일본어 오디오북

I've only been studying Japanese for less than a month, so hopefully participating in this challenging will give me a huge kickstart to learning this notoriously difficult language. I don't know if I will be able to continue for the entire 3 month period, but I'm committed to participating for at least 2 months.

So far I've been using the Power Japanese software from Transparent Language along with Pimsleur I, which I've been using passively. I've also just started watching the Let's Learn Japanese series and listening to the beginner's lessons at Japanesepod101.com. I've ordered the Assimil Japanese books and when they arrive they will form the backbone of my study along with the Let's Learn Japanese programs. I also have a few other learning materials that I may use from time to time.

Other ways I incorporate Japanese into my life are by watching subtitled anime and trying to read manga in their original language. I'm also an avid cook and I've found a couple of bilingual websites with recipes written in both Japanese and English.

As for goals, I think I'd like to finish watching all 52 episodes of Let's Learn Japanese, finish up Power Japanese and Pimsleur I, and hopefully get through the entire passive wave of at least the first Assimil volume.

----------------LIST OF FREE JAPANESE AUDIOBOOKS W/ TRANSCRIPTS------------------

SHORT STORIES
O Henry "Gift of the Magi" (25 min)Transcript Audio Parallel Text
O Henry "The Last Leaf" (25 min)Audio Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" (63 min)Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Red Headed League" (79 min) Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (Incomplete) (69 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Captain of the Polestar" (27 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Gloria Scott" (79 min)Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Stock Broker's Clerk" (67 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "A Scandal in Bohemia" (70 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" (Incomplete) Transcript Audio (HQ)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Silver Blaze" Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "Adventure of the Six Napoleons" (Complete) Transcript Audio
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "The Priory School" (Incomplete) Transcript Audio (HQ)
Edgar Allan Poe "The Black Cat" (44 min)Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Edgar Allan Poe "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (100 min) Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Brothers Grimm "Hansel and Gretal" (28 min)Transcript Audio
Brothers Grimm "Rapunzel" (11 min)Transcript Audio
Brothers Grimm "Little Red Riding Hood" (9 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)
Brothers Grimm "The Bremen Town Musicians"(14 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)
Brothers Grimm "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" (13 min) Transcript Audio (HQ)
Brothers Grimm "The Frog Prince" (17 min) Transcript Audio 1 2 3
Hans Christian Andersen "The Red Shoes" (26 min) Transcript Audio
Hans Christian Andersen "The Little Nightingale" (38 min)Transcript Audio
Hans Christian Andersen "The Little Match Girl" (9 min) Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Hans Christian Andersen "The Emperor's New Clothes" (21 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Hans Christian Andersen "The Fir Tree" (42 min)Transcript Audio
Hans Christian Andersen "The Snow Queen" (115 min)Transcript Audio
Hans Christian Andersen "Picture Book Without Picture" Transcript Audio
Oscar Wilde "The Happy Prince" (32 min)Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Oscar Wilde "The Selfish Giant" (16 min)Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Charles Perrault "Puss in Boots" (17 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)
Charles Perrault "Blue Beard" (17 min)Transcript Audio
Charles Perrault "Sleeping Beauty" (25 min)Transcript Audio
Charles Perrault "Cinderella" (27 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "Spider's Thread" (10 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "The Truck" (17 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "Rashomon" (18 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "The Three Treasures" (26 min) Transcript Audio 1 2 3 Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "Kappa" (120 min)Transcript Audio*
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "The Dog, Shiro" (28 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "In a Grove" (30 min)Transcript Audio Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "The Christ of Nanking" (40 min) Transcript Audio Translation
Ryunosuke Akutagawa "Oshino" (19 min) Transcript Audio1 2 Translation
Kido Okamoto "The Stone Lantern" (65 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "The Mystery of the Fire Bell" (69 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "Hiroshige and the River Otter" (59 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "The Mansion of Morning Glories" (48 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "Cacophony of Cats" (52 min) Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "Benten's Daughter" (65 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "The Room Over the Bathhouse" (49 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "The Death of Ofumi" (58 min)Transcript Audio 1 2#
Kido Okamoto "The Death of Kampei" (49 min)Transcript Audio#
Kido Okamoto "The Dancer's Curse" (61 min)Transcript Audio#
Basho Matsuo "Oku No Hosomichi" (66 min) Transcript Audio (5 parts) Audio (45 parts) Translation
Antoine de Saint-Exupery "Le Petit Prince"(165 min) Transcript Audio (HQ) Parallel Text
Leo Tolstoy "Ivan the Fool" (95 min) Transcript Audio (HQ)
Kenji Miyazawa "The Restaurant of Many Orders" (17 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation Video@
Kenji Miyazawa "The Nighthawk's Star" (21 min)Transcript Audio Translation
Kenji Miyazawa "The Acorns and the Wildcat" (20 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation Video@
Kenji Miyazawa "The Poison Powder Police Chief" (12 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation@
Kenji Miyazawa "The Dragon and the Poet" (12 min)Transcript Audio Translation
Kenji Miyazawa "Night on the Milky Way Train" (134 min)Transcript Audio Translation
Kenji Miyazawa "Gorsch the Cellist" (44 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) 1 2@
Kenji Miyazawa "The Earthgod and the Fox" (41 min) Transcript Audio (HQ)@
Kenji Miyazawa "Ozbel and the Elephant" (22 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)@
Kenji Miyazawa "The First Deer Dance" (20 min)Transcript Audio@
Kenji Miyazawa "Night of the Festival" (17 min)Transcript Audio 1 2 3@
Kenji Miyazawa "The Great Bear of the Crows" (20 min) Transcript Audio 1 2 3 Translation
Ogai Mori "Down the Takase River" (36 min)Transcript Audio Translation
Maurice LeBlanc "Edith Au Cou De Cygne" (52 min) Transcript Audio (HQ)
Lyman Frank Baum"A Kidnapped Santa Claus" (22 min)Transcript Audio
Madame de Villeneuve "Beauty and the Beast" (36 min)Transcript Audio
Soseki Natsume "Ten Nights of Dreams" (66 min)Transcript Audio (HQ) Translation
Osamu Dazai "Memories/思い出" (114 min) Transcript Audio$
Osamu Dazai "Monkey Island" (19 min)Transcript Audio$
Osamu Dazai "Melos, Run" (35 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)$
Osamu Dazai "A Poor Man's Got His Pride/貧の意地" (27 min) Transcript (Scroll past table of contents) Audio (Halfway down the page)$
Osamu Dazai "The Monkey's Mound/猿塚" (13 min) Transcript (Scroll 1/4 of the way down the page) Audio$
Osamu Dazai "Crackling Mountain/カチカチ山" (44 min) Transcript (A little past halfway down the page) Audio 1 2$
Osamu Dazai "The Sound of Hammering" (47 min) Transcript Audio$
Osamu Dazai "Undine" (27 min) Transcript Audio v1 Audio v2 1 2 3 4$
Osamu Dazai "Heed My Plea" (40 min) Transcript Audio 1 2 3 4$
Osamu Dazai "Taking the Wen Away/瘤取り" (17 min) Transcript (Begins just after intro paragraph) Audio$
Niimi Nankichi "The Fox Boy" (31 min) Transcript Audio Translation
Beatrix Potter "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" Transcript Audio Original Text
Beatrix Potter "The Tale of Two Bad Mice" Transcript Audio Original Text
Gilbert K Chesterton "The Sins of Prince Saradine" (61 min) Transcript Audio Parallel Text
Fumiko Hayashi "Hiroki" Transcript Audio%
Lewis Carroll "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Complete) Transcript Audio Parallel Text

FULL LENGTH NOVELS
Murasaki Shikibu "Tale of Genji" (24 Chapters--one audio link is dead)(1594 min)Transcript Audio Translation
Soseki Natsume "Botchan" (Complete)(366 min)Transcript Audio Translation Parallel Text
Soseki Natsume "Sanshiro"(Complete)(583 min)Transcript Audio*
Soseki Natsume "Three Cornered World" (Complete)(275 min)Transcript Audio*
Soseki Natsume "Kokoro"(Complete)(over 9 hr)Transcript Incomplete Audio (HQ) Complete Audio 1 2 3 Translation
Soseki Natsume "I am a Cat" (Complete)(22 hr) Transcript Audio 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11*
Osamu Dazai "The Setting Sun"(Complete)(392 min)Transcript Audio*
Osamu Dazai "No Longer Human"(Complete)(248 min)Transcript Audio*
Robert Louis Stevenson "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (Complete)(224 min)Transcript Audio (HQ)
E.C. Tubb "The Winds of Gath" (Incomplete) (5 hr) Audio
Sir Henry Ryder Haggard "King Solomon's Mines" (Incomplete) Transcript Audio (HQ)

* - Couldn't find a translation online, but commercial translations are available.
# - Found in the collection of short stories, "The Curious Casebook of Inspector Hanshichi : Detective Stories of Old Edo," translated by Ian MacDonald.
HQ - Audio labeled 'HQ' usually have clearer sound, better voice acting, and sound effects.
@ - Found in the bilingual text "The Tales of Miyazawa Kenji," translated by John Bester.
$ - Found in "Crackling Mountain and Other Short Stories," translated by James O'Brien.
% - Found in "Be a Woman: Hayashi Fumiko and Modern Japanese Women's Literature," by Joan Ericson.

Updates
7/20 Added　Natsume's "Three Cornered World," known as "Grass Pillow," in English.
7/22 Added "Oku No Hosomichi." Included 2 different audio links--one has the audio split into 5 parts and the other into each of the 45 short chapters.
7/27 After some research I advise against using "Tale of Genji" until one has reached a fairly advanced stage of learning, since it appears that both the Japanese text and the translation are modern interpretations of the original text written 1000 years ago. Hence it is likely that both works will differ significantly from one another in certain parts.
8/11 Added downloadable audio links for "Undine."
10/12 Added J/E parallel text I made for "Le Petit Prince." (Open Office format)
10/14 Added the SciFi classic, "Winds of Gath." Since this is a relatively recent book, I suspect there may be copyright infringements involved with this audio, so download it ASAP if you're at all interested in using it. Japanese version of book available at AmazonJP or YesAsia.
11/24 Added Two stories by Beatrix Potter. Added parallel text I created for "A Scandal in Bohemia." (MS Word)
11/25 Added better audio versions for "Kokoro," "Three Cornered World," and "Down the Takase River." Added video versions of "Acorns and the Wildcat" and "Restaurant of Many Orders."
12/2 Added "Sins of Prince Saradine," and "Picture Book Without Pictures." Added better audio for "Gift of the Maji."
12/22 Added "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."
2/26 Added "Silver Blaze" and "Hiroki."
7/1 Fixed some audio links. Added "Alice in Wonderland" and "Adventure of the Six Napoleons."
9/26 Added "The Priory School" and "King Solomon's Mines."

LINKS
http://storytellerbook.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/ (Audio)
http://www.koetaba.net/3book/index.html (Audio)
http://novel.blogmura.com/novel_reading/ (Audio)
http://speaking-japanese.com/breaking/index.html(Audio)
http://portal.podcastjuice.jp/dirretrieval/category_sort.cgi ?categoryid=17 (List of Audio Podcasts)
http://www.alz.jp/221b/sound.html (List of Audio Podcasts)
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/index_top.html (Japanese Transcripts)
http://www.bauddha.net/ (Parallel Texts)
http://homepage2.nifty.com/to-saga/roudoku2.htm Extensive list of online resources.
http://www13.ocn.ne.jp/~k-net/ Japanese Literature in Romaji

Hint for Googling Japanese audiobooks: Type in both author's name and title of work in Japanese, along with "朗読"

Edited by sheetz on 26 September 2008 at 6:57pm