Hi everyone! So I’ve just purchased an iPad (with an Apple Pencil) purely for studying both Japanese and my uni work.
I’m looking for suggestions on the best apps for studying, as well as apps that utilise the Apple Pencil. I was also wondering if there’s a way to write with the Apple Pencil and have it translated into text as I feel like that would help my writing skills a lot as I struggle to see/draw some kanji on paper
2 comments
You can write with Apple Pencil everywhere where text input is possible (but you have to set the language to Japanese in the input widget). Tbh I find it a little annoying because it tends to think a character is done as soon as you pause a little so I use a commercial handwriting keyboard instead (mazec).
On iOS and macOS devices there’s also a built in dictionary feature that works everywhere where text can be selected, so make sure to enable the J-J and J-E dictionaries in settings. Oh btw you can select text in images too but it’s not super reliable.
(Also make sure Japanese is set up as a language you want to use, so kanji default to Japanese style and not Chinese.)
For looking up text in the browser specifically, look for the 10ten app/Safari extension. It’s similar to yomichan etc.
iPad kinda sucks cause it doesn’t have Jidoujisho or Kiwi Browser + Yomichan like Android does. Those two apps will help you consume almost every JP content possible (YouTube, anime, manga, books) with super convenient dictionary lookups without having to draw out individual kanji like a caveman. Other than 10ten, there’s also the Immersion Reader app on iPad which is the closest thing to Yomichan for Apple devices, but it’s far from being as convenient and full-featured as the Android solutions.