Listening
Nihongo con Teppei (opens nihongoconteppei.com)
Absolutely essential immersion. No kanji, but tons of context and natural grammar. Listen daily. It rewires your ear.
Keep learning
Resources
These will supercharge your learning process if you use them right. None of them is affiliated with Kanji no Chikara.
Listening
Train your ear with natural Japanese.
1 pick
Dictionaries and references
For looking things up while you read or study.
3 picks
- Dictionary
Jisho (opens jisho.org)
A fast Japanese–English dictionary for words, kanji and example sentences, built on the same EDRDG data used here.
- Dictionary
Kanji alive (opens kanjialive.com)
Kanji study pages with stroke-order animations, audio and example words.
- Dictionary
KanjiVG (opens kanjivg.tagaini.net)
Openly licensed stroke-order diagrams for kanji, used by many dictionaries and apps.
Reading practice
Real Japanese, at a level you can manage.
2 picks
- Reading
NHK News Web Easy (opens www3.nhk.or.jp)
Short news stories rewritten in simpler Japanese, with furigana over the kanji.
- Reading
Tatoeba (opens tatoeba.org)
A community collection of example sentences with translations. Quality varies, so compare a few.
Grammar and study tools
For the parts of the language around the kanji, and for remembering them.
3 picks
- Grammar
Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese (opens guidetojapanese.org)
A free grammar guide that explains Japanese on its own terms, from the basics upwards.
- Grammar
Anki (opens apps.ankiweb.net)
Spaced-repetition flashcards. Free on desktop and Android; the iOS app is paid.
- Grammar
WaniKani (opens www.wanikani.com)
A structured kanji and vocabulary course using mnemonics and spaced repetition.
Subscription; the first levels are free.
The test itself
If you are working towards the JLPT.
1 pick
- JLPT
JLPT official website (opens www.jlpt.jp)
Test dates, level descriptions and official sample questions from the organisers.