Jennifer's Language Page

Really interesting collection of some common words and phrases in hundreds of languages. While the list of phrases is not enormous, the languages included are! People from around the world post their contributions. http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/

Japanese Name Translation

Type your name in English in the field provided and the katakana and pronunciation of your name will appear at the top of the screen. There is also a Flash based character demonstration which draws the strokes in one at a time.

The Internet Public Library: An enormous collection of links to TL newspapers, cultural information etc including magazines such a Tokyo Weekender and Trends in Japan and newspapers such as Nikkei Net Interactive (available in Japanese and English).

Dynamic Maps

National Geographic's Map Machine (includes Worldbook information about the country and outline maps)
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/

Sound converters and plug-ins for Mac and PC

Here are some fabulous tools - most of them free - to help you make or convert or play sound files, inluding Podcasts.

Audacity Homepage (Mac and PC)
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Mac mp3 converters
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/wav-mp3-mac-osx.html

Ecamm Mac converters
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/free/

Audio recording software for the Mac
http://www.mp3-mac.com/Pages/AudioRecorders.html

Plug-ins for Windows Media Player
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/mp10/
getmore/plugins.aspx

Illustrate PC Music Converter
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Mp3 Freeware and Converters
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Windows Audio Application Conversion
http://www.tucows.com/Windows/AudioVideo/Audio/
AudioConversionApplications/

Some Miscellaneous Items

A movie

Weblogs in the Classroom

A Podcast

A fantastic site for Japanese

A. Miller's Japanese Language page (http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/
japanese/japanese.htm) is a simply laid out but amazingly comprehensive list of links and information about (almost!) all things to do the language. As you can see in the picture, ht elist is divided into a number of sections for ease of use and has few picture so is quick to use. A no frames version is also available. If you haven't seen this page you should definately have a look.

Japanese Snack Food Review at Booniverse

Check out this site for descriptions, ratings and photos of assorted sweet and savoury snack food from Japan. It spans 2003 to now and a huge assortment of common and more unusual items. These pictures are a sample of them.
http://141.214.84.74/~jeannie/archives/
cat_japanese_snack_food_review.html

Ryudon World stories

The main page of this site (http://ryudon.pobox.ne.jp/) has some animations (tv) and sounds (radio) which are very cute and in Japanese. Most require a good level of language skill to use and are reasonably quick but really interesting. The "Yakusoku" link on the top right goes to another page (http://me-gekijyo.jp/). The 'Stage' link on the left goes to a story with three parts. The 'Backstage' link goes to information about the characters in the story. The green link on the bottom left goes to a Story Workshop where you can do various lessons. It's very cute and pretty much all in Japanese but well laid out and easy to use. You will need your volume on with much of this site.

Climb Mt Fuji Game

A fun game (in English) with general knowledge questions about Japan and Japanese things. Work your way through the 15 levels to get to the top. On the way you can read other general knowledge, look at photos and listen to sounds. If you get something wrong you have to stay at the same level and if you get something right you can continue up the mountain.
http://www.kids-japan.com/

Papers from around the world *****

Looking for the latest news from literally anywhere in the world? You can view the paper in the target language (or English if English is the original language). You can also translate certain papers directly on the screen. Search by country, city, paper name or keyword. This is the best collection of links for online news publications I have seen.

http://www.thepaperboy.com.au/welcome.html

Images for negajoo

This site has cute pictures, frames and kanji pictures that you and your students can use for New Year cards (nengajoo). The site is entirely in Japanese but easy to use. It also has a link further down the page which links to images/cards from 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001. 2004 and 2003 dont have many pictures but 2002 and 2001 do.

http://www.tanosiipasokon.com/nenga2005/index.htm