A good language app can help you build your vocabulary, practice your pronunciation as well as work on your grammar, and best of all you can learn this for free. If you cannot find time in your daily life or you consider the in-person courses too expensive and wish to study at your own pace, language apps might be the best option for you. Using a language app can be great for those who are planning to visit Japan for holidays and wish to learn a few basic phrases in order to communicate with the locals and show their respect to the destination country. They are also great to pass time, expand your knowledge, and challenge yourself.
1. Kanji Recognizer
Japanese can be a fun and rewarding language and it can also be quite complicated. Kanji are the characters that are used in the Japanese writing system. Kanji Recognizer is a simple app that will recognize your handwriting and provide you with the meaning of the written character. You can also copy and paste the characters to find them in Kanji. This app will not only teach you the meaning and provide you with the explanation, but it will also allow you to practice your Kanji in writing. Simply open your app, draw the characters and the app is going to recognize your writing by providing matches, once you have found the symbol you were looking for you can copy and paste it wherever you need. This app is only supported by android.
2. DuoLingo
Duolingo today is one of the most popular language apps out there. With an easy interface, animations, and challenges this app has grabbed the attention of many students around the world. As of today, Duolingo offers 94 different languages including Japanese. With over 300 million registered users around the world, it allows you to challenge your friends in language learning. Duolingo is free of charge, but it also uses advertising and offers subscriptions ´´Duolingo Plus´´. Duolingo Plus gives you unlimited lives, allows level skipping and progress quizzes. The application has been internationally recognized and even honored by many awards including the best education startup in 2014. You must be at least 13 years old to use this application and you can use it on both android and iOS software.
3. WaniKani
Wanikani or in English “alligator crab” is a web application that uses a spaced repetition and mnemonics that helps users to memorize provided information quickly. This app has 60 levels and each of them starts with a lesson later followed by quizzes. The tests on the WaniKani app pop up periodically, if you have passed the test successfully it will pop up less, and less if the test is failed you will receive them more often.
Students that have been using WaniKani say that it has either improved their Kanji or helped them to recover the knowledge they had before, it helped students develop their career in Japan as well as to many of the new students gave an opportunity to understand the basics of Kanji.
WaniKani offers a trial period for the first 3 levels. If you are hooked you can purchase a yearly subscription for $80. This app is supported by both android and iOS.
4. Kanji Study
You can find the Kanji Study on the mind twisted platform, it provides a drawing method studying with multiple-choice questions. This application features SVG rendering from computer font styles, Kana charts for references, searching kanji by character, drawing practice, flashcard memory section, and a study time calendar. Kanji study has customizable quizzes and writing challenges which makes studying fun. You can learn more than 6000 Japanese words and 2000 kanji. Each Kanji has detailed info and stroke info for a quick lookup. Kanji Study app is great for beginners as well as for those who already have a basic knowledge and wish to focus more on the grammar. This app is supported on both android and iOS platforms.
5. NHK Easy Japanese News
NHK is a Japanese Broadcasting Corporation and Japan’s only public media organization. It is available on the web as well as in an app form. NHK app lets you read Japanese daily news, it contains a vocabulary list as well as travel and culture tips. Now the app also includes movies that come along with the news. Each news segment has a vocabulary list as well as definitions for each of them. You can listen to audios with native reading voices and listen to your app in the background. NHK Easy Japanese news is a great source for beginners and for those who want to travel to Japan for holidays as the app provides an offline option. You can listen to the news on various subjects – business, sports, health, culture and everything about life in Japan.
6. LingoDeer
Lingodeer is different from the other Japanese languages app, this app also has options to study – Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese, or English in 10 other languages. LingoDeer’s lessons consist of Reading, writing, listening, and speaking exercises. The lessons start with an introduction to the alphabet system for more independent studying, grammar notes that provide explanations on words and sentences, recordings from native speakers, and exercises. Lingodeer is great because it can also be used in offline mode. Lingodeer will give you 150 lessons with 60 units and it requires you to practice only 10 minutes a day. In order to use the app, you will need to be a registered user to enjoy all the courses and features. You can purchase a monthly course for $11,99, a 3-month course for $29,99, or a course of 1 year for $55,99. If you wish to continue your language studies after a year there is a lifetime option for $119,99.
7. Tandem
One of the most unique apps that have modernized that standard learning way is the Tandem app. It connects students so they can practice the language together. You start off by creating a profile stating a few of your personal details as well as the level of your language skill. After you have completed your profile the app will show you the other users that you can connect with and practice the language together. It is a great way to get out of your comfort zone, Tandem has video, audio and text messaging options that gives you unlimited ways to study the desired language. With millions of members around the world, you will easily find a study buddy to learn Japanese and more than 160 other languages. The app will help you translate incoming messages, practice your pronunciation, and give you hundreds of tutorials on how to learn the language quickly and efficiently.
