I’ve been trying to learn Japanese from the begining without spending a lot of money. While I did buy some books later on, these apps are what I used (and still use) when I comes to learning Japanese.
For the alphabet
Japanese Alphabet
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.siniykv.japanesealphabet
This was the best, because I had learned the basics, all of the lessons are mixed so you can really tell if you learned that letter or if you just memorized the pattern.
For kanji I found some games that are great for identifying them.
By far kanji master by unity has been great for me.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Company.KanjiMaster
Honestly playing against a bot makes me feel both stupid and smart depending on what level I set the difficulty on, haha.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quuux.kanjimemory
This ones interesting, I dont play it a lot, but if you like retro games it’s nice.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.venbrux.kanjiquest
For vocabulary I use the following
Oni-tan weird name but good vocabulary and decent audio.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onigiri.japanese.tango
IRODORI from the japanese foundation is good if you like more of a flash card approach.
Japanese vocabulary master by masakimori it has in app purchases, but again pretty good vocabulary flash cards. Definitely on the higher level of vocabulary.
Bunny po by unity is great for beginner sentences
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.BunnyPo.App
These apps were the most engaging for me, I didnt include any highly known ones like clozemaster, because i dont use it that often. If anyone has any that they specifically use and find engaging put them in the comments so we can check them out.
I hope this post helped for some of you. Good luck
8 comments
My favorites no longer exist on google play, so I have a helluva time getting them back whenever I get a new phone. But they were (and still are):
JLPT Words: Great simple app for learning new vocab. The dark background is really easy on the eyes.
Conjugation Japanese: Helps you practice conjugation. Pretty straightforward.
Kanji no Owari: Teaches hiragana, katakana, and kanji in the form of a game. First you choose a character (gaining points from sessions allows you to increase their defense, strength, and critical attack as well as being used to buy healing items.)
Then, depending on the level, you get a set amount of time to study 5 kanji, hiragana, or katakana (depending on what you chose to study before the level begins). They stay on the screen until the timer runs out, afterwhich you face enemies that only take damage when you guess correctly.
It’s a really cute game by Unity. I had originally bought the Pro edition before google play got rid of the whole game, so now I have to go through seedy websites to get it back.
If you want to learn Japanese in an effective way with money spending being optional, read through [TheMoeWay](https://learnjapanese.moe). Consuming content meant for Japanese people will be far more effective than using any app designed to target Learners.
If you’re looking to consume content on a mobile device:
* Anki. Sure it’s boring, but people don’t use it because it’s fun. People use it because it’s really, _really_ effective. Creating a card from a word you scanned with Yomichan is literally one click if you set up AnkiConnectAndroid correctly. Hate doing Anki reviews? Go to five new cards per day, it’ll still be incredibly effective and allow you to really learn ~1800 new words per year.
* [AnkiConnect Android](https://github.com/KamWithK/AnkiconnectAndroid), an unofficial mobile version of the AnkiConnect plugin that allows mining on mobile devices
* [Yomichan](https://learnjapanese.moe/yomichan/#bonus-android-use-with-kiwi-browser), a wonderful instant lookup dictionary, which may be used on mobile browsers that allow plugins (like Kiwi). Dictionaries to use can be found on the same website.
* [ttu reader](https://ttu-ebook.web.app/manage) to consume any (light) novel in .epub format, works perfectly fine with Yomichan.
* [Mokuro](https://github.com/kha-white/mokuro), which allows you to process manga either on your PC or using Google Colab to turn their text into yomichannable text. The finished converted manga can just be moved to your mobile device and read in your browser while using Yomichan, and thanks to AnkiConnect Android, can also be mined from.
* Anime, dramas, Youtube etc. can all be consumed on mobile without additional setup. Mining from these on mobile is annoying, so just consume these to practice listening. If you’re looking to enhance your vocabulary, read.
Maybe the sub could create a handy wiki or other such reference containing stuff like this.
Just got the “Nihongo” app on iPhone and it’s exactly what I was looking for. A one stop app for learning Japanese.
I found this app called Renshuu. I enjoy it and it didn’t have ads on free version, which was such a pleasant experience I bought 1 year of it even though I barely use any of the premium features.
Team behind it is one couple. They also have a discord where to chat and they have events where to talk in Japanese, both for beginners (eng/jap mix) and intermediate (Japanese only). It also works great on pc, huge bonus for me as I prefer to use computer over phone.
If you have really bad internet connection there might be issues, but I really recommend giving it a try.
I’m using Ringotan for learning to write kanji and it’s frankly good. It even supports very old devices (installed it on a Kit Kat old android phone just a few weeks ago).
I highly recommend easy japanese. It has news articles with N5-N1 plus new vocabulary every single
I have been using Jareads since two years ago. I often read many Japanese news articles everyday to practice reading skill. If you are still at beginner level, you can choose to show Furigana above every Kanji. It also has Flashcard feature, and a matching Kanji- Furigana mini game. I think it’s really easy to use and almost has no ads (few small banner ads only). You can choose to hide all the ads if you pay less than a dollar/month and became a subscription member.