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iKnow: The Best Japanese Vocabulary Flashcard Site on the Web

Posted on 18. Nov, 2008 by koichi.

We’ve all been through it. We’ve all experienced it. Studying vocabulary can be a huge drag. There are tons of different resources for vocab studying, but none of them out there are really really good. Usually, you have to input all the information yourself (which takes longer than just studying without flashcards), or you just study and forget to go back. No vocabulary resource has been so streamlined and so well put together before iKnow.co.jp, which, of course, is what we’ll be looking at in pretty good detail today.

If you’ve ever had trouble with vocabulary, iKnow will change that. If you think you’ve been doing fine all this time, you’ll soon realize that it can only get better for you.

Here’s why iKnow is so good at pile driving kanji / vocabulary into the mat (is my WWF vocab okay?). Firstly, iKnow hits vocab from all angles. Hands on learner, visual learner, auditory learner… doesn’t matter. There’s something for everyone. In fact, if you use all these angles to your advantage, you’re only solidifying and remembering recently learned vocab more efficiently and better. I don’t know how often I forget vocab I’ve just learned. iKnow prevents this as much as possible. (more…)

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Top 10 Online Resources for Learning Japanese for Free

Posted on 21. Oct, 2008 by koichi.

I’m really proud and excited to announce Tofugu’s first annual “Top 10 Online Resources for Learning Japanese for Free” list, which includes an e-book that’s available for download at the end of the article. There’s also video down there for all you people who don’t like reading things!

Have you ever wondered what was out there in the tubes of the interwebs in terms of improving your Japanese? Honestly, a whole lot of junk. Some of that junk is mediocre, but most of it is pretty junky. I’ve sifted through all that and came up with a list of the best Japanese resources on the web. Granted, everything is just my opinion, but I think this is a really well rounded list that should have something (hopefully a few things) for everyone! If you’ve been a reader on Tofugu for a while now, you’ve probably seen some of these. Still there’s a lot of new stuff here, so please, dive in, and tell me what you think! (more…)

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Lang-8 Review: Quite Possibly the Best Way to Practice Your Japanese Writing

Posted on 14. May, 2008 by koichi.

The title of this post says it all. Lang-8 is an absolutely amazing way to practice your Japanese. I’ve been using Lang-8 for about six months now, and plan on using it a lot more this summer. It is a mix of social networking and language learning, though I think the emphasis lands mostly on the latter. Although it’s not a website just for Japanese language learning, that’s what I’ll be talking about for the most part today. Those that are learning Korean, Chinese (traditional and simplified), English, Spanish, and Japanese are all invited…though that makes me wonder, why is it called Lang-8? Maybe they are planning on adding other languages later. Perhaps if a Lang-8 staff is reading this, they can fill us all in.

Anyways, I should explain to you what Lang-8 is all about. They do a better job explaining it than I do, so here you go:

Let me explain these three steps in more detail (more…)

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