Japanese Language

The SJA Japanese Program provides a friendly, casual and fun-learning environment for both youth and adult students in the community. The program, offered free of charge to students, is led by language instructors and a team of dedicated volunteers. The lessons focus on building basic Japanese skills and learning the culture of Japan through various medium such as text books, online resources, hands-on games, and group activities. Many fluent and near fluent volunteers enhance the students’ learning environment by adding authentic voices of their own heritage and experiences in Japan.

Study in Japan – College Programs and More

Information on Study Abroad Program in Japan

  1. Japan Study Support https://www.jpss.jp/ja/univ/english/

  2. Japan Student Services Organization https://www.jasso.go.jp/ryugaku/study_j/sgtj.html

  3. Japan Student Services Organization https://www.jasso.go.jp/ryugaku/study_j/sgtj.html

  4. Study in Japan Comprehensive Guide https://www.studyjapan.go.jp/jp/index.html

  5. 国立大学協会 （The Japan Association of National Universities）https://www.janu.jp/univ/international/

  6. Top Global University Japan https://tgu.mext.go.jp/en/index.html

インターンシップ情報　

  1. グローバル採用ナビ https://global-saiyou.com/column/view/foreignstudents

  2. ゼロワンインターン 　https://01intern.com/

SJA Japanese Program

The SJA Japanese Program provides a friendly, casual and fun-learning environment for both youth and adult students in the community. The program, offered free of charge to students, is led by language instructors and a team of dedicated volunteers. The lessons focus on building basic Japanese skills and learning the culture of Japan through various medium such as text books, online resources, hands-on games, and group activities. Many fluent and near fluent volunteers enhance the students’ learning environment by adding authentic voices of their own heritage and experiences in Japan.

Free Japanese Classes

SJA offers FREE in-person and virtual classes every month. Find out more by looking at our upcoming classes.

Japanese Classes through Arlington Community Learning

For those of you who are looking for more structured learning experience, try the Arlington county’s Japanese language program. There are two types of class offerings: Beginner and Intermediate/Advanced. Our very own SJA staffs are leading the instructions for some courses. These instructors will assist you with your journey to Japanese study through their passion, expertise and wealth of knowledge of the language and the culture. Registration through the Arlington County’s Community Learning website. All classes are held online, textbooks Japanese for busy people I, II, III. Please contact info@sjastudy.org.

Adults Classes

  • Beginning Japanese

  • Intermediate Japanese

  • Advanced Japanese

Youth Classes

  • Intro to Japanese – YEP (Youth Enrichment Program)

  • Intro to Origami – YEP (Youth Enrichment Program)

Please contact Arlington County for registration for these after school programs.  Look for other classes, such as Intermediate Japanese 1-3 and Japanese Intercultural Communication for Travel in the Winter, Spring or Summer, and other topical classes, such as origami or tea ceremony.  (5 students enrollment needed for classes to run)

Other Local Classes

SJA can also help arrange language exchanges or private Japanese lessons. We encourage you to visit the Japan America Society of Washington DC’s website and Japan Foundation website for their language classes and cultural activities.

  • Japanese Plus is a free after school Japanese language, culture, and career exposure program for DC public high school students only. Website: www.japaneseplus.org.

Online Resources

Teens and children may especially enjoy Erin’s Challenge video lessons at erin.ne.jp or other lessons with animation.

Marugoto e-Learning Minato/Portal It’s free but it requires you to register and gives you a certificate for each module you complete. You can use it to learn to read Japanese and experience Japanese cultural arts.

Websites

  • Lingualift This blog describes 10 free on-line resources for learners of Japanese, from kanji to vocabulary to grammar to peer tutoring and editing.

  • Fluent in 3 Months This site focuses on helping learners be able to speak Japanese fluently in about 3 months through various on-line resources. This blog describes 10 free on-line resources for learners of Japanese, from kanji to vocabulary to grammar to peer tutoring and editing.

  • Fluent U This website provides details, including some pros and cons of 18 mostly free websites for Japanese language learners (some overlap with the two websites already mentioned).

  • WaniKani Community This is a wikisite created by and for Japanese language learners with an extensive list of links to resources by language skill and topic.

Dictionary

  • Jisho.org This free on-line dictionary was created by learners who love Japanese and generally gives a lot of useful and relevant examples when searching for a word or short phrase.

  • WWWJDIC: Online Japanese Dictionary Service This site hosted by Monash University in Australia was developed by corpus linguists who analyze frequency of language use.

  • Midori This is an English-Japanese dictionary app available only for iOS through the iStore for $9.99

  • IMIWA? This is a free multilingual dictionary app that works on iOS.

Study Tools

  • TOFUGU This webpage archives articles from the past few years that review many Japanese learning resources

  • www.Quizlet.com This website allows you to set up a free account to create your own quizzes in English or Japanese similar to how flash cards match words and definitions.

  • Anki Anki is an intelligent flash card app that tracks which words your most likely to forget over time based on past responses.

  • Bunpro is an online website that focuses on developing mastery of Japanese grammar by providing instant feedback on mistakes made while writing/typing Japanese.

  • Memrise is a language learning app based on videos of real native speakers’ conversations.

  • Wanikani is a website/app for rapidly improving kanji reading ability promising to help learners master 2000 kanji in one year. The first month is free.

  • Tofugu operates wanikani and has many other resources for helping people plan to learn Japanese from the beginning level up and by skill level—reading, writing, listening and speaking.

  • Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese asserts that traditional textbooks and approaches don’t develop Japanese grammatical knowledge in a way that makes sense to Japanese native speakers and proposes a different approach not based on the grammars of commonly learned European languages.

  • Meguro Language Center, which has been in operation since 1990, offers many free resources for preparing for the JLPT or different skill areas of Japanese.

  • Reading Tutor was developed by Tokyo International University faculty and students. If you paste an article in Japanese into it, it will analyze the level of vocabulary according to the JLPT and also prepare a word list with English definitions.