We share a lot of resources within TCJC. Here are a few.
Local
Bloomington-Izumi Sister City Organization
Since 1993, Bloomington Sister City Organization's mission is to promote international understanding through the exchange of people, information and Ideas.
Cambridge Yuasa Sister City
In March 1986, the sister city relationship between Yuasa and Cambridge began. In March 1994, Yuasa founded "YICES" (Yuasa International Cultural Exchange Society).
Cha-Ami Japanese Cultural Center
One of their programs is teaching Japanese, https://www.cha-amijcc.org/service-page/beginning-conversational-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-Ohara Isumi Sister City
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 Minnesota
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.
Japan America Society of Minnesota (JASM)
Our local Japan America Society. They hold many events including 新年会 and お盆. It costs $30 to join for an individual member and it's worth it.
Minneapolis Ibaraki Sister City Association (MISCA)
Minneapolis's connection with Ibaraki, Japan, through cultural exchanges, youth program, and business opportunities.
Minneapolis Public Schools Community Education
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 San would invite both classes to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. とても楽しかったです。
Normandale Community College
Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota offers Japanese courses for credit to both members in the community and traditional students. Normandale also has a Japanese Garden which is free to tour all year round from sunrise to sunset.
Red Wing Ikata Sister City
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.
Rochester Hamamatsu Sister City
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.
Saint Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee (SPNSCC)
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.
Sansei Yonsei Kai
A Twin Cities Japanese Dance Group. They teach traditional Japanese dance in Roseville with opportunities to speak in Japanese.
Saint Paul Community Education
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 San does a type of call and response with the whole class and individually to students which is so helpful in learning Japanese.
TandemPlus
TandemPlus is a language exchange program of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 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.
Twin Cities Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (TC JACL)
The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) 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.
Twin Cities Japanese Conversation
This is us! We gather several times a week virutally. Visit our homepage for our current schedule. Before covid-19 we assembled in Edina on Mondays, Minnetonka on Thursdays and Saint Paul on Saturdays. Our special events included nabe, karaoke, movies, and Obon. Now we meet mostly virtually in Discord but also meet in person every other week for 日本語会話.
University of Minnesota
The East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota offers Japanese classes to both members of the community and traditional students. There's an accelerated Japanese course during the summer 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.
Winona Misato Sister City
This friendship was established in 1996.
The Yoko Breckenridge Memorial Japanese Library
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 - Chado Urasenke Tankokai Minnesota Dokokai
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 Tofugu.com:
From Dr. Moku:
- Dr. Moku's Hiragana and Katakana, free at Google Play
- Dr. Moku's Hiragana Mnemonics, $4.99 at the Apple Store
Beginner
From The Japan Foundation, which administers the JLPT:
- Minato, which provides free online courses up to and including their A2B1 textbook.
- Worksheet downloads can be found for free at Marugoto for all levels offered including B1
- The Marugoto books can be purchased online at various shopping outlets
- Native Japanese consider the speech found in Marugoto / Minato to be more natural than those found in the Genki series.
From The Japan Times -
Genki series of books, cost varies, and can be found at college bookstores and online shops. The majority of US colleges and universities base their beginning courses and majors on the Genki series.
Baily Snyder's Japanese Conjugation Practice
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.
Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
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).
TCJC Kotoba Decks
These decks are used to practice vocabulary.
Intermediate
Tobira
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.
Marugoto
See above 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.
Don's Japanese Conjugation Drill
This is like Baily Snyder's app above but with more verb conjugation practice for potential, passive, causative and the like.
Language Reactor
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
英辞郎 on the Web
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.
Akebi
The preferred Japanese dictionary for Android.
Anki
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
goo 辞書
A native Japanese dictionary. They have little articles on vocabulary and a dictionary for 4 character idioms which is fun to look through.
Jisho
A most excellent dictionary.
NINJAL-LWP for TWC
The Japanese corpus for looking up words and seeing how they're used in native sentences.
Shirabe Jisho
A most excellent dictionary for iOS because it's based on Jisho. It keeps a history of the words you've looked up.
Where to Buy Stuff
Japan Language Center
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.
JPT America
The parent page of the Japan Language Center. They also sell to retailers, wholesalers, schools, teachers and libraries.
University of Minnesota Bookstore
When the University of Minnesota was open pre covid-19, anyone could browse and buy from their selection of books whether or not they were students.They have a terrific selection of books for their Japanese language classes. Among them are Genki and Tobira.