Immersion is key and you can make it really efficient with the following tools and resources.
Each section is dedicated to a category of immersion resources.
Most of the tools mentioned here can be used with Yomichan and/or Anki to create efficient flashcards.
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Anki: spaced repetition flashcards app for learning pretty much anything (vocabulary, sentence mining, grammar, etc.)
- I recommend learning about the theory behind it and mastering it to make your learning more efficient
- optimize Anki settings: interval modifier
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Yomichan: web browser extension for looking up unknown words in dictionaries
- you can link it to Anki with AnkiConnect to generate flashcards of the words you can't read (see here)
- see this guide for a setup tutorial
- can be used to read books since .epub ebooks contain .html files
Before starting to read books and watch shows in Japanese, you need a decent understanding of kanji and Japanese grammar. Some people recommend learning the 1000 most used kanji and the corresponding vocabulary before immersing, but at the end of the day it really depends on the difficulty of the first thing you're going to read/watch, and I think it can be done earlier with enough determination.
The importance of learning kanji is often underestimated. Japanese grammar highly depends on the way kanji interact, and without them you won't be able to read or watch anything.
Different learning approaches exist, and all of them have their drawbacks. My take on kanji is that learning them independantly is useful at first, but it soon becomes a waste of time; I learned them mainly through immersion.
- Core 2.3k: 1972 most useful Japanese words, with images, audio and examples (best if you want to immerge early)
- WaniKani: famous method of learning kanji based on mnemonics (slow but detailed)
- RTK (Remembering The Kanji): another famous method but with a really weird order
Even more important than learning words and kanji is understanding how Japanese is structured. Famous Japanese grammar books aimed at foreigners (Minna no Nihongo, Genki, etc.) teach Japanese grammar in a weird order in my opinion, and only focus on academic/professional language. I would rather use those resources (and of course immersion):
- Tae Kim's Guide: highly regarded free guide
- Jlab deck: Anki deck based on Tae Kim's Guide and sentences from anime, if you prefer flashcards
- Bunpro: SRS system with all grammar points of JLPT N5 to N1 for everyday learning
Buying a physical Japanese dictionary isn't really necessary; a lot of great dictionaries can be found online. Here are the ones I use.
- Jisho: rich Japanese-English dictionary
- Wiktionary: very detailed information for kanji lookup
- JapanDict: dictionary and details on kanji
- 日仏辞典: Japanese-French dictionary
- Takoboto: Android Japanese dictionary
- OJAD: pitch accent dictionary (advanced)
- Massif: example sentences for a given word
Reading books is one the best ways to enhance your understanding of Japanese grammar and massively learn new words. Unlike reading manga, you don't get extra information from the drawings, and the sentences are more advanced. The good news is that books are pretty easy to find and mine.
I recommend having an English translation of the book you're reading, alongside the Japanese version. Advanced Japanese syntax can be quite confusing, and you may think you understood the meaning of a sentence when in reality you mistook a grammatical form for another.
- Itazuraneko Books: all kinds of Japanese books, including light novels
- Itazuraneko Extended Ebook Novel: harder to search but has over 20000 books
- Aozora Bunko: arond 15,000 royalty-free Aozora Bunko books (most of them are old and hard however)
- Z-Library: biggest online library (not only Japanese) [Tor]
- The Moe Way eBook Collection: has lots of books that you won't find anywhere else, lifesaver [torrent]
- Hibiscus: .epub online reader implementing vertical reading
- ッツ Ebook Reader: same as Hibiscus
- Jidoujisho: Android app to read books and manga with Yomichan-like translation, also with Anki integration (and a lot of other things)
- 縦書き頑張ってみるよ: Firefox addon to turn horizontal text into vertical text (like in real Japanese books)
- Kobo Dictionary: custom html dictionary created from JMdict if you want to read books on an e-reader such as Kobo
Manga can be hard to read at first, because sentences are short and sometime use very specific vocabulary/grammar.
- Tachiyomi: you can bulk download Japanese manga through Tachiyomi (with a source such as mangareader.to) and export them to your computer afterwards
- Nyaa: has a lot of manga volumes [torrent]
Mokuro.webm
- Mokuro: tool based on Manga OCR, used to turn manga pages into .html files you can look up with Yomichan
- Jidoujisho: Android app to read books and manga with Yomichan-like translation, also with Anki integration (and a lot of other things)
Reading VN may be THE best way to learn Japanese, because characters use natural spoken Japanese, you can rely on the pictures to understand what is going on, and above all in some VNs like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni all dialogues are dubbed and you can switch between Japanese and English with a key shortcut.
I personally find it easier to read a VN in Japanese for several hours, compared to a LN or a book.
- Textractor: incredible tool which hooks on a function in a VN to output the text written in the game and pastes it in your clipboard so that you can use Yomichan/Anki on it
- Agent: alternative if Textractor doesn't work
You can also read articles/pages, communicate online, play games, etc.
There aren't any tools like Mokuro for games (of course), but it doesn't mean that it's impossible. Playing games where you have to understand the story to progress is best.
- Manga OCR: can also be used on anything, even games if you play them on PC (via emulation if not available on PC)
- ROMs: mega-thread for ROMs
- Emulators on Arch: for Arch users
You can set up MPV and Yomichan to generate vocab Anki cards with the context sentence, both in Japanese and translated in English, with the audio of the line, a screenshot of the scene and a translation of the word.
Therefore, you need to download locally the media you want to watch.
Japanese subtitles for specific shows can be really hard to find or even unavailable (e.g. Ashita no Joe). If what you are looking for can't be found in theses lists, it probably doesn't exist.
- Nyaa: biggest torrent site for anime, manga, light novels and dramas
- J-Drama: Google drive with 150 Japanase dramas
- Kitsunekko: updated collection
- Itazuraneko Subtitles: old but very rich collection
- Tatsumoto's List: list of subtitles collections (Tatsumoto's Guide)
- Japanese Movies: subtitles for Japanese movies, ordered by directors
Whisper AI can be used to generate fairly good subtitles, but you need to use medium/large models, which can take a long time.
Use this only if you already have a good understanding of spoken Japanese.
- Whisper AI: open-source transcription AI
- FreeSubtitles.AI: free transcription service powered by Whisper AI
Example.webm
- MPV: the best media player when it comes to customization; you can really enhance your immersion setup with the following addons (courtesy of the AJATT community)
- Mpvacious: use Yomichan on video subtitles and create Anki cards (if you are on Wayland you'll need wl-clipboard)
- Sub-transition: speed up a video when there are no subtitles on screen
- Autosync-mpv: automatically sync a subtitles file to the audio
- Videoclip: create video clips
- Jidoujisho: can also be used to watch videos with translatable subtitles and Anki integration on your phone
Watching Youtube videos is a good way to learn japanese, but finding interesting channels can be hard.
Audiobooks and podcasts are for more advanced learners, but you can find a lot of them on Spotify or other platforms. Having a visual support is easier for learning.
- Itazuraneko: I don't listen to audiobooks but Itazuraneko has a lot
Good news: you can use all the tools in the anime/drama/movies section for YouTube by watching videos directly from MPV.
- ytfzf: YouTube browser in the terminal (open in MPV)
- Manga OCR: if no subtitles are available, you can use OCR to generate them
I personally never use streaming websites for learning. Downloading what you consume makes learning easier, as you can use all kinds of tools that only work on files on your computer. However, I used to do so at first, so here are the best ones I found for anime:
- Animelon: Japanese and English subtitles available
- Anisub.tv: Japanese subs
- Zoro.to: you can turn off the English subtitles, but no Japanese subs
I rarely watch TV online but there are lots of way to do it:
- AS Stream: simply watch TV
- jp.m3u: playlist of channels you can open in mpv
- News24: watch news through mpv
- Learn Natively: site like AniList to track your immersion and have a community-based estimation of the difficulty of lots of Japanese works
- jpdb.io: gives an estimation of the level needed to read/watch given works, but not community-based
- Jo Mako's Japanese: same but by some guy
- Kanji Frequency: kanji usage frequency
- On'yomi Frequency: on'yomi ordered by frequency among tōyō kanji
- Aozora Bunko stats: number of kanji needed to read Aozora Bunko novels
- you need to know 7744 to be able to read all of them
- MLC Kanji Level Check: estimates your jōyō kanji knowledge
- JLPTCheck Quiz: estimates your JLPT level
- TheMoeWay: in-depth explanations of Anki and Yomichan, plus other tools
- Animecards: how to link Yomichan and Anki, and other useful information
- Tatsumoto's Guide: very rich, Linux oriented
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