My younger brother wants to start learning Japanese with no knowledge of the language yet. What are some good apps to help him? I don’t speak any Japanese so I can’t really help him at all
Apps are generally not great for learning Japanese. The most suitable course for younger learners I know of is the Japanese From Zero [online course](https://www.fromzero.com/). It is the same content as the popular JFZ textbooks, but in a format he might enjoy more than physical books.
There is also the standard recommendation on this subreddit, Genki, but know that those are college textbooks and dependent on your brother’s age might not be the best choice.
If he really wants to learn the language then you should ask for books not apps. Buy him Genki and he should be fine
Personally, I use DuoLingo. It is my only learning resource. It’s a fun gamified app that works with my goals and lifestyle. I’m on unit 14/90 which was more than enough to get by in Japan for 2 weeks at the beginning of March.
The major issue people have is that DuoLingo oes not explicitly teach you grammar rules. Personally, I prefer it this way as I need to subconsciously understand them through practice which feels more natural to me. DuoLingo is also wrong on rare occassions.
Overall, if your brother would like a gamified way of learning, prefers short, relatively frustration free lessons, DuoLingo is a good start. If your brother can handle a bit more self discipline, a workbook from the FAQ or the Anki app may be a good start.
Alright, well, welcome. I’ll go out of on a curve here and say that apps are kinda shit when it comes to learning any language. There are some good apps out there, but you can get a lot more from doing things like reading tae Kim (which is also an app) and doing things like watching anime with Japanese subtitles or watching YouTube with comprehensible input videos. Slide your brother this guide: https://learnjapanese.moe/.
Try Human Japanese. Got me a great start.
Get him to remember hiragana and katakana, will take a day or two.
Start him on a trial account for WaniKani, free up to level 3. This is for learning kanji and vocabulary.
If he sticks with it and is serious, subscribe to WaniKani and do this daily until level 5-10. Whenever he is used to the routine.
Once he’s used to the routine, introduce NativShark for grammar. Do unit lessons every day in addition to WaniKani. This requires a subscription after one week but you can find $60 off a yearly sub for life coupons if he’s serious about it. I think I pay $100 a year which is better than $28 a month. These prices are in Canadian.
1984 TV Series “Let’s learn Japanese” teaches through skits which are quite funny. He might like them.
Renshuu
Duolingo app for hiragana and katakana, YuSpeak app for grammar.
The best start is to google a bit, start learning hiragana as soon as possible, and joining an actual class with a teacher.
After the first year or so of class, when the very basics are down. He can choose to do self-study or stay in the class.
I’d honestly ignore people saying apps aren’t good. Everybody learns differently. People on this sub take learning extremely seriously. Most are either years in and still don’t consider themselves fluent, or have no knowledge to give you an accurate answer.
For me, who started a month ago, I began with Duolingo, which with their gamified approach have motivated me to learn a little every day. First 10-15 minutes a day, then 1-2 hours a day.
After a while, I started to get a feeling for the language and started adding additional things, like Anki decks for vocabulary or the Tofugo Hiragana/Katakana guide. I also thoroughly use ChatGPT to analyze things that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me in Duolingo.
As I said, everybody learns different and a lot of apps have a very different approach. I’d say try something a me figure out what works. There are A LOT of online resources, including tons of really good YouTube channels.
WaniKani for kanji, Bunpro for grammar, Podcasts app for listening, Bookwalker for reading.
Duolingo for a bit of extra practice.
Apps are supplementary material. They should never be your primary/sole means of studying. Especially not as a beginner.
Screenshot of them running side-by-side here: [https://imgur.com/a/03fMz6L](https://imgur.com/a/03fMz6L) Normally Amazon will not let you easily switch between the US…
13 comments
Apps are generally not great for learning Japanese. The most suitable course for younger learners I know of is the Japanese From Zero [online course](https://www.fromzero.com/). It is the same content as the popular JFZ textbooks, but in a format he might enjoy more than physical books.
There is also the standard recommendation on this subreddit, Genki, but know that those are college textbooks and dependent on your brother’s age might not be the best choice.
If he really wants to learn the language then you should ask for books not apps.
Buy him Genki and he should be fine
Welcome! You’ll hear a lot of opinions about apps but the general consensus is they aren’t the best resource. Check out the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/resources/) for more info and app recommendations!
Personally, I use DuoLingo. It is my only learning resource. It’s a fun gamified app that works with my goals and lifestyle. I’m on unit 14/90 which was more than enough to get by in Japan for 2 weeks at the beginning of March.
The major issue people have is that DuoLingo oes not explicitly teach you grammar rules. Personally, I prefer it this way as I need to subconsciously understand them through practice which feels more natural to me. DuoLingo is also wrong on rare occassions.
Overall, if your brother would like a gamified way of learning, prefers short, relatively frustration free lessons, DuoLingo is a good start. If your brother can handle a bit more self discipline, a workbook from the FAQ or the Anki app may be a good start.
Alright, well, welcome. I’ll go out of on a curve here and say that apps are kinda shit when it comes to learning any language. There are some good apps out there, but you can get a lot more from doing things like reading tae Kim (which is also an app) and doing things like watching anime with Japanese subtitles or watching YouTube with comprehensible input videos. Slide your brother this guide: https://learnjapanese.moe/.
Try Human Japanese. Got me a great start.
Get him to remember hiragana and katakana, will take a day or two.
Start him on a trial account for WaniKani, free up to level 3. This is for learning kanji and vocabulary.
If he sticks with it and is serious, subscribe to WaniKani and do this daily until level 5-10. Whenever he is used to the routine.
Once he’s used to the routine, introduce NativShark for grammar. Do unit lessons every day in addition to WaniKani. This requires a subscription after one week but you can find $60 off a yearly sub for life coupons if he’s serious about it. I think I pay $100 a year which is better than $28 a month. These prices are in Canadian.
1984 TV Series “Let’s learn Japanese” teaches through skits which are quite funny. He might like them.
Renshuu
Duolingo app for hiragana and katakana, YuSpeak app for grammar.
The best start is to google a bit, start learning hiragana as soon as possible, and joining an actual class with a teacher.
After the first year or so of class, when the very basics are down. He can choose to do self-study or stay in the class.
I’d honestly ignore people saying apps aren’t good. Everybody learns differently. People on this sub take learning extremely seriously. Most are either years in and still don’t consider themselves fluent, or have no knowledge to give you an accurate answer.
For me, who started a month ago, I began with Duolingo, which with their gamified approach have motivated me to learn a little every day. First 10-15 minutes a day, then 1-2 hours a day.
After a while, I started to get a feeling for the language and started adding additional things, like Anki decks for vocabulary or the Tofugo Hiragana/Katakana guide. I also thoroughly use ChatGPT to analyze things that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me in Duolingo.
As I said, everybody learns different and a lot of apps have a very different approach. I’d say try something a me figure out what works. There are A LOT of online resources, including tons of really good YouTube channels.
WaniKani for kanji, Bunpro for grammar, Podcasts app for listening, Bookwalker for reading.
Duolingo for a bit of extra practice.
Apps are supplementary material. They should never be your primary/sole means of studying. Especially not as a beginner.