I couldn’t do Japanese for Busy People alone.  With a teacher it went much better.  I read the pages out loud with her and answered the questions orally.  Just having someone to listen to me read and someone I could ask questions to really made a difference in retention.

Thanks for putting together this list guys. Not only will it be useful right now for many of us learning Japanese, but it will continue to be useful in the future because you’re going to add more and more helpful resources weekly. I’m sure everyone will appreciate this. :-)

I think ‘The Japanese Page’ is very helpful…atleast for me =}
Thanx a lot for the helpful list…wish the Anki iphone app was free though =/ sux

Currently getting “Error establishing a database connection” for the non-textfugu links on the new resource page. Thought I would bring it up so that it can be fixed ^_^

Thanks for making that list! There’s lots of things on there that I use, like Kotoba! and Lang-8. But you should add Human Japanese. It’s a Japanese textbook app for the iPod. It teaches you how to write Hiragana & Katakana, how to make sentences and use grammar, vocabulary, and pretty much everything for someone to get more than a good foundation on the language. It’s my main Japanese learning tool. Also, there’s another app I use called AccelaStudy. It teaches vocabulary using flashcards, and you can quiz yourself. It keeps your statistics and it has a spaced repetition option I love. It’s a really good app.

It looks like our hosting company is doing some unscheduled maintenance, so the problem should fix itself when they’re done. Sorry about that!

Lang-8 and Rhinospike were made for each other… :D

also the link for Denshi Jisho in the “Tofugu’s Favorite 5!” sidebar links to Anki.

Not sure if you’ve checked out Forvo before, but it’s similar to Rhinospike. http://www.forvo.com/ 

One of the pros (in my opinion) is that it allows you to pinpoint where you are on a map. It’s interesting to note the slight changes in accent and other linguistic differences between people who live in various parts of the same country/separate countries with a shared language. 

Tofugu is one of the best language learning websites I’ve seen or heard of, period. I wish there was a Tofugu equivalent for my other studies as well. 

For those of us who want a detailed physical text, the options are few.  Genki is geared towards high school and college students, so if you’re over 22, you’re going to find the conversations and practice questions childish.  Plus a lot of the vocabulary is just plain goofy and/or outdated.  Who needs to learn how to say “space alien” or “cassette player with a radio” in Japanese?  Japanese for Busy People is aimed at business people, but unfortunately, doesn’t really explain grammatical rules very thoroughly.  Anyone know of a text that covers grammar well and doesn’t focus on a chirpy but bean-brained exchange student like Mary-san and her friends?

Thank you so much! :)

Neither Koichi nor I have an Android phone, unfortunately, so we don’t feel like we can quite give the Android version of Anki a fair review :(

PALM. DEMAND PALM.

PALM. DEMAND PALM.

I know I probably appear like a JMW (Japanese the Manga Way) fangirl but I can’t stress its … usefulness enough. It explains the grammar rules very thoroughly but not so much that it bores you out. Another thing: although the examples are derived from manga panels, the vocabulary is not “goofy”.

Memrise seems to be offering something interesting. It’s the regular flashcard method but with a little twist. The Japanese
content is user-created, though, so it needs time to ‘grow’. :)

http://www.memrise.com/topic/japanese/