When you start learning a new thing by yourself, your smartphone will definitely be your best buddy for two reasons: 1) There are many apps to support your study, and 2) It stays with you every single day (unless you are in a week of digital detox, if that is possible). In this article, we have selected the 10 best free apps offering various functions to make your Japanese learning easy and effective. Just download some of these and enrich your learning experience today!
Contents
Japanese Characters (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji)
If your first language is English, you might be surprised at first at how different the Japanese scripts look from the English one. In fact, there are three types of characters in Japanese: Hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic symbol systems, and each of the 46 basic characters represents one mora (similar to a syllable). On the contrary, kanji are logograms with each character having a certain meaning. Just like Japanese kids learn hiragana and katakana at elementary school as the first step to master the Japanese language, we recommend you take the same step on your learning journey!
Hiragana Quest
Hiragana Quest provides you with a complete set of tools to master hiragana. The biggest factors that most English speakers find difficult when learning hiragana are understanding the pronunciation and drawings. With the app, you can take lots of small, well-designed steps to overcome these difficulties and will be confident in reading and writing hiragana by the end of using it!
- Website: https://gogonihon.com/en/hiraganaquest/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1364294001
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.futuretrostudios.hiraganaquest2
Obenkyo
Obenkyo is the app to completely master Japanese characters and basic vocabulary. With drawing recognition and flashcards, you can repeatedly practice reading and writing hiragana, katakana, and the over 2,300 kanji that you need to know for all levels of JLPT. As it is really important to know the right stroke order to write well-formed kanji, the app demonstrates each stroke with animations and tells you if you’re not following the instructions.
- Website: http://obenkyo.fr/
*DL only available on Google Play as of March 5, 2023.
Grammar and Vocab Building
After you have mastered hiragana and katakana and some basic kanji, you are now ready for more extensive grammar lessons and more vocabulary building. At this stage, it is important to choose apps with a smart interface, compact lessons, and an audio function etc., to make your study less stressful and efficient. Here are some of the best apps which will satisfy your needs:
JA Sensei
JA Sensei includes a whole package of Japanese grammar lessons, phrase books, reading exercises etc., neatly categorized into featured icons. Japanese counters, for example, are known to be complex and often get you in trouble in classes or daily situations. In that case, you can just click a the “counters” icon on the app and it gives you guidance and recommendations.
- Website: https://www.japan-activator.com/en/
*DL only available on Google Play as of March 5, 2023.
Duolingo
Duolingo has been one of the most popular language learning apps in the world for a long time covering 30+ languages. Its grammar and vocabulary lessons & drills are carefully designed and divided into small pieces, which allow you to take just a few minutes to complete each. But once you get absorbed by this gamified learning app, you might find yourself spending much more time than you think!
- Website: https://en.duolingo.com/course/ja/en/Learn-Japanese
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/duolingo-language-lessons/id570060128
LingoDeer
If you feel overwhelmed by how different Japanese grammar rules are from your language, LingoDeer can be a good solution, or a teacher. Under a grammar-based curriculum, you will take each lesson including a detailed explanation while learning new expressions or cultural facts related to the grammar point. The app also tells you which grammar points and words to review with flashcards, so you’ll never get lost or be left behind in a on your journey of Japanese language study.
- Website: https://www.lingodeer.com/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lingodeer-courses/id1261193709
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lingodeer
Learning with Peers
If you have not only smart apps to support your study but also native speakers to partner with, it is natural that your language learning would speed up drastically. Language, after all, is the number one tool to communicate with people. Here are some apps that provide you with a platform to meet native speakers or study peers who can answer to your questions, give you feedback, or just frankly tell you about their life and culture in Japan.
Busuu
Busuu offers compact, simplified lessons created by experts which allow you to spare just 10+ minutes a day to improve your Japanese skills. It also has Study Plan and Smart Review functions to help you study efficiently. The best of the features provided with the app, though, is the fact that Busuu has a huge, global community of 120 million learners including native Japanese speakers to assist and motivate your study. Post what you’ve learned or try the challenges given by native speakers or peers, then your Japanese will improve even faster!
- Website: https://www.busuu.com/en
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/busuu-fast-language-learning/id379968583
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.busuu.android.enc
HiNative
With 6.4 million users around the world, HiNative is a global community open for all language learners including those studying Japanese. Just type your questions and you can receive answers from native speakers. If you are a beginner and not sure how to ask in Japanese, FAQs and question formats classified into types of questions (grammar, pronunciation, etc.) can help you there. You can also type in your original sentences to get corrections, which will make you feel more confident each time you send an email to a Japanese friend or colleague!
- Website: https://hinative.com/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id923920480
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lang8.hinative
Dictionary
While studying Japanese, you will probably encounter new words, expressions and kanji in almost every sentence. It should be one of the best parts of learning a language, for sure, but only when you have a good dictionary beside you. Here are some apps that hold smart search functions and an enormous number of data–based entries and example sentences to assist you just in just the way you need.
Nihongo
Nihongo is an online English-Japanese dictionary which offers an intuitive search function with 170,000+ Japanese entries. Unlike ordinary dictionary apps, this app has two excellent features: Photo look up and Safari extension. When you find signs or posters in Japanese on the road, just take a photo and Nihongo gives you not only the meaning but the furigana to of each word, too. Also, if you connect Nihongo to your Safari browser, the app will automatically add furigana to any Japanese sentences found on the Internet, with the meaning and the link for more information shown in a bubble.
- Website: https://nihongo-app.com/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nihongo-modern-japanese-dictionary/id881697245?ls=1
*DL only available on App Store as of March 5, 2023.
imiwa?
imiwa? is an online, multilingual Japanese dictionary which offers an intuitive search function with 170,000+ Japanese entries and the corresponding English translation. Its kanji stroke recognition comes in handy when you see any new kanji in a sentence but don’t have a clue about its pronunciation. Through the app, you can also check and learn different forms (conjugations) of verbs and adjectives, or styles (casual/polite) of sentences.
- Website: http://www.imiwaapp.com/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imiwa-japanese-dictionary/id288499125
- *DL only available on App Store as of March 5, 2023.
Eijiro 英辞郎
Although Eijiro is an app originally designed for Japanese people who are studying English, why not vice versa? The app is one of the most popular Japanese-English dictionaries in Japan used by 200,000 people a day, including professional translators. With more than 2.3 million English-Japanese entries and more than 2.58 million Japanese-English entries covering technical terms from the medical to financial and astronomical fields, you can type in either language to search for the meaning of words or phrases.
- Website: http://www.imiwaapp.com/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/imiwa-japanese-dictionary/id288499125
- *DL only available on App Store as of March 5, 2023.
Summary
We have introduced 10 of the best free apps which can support and accelerate your Japanese learning. Save time and money by using these apps and let’s get your learning journey started today!
This media series provides a wide range of information about the Japanese language and Japanese culture for those who are interested in traveling to or living in Japan. Add us to your reading list and stay tuned!