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+--- Thread: Free Reading Material for Beginners (Graded Reader Equivalent) (/thread-8005.html)
Free Reading Material for Beginners (Graded Reader Equivalent) - jishera - 2011-06-23
(Note: The most up-to-date list of reading materials can be found here)
I know many beginners (including me!) have been searching for something similar to the Japanese Graded Reader series for a while. Japanese reading practice material for beginners is pretty scarce, and kids websites aren't always suitable since they sometimes have more advanced grammar. Since we are beginners, it's also difficult for us to search in Japanese and sort through the results. Google translate doesn't always cut it :-).
I found a few websites that have Japanese stories/articles that are suitable for semi-beginners, and are similar to the Japanese Graded Reader series. I'll update this post as I find more websites and more resources are suggested.
How to Read An Article in Japanese Using Evernote (very helpful!)
http://www.tofugu.com/2010/08/30/5-step-jlpt-study-method-using-japanese-newspapers-for-kids/
Japanese Reading Practice for Beginners (Similar to Japanese Graded Reader)
ChokoChoko (JLPT Levels 5 to 1, has wordlists)
http://chokochoko.wordpress.com/the-great-library/
Tokyo International University Reading Tutor (variety of levels, huge wordlist to the right of each story/article. You can click on a word and it takes you to that part of the wordlist for a definition. The number of stars represents the difficulty level, with 1 star being the easiest)
http://language.tiu.ac.jp/index_e.html
Hiragana Times Beginners - Hiragana Blog for Beginners (bite-sized articles)
http://www.hiraganatimes.com/hiragana_blog/
Hello Navi (very basic, interactive, short dialogues with animation for everyday situations)
http://www.hellonavi.com/foldera/index.html
Botsan
http://botsan.com/ (a bit primitive in style, but it has very simple vocab/grammar. Make sure your character encoding is set to Japanese in your browser)
More Lists of Resources
I got them from this website: http://gakuu.com/resources/#grammar
The website Yookoso also has TONS more links to reading and audio practice:
http://www.yookoso.com/pages/study.php
A bit more advanced (some have been mentioned in other discussions):
Kids Websites
Yahoo News Kids Japan http://kids.yahoo.co.jp/
Mainichi Kids Newspaper http://mainichi.jp/life/edu/maishou/index.html
Yomiuri Newspaper http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/nie/note/
NHK Kids http://www.tvjapan.net/en/subcategory/kids.html
Goo Kids http://kids.goo.ne.jp/index.html?SY=0&MD=2
Hiragana Times (Articles in English and Japanese, not a kids website, but good) http://www.hiraganatimes.com/
Stories (some have audio too)
http://hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/index.html
http://english.franklang.ru
http://www.e-hon.jp/demo1/index1.htm
http://www.kankomie.or.jp/mukashi/ (Note: the stories seem to have moved, but they are probably still on the website somewhere)
http://www.logoslibrary.eu/pls/wordtc/new_wordtheque.wcom_literature_baby.print_doc1?lang=ja&letter=A&source=&num_row=20
If you have found other good reading resources, please list them here!
Free Reading Material for Beginners (Graded Reader Equivalent) - darkauras - 2011-06-23
This is awesome! Thank you!
Free Reading Material for Beginners (Graded Reader Equivalent) - mikankun - 2011-06-24
Bookmarked all of them. The first one is already proving to be quite useful. Thanks!
Free Reading Material for Beginners (Graded Reader Equivalent) - damicore - 2011-06-24
yes, the first one is looking pretty neat
Free Reading Material for Beginners (Graded Reader Equivalent) - jishera - 2011-06-24
The 2nd one is also very good, but it's much more intimidating :-). If you look at some of the one-star stories (easiest), they aren't too bad, especially with all of the vocab definitions included. Because the website is mostly in Japanese, it's harder to navigate, and the articles are much busier-looking. But you should definitely check it and the rest of them out!