It’s been about a month since we launched our “Japanese Resources Page” – on it we say things like “blah-didy-blah japanese resource this that etc” but we thought it would be fun for you guys if we just put our money where our mouths are. Not all the resources on the Japanese Resources page are free (some of them are, though, and they’re awesome), so we thought we’d give you some of the paid ones using cash from our very own Scrooge McDuck gold coin swimming pools (that way you don’t have to). We have a lot of cool resources to give away, too.
How To Win (It’s Suspiciously Easy)
On our Japanese Resources page, we have “recommend” buttons. They look like this:
The cool thing about these is that they’re linked to Facebook, meaning only real people can “recommend” something. Although individual items will get fewer votes by using Facebook (I’m guessing), the idea is that each “recommendation” will have a lot more umph behind it. Real people are recommending these resources, and I think people will be pickier about what they choose. That’s awesome, I think. You can really get an idea already what’s a great resource out there, just based off this (though some newer stuff has fewer recommendations).
We’re greedy fugus over here, though, so we want to bribe you to give some recommendations on this page (if you haven’t already). Here’s how to enter the contest.
- Make sure you have a Facebook account (big sorries if you don’t!)
- Go to the Japanese Resources page on Tofugu.
- Recommend one or more resources by hitting the “recommend” button. Pick your favorites! The ones you’d actually recommend to someone else for their awesome-ness.
- Come back here and leave a comment, telling us what you recommended and why. Be sure to add your email in the email field when doing your comment, that’s how we’ll contact you if you win something.
- Hope for the best. There are a couple different ways you can win something (and a bunch of prizes, see below), but we’ll start giving stuff out next week.
Quick, easy, and helps out both of us, I think (especially if you win something). More importantly, it will help others to find great Japanese resources, based off of your recommendations. You’re changing people’s minds! 0_0
Prizes
Out of our own linty pockets we’re providing prizes. Some of the prizes are ours, some are others – there’s a good mix of stuff going on, here, with different ways to win them, depending on what they are.
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What: TextFugu “Forever” Subscription
How: We’ll pick one comment at random, below.
TextFugu is Tofugu’s online Japanese textbook. It’s made specifically for self-learners of Japanese (sorry classrooms, businesses, and the FBI) and tries to make sure you don’t hit any of the pitfalls of learning Japanese on your own (losing motivation, getting stuck, etc). We’ll be giving away one forever (lifetime!) subscription to one lucky (and hoopy) frood.
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What: Lifetime Subscription to MangoLanguages Japanese
How: We’ll pick one comment at random, below.
Mango Languages is a great way to learning quick, practical Japanese really quickly. If you’re one of those people who don’t want to bother with all the fancy linguistic aspects of a language and just want to learn how to ask for directions, make small talk, or order at a restaurant, Mango Languages is for you.
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What: 1 Year Subscription to Lang-8′s Premium Program
How: We’ll pick one comment at random, below.
Lang-8 is a social network that focuses on language exchange. You write journal entries in the language you’re learning (Japanese?) and then Japanese native speakers will correct your journal entries using a cool correction tool (that helps you learn from your mistakes). Normally Lang-8 is free, but there’s also a great Premium version of the site (I’m a subscriber, actually, it’s nice). We’ll be giving away a single one year subscription to one lucky winner.
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What: Forever Subscription To Gakuu
How: We’ll pick someone at random out of people who mention in their comment that they’re intermediate / advanced!
Gakuu is a site that puts out regular lessons based off of real (raw) Japanese (we’re talking signs, letters, etc… things that are real Japanese used in reality in Japan). This service is more for intermediate / advanced students of Japanese, so we’ll try to pick someone who can use Gakuu effectively (so it doesn’t go to waste!).
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What: 1 Year Subscription to ReadTheKanji
How: Recommend a kanji related resource and we’ll pick someone at random from that pool of people
ReadTheKanji is a really effective, interesting way to practice kanji. It uses vocab to show you different kanji, and based off your answers rates the individual kanji within the vocab to help you to study what you aren’t very good at. It’s a great tool for all levels! One lucky kanji-loving commenter will get a one year subscription to this service.
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What: Ultimate Nouns (1&2), Adjectives, and Verbs Vocab Packs
How: One out of five recommenders/commenters will get this prize (those are pretty good odds)!
The “Ultimate Japanese Vocab” packs are some of the first things to appear in our (somewhat) secret Tofugu Store (shh, hasn’t been announced yet). These packs give you the 200 most common verbs, the 200 most common adjectives, and the first 200 most common nouns. By learning vocab in the right order, you’re making sure that you get the most bang for your Japanese-vocab-learning-buck, meaning you get to use the Japanese you learn a lot faster. These “packs” consist of an Anki deck and a pdf+excel file with all the words, their meanings, kanji verison, kana version, and so on.
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What: Ultimate Nouns #1 Pack
How: “Recommend” something on the Japanese Resources Page then Comment. Everyone wins!
This is just the Ultimate Nouns Pack (not all four of the currently available ones). it consists of the 100 most common Japanese nouns, and is a great way to get started on your Japanese vocabulary. By learning these words you’re sure to learn the most useful words in the Japanese language. That’s pretty awesome. Everyone who does the Facebook Recommend on the Japanese Resources page and then comments here telling us your #1 recommendation on that list wins themselves a pack of Nouns (Anki deck + PDF/Excel file). Hooray for winning! Tiger Blood!
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Rules
There you have it. Odds are really good on some of these, not as good on others. There are some rules, though:
- You have to recommend something on the Japanese Resource Page first (that means you need a Facebook account to recommend with).
- We’ll only count one comment from each person, below (so don’t spam comments… we know your IP address! Be nice to others!)
- We’ll try to make sure one person doesn’t win more than one prize (besides the Ultimate Vocab packs, because everyone wins one of those, at least!).
- We’ll start giving things away a week from now. That’s August 8th. Probably won’t get everything out on that day, but expect to start hearing from us then (and the rest of that week). Make sure you put your email in correctly while leaving your comment, otherwise we won’t be able ot get ahold of you :(
- Comments that are particularly entertaining / well written / etc may or may not get two entries into the “random choosing pool.” Quality is king, ya’all.
- Also, tweeting / liking / G+ing this post may or may not also help you out. Probably won’t, but just sayin’, you know?
That’s it – get to it if you want to get to it! Let us know if you have any questions, too.