LLearn Japanese

Japanese learning app recommendations

What’s the best and most efficient Japanese learning app? I’m willing to pay for premium but I’m not sure what app is best to study Japanese overall including grammar kanji etc

26 comments

  2. WaniKani is a subscription kanji and vocabulary learning programme. It’s 9$ a month. It’s really great – I can’t think of how I could have learned so much kanji and vocabulary without it.

    Anki is a good option too which is free unless you’re on iOS. It’s a flashcard app and you can choose decks of flashcards from ones other people have made, or you can make your own. There are loads of good Japanese ones.

    ETA – Bunpro is also a good site to learn grammar, but I found their way of explaining it didn’t stick for me and I prefer to learn grammar through books and Cure Dolly videos on YouTube.

  3. If you’re leaning towards immersion-based learning, Anki with the Migaku add-ons (and Migaku browser extension).

  4. LingoDeer. It’s $100 but you get a ton of exercises and lessons forever. They also have exercises that you can’t guess on which is the problem with a lot of language learning apps. LingoDeer makes you actually spell out whole sentences so you have to really know it.

  6. There’s no single app that is good at all of those things. There is a plethora of tools, websites and services though. It’s easy to get bogged down in finding the ‘perfect’ set. Take a week or two to look at all the options and try them out – see what works for you. That said, you don’t need to pay anything to learn Japanese. Some apps are worth paying for (e.g. Anki – free on Desktop, Web and Android, but **paid for on iPhone**). If you want to spend some money to boost your learning experience then maybe consider a tutor. Before that though there is a lot of self study (free) groundwork you can do in preparation. See [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/s5mtva/comment/ht1lo0x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/s5mtva/comment/ht1lo0x/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

    Also check out the [Starter’s Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/wiki/index/startersguide) for this sub.

  7. Anki, Kanji Study, Takoboto.

    Everything else is crap. Buy books.

    Don’t listen to those people promoting Duolingo or this kind of shit. They don’t want you to master the language and they do not master the language themselves either (and they won’t, never, ever).

  10. For an overall platform starting from Zero and if you‘re willing to put in some money I would recommend checking out a website called Nativshark. I have been learning with it for over a year now and I think it‘s amazing. The biggest pro is that it‘s hand-holdy, you just have to show up and you get presented with your learning material for the day. It also has a very nice Discord community 🙂

  11. I use MochiMochi, I think I paid $50 for unlimited access. If your target is the JLPT, then MochiMochi is for you. It uses spaced repetition and practically force encourages you to use it everyday. In over 90 days I’ve already mastered the N5 level and am currently halfway through the N4 level.

  12. It’s not an app, but I’m taking every opportunity I can rn to shout out jpdb. In my opinion it completely obsoletes Anki. It has a mobile site so it can pretty much function as an app.

  14. I’ve actually found that I really enjoy the Pimsleur lessons for combination of native speaker (tuning your ears and focusing on correct pronunciation). You can get them through Pimsleur app for subscription, or they have them on Audible so you can use your credits there if you have an audible subscription.

    Perfect for use in the car during commute, or while out running (that’s what I do).

    It starts with the verbal/listening portion of the language, which is how you naturally learn language as a child. Because you are focusing on listening and speaking *before* reading, you’re far less likely to have a horribly unintelligible accent. I’ve been complimented multiple times on my pronunciation when I was living in Tokyo. It’s a little more formal/educated speech, but it’s a great place to start.

  15. I personally use WaniKani for kanji and Duolingo for vocab

    If I had the money I would also use Satori Reader for reading practice, I think you can connect WaniKani to it to personalize the kanji amount in texts based on what you know

    Duolingo’s max daily goal is pretty weak so I recommend climbing to Diamond in it’s ranking system to have a bigger need to do more classes per day

  17. I personally use KawaiiNihongo, LingoDeer and Lingo Legends(this one is still being beta tested so you’ll have to either become a beta tester or wait till next month when they officially released the app)

    I found using a combination is a lot better for engagement and learning then just one.

    I use KawaiiNihongo and lingo deer for grammar and vocab. But because they follow formula similar to Duolingo it gets boring and stagnant after a while so I use Lingo Legends for word and sentence recognition, along side it because it’s fun to play and gives me a reason to use LingoDeer and KawaiiNihongo. (Lingo legends is a fun way to work at sentence recognition, but KawaiiNihongo and LingoDeer are nice for learning the grammar in those sentences)

  18. It depends what people like, but for me i used anki to grind vocab then lingodeer or heyJapan for grammar while re-itterating that with more anki (i put the hey japan grammer into anki).

    This helped me out ALOT. Just keep in mind heyjapan/lingodeer are like textbook apps you read, learn and try out. This is not like duolingo where you just do your best to answer questions 15 mins everyday

  19. idk about best and most efficient, learners’ needs are diverse.

    my go-to eng-jp apps are Anki (Core10k and the Kodansha kanji deck for writing) plus kanji study (has a wide range of useful features, though I mostly use it as a dictionary for quick definitions and kanji radicals). Anki is free on Android, but [Kanji study is paid](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mindtwisted.kanjistudy&hl=en_US&gl=US) if you want the full app. Free version gives you kana alone, I think. It was on sale when I hopped on JP learning so I dunno what the normal price is. Maybe $20? It shouldn’t reach $50 but I can’t find the price lol. I’d say it’s been worth it for me, so give it a look in case it’s a good fit for you.

    [Here’s what it looks like](http://kanjistudyapp.com/)

  20. I recommend anki with the core2k deck for srs learning, japanese kanji study for kanji reference and Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide (which is technically a written guide but it’s avalaible in app form for convenience)

  21. Personally I like lingq or satori reader. I find reading more engaging than SRS and these apps let you look up words you don’t know very easily. But each to their own.
    I also thought that human japanese was a great app for beginners.

  22. Human Japanese, jpdb.io or Anki, and an ebook reader. Download graded readers from jgrpg-sakura.com.

    I know that’s kind of cheating since I assume you’re referring more to Duolingo/Lingodeer/Renshuu/Memrise type apps. But honestly, textbook + SRS + reading are what is most efficient. The “all in one” language learning apps are basically just that, but watered down.

  23. Another wanikani recommender here. You pay to skip the annoying anki setup and focus on learning. This is especially important in the beginning when you want to focus on creating the study habit over anything else. Wrestling with anki settings is just another thing to worry about.

    That said I have actually gone through the annoying anki setup to sentence mine anime and it’s amazing too once you’ve figured it out

  24. Been using an app named Kanji by Luli Languages LLC which I’m really enjoying. It’s purely focused on learning and memorizing kanji and the vocab that comes with it. You pay 10 euro once and with that you have access to absolutely loads of content. It’s working for me, maybe it works for you!

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