Online Japanese lessons are pretty much the norm now. A growing number of companies are offering online Japanese lessons for a fee. I have never tried learning a language using a web-cam with a live teacher so I can’t offer an opinion. I imagine it would be as good as having private lessons with a teacher, but it certainly is a cheaper and more convenient alternative. However, there is plenty of free quality content that you access everyday.

If you are wanting to learn how to speak Japanese, learn to read Japanese or just want to learn a few Japanese words it can all be done online. Some of the best resources are from Japanese websites which I will introduce to you.

Youtube is a great resource to learn how to speak Japanese. There are hundreds of teachers and students offering short video lessons. Most of them are pretty good. We have posted lots of video lesson showing you how to read hiragana and katakana. Please take a look at our videos. You can become a subscriber and be informed every time we upload a video. http://www.youtube.com/user/sodapencil

For Japanese audio lessons podcasts are your best option. There are a large number of Japanese language podcasts. Many focus on Japanese culture as we as spoken Japanese. It may take you a while to find one that suits your level. Be warned that some of the podcast hosts do waffle on.
A great resource for Japanese conversation practice is the NHK site. They have free short conversation lessons that come with the dialogue in romaji and Japanese script. These lesson are actually very good practice for the listening section of the Japanese language proficiency test.
Take a look at them at http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/learn/story/index.html

 
Japanese language software is also an other option. I personally don’t like using software to study Japanese . However, there is some free flash video showing you the stroke order of the hiragana, katakana and kanji available on the net. In fact, I have found an excellent Japanese web site that will show you the stroke order of pretty much any Japanese kanji. You need to be able to type the kanji in kanji script (not romaji or hiragana,) you are looking for in the search field. After the search flash video will start showing you the stroke order of the kanji you searched. It is an excellent resource to help you write kanji correctly. http://kakijun.main.jp/page/1364200.html

Finally, there are number of products that offer Japanese courses. Time for a bit of self promotion. We have a number of Japanese learning products that can help you with your Japanese study. If you are wanting to learn how to read Japanese – actually read hiragana, katakana and kanji in context then we have the product for you – Read Japanese.

Will you be taking the JLPT this year? If you are with have the ultimate study course featuring practice test with onscreen video tutorials taking you through hundreds of test practice questions. The product is called Japanese Proficiency Power. If you are taking levels 3 or 4 this year then our course can help you pass the JLPT.