Apps You Can Use To Learn Japanese

There are hundreds, if not thousands of apps available to help you learn Japanese, but I thought I would look at some popular ones and give my opinions on them, so let’s get into it.

Duolingo

This is everyone’s go to when recommending a language app. It’s popular and it’s free …but is it any good…

Well, no

I have used this for French and it was …tolerable, but then I used it for Japanese and it just wasn’t a good experience.

I always see duolingo as more of a practice app, I don’t really learn much from it, but you do get to interact with the language in a very small way. I am currently on a 1000 something day streak, so I do use the app and I have given it more than enough time to make my decision on it, and really, it is not good.

I also don’t like that it encourages only 5 minute a day, you should be doing a lot more than this. I would honestly tell you to learn your Japanese elsewhere …but if you are bored and want 5 minutes of practice, its fine.

Take hiragana for example, it doesn’t teach it …it just starts testing you on it, nothing is explained. If you learn this elsewhere, then use this as practice it is fine …if this is your only method, you will struggle.

Bussu

Bussu is an interesting app, I like it, but I don’t. For a start you have to pay for it, but it is reasonably priced.

My main issue is around its insistence to test your knowledge. It will show you a new word for example and then you click next and then it will say “okay now spell that word you just seen”  …and of course you get it wrong as you just seen it and could barely recognise it again, let alone reproduce it form memory.

I mean, I do get it, forcing you to be tested does get your brain working as such, but I also find it unnecessarily stressful as its usually demanding you to spell “brazil” correctly in Japanese, which I don’t need, or want from my lessons.

However, you do actually learn things and information is actually explained so you can actually learn Japanese from this, even if some of it’s a little irrelevant.     

I do also find the difficulty seems to really escalate very quickly. The first few lessons are painfully easy, even as a beginner they are too easy and are made up of single words and romanji … and then the next few lessons are like full of on kanji and full sentences and you are super lost.

There is also a feature to record audio, or write something and have it checked by a native speaker (who is also a user) …I have never had any of these checked, which makes me think no Japanese people actually use this app. Also you will be asked to check other learners work every time you log in, and this is annoying and I know it’s better to be helpful, but I am paying to learn, not check others work.

Anyway, my overall opinion is that bussu is good, it’s worth the money …but you could also learn everything it teaches elsewhere for free too, so don’t feel it is necessary.   

Anki

Anki is just a flashcard app with a spaced repetition system, so it can be used for anything …but it is great for Japanese vocabulary.

I love this app, I use it daily and it is very customisable. You can add your own words, or download a pre made deck and really it very versatile.

It is an ugly app, with just a grey box …and you have to kind of learn how to use it, but once you have it set up its great. The algorithm knows when it should be showing you the words you have added, to make sure you don’t forget them.

So long as you take the time to review your words every day, you will slowly start to remember more Japanese.

I don’t think you can use this by itself, as you would just be learning words, but anki paired with immersion can be very power. 

(You can read more about – How To Use Anki To Learn Japanese)

Wanikani

Wanikani is something have not used, but basically it’s a nicer version of anki, and you have to pay for this.

Wanikani is a combination of a spaced repetition software and “remembering the kanji” which means the app is trying to teach you the main 2000 kanji using mnemonics, and then the spaced repetition helps you remember them.

As I said, I haven’t used this, but everyone speaks highly of this. Basically you could do this for free with anki, but wanikani has it all laid out for you in a nicer format …so you are paying for the convenience as such, which is fair enough.

I might try this at some point, but we will see.

Mochikanji

Mochikanji is a similar app to wanikani, where it is trying to teach you the kanji and has a spaced repetition software to help you remember.

I downloaded this thinking it was free, but you actually need to pay to get access to all the words.

The app was fine …but also annoying. It talks about the “golden hour” and says you need to see each word at a set amount of time to remember it.  However, this seemed like it was almost hourly! 

Every time you got a word wrong, which I will happen, it tries to show them an hour later. I felt like my phone was constantly getting notifications saying “time to study, don’t miss the golden hour”.

It became annoying and I was only learning a small handful of kanji. I would hope that the spaces get larger as time goes on, but initially it was too much. Although, at the same time, you do need to see the words repeatedly to remember them, but you also need to be allowed to live your life and not be on this app 24/7

I still at the end of the day anki is better, but this app is there for a trail and you can see if it annoys you as much as it annoys me.

Linq

Linq is a cool app for reading immersion …but it’s not really for beginners. I have only used the free version, so I have not spent too long on this app, but I do like it.

I prefer it for French as my French level is decent, I can read pretty well in French. If you know zero Japanese, this app will be too intense.

They do have some real beginner stuff, but I would suggest you go elsewhere, get a basic grasp of things, and then when you want to really hammer your reading skills, use Linq.

Lingopie

Lingopie is an app I keep seeing advertised, but I haven’t used yet. It is a paid app, but there is a week’s free trail, so I need a free week to actually test this.

The concept sounds perfect …it’s the language immersion version of Netflix. It’s just an app full of Tv shows from the country you are learning the language, of for you to watch …all with the goal of helping you learn the language.

There seems to be subtitles, translations and just little things like this that are going to help you …the real question is whether or not the shows are good and if there is a lot of them.

This is why I need to test this app. It sounds perfect for immersion, but if the shows are boring, or there is only 10 hours worth of shows, it’s not going to be too good.

I will classify this one as a big maybe, and when I do get round to using it I will let you know how I get on.

Anime9

Anime9 isn’t an app …it’s a website, there is no app, but anyway it is a website where you can stream anime for free.

The legality here is a bit grey, but we are trying to learn Japanese and sites like this will help at times.

Basically they are streaming a lot of anime, like Netflix, but the site hasn’t actually got permission forms the creators to show the videos, meaning copyright comes into question.

This does mean it is blocked in some countries, but other countries allow it.

I can’t really sit here and encourage you to use this …but I can tell you it exits.

Cruchyroll

Crunchyroll is the opposite of anime9, as in it is fully legal.

You will need to pay a subscription, which isn’t actually that much, but you will be streaming all the anime you want legally.

Everything is then basically the same, you have a massive library of anime to watch and this is going to be a great app to use for your immersion.

You can also get dubbed anime …avoid this, it is not going to help you learn Japanese.

(You can read more about – Is Anime Bad For Learning Japanese?)

Youtube

I am sure you all know what youtube is, but you can find a lot of Japanese things to watch on here. You might the occasional upload of anime or even a movie, but these often get removed.

This is fine though; there are plenty of Japanese creators and teachers on youtube and you can learn a lot from youtube. I am huge fan of this app. If you could use only 1 thing …I would pick this. It’s not perfect, but there is a lot of information on there that can get you really rather far in Japanese using only this.

Conclusion

As you can see there plenty of apps to help you learn Japanese and I have really only touched the tip of the iceberg here.

If there are any apps you think I should be looking at, let me know and I will give them a try and will update this short list.  

You can read more about – How To Create An Immersive Japanese Language Environment At Home