About Us
Noriko Ura and Roger Lake host JapaneseAudioLessons.com, which offers 30 hours of free Japanese audio lessons.
We have assembled four books titled Learn to Read in Japanese, A Japanese Reader, Volumes 1-4. We have also compiled four Core Kanji Catalogues that teach the kanji introduced in the Readers. The books provide thousands of sentences for reading practice, together with same-page romaji equivalents and translations.
We provide a Glossary that lists virtually all of the Japanese terms found in the four Readers, with definitions, memory aids and synonyms.
If you purchase the PDF version of the Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 4, you will receive 6 PDFs, including a full catalogue of 2,088 kanji and a Kanji Trait Index, both of which are essential components of Kanji ID, our kanji identification tool. After undergoing training, you will be able to use those two files, not only on a computer, but also on an iPhone when you want to look up kanji that you encounter in public spaces. Please see the explanation of Kanji ID below.
We generally recommend that students use the physical printed versions of the Japanese Readers for reading practice, but some students will reach their goals more quickly by reading the PDF versions of the Readers on a laptop or desktop computer – if they are able to tolerate the frustrations that are inherent in computerized reading. We think that the most efficient way to study these documents is to arrange them in open windows on an electronic screen, something that is only practical when using a laptop or desktop. When the documents are organized in this way, students can easily turn from, say, Japanese text in one window to English text and romaji in another window, to information about a kanji in a third window, to a similar or related kanji in a fourth window (for comparing the kanji side by side), to a Pronunciation Index for looking up kanji reference numbers in a fifth window, and/or to a Glossary in a sixth window, before returning to the Japanese text in the first window.
Please note that the material in the Core Kanji Catalogues is cumulative. In other words, the Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 2 teaches all of the kanji found in Readers 1 and 2. Likewise, the Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 3 teaches all of the kanji found in Readers 1, 2, and 3. Finally, the Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 4 teaches all of the kanji found in Volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4. If you have purchased an earlier edition of a PDF Core Kanji catalogue and then decide to purchase a later edition, please write to us before your second purchase, and we will send you a discount code for the later edition, so that you don't pay more than necessary. If you think that you will need all four editions, please purchase only the Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 4.
Kanji ID is a powerful tool for identifying the vast majority of the kanji characters that you will encounter in your Japanese reading. The indexes and tables that support this tool are included with our Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 4. Please note that Kanji ID is recommended primarily for students who have read all four of our Japanese Readers and become familiar with the 2,088 kanji that they teach.
Here’s how Kanji ID works: when you see an unfamiliar kanji character, please begin by noticing one or more of its prominent traits. For example, if the character is 買, you may observe that this kanji contains two searchable traits: three eyes at the top and money chest at the bottom. If you then search the Kanji Trait Index for “three eyes,” you will find six possible trait descriptions, from which you should select “Three eyes at top 署 – 1324.” Next you can turn to entry 1324 in the catalogue, where you will find a group of kanji that includes “買(う) kau = to buy, # 89.”
If you decide to identify 買 by searching for “money chest” instead, you will find ten trait descriptions in the Kanji Trait Index, from which you should select “Money chest below one item, other 費 – 0656.” If you then turn to entry 0656 in the catalogue, you will find another group of kanji that includes “買(う) kau = to buy, # 89.”
Kanji ID generally provides multiple pathways for identifying a given character, improving the chances that your searches will be successful. After you gain some experience in using this tool, you will find that it works quickly, often enabling you to identify a kanji character within a minute or so.
For suggestions about how to use these PDF files for Japanese reading practice, please visit Suggestions for Efficient Reading Practice.
For more suggestions about how to use the Core Kanji Catalogue for Vol. 4 to identify kanji, please visit Kanji ID.