Due to increasing interest in many Japanese things such as anime, Japanese food (especially sushi), martial arts, and other aspects of Japanese culture, it seems that more and more people want to learn how to speak the Japanese language. Luckily, there are a number of options available including online Japanese courses, Japanese learning software, and traditional books.

Free Japanese Lessons (FreeJapaneseLessons.com) is a free, online Japanese language course that has helped thousands learn the Japanese language. The main thing that sets this site apart from other online Japanese language courses is that, in addition to teaching common Japanese words and phrases, they also teach Japanese grammatical principles (verb conjugation, sentence construction, etc.) so that you can build your own sentences - something that is critical to becoming fluent in Japanese.

Free Japanese Lessons has 10 public lessons covering topics such as:

• Hiragana (the main Japanese alphabet)...
• Katakana (another Japanese alphabet)...
• Common Japanese words and greetings...
• Basic Japanese grammar...
• How to introduce yourself in Japanese...
• Other common Japanese phrases...

They also have additional free Japanese lessons and Japanese audio files in their Members Area and, for a small monthly fee (optional), offer even more Japanese lessons and Japanese audio files!

Here are a number of popular software packages for learning the Japanese language:

Rocket Japanese
		"Learn Japanese Like a ROCKET with Rocket Japanese!"

NIHONGO Japanese Lessons
		"Learn to speak Japanese like a pro!"

Japanese Proficiency Power
		"We Can Show You How To ACE The JLPT With Japanese Proficiency Power!"

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of books and other materials for learning Japanese. Here are some we recommend:

Kana Flashcards (Japanese Edition) Helpful for learning the Hiragana and Katakana character sets.

Essential Kanji: 2,000 Basic Japanese Characters Systematically Arranged For Learning And Reference

Kodansha's Furigana Japanese Dictionary: Japanese-English English-Japanese Look up English words and find the Japanese equivalent.