatibility layer that aims to allow applications developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Almost all VNs are made exclusively for Windows, so if you are a GNU/Linux user you will need this if you want to play any. Unlike virtual machines which consume a large amount of system resources, Windows programs run through Wine are no more resource intensive than they are when run natively on Windows. Note that ITHVNR only works in newer versions of Wine, so if you are stuck with an older version you may need to rely on OCR for word lookups instead.</p>
|
||
|
||
<div style="font-size:90%">
|
||
Tips:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>Run VNs (or anything else Japanese) from the terminal with the following command:<br />
|
||
<code>LANG=ja_JP.UTF-8 wine /path/to/vn.exe</code><br />
|
||
(This is equivalent to having a Japanese locale on Windows, and without it you will get garbled text and likely other problems besides. You will need to generate a Japanese UTF-8 locale for your distro for this to work.)</li>
|
||
|
||
<li><a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wine#WINEARCH">Generate a 32-bit Wine environment instead of a 64-bit one</a>. While, technically, so long as you have 32-bit libraries installed on your machine, 64-bit Wine should be able to run 32-bit programs, 64-bit Wine has undergone much less testing and thus contains a higher amount of bugs. Any VN you come across is almost certainly going to be a 32-bit program so there is no need to have 64-bit Wine anyway.</li>
|
||
|
||
<li>Use <a href="https://wiki.winehq.org/Winetricks">Winetricks</a> to easily install DirectX9, Visual Runtime libraries and so on. It is recommended as a minimum to install d3dx9_36, dotnet40, ffdshow, quartz and vcrun6, by issuing the following command from the terminal:<br />
|
||
<code>$ winetricks d3dx9_36 dotnet40 ffdshow quartz vcrun6</code><br />
|
||
You may also want to install takao and corefonts in the same manner if you have problems with fonts not displaying properly.</li>
|
||
|
||
<li>Add the location you use to mount .ISO and similar files to Wine as a CD-ROM drive. Open a terminal > type “winecfg” and hit enter > click the “Drives” tab > “Add…” > “OK” > “Browse…” > find the location in question and click “OK” > “Show Advanced” > Change “Type” from “autodetect” to “CD-ROM”. This should stop VNs complaining that they can’t find the files on the disk needed for installation and should avert the need for NODVD patches. You may need to pass “-o nonempty” as an argument when trying to mount .ISO files to this location after doing this, e.g.:<br />
|
||
<code>$ fuseiso /path/to/vn.iso /path/to/mount/location/ -o nonempty</code></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox">VirtualBox</a> - A FOSS program capable of creating virtual machines (emulated computers within your computer). GNU/Linux users can use this program to create a virtual Windows computer under their system which they can then install and run VNs on. VirtualBox itself does not provide an installation media for Windows (or any other OS), so you will have to secure that yourself. As Virtual machines are resource heavy and generally unreliable when it comes to running anything graphical, it is preferred to use Wine if possible. Be sure to install the <a href="https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html">Guest Additions</a> on your virtual Windows machine to improve performance and add support for 3D hardware acceleration, among other things.</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Mobile Devices">Mobile Devices</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.japanese">Google Japanese Input</a> - Input Japanese on Android.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alexisblaze.japanese_grammar&hl=en">Tae Kim app</a> - Tae Kim’s grammar guide for Android. Includes bookmarks, day/night modes, easy navigation and clickable translations.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://github.com/ispedals/Rikachan-Android/releases">Rikaichan for Android</a> - A version of Rikaichan for Android, allowing you to easily look-up words.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sk.baka.aedict&hl=en">Aedict</a> - An offline dictionary for Android.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.craxic.akebifree">Akebi</a> - Japanese dictionary for Android with handwriting kanji search option. Useful for studying jouyou kanji too.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zyz.mobile&hl=en">Jade Reader</a> - Free open source text reader. Provides instant offline EDICT lookup. Also allows you to conveniently save words from the text you're reading into a list so can add them to Anki later.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://forum.koohii.com/thread-11121.html">OCR Manga Reader for Android</a> - Free and open source Android app that allows you to quickly OCR and lookup Japanese words in real-time. It does not have ads and does not require network permissions. Supports both EDICT and EPWING dictionaries.</p>
|
||
|
||
<h3 id="Misc Tools">Misc Tools</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p><span class="italic">Useful things that don’t fit into any of the other categories.</span></p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese">Wikibooks</a> - A small collection of resources for learning Japanese. Does not seem to go into too much depth. Good supplement.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://www.lingq.com/">LingQ</a> - Good language learning site with many translated texts + audio. Although you can use it for free for a little while at the beginning, continued usage of the site costs money. An anon has kindly ripped and posted many of the podcasts and so forth which you download <a href="https://mega.co.nz#!EEtQ1AYL!X-gE-7zj2OgsuSW4IxEY_e9dLb1TOBHLDr0vQSYELoc">here</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://lwt.sourceforge.net/">Learning With Text (LWT)</a> - An extensive application that seems somewhat similar to LingQ.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://github.com/wareya/analyzer/releases">Unnamed Japanese Text Analyzer</a> - Takes a .txt file and produces a word frequency list. Uses a better morphological analyzer than the older <a href="http://forum.koohii.com/post-168688.html#pid168688">Japanese Text Analysis Tool</a>.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="https://vnscripts.neocities.org/">VN scripts</a> - A corpus of VN scripts.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://forum.koohii.com/post-192583.html#pid192583">cb's Kanji Word Association Tool</a> - Will generate a list of words based on kanji already studied up to that point and kana. In addition, words are sorted by frequency, and no duplicates are associated with each kanji.</p>
|
||
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html |