5 Best Apps To Learn Japanese Fast For Free

We’ve rounded up the best apps to learn Japanese and speak it like a native in no time!

Whenever we think about learning a foreign language, what usually comes to mind is mastering some of the hardest ones including Japanese. Given that Japan’s history is mainly shaped by its neighboring countries like China and Korea, having a good understanding of their language will allow you to get to know the values of other Asian nations including their laws, cultural norms, and behaviors. In simple words, Japanese can be your stepping stone in exploring other Southeast Asian languages!

Whenever we think about learning a foreign language, what usually comes to mind is mastering some of the hardest ones including Japanese. Given that Japan’s history is mainly shaped by its neighboring countries like China and Korea, having a good understanding of their language will allow you to get to know the values of other Asian nations including their laws, cultural norms, and behaviors. In simple words, Japanese can be your stepping stone in exploring other Southeast Asian languages!

If you are truly passionate about acquiring this language, the best thing that you can do for yourself is to interact with the language. Luckily, exposing yourself to Japanese is not as hard or as expensive as you think. For the younger generation, it is quite common to know that their first interaction with Japanese is brought about by watching anime (アニメ) or reading manga (まんが). For music lovers out there, they probably have been fans of JPOP bands and girl groups like AKB48 and Baby Metal. If you are a movie buff, then watching movies with subtitles can also significantly help you out.

However, real language learning should also take a holistic approach. In this post, we will walk you through our five most recommended language learning applications that can support you to reach your target level of fluency.

Anki – Suitable For Memorization Of Words And Expressions

Anki is a free cross-platform application that allows learners to improve their mastery of certain words and expressions using flashcards. Instead of using traditional cards or strips of paper, Anki paves the way for you to create a virtual deck and ensure that you’ll also get to employ learning strategies like spaced repetition and active recall testing. This tool offers flexibility to the point that users are allowed to customize each deck’s layout so that they can also add pictures, and audio files, and even change the colors of the text depending on their learning style.

Once you have created your own Japanese learning tool, you are also free to share your decks with other learners. Also, you can use the decks created by other users for the Japanese language by checking out their updated list under the link: https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/japanese.

italki – One Of The Best Apps To Learn Japanese With Native Speakers

If you want to be able to learn Japanese and improve your confidence in actually speaking it, then nothing beats what italki has to offer.

italki is a language learning tool that allows users to get connected for free to its active community of native speakers who are all keen to help you improve your skills while learning from you too. It basically acts as a language exchange platform where you can simply write your heart out using the “notebook” feature and have native speakers correct your writing at no additional cost.

If you are more interested in getting a formal and structured lesson, you can also opt for the paid version where you can book a professional Japanese teacher or a community tutor for a one-on-one class at an affordable price.

Ling App – An All-In-One Language Learning App For Japanese

Ling App is one of the language learning applications that is quickly becoming popular due to its unmatched collection of innovative features that will help you get excited to learn Japanese. Content-wise, it has courses for over 60+ foreign languages which are all developed by native speakers and real language professionals from across the world. This is an ideal resource for both students and professionals as it comes equipped with expressions and vocabulary fit for casual and formal use.

In order to ensure that the affective filter is low, Ling App includes gamified content in the form of fun quizzes, writing challenges, and games that are meant to challenge and help you keep motivated to learn. Since it offers a practical approach, it strives to make lessons as informative as possible to make sure that you’ll get to master something even by just using it in as short as 10 minutes per day!

Dr. Moku – Ideal For Learning The Hiragana And Katakana Writing

One of the reasons why language enthusiasts fail to pursue learning about the Japanese language is that they can easily get overwhelmed by the complex writing system. Since Japanese does not use the Latin alphabet, you must put in the effort to learn its unique sets of writing known as the Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. If you are just a total beginner in the language, it is advised that you try to use mnemonics and focus first on exploring the complexities of Hiragana and Katakana through Dr. Moku.

Dr. Moku is a learning application geared toward helping you study the Japanese alphabet by associating it with memorable pictures and doodles. It somehow works like a flashcard app but what makes it interesting is that it has innovative ways to make you remember each letter, stroke, and sound.

Imiwa? – An Excellent Offline Japanese Dictionary With Sentence Examples

Imiwa? is a powerful dictionary tool that provides access not just to hiragana and katakana but it also gives information for about 13,000 kanji letters. This is an impressive tool that can be accessed offline and provides an impressive range of example sentences to help you understand how each word is used in real Japanese expressions.

Through this, you can also analyze a whole sentence so that you drill down on every word used along with details about the part of the speech of each right away. And the best part of it all? It also has built-in stroke recognition so that you can easily draw if ever you are unsure what a character means!

Conclusion

And there we have it! As we reach this part of the post, we hope that you were able to learn the different mobile applications that you can use to supercharge your skills in the Japanese language. As a rule of thumb, do remember that these are just supplementary tools, and what will make you truly master Japanese is when you try to consistently review the basic words and expressions and try to find opportunities where you can practice them.