iPhone app for Japanese study

January 8, 2023 5:49 PM

I haven't taken the JLPT but I am around N2 level. I’m looking for an iPhone app to practice Japanese, like Duolingo but with more advanced content.

I like the gamification of Duolingo and I also liked an app called Bunpo, but Bunpo didn't have enough advanced content to justify paying for the remaining content. I know apps don't cut it on their own for language study, but I really like how phone apps keep me coming back every day so that I don’t lose my “streak.”

Can you recommend any iPhone apps for practicing Japanese? I'm open to free apps as well as paid apps. Thank you!

posted by charcoals to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

I'm assuming you've done wanikani for kanji?

I like kitsun.io for very customizable SRS with some gamification. But its just a very pretty anki with some other nice features and a lil gamification. I like using it for texts I'm reading or doing lyrics I'm learning about and making customized decks for those things.

I enjoy some of nihongo no mori's content on YouTube, they do have n2 level videos hanging about. But much of the highest level content is more paywalled than the lower level stuff. I also keep a list of random Japanese youtubers to listen to when I feel up to it.

After the N3 level there really is a huuuuge drop off in higher level content because higher level speakers have more access to native Japanese content. You may want to instead dedicate a bit of time to doing an app, game or other thing just in Japanese. And noting the stuff you don't know to work on in an SRS. Especially of you can't find the right app for you.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:20 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I really like Satori Reader for reading practice. It’s not gamified like Duolingo, but its content is broken down into bite-sized pieces which work great for doing a little bit every day on your phone. The bulk of the content requires a paid subscription, but the first chapter of each story is free so you can try it out without paying anything.
posted by mbrubeck at 8:44 PM on January 8, 2023

(Forgot to mention, all Satori Reader content has audio included, so you can use it for listening practice also. And it has useful annotations for any tricky grammar and vocabulary that appear.)
posted by mbrubeck at 9:10 PM on January 8, 2023

Personally, I use WaniKani for Kanji and Satori Reader for reading practice. I tried other Kanji learning apps but WK is the only one that actually seems to work for me.

BTW, the makers of WK just released a database of Japanese learning resources which includes podcasts, apps, readers, lessons etc. So you might find it useful to poke through that as well.
posted by vacapinta at 1:49 AM on January 9, 2023

Response by poster: Thank you for all your answers so far! Adding for background: I'm a heritage speaker of Japanese, having grown up in the US with Japanese parents. I went to Japanese weekend school K-12 so I have a good foundation and no accent, but I lack more sophisticated vocabulary. I find myself practicing other languages more often because I feel incentivized to do so through my phone apps. Thanks again.
posted by charcoals at 4:30 AM on January 9, 2023

You might try Renshu or Jalup. Both paid and Renshu is probably better value for money, but Jalup is one of the very few “learn Japanese in Japanese” apps and it also has decent audio.

Renshu is a little tough to find the decks to get started, but it’s got the N1 and N2 lists that might help you at your level. Otherwise it’s actually organized around textbook vocab or other shared lists? An overabundance of settings but great once set up. Growing audio options. I think you can also make your own custom decks.

You might want to do wanikani if you need the kanji and the best app for that (IMO) is Tsurukame. Vocab on there is a little random as the focus is pronunciations for the kanji.

Otherwise, I used to really like memrise for all the user created lists, but they’re now a top example for me in how to mistreat one’s loyal users in a fumbling attempt to monetize. They clearly got some strategy advice about focusing on the largest or highest growth user group, i.e. beginners, but if they had actually passed *my* strategy class, they would have known that there are many sustainable and viable strategic positions, and their unique competitive advantage was in the unique user-created content like the amazing decks from Tae Kim for Japanese. Sigh. That’s not something they wanted to nurture though. TLDR, I can’t recommend memrise unless you want to be annoyed, although I assume it still exists if you want to check it out.
posted by ec2y at 2:43 AM on January 15, 2023