Skip to main content

Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese

I figured for my next study tool review, I'd do a positively free one, Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese. This is an amazing website, and it's as close as you'll get to a free online book. It has its flaws, but it is one of the best tools to help you learn.

First of all, it has lessons and even practice exercises in the kana. Although Power Japanese worked best for me in this regard, Tae Kim does a great job of reinforcing your knowledge as well. It also has basic grammar, which you will need to know soon, and advanced topics, although it doesn't flow quite as well as a textbook.

He also has a forum, a wiki, and a blog, all of which will help you as you go along. I should also mention that it's been translated into 9 or 10 languages, so your non-English friends can also check it out.

Now, I wouldn't recommend using this website as your sole source for studying. It's great for reinforcing knowledge, and you might learn a thing or two here and there, but don't start from scratch here. If you're not sure if you want to study Japanese to begin with, then I recommend looking at this site to see if you can commit yourself, but be sure to get a good book as well.

Sorry for the short post, but it's difficult to review a website. Just take my word for it that once you begin your Japanese studies, this site will be indispensable!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review for LingQ - Redone!

I really wanted to do a review for LingQ , and I wound up doing a long and crazy post about things that didn't have much to do with LingQ. As such, I am redoing this post in hopes of better clarifying what LingQ is and how well it works. For starters, anyone even remotely familiar with Steve Kauffman will know that he's a huge supporter of what is normally called the input method. That basically means that you learn a language simply through exposure to it. No grammar drills, just listening, reading, and anything else you can think of that will expose you to the language. As such, that is exactly what LingQ strives to do. The most frustrating thing about learning an Asian language through the input method, in my opinion, is that if you're reading a book or a non-editable pdf, if you come across a kanji you're not sure how to read, you can't just type it into a dictionary. That frustrates me a lot! That's why LingQ is so good about that. You just hover your mou...
3 comments
Read more

Review for Rosetta Stone

I told you I wasn’t gone for good! Today I’m going to be mostly bashing Rosetta Stone’s language learning software. This review goes for Rosetta Stone whether you’re learning Japanese or any other language that this software purports to teach. It purports to teach because Rosetta Stone is particularly bad at teaching anything, except how to look at pictures and repeat words. It’s aimed mostly for travelers, but doesn’t really get you conversing, and it’s expensive to boot. Really, there’s only a couple things it does well, but this isn’t enough to make up for all the failing this software does. If anyone from Rosetta Stone actually reads this, please use the criticism to improve your software! You probably already know that Rosetta Stone teaches you language easily, right? I mean, that’s what the advertisements always tell us! What Rosetta Stone tells us and what it actually does are like night and day, but if you really don’t know much about Rosetta Stone, here’s what allegedl...
3 comments
Read more

Friday Review TextFugu

Update: For everyone coming here looking for a review of TextFugu, this post is out of date. It was written when TextFugu was in its infancy, and is a first-impression review. A more accurate and up-to-date review is here. Textfugu makes the incredibly bold statement, “Best way to teach yourself Japanese, guaranteed.” I’ve been meaning to review Textfugu for a while, as Koichi is a hardworking guy who endlessly promotes the Japanese language. He’s a very successful marketer, has a vibrant personality, and is actually dedicated to your success, not his. Well, I wouldn’t wager he’s that selfless, but you get the idea. So, what do I make of his product? It’s a mixed bag, but I’m going to spoil the review by saying I’m glad I bought it. However, that doesn’t mean that Textfugu isn’t without its flaws, so here’s my complete review. Oh, but before that, I’m going to offer a disclaimer. Namely, Textfugu doesn’t yet offer lessons for my level, so a lot of this is the hypothetical if-I-was-st...
3 comments
Read more