What Are the Best Apps for Learning Japanese?
As
the language of one of the world's major economies, which also has a rich literary history, Japanese should be one of the most popular languages to learn. The fact that it's not is partly a reflection of our traditional Eurocentric idea of important languages, but also of how difficult the structure and vocabulary of Japanese can be for an English speaker.
You're unlikely to learn Japanese at school, and even university courses aren't two a penny, but that doesn't stop you learning yourself, either on your own or with a private tutor. Of course, the best way of learning a language today is to use an app — but which one? Here are ten of the best.
Rocket Japanese is a comprehensive, easily navigated course that covers everything from grammar to dialogue with native speakers, allowing you to go at your own pace. It's expensive, but the price is a one-off, rather than an ongoing subscription.
By contrast, Duolingo is a free app that offers a comprehensive Japanese course, although you'd need to go for the paid version to get rid of the ads. It's particularly useful for beginners, incorporating games and activities to help teach reading, writing, speaking and listening to Japanese.
Mondly is also great for beginners, allowing you to learn the basics of Japanese quickly and take the lessons in whatever order you like, with the option of using augmented reality and virtual reality. There's a free version, with a more complete version available on subscription.
Rosetta Stone is one of the best-known language apps, and its Japanese app offers an immersive course that will adapt to your learning style and allow you to learn the basics in three months. It's one of the more expensive options, but you can start with a three-month trial.
Tandem
The Tandem app helps you learn to speak Japanese like a native by pairing you with Japanese speakers, allowing you also to learn about Japanese culture as you learn the language. There's a free version, but even the paid version has a very reasonable subscription.
Although it doesn't offer a structured course, FluentU provides you with a wealth of videos in Japanese (trailers, advertisements, TV excerpts etc.) with subtitles, transliterations and translations to help you learn the language as it's used. It's quite expensive, but you can have a free trial to see if it's worthwhile.
Pimsleur specialises in helping you learn to speak and listen to Japanese, rather than reading, which makes it ideal for your trip to Japan. However, it's worth remembering that the language you'll be learning is quite a formal version. It's available for a fairly expensive subscription.
Lingodeer is aimed at students who want to understand Japanese grammar, rather than just learning usage by rote. It covers a wide range of subjects in lessons categorised by topic. It's perhaps not the best-organised app, but its subscription is relatively cheap.
Busuu offers both a structured course in Japanese and conversation practice with native speakers. It also provides certificates for completing the course, which means you can officially include the language on your CV. There's a free version, but the paid version is very cheap.
Speaking Japanese is vital, but you may also want to learn how to write the characters. Write It! Japanese will teach you how to form the hiragana and katakana characters, including the correct order for the strokes. There's a limited free version, but the paid version is available for a nominal one-off price. Depending on your focus, any of these apps can be invaluable for learning Japanese, but most students will benefit further from using them in conjunction with a specialist private tutor. Register with TutorExtra to see the range of Japanese tutors available.
