Japanese
This page contains links to cultural resources in Japanese.
Ads
- A searchable database of ads from around the world (search by country, industry, media/type of ad--audio/print/video, etc.)
- A Pinterest collection of Japanese Ads by Penny Millicent
Audio
- Collection of audiotexts in Japanese that includes children's literature, essays, fairy tales, novels, and poems - searchable by title, author, genre, and length (with some texts as short as 1 minute long)
- Links to culturally authentic materials in a variety of languages, including Japanese
- Searchable collection of audiobooks in a variety of languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
- A crowd-sourced collection of texts in Japanese (and a variety of other languages), shared by language learners who found them helpful or interesting. The site allows you to search by categories (fiction, non-fiction, conversations, songs, and others) and to build a list of texts, a word list, and flashcards based on what you have read (if you are signed in).
Children's Literature
- Collection of videos in which native speakers narrate animated children's stories in Japanese. The words appear on the screen as subtitles that are highlighted as they are spoken. Not all stories shared are culturally authentic.
- Site allows you to read thousands of picture books in Japanese for free on a trial basis (each book can only be read once)
(- Extensive collection of fairy tales in Japanese from Hukumusme, written for Japanese children and organized by category (such as love stories, mystery stories, sad stories, year of the Ox stories, etc.)
- Searchable database of children's books in a wide variety of languages (including Arabic, Chinese, Croation, Farsi, Filipino, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Mongolian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, & Thai), categorized by age, color of cover, genre, length, topic, etc., that can be read online
- An interactive map containing links to legends and folktales from countries around the world read by native speakers in a variety of languages, including Japanese
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- A grandmother reads a book aloud in Japanese
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Comics
A collection of manga comics that can be filtered by genre - includes several short comics
Cultural Comparisons / Culture
Dollar Street - Use the dropdown menus on this incredible site to choose countries and topics for comparison based on socioeconomic level. Your selections will bring up photos of whatever you chose from the countries you selected. The site contains many common everyday objects, people, and situations (e.g., adding spices to food while cooking, alarm clocks, answering phones, arm watches, armchairs, backyards, bathrooms, bedrooms, beds, bikes, boats, books, bowls, brushing hair, brushing teeth, car keys, carrying water, cars, ceilings, chickens, child rooms, chopping food, cleaning equipment, cleaning floors, closing the front door, computers, cooking, cooking pots, cooking utensils, cups, cutlery, diapers, dinner guests, disability aid, dish brushes, dish racks, dishwashing soaps, dishwashers, doing dishes, drinking water, drying clothes, drying dishes, earings, eating, everyday shoes, families, family snapshots, favorite home decorations, favorite items in kitchen, floors, freezers, get water, glasses, go through mail, goats, grains, guest beds, hairbrushes, hallways, handwashing, hands, and so forth.
Cultural information in English, accompanied by a collection of short video clips filmed with native speakers in the 1990s. Some are interviews with native speakers, others demonstrate various cultural practices in cultural settings from around the Japanese-speaking world. Topics include communication, culture and social life, necessities, shopping and services, and transportation. Materials in a variety of other languages are also included on the site (shared by Lori Langer de Ramirez).
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- Video that shows events from a Naki Sumo Crying Baby Festival in Japan (associated with Children's Day)
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Documentaries
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- A trailer for a documentary in Japanese on aging and loss
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- A trailer for a documentary in Japanese about children living in difficult family circumstances in rural areas
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Games
Images
- Hundreds of free images related to Japanese culture
- Links to collections of free images from Japan
Searchable database of images from Japan, many of which are licensed under Creative Commons.
- Searchable database of high quality, professional, royalty-free images including many culturally authentic images from Japan
Infographics
- A dynamic collection of infographics in Japanese
Infographics in World Languages: Japanese - A Pinterest collection of infographics in Japanese by Leslie Grahn
- A series of infographics (most in English, but some in Japanese) on Pinterest
Informational Texts
- Magazine and newspaper sites, categorized by country and topic, from 200 countries around the world
- This site contains texts that have been uploaded from culturally authentic sources. Texts are then leveled through crowd-sourcing based on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Readings are available in Katakana, Furigana, and some are translated into other languages (mostly Bulgarian and English). Links to original sources are provided as well.
- A collection of front pages from today's newspapers from around the world
- A map that plots the locations of newspapers from around the world--can be filtered by language (Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish)
Interviews
Cultural Interviews with International Business Executives - A collection of interviews in Japanese about business negotiation tactics (similar collections are also available in Chinese, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, & Turkish). Bonus interviews include information on a host cultural topics from daily life.
Literature (See also Children's Literature)
- Free audiotexts in the public domain that are available in Japanese in both text and audio formats
- A collection of books, e-books, and other texts in a wide variety of languages. Use the advanced search feature to find texts in Japanese
Magazines
- Magazine and newspaper sites, categorized by country and topic, from 200 countries around the world
Maps
Works-Press - Maps in Japanese
Music
- Links to Top 40 Japanese pop songs and accompanying YouTube videos
- Culturally authentic songs in Japanese, as well as other languages (organized by continent, country, holidays, and language)
News
- A collection of front pages from today's newspapers from around the world
- A map that plots the locations of newspapers from around the world--can be filtered by language (Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish)
- News reports designed to be read by foreigners living in Japan, as well as elementary and middle school students
Poetry
Poem by Hiromi Ito located in a database of poems in a very wide variety of languages that can be filtered by country, language, or poet. Each poem is read aloud and accompanied by biographical information about the author.
Posters, Realia, & Signs
- Multiple collections of posters in Japanese (with English captions) that highlight different periods of Japan's development
Resources & Other Texts in Japanese
- A collection of images of rare books, manuscripts, and maps in Japanese from the 18th and 19th centuries
- A collection of books, e-books, and other texts in a wide variety of languages, including Japanese.
Videos
- A list produced by the Nishikata Film Review, organized by decade (from the 1960s to 2015). Some items are linked only to reviews or trailers, while others allow you to view the whole short.
- Popular YouTuber Hajime from Japan who conducts various humorous challenges in Japanese
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- Sample video from another popular YouTuber HikakinTV in Japan
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- Sample video from a popular vlog (Kan & Aki's Channel) hosted by a group of children who cook, do arts and crafts, and review toys
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- Animated video with music in Japanese that shows lots of different forms of transportation (boat, plane, train, trolley, etc.)
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- Cute video of two children reading a Japanese book aloud together in sing song voices
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- Sen, Momo, Ai, and Shi's Channel - Popular children's YouTube channel in Japan that depicts their daily activities in Japan
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- An annotated list in English of 17 Japanese videos--most appropriate for children, with links to embedded YouTube videos. Some videos are wordless, others are in Japanese.
- An annotated list in English. Click each image to launch the video trailer in Japanese (some with Japanese subtitles). Search YouTube to see full length versions of the films.
Pedagogical Resources
Blogs
Phenomenal site filled with creative, practical, proficiency-oriented ideas for world language teaching and learning
Excellent resources for building, tracking, and assessing proficiency
Excellent materials for building, assessing, and tracking proficiency from Alyssa Villareal
Materials grounded in the CI approach.
Sharon Domier's Blog - Contains multiple entries about learning to read through Japanese picture books
Information
Handouts from an ACTFL 2010 presentation that contain a comic analysis worksheet form, a comic creation worksheet that asks students to analyze complementarity, contrast, and redundant relationships among images and text, lesson plans, project rubrics, and more
- A PowerPoint presentation from an ACTFL session that contains loads of great examples for engaging students with culturally authentic texts in pedagogically sound ways
- Spreadsheet of culturally authentic materials in Japanese, rated for readability. Click on each tab at the bottom to see different collections.
Instructional Materials
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- Magazine available in English and the language of your choice. Each issue is organized around a conceptual theme. Excellent visuals make great bulletin board material if you buy these in your local bookstore instead of viewing online. CAUTION: Much of the material in these magazines is NOT appropriate for classroom use, so teachers should preview and select carefully.
- Site offers weekly news podcasts in Japanese. Each one comes with transcripts of the various news stories, targeted grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation exercises, and quizzes. Some of the content is free, but a paid subscription is required to access the full content from the site
- Let's Go to School in Japan - A thematic unit designed by Jessica Haxhi that can be downloaded for free.
- Search for educational videos in Japanese