Dear Sensei No.43



	Try to read and write in Japanese
	Useful websites for reading authentic Japanese pages

* Click image to enlarge

<Fig.1>

Now your computer supports Japanese. Let’s make sure that you can read and write in Japanese. Run the Internet Explorer and open for example, YAHOO! JAPAN (http://www.yahoo.co.jp/)

Can you display Japanese characters on your computer? If you only see junk symbols like e^e O i, ,> , , c, go to “View” - “Encoding” on the toolbar of your browser and select “Japanese (Auto-Select)”<Fig.1>. In order to input Japanese into the text field, click the language icon (which is probably [EN], showing that the currently used input method is English), and select Japanese IME<Fig.2>.
You will find the IME bar to appear. When you want to input Japanese characters, click the left end of the IME bar and select “Hiragana”. If the icon changes from [_A] to [あ], you can input hiragana, and other Japanese characters<Fig.3>.
(Depending on your version of Windows, some of these items may look different from these pictures.)


<Fig.2>	<Fig.3>

Even though you can now use Japanese on your computer, you may find it difficult to read authentic Japanese web pages, because since these pages are made for Japanese native speakers, they contain a lot of unknown kanji and vocabulary.
To help overcome this, there are some useful tools on the Internet, which help you read difficult Japanese sentences.

れじぶるN.C.　http://www.nicer.go.jp/

This site puts furigana on the kanji on a Japanese web page. To reach れじぶる , you first open the top page of the 教育情報(きょういくじょうほう)ナショナルセンター (National Information Center for Educational Resources), then go to 「大人(おとな)」 and click 「学(まな)ぶ」<Fig.4 - 1 >, then select 「れじぶるN.C.」 .
Input the URL (website address) of the site you want to read into the text field of 「読(よ)みたいページを決(き)める」<Fig.4 - 2>, then in the section 「読(よ)む方法(ほうほう)を決(き)める」select the level and the way furigana is displayed <Fig.4 - 3> (you can change these parameters later). After you click the button 「このページを読(よ)む」<Fig.4 - 4>, you will see the page with furigana <Fig.5>.

* Click image to enlarge

<Fig.4>	<Fig.5>

Rikai.com http://www.rikai.com
POPJisyo.com http://www.popjisyo.com/

These sites give furigana and an English translation for words on a Japanese web page. Go to the top page of Rikai and select the “Japanese to English” version. Input the URL (website address) you want to read into the text box and press “GO!”. When you put the cursor on a word you don’t understand, the popup shows up, indicating hiragana and the English equivalent for the word, and also a brief explanation of each kanji <Fig.6>.
In fact, if you copy and paste ANY text into the text box, (e.g. from e-mail or document files), you can obtain the hiragana and English for the text in the same way.
POPjisyo.com <Fig.7> was formally known as Jisyo.org (you can still jump automatically from http://www.jisyo.org/). It has almost the same function as Rikai, with which you can add hints (hiragana and English) to Japanese words on the web page or input text. It is now positioned as a demo version of commercial dictionary software, so note that there might be some change in the future.

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<Fig.6>	<Fig.7>

リーディングチュウ太(た)　http://language.tiu.ac.jp/
Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Server http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

These websites can be used to show a Japanese dictionary in the input text. リーディングチュウ太(た) (Reading Tutor) is totally designed for Japanese language education and has several tools for Japanese learners. The dictionary tool is on the 「チュウ太(た)の道具箱(どうぐばこ)」(toolbox) . Copy and paste Japanese text into the text box of 「辞書(じしょ)ツール(Dictionary tool)」 <Fig.8-1>, and click「日(にち)→英(えい)」 (Japanese to English) <Fig.8-2>(English and German instruction is also available on the site). As a result, you will get a new page with a dictionary for words used in the input sentences <Fig.9>
When you click on a word you don’t understand in 「入力(にゅうりょく)された文章(ぶんしょう)」(input sentences) <Fig.9-3>, the explanation for the word comes to the top of the list in the dictionary frame <Fig.9-4>, and the words you have clicked are listed in 「あなたの単語(たんご)リスト」(your vocabulary list) <Fig.9-5>, which you can use when you review the text or check your comprehension.
You can also check how difficult words are in the Japanese text according to the criteria of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test by means of using 「レベル判定(はんてい)ツール」 (Level checker).

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<Fig.8>	<Fig.9>

Jim Breen’s WWWDIC Server is similar to リーディングチュウ太(た), and can be used for the same purpose, but is much simpler. The dictionary tool is “Translate Words in Japanese Text” on the top page. Open this page, copy and paste Japanese text into the text box and click “Begin Translation”, and you will get a word list with hiragana and an English translation<Fig.10>.
This dictionary gives only basic information, and doesn’t have learner oriented features like チュウ太(た). On the other hand, its restricted explanations don’t overwhelm users with a mass of potential meanings.
Please be aware that because all the Internet tools introduced above are operated automatically by computer programs, they may sometimes produce wrong information. For example, in <Fig.10>, the word 人 is wrongly given the reading じん instead of ひと .
On the World Wide Web there are large numbers of websites written in Japanese, and most of the Japanese websites are in Japanese only; bilingual sites written also in English are few. This means that if you can access Japanese websites, you can get far more information about Japanese culture, society, language, current news, subcultural trends and so on.
With help of the tools introduced above, let’s go surfing in the ocean of Japanese! <Fig.10>