Resources

We share a lot of resources within TCJC. Here are a few.

Local


Since 1993, Bloomington Sister City Organization's mission is to promote international understanding through the exchange of people, information and Ideas.


In March 1986, the sister city relationship between Yuasa and Cambridge began. In March 1994, Yuasa founded "YICES" (Yuasa International Cultural Exchange Society).


One of their programs is teaching Japanese, , and they have other programs and events where you can learn about Japanese culture. The Japanese languages classes are taught by Tetsuya Shimano. See Minneapolis and Saint Paul Community Ed below for more.


Duluth Sister Cities International continues to expand its relationships with its Sister Cities: Thunder Bay, Canada; Ohara -Isumi-city, Japan; Petrozavodsk, Russia; Växjö, Sweden; and Rania, Iraqi Kurdistan.


J-Cafe is a Japanese conversation group on the University of Minnesota East Bank campus in Minneapolis. They meet every Friday (except during COVID-19) at Nolte Hall in Room 140 from 4-6pm.


Our local . They hold many events including 新年会 and お盆. It costs $30 and it's worth it.


Minneapolis's connection with Ibaraki, Japan, through cultural exchanges, youth program, and business opportunities.


Pre covid-19 the Minneapolis Public Schools Community Ed program offered adult enrichment classes in Japanese language instruction. They were taught by the same person who taught in the Saint Paul Community Ed program, Tetsuya Shimano. See below for more. At the end of the term, Shimano 先生 would invite both classes to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. とても楽しかったです。


Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota offers Japanese courses for credit to both members in the community and traditional students. Normandale also has a which is free to tour all year round from sunrise to sunset.


The RW Sister Cities Commission has facilitated the growth of friendships and cultural exchanges with Quzhou, China and Ikata, Japan since 1992. Our mission is to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding & cooperation.


Our mission is to benefit the Greater Rochester community and its sister cities around the world through the establishment and support of long-term, mutually advantageous partnerships.


The Saint Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee (SPNSCC) was commissioned as the first Japanese-American city partnership in 1955, predating the International Sister City Affiliation enacted by Congress during the Eisenhower administration. Its purpose was, and continues to be, to promote beneficial relationships between the American and Japanese people in the two cities, and to promote the cause of peace.


A Twin Cities Japanese Dance Group. They teach traditional Japanese dance in Roseville with opportunities to speak in Japanese.


Pre covid-19 Saint Paul Community Ed offered classes in Japanese language instruction. Classes are taught by Japanese native Tetsuya Shimano who's also fluent in Spanish. Hiragana isn't officially taught until the second class in the series but he does include it in class handouts from the beginning. Shimano 先生 does a type of call and response with the whole class and individually to students which is so helpful in learning Japanese.


TandemPlus is a language exchange program of the campus. They match people who want to get better at speaking a language with a corresponding partner. Most of the participants are students but people in the community may sign up, too. Since there aren't a lot of Japanese speaking people to match a large number of English speakers who want to learn Japanese, it's best to sign up as soon as registration opens for the semester. Because most people who match are students, most of them want to meet on or near campus. That means you'll probably meet on the East or West Bank of Minneapolis.


The was formed in 1929 to lobby for the rights of people with Japanese ancestry who were discriminated against at the time. Now they lobby for the rights of all people of color. Most of their events are free.


This is us! We gather several times a week virutally. Our special events include things like Japanese movies or concerts and Obon. While we meet mostly virtually in Discord, we also meet in person every other week for 日本語会話.


The East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota offers Japanese classes to both members of the community and traditional students. There's an which covers Genki I in ten weeks. That's a one year class condensed into ten weeks. Their bookstore is the best place to go for books, too. See more below.


This friendship was established in 1996.


Yoko Breckenridge was a huge benefactor to the Japanese community in Minnesota. After she passed away, the library was moved to Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It's not quite ready yet but keep checking their Facebook page for updates.


Yukimakai is devoted to the exploration of Chanoyu (Tea Ceremony) in Minnesota. The group received official status as the 85th Urasenke Tankokai affiliate. 茶道 involves beautiful and, at times, intricate 書道. This is the group who hosts Tea Ceremony at Como Park.

Hiragana and Katakana

The resources below are tried and true by our members who have advanced beyond hiragana and katakana.

From :

From :

Beginner

From , which administers the :

  • , which provides free online courses up to and including their A2B1 textbook.
  • Worksheet downloads can be found for free at for all levels offered including B1
  • The Marugoto books can be
  • Native Japanese consider the speech found in Marugoto / Minato to be more natural than those found in the Genki series.

From -
, cost varies, and can be found at . The majority of US colleges and universities base their beginning courses and majors on the Genki series.


A most excellent way to practice verb and adjective conjugations.

Seth Clydesdale's Genki Study Resources

One of our favorite ways to study Japanese with Genki. It's free and you can download the entire website onto your computer so you can use it for the times when you don't have internet connection. The charts at the end of the list are very useful in practicing 〜て, 〜ない, potential, passive, causative forms and the like.

Minna no Nihonngo
A lot of native Japanese speakers prefer these textbooks to the Genki series. These are the books which are used to teach Japanese in Japan. Sometimes their words can be a little dated but the Japanese dialogues are considered to be more natural than those found in Genki. Minna comes with a lot of supplementary books and practically all of its instruction is in Japanese. This may be difficult for a beginner but these books are a really good source of supplementary review for someone who's thinking of taking the JLPT N5 or N4 exam.


A free and terrific way to learn Japanese grammar. You can also download his smartphone app for free. He recently published a book (which is not free).


We made these decks to memorize such things as vocabulary and conjugations as well as to compete against each other or ourselves in speed drills.

Intermediate


The Tobira collection of books is used in many US colleges and universities after Genki II. It teaches over 200 grammar points. Some of us are using these to prepare for the JLPT N3 exam.


where this series is also excellent for beginners. Their books continue to B1, a low intermediate level of proficiency. A lot of the vocabulary taught here can be found in Tobira but the amount of grammar taught is much smaller.


This is like Baily Snyder's app above but with more verb conjugation practice for potential, passive, causative and the like.


This is an extension to the Chrome browser and can be used to watch shows and movies on Netflix, Youtube and more with Japanese and English subtitles. They're working on porting it to Firefox and Edge. There's a rather extensive Japanese catalogue and it helps teach other languages, too.

References


A resource to look up what English phrases mean and to look up the most common way to say a phrase in Japanese. It's also available as a smartphone app.


The preferred Japanese dictionary for Android.


An all-around tool to study any language or any subject using spaced repetition. Learning how to use Anki can be a powerful skill in supporting one's Japanese studies. Anki has apps for both iOS and Android. The iOS version costs $24.99 while the Android version is free.

Counters


A native Japanese dictionary. They have little articles on vocabulary and a dictionary for 4 character idioms which is fun to look through.


A most excellent dictionary.


The Japanese corpus for looking up words and seeing how they're used in native sentences.


A most excellent dictionary for iOS because it's based on Jisho. It keeps a history of the past 500 or so words you've looked up.

Where to Buy Stuff


This is the official store outlet for the company which publishes the Tobira series. They also sell Genki, Marugoto and Minna No Nihongo books along with many others. Prices for these books are the best here.


The parent page of the . They also sell to retailers, wholesalers, schools, teachers and libraries.


Anyone can browse and buy from their selection of books whether or not they are students.They have a terrific selection of books for their Japanese language classes. Among them are Genki and Tobira.

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