How To Download Anki and Set It Up For Japanese Language Learning

I am going to start this by saying that this isn’t the only “system” you can use to help with your vocabulary studies. I am just going to show you what I personally use, and while it is a popular way of doing things, it’s not the only way.

If you want to use a different flash card process, or not even bother with any of them, that is fine.

I find Anki and Yomichan very helpful for learning new Japanese vocabulary, so let’s go through how you actually set it all up.  

Oh, before I forget, this is all free.

This Is A Desktop System

I know everyone loves to use their phones or tablets these days, but unfortunately what I am showing you here is all for a desktop computer. (It works or both Pc and Mac)

You can still get anki of mobile, but you have to pay. I don’t know why that is. However, this guide is for a desktop computer. The second app we are going to use I believe is only available on desktop, so I don’t think you can do everything on your phone.

Of course you can still learn Japanese from your phone, just not how I am showing you here.

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

Start By Downloading Anki

Anki is free to download from their site. Just click the big download button.

https://apps.ankiweb.net/

Download it and install it like any other program. There is nothing tricky here.

Once you have it installed, you can start using Anki as it is. You can create new decks and add words.  

Anki is kind of ugly, it’s just a grey box, but you can actually do a lot with it. I think I need to find you all a video that shows you how to do the basics as it can be pretty intimidating at first.

It is pretty straight forward though …you create a deck, then form there you add cards to it. Each card will be the new word you are learning.

One side of the card is the Japanese word, and the other is the English. Then you just let the Anki system do its thing and it will ask you to review the cards at certain intervals which will help you remember them. 

I would start by creating a new deck and call it “Japanese” or …well anything you want. This deck will be the one where we add our new words to, so it doesn’t matter what it called, so long as you know what it is. 

You Need Yomichan

If you really want to increase your Anki experience with Japanese, you need Yomichan. This is a web browser plugin that basically links an online Japanese dictionary to Anki.

(The creators of Yomichan are no longer updating/maintaining it …which means it will work for now but eventually will break. This is sad, as it’s a great tool, but for now we can keep using it)

Yomichan really is cool, once you install it (which I will cover below) it allows you to do two things when you are looking at Japanese online.

The first thing you can do is highlight a word, and a little box will appear and show you the meaning of the word. Of course you could copy and paste the word into a dictionary or translator on another tab, but Yomichan makes it so much quicker and easier.

Then the second thing you can do is add the word you have highlighted, into Anki …at the click of a button.

Adding cards manually is annoying, and this app saves so much time. When you are reading a Japanese text, you will undoubtedly come across new words. Yomichan allows you to quickly look up the meaning and if you want to add the word to your Anki, you can.

How To Install Yomichan

As I mentioned, this is a browser plug in, and it only works with Google Chrome. If you are using a different browser, you are going to have to switch to google chrome first.

You then just have to go to:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/yomichan/nbfhegiidojdmnahegkphdoabohfmoof

Yomichan was available on Mozilla Firefox, but not anymore. If you want to use this browser, you need to use Yomitan (see below)

Installing the plugin is easy, just the install button and let it do its thing …but there are an extra few steps after that are a little stressful, but you can do this!!

We need to install a dictionary and link everything to anki.

Installing The Dictionary

Once the plugin is installed, we have to install a dictionary …but this isn’t too tricky. You will first need to download a dictionary, which is easily done at:

https://foosoft.net/projects/yomichan/#dictionaries

These are the guys who make the program, so you can trust them, they also probably explain how to this better than me. 

Anyway, you want to  download: jmdict_english.zip (or one of the other languages if that suits you better)

Now you need to go to your web browser and you should you should see the Yomichan icon on the top right hand corner.

Click on it and you will see the big on/off button, but for now, you need to click on the settings cog, and from here, you will see all the settings open.

You should see a box saying “Dictionaries” and an option “Configure installed and enabled dictionaries” …click that and a box will open and you will see the option to “import”…so do exactly that.

Click import and click on the jmdict_english.zip file you have just downloaded and that’s it.

Now you can go back to using the web browser like normal. The next time you are reading something in Japanese, hold down the shift key and move your mouse over the word and you should see the definition appear.

(Of course make sure that the big ON button is on, when you click on the icon in the top corner) 

You can use Yomichan just like this if you want, but if you are also using Anki, you may as well link the two.

Linking Yomichan To Anki

Open anki, and your web browser. You need both open to link them.

Go to anki and go to “Tools” and click “add-ons” a box will open and you will see “get add-ons” …press this and an “install add-on” box will appear with a space for you to add a code.

Add the code: 2055492159 and press okay. You will then need to restart anki.

Now Go to the top right hand corner of your web browser and click the Yomichan logo and again press the cog icon so that the settings page opens.

Scroll down until you see the “anki” box and press connect and everything should now magically link up.

You will need to go to the “configure card format” and pick what deck your new cards go to and what values will go across, but you can set these to whatever you like. If you have no decks, you should create a new one in anki, so that you can send your new cards to this deck.

Now when you press “shift” and hover over a Japanese word you see on your browser, the same dictionary box will appear …but you will notice a little green + symbol … if you want to add the word to anki, press that and it will go to the deck that you set.

Is Yomitan The Furture?

So as I mentioned, Yomichan is no longer being maintained, and it will eventually stop working.

However, there does seem to be a successor …Yomitan.

I haven’t used it yet, as my Yomichan is working fine, but the second it fails, it will get Yomitan. From my understanding it’s pretty much the same thing. It connects your browser to a dictionary, so you can quickly hover over words and see their meaning.

I am not sure if it connects to Anki in the same way, but I think it does.

As I mentioned above, it seems as if Firefox does not have Yomichan, only Yomitan …so the future may already be here.

What About Premade Decks?

Everything I have talked about above is just for setting up anki so you can add you own words, if you want to use a premade deck you can.

I have nothing against them, in fact I have used many, I think they are great.

You can find the Japanese ones here – https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks?search=japanese

You just have to download whatever one you want, then go to anki – File – Import …and click on the deck you just downloaded and it will install and you should see it on your list of decks.

I would still create your own decks, but having a premade one on top can be useful too. It will mean you end up spending more time on anki doing reviews, but if you like that, then it’s not a problem.  

(You can read more about – Where Can You Get Pre-made Anki Flashcard Decks When Learning A Language?)

Conclusion

Okay, so that was a lot of heavy information. If you are not good with computers, that will have been intense.

Don’t worry; this is probably the hardest part of learning Japanese. Get this out of the way today and you won’t need to set up anything ever again, you will now have all your systems in place and can just start focusing learning.

As time goes by and you get deeper and deeper into Japanese you will be very thankful you installed these two little programs, they really do make a difference.

(If you are looking to learn Japanese, you can follow my plan –  Learn Japanese – The Plan For A Complete Beginner)