I think Takoboto is the best Japanese dictionary on Android by far. It's a free offline dictionary with lists, pitch accent information and example sentences. It can also be used online in a browser.
While the app "Japanese" looks pretty awesome, something else I found is "Japanese Dictionary Takoboto". It looks to have a very similar set of features.
@@muskit_ It might be it is delisted from the store but still works if already downloaded. I can't see it present, but I'd be happy to be corrected on that
I find japanese game "let's play" videos on youtube to be a tremendous aid in learning because they are mostly always talking about what is going on on screen, meaning that it is absolutely wonderful comprehensible input for immersion
No joke, watching Japanese Let's Plays is soooo underrated. I wanted to play Witcher 3 in Japanese, but figured there was too much dead time when running arround between quests, that is was not worth immersing, but when watching a Let's Play there is no dead time practically, as you either here the ingame voices, or the let's players narration, perfect combo in my opinion.
@@sakamotoscarf Just search for whatever game your interested in in Japanese. "実況プレイ" means Let's play so you can put that after whatever game interests you. I liked おついちs witcher 3 let's play really good for example but you have to watch what's interesting to you.
Definitely think a kanji series would be great. WaniKani works really well for me personally, but I think having a completely free resource for people the other tools just don't work for is really important.
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 Many folks like Busuu and LingoDeer more than Duolingo, but I'm afraid you're in for a pretty big time commitment no matter what, haha. I wish it was possible to pack more into the day, but ultimately, you just have to get those study hours in to make progress. Fortunately, studying can be extremely fun and satisfying once you get into the groove!
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 No matter which tools you use, if you don’t dedicate a significant amount of CONSISTENT time learning Japanese, your progress will be very slow and feel stagnant. After all, Japanese is amongst the top 3 hardest languages to learn for a native English speaker, which might be the reason why you probably feel like you’re not progressing fast enough (hence the reason you’re looking for better apps). Depending on how fast you want to learn, you’ll have to re-adjust your schedule to make more time for Japanese. Personally, I recommend at least 1hr a day (bare minimum). Anything less will not give you the results you’re probably expecting, just being frank with you. And even that is going to be slow. Sure, anything is better than nothing, but It all boils down to time, and unfortunately Japanese is one of those things that requires a lot of it. Heck, ANY language requires a significant amount of time to learn properly, imagine Japanese. Anyway, I’m not trying to scare you, or anything like that. I’m only giving you a reality check, so that you can set your expectations accordingly. Personally I don’t know of any app like Duolingo, but better. Perhaps someone else can point to one. However, I suspect that you’ve tried enough apps to realize what I’ve been saying, and thus you’re looking for a “shortcut”, sort of speak. Everything that Andy mentioned in this video is actually amongst the best free tools for learning Japanese. He didn’t mention BunPro, given it’s a paid subscription website to learn grammar, which is a great resource btw. But also Andy’s website is excellent!!. I highly, highly, recommend it, if you can afford it (which is not expensive at all). If you’re not satisfied with his list, then I don’t know what will be better. Hope you can find what you’re looking for though. Well, good luck. And I hope you keep learning this incredible language.
Arguably the WaniKani Anki deck is basically getting WaniKani for free. 😅 That's what I've been using. But agree, more good free Kanji resources is always good.
@Kaleigh C there is a WANIKANI Deck, and I dont have to pay Anki 300.00 USD?? I have Anki, but how do i get another deck, and how do I make sure it wont replace or screw up my only deck(genki) that I use??( how do i toggle decks?)... as the app Totally confuses me more than japanese itself.
Yes please do a series on kanji on your channel, I absolutely love your teaching methods especially with the Genki series so a kanji one will be super appreciated!
Really suprised you haven't mentioned Kanji Koohii. It's a pretty popular free site for learning Kanji that's been around for almost 20 years now. It allows users to share their mnemonics based on the Heisig method, to select favorites, and to remember them with an SRT system akin to Anki. I honestly think that it is just plain better than working through the RTK book(s) on your own.
After 3 years of self-study (trying to stay as free as possible minus an Italki lesson or a textbook here and there), I find that Kanji are the only thing that I haven't been able to find a great way to study... so seeing you agree made me feel a little better about that. I would love to see a series for Kanji here!
I was an on and off self learner too for like 4-5 years and also felt that my kanji was lacking. But then I discovered Heisig's Remembering the kanji and it was an absolute game changer. I think I reached N2 level within 1 year.
A KANJI SERIES!? That would be awesome! I'm a second year student at depaul university in chicago and japanese Studies is my major. My class is using the genki series and I watch your videos before we start each class. A kanji break down from you would be awesome!
I'm glad to hear that the Genki series is useful for you! I've got my work cut out for me with the kanji series! I hope I can make it just as useful as the Genki videos. =)
Personally, changing my phone's language setting to JP had an amazing effect. First, seeing kanji everyday decreases my resistance to it, and sometimes even picking up and reinforcing what I've learned. Second, it's not that bad. It's really bad for the first three days, but after that, most basic functions you remember well will return with relatively high proficiency. Special functions will force you to read japanese, and that's a good things. Three, my phone automatically became a reminder for to learn jp everyday, since I'm staring at it everyday.
Ha, you masochist! MS office on my laptop accidentally put itself into Japanese (when I tried to install a hiragana keyboard opiton) and it couldn't be put back (until eventually I phoned the helpline.) I certainly learned the kanji for "save" and "print" pretty quickly, but they were stressful times I don't want to repeat.
I highly recommend Renshuu as an alternative to Anki or Memrise. I find it much better than either, as it is specifically built for Japanese. It handles kanji particularly well, both for learning kanji individually (e.g. their meaning and readings), and smoothly transitioning your vocab "decks" from hiragana to kanji as you learn them. It has audio, nmenomics, example sentences, grammar lessons, etc.
Yeah this is the best Japanese app I have found throughout my years learning. I just love all the extra things that help you engage with the app (Shiritori, daily challenges, their discord, your GARDEN lol).
For Kanji, I’ve started just learning vocabulary first and looking up the word in the Jisho dictionary app/website. If it’s usually written in Kanji, I’ll write it down. That way, I learn the kanji within the context of vocabulary I already know and it makes it much simpler than learning the kanji itself when the kanji can mean so many different things. I only need to know what it means in the context I’m currently learning, and when I come across that kanji in another word I’ll learn that word too. Jisho is a great dictionary app because it also teaches you how to write the kanji!
for kanji, there's a free dictionary I've been using for 500+ days which is called kanji study. it's honestly so helpful and it contains writing and reading exercises (reading is a bit limited). I've bought the premium version like a month ago but I've been using it before completely free and it's a lifesaver honestly. I totally recommend it! Also thank you so much Andy for the video, I really look forward to the videos you make a lot :)
The Migaku Kanji God Anki add-on is absolutely brilliant and completely free. It scans your existing vocab decks and automatically generates Heisig style cards which display the words from your collection containing that kanji. Unlike when doing RTK traditionally or with a premade deck, it allows you to prioritise learning the kanji relevant to your own vocabulary rather than having to follow some arbitrary order. There's also a feature where you can just give it a bunch of text and have it automatically add all the unknown kanji from there, so it's easy to generate relevant cards even if you don't actually use anki to memorise vocabulary. I used to feed it lyrics from songs I liked so I could learn to recognise the kanji first, and then used that knowledge to help me learn the readings in the context of words just by listening to music and reading a whole lot of children's novels with furigana. I've memorised well over 2000 kanji in the 10 months since I started learning Japanese, can't recommend this add-on enough :)
Another tool that I've found that's super helpful (it's pretty much free with some extras that you can pay for) is Renshuu. I haven't heard many people talk about it tbh. It's got kanji learning, vocabulary with sentence examples, user generated mnemonics, games, a weekly forum, and so much more. Some draw backs is that it can be a bit of a learning curve when starting out and it's online only (the app needs internet to function too), but the cloud syncing is nice and it's got a lot of features.
Yeah same I never see it on these type of lists or videos, it's so good and one of my staples next to Satori reader. Level 264 in renshuu and going strong! 2,586 terms the grind has been real lol
@@Bizzareadventurefan I downloaded it last week and it seems to be ok. Sometimes I have to cick the audio button a few times. I think it just takes a while to download as the app is lightweight
Please please do a kanji series..❤️❤️ That would be a great help...❤️🩹 I wanna start kanji... But unable to find a good free resources....so please help us 🥲
Love to see Matt and Andy helping each other out and yeah Game Gengo is a brilliant channel, him and Andy are some of the best free resources out there!
As far as games go I have been finding the Yakuza series to be a nice addition to my learning and exposure. One of the things I like the most is that it is set in towns covered in Japanese signage so I get loads of reading practice.
Seconding this! I accidentally learned how to play riichi mahjong because of Yakuza 0, which made me interested in learning the Japanese terms used. Now I spend half my time playing just staring at the signs and slowly figuring out what they mean! A couple of days ago I realised you can go into first person mode by clicking in the right joystick, and it's made it much easier to look at stuff :)
@@CaptainSlowbeard Right on. I just finished up Ghostwire Tokyo the other day and had the same experience again. I love combining gaming and learning. :)
Learned all hiragana in 5 days with tofugu. Learned 30 katakana in a day after that. Surprised how good the tool is, and how relatively easy it has been!
I just learned to read and type Hiragana and Katakana in 3 days using the tofugu guides! I thought it would take me weeks at least to get good at it but with the mnemonics it was so easy and fun! However I still can't handwrite them but I don't need that for now to keep advancing in learning Japanese
If you made a free kanji series of videos (similar to your Genki and Quartet series) you would easily be the best resource for English speakers to learn Japanese on TH-cam. I can only imagine how difficult it would be though… では、がんばって！
I have just been doing the WaniKani Anki deck as my free Kanji learning, and it works well enough for me. It's like a slightly stripped down WK experience. I am super excited to see TokiniAndy Kanji lessons though. Your teaching style is so easy to understand and relatable, I'm sure it'll be great and mega helpful.
I really don't like Anki. It just makes Japanese boring and sterile for me. The software itself doesn't feel good to use either. Maybe some of the decks people have created are actually quite decent, but I can't be bothered honestly. I rather engage with Japanese in the most interesting and fun ways I can find. So TH-cam videos, manga, games etc...
Please do the Kanji series! I'm currently doing an Anki deck based on RTK, and I've memorized around 500 kanji since July. It is incredibly hard to find good material for free, and learning a language should be something accessible for everyone (like education in general should be)
Hey Andy, I passed and got the JLPT N5 diplome 2 years ago. I remember watching your genki I video and it was very helpful to follow along. Now i Lost pretty much of this N5 level. I wanted to ask you If your prenium website his enough to learn grammar. I want to redo the Genki 1 ans Go further. Do I have to buy textbook to follow along with the website or can your website is enough ? 🤔
Agreed, new kanji series would be great. I've struggled learning kanji and I have been taking a lot of time to wrap my head around how you learn them. Do I memorize everything regarding every kanji (onyomi, kuyomi, meaning, stroke order)? Do I start with memorizing the radicals and their meaning, come up with a mnemonic to memorize various kanji after that?
I'll definitely have to work on it! =) Don't bother learning everything. Learn what a kanji is made of, what it means, and then when you learn new words make sure to learn them with their kanji, that way you will learn the readings naturally. =)
Glad that learning by gaming was included (don't see that very often as a suggestion), because in my opinion it's a really great way to learn Kanji and vocabulary without it getting tedious or feeling like a chore. Another thing I'd like to add is just surrounding your everyday life with the language you want to learn. English isn't my first or even second language and when I decided that I want to get better at it (because I sucked at it during school), I started playing all my games in english and also started watching youtube almost enitrely in english among other things (and now I'm trying to do the same with japanese).
idk if anyone mentioned this yet but a great (and maybe little offensive) resource is Kanji Damage. It has all the things that kanji learner could ask for and has an Anki deck
The Migaku Kanji GOD Plugin for Anki is a godsend when it comes to learning Kanji. It looks through your decks and finds kanji that you don't know and makes flashcards for them first starting with the particles them the kanji itself. I highly recommend this method since you can learn the meanings AND readings to kanji in real time.
It trully is awesome but it's full of glitches which made it unusable for me, though I also have the newest Anki version which might explain things... May I ask what Anki version you are running and whether you have encountered any bugs?
@@adriangrana1239 I updated anki at some point last year and the update broke kanji god for me (...and some other add-ons too) so I just went back to using version 2.1.49 and everything works perfectly just as before, I haven't noticed any issues - maybe try downgrading?
@@languageoclock Yea I maybe am gonna downgrade it, only reason I haven't is because of laziness and I also like the more modern look anki has in its newest version. I am also a bit afraid that downgrading might break other add-ons... But I should give it a try nonetheless.^^
@@adriangrana1239 I would say it’s worth it anyway just for kanji god, it’s my favourite deck and I’m kinda sad now that I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t really need to add new cards anymore (almost at 3000) and my daily reps are starting to peter out :P Does the update make that drastic a difference? I have a couple of of other add-ons that make Anki look less industrial and I use a nintendo switch controller instead of the keyboard or on screen buttons… took a while for me to figure it all out but I reckon the combination makes even using an old version a pretty pleasant experience for me at this point.
Kanji Damage has a free Anki deck. It presents the kanji by introducing a radical and then various kanji made with that radical and other kanji you already know. The order is very logical and it covers most of the jōyo kanji. They also introduce example vocab for each kanji. However, it is not good for everyone as the mnemonics are immature!
Kanji study combined with the kanji learner's course with the genkoyoshi book is personally what works best for me. You may spend like $30 but I think it's well worth it. Kanji Study also just introduced SRS
Been on and off with my Japanese studies, but Renshuu works really well for practice. Especially for Hiragana, Katakana, & Kanji! For the Kanji kana and sentences/phrases I use the built-in dictionary within the app. There's also reading practice with the short comics and the daily 1-panel strips. There's even games and activities to practice your skills such as Haiku, Shiritori or Crosswords. There are other games that I haven't tried out yet. I think the only thing that's missing is the listening practice (that or I haven't found that function yet). Thanks for the ones you mentioned too, Andy! I'll look into those!
Might be an unpopular opinion, but i find just reading + Anki the best method to develop all skills at the same time. It might be a pain when you start from scratches, but i believe that studing how to write or recognize every single radical or kanji is too much time consuming and risk to fossilize on remote /unused kanjis . I believe that getting yourself straight into the context as soon as possible is the best way to learn how to speak and read more naturally: news, easy novels, netflix, games.. designed for native speakers! Btw thank you very much Andy, i love you channel, when i saw you using videogames for passing N1 it was a blast and i'm doing the same (with game boy advance) with great results! You rock!
Reading and Anki are powerful tools together. Glad to hear you're enjoying immersing in games! I have a few GBA games on my backburner that I want to go back to in Japanese! Golden Sun, Pokemon Emerald, and a few others. Such a fun system. =)
@@ToKiniAndy that games are so funny! I'm planning to go japan this summer and i'll buy a japanese 3ds because there is a larger game library. Can't wait!
My lifehack was to just enroll in my university's Japanese Studies major- only is free if you live in a country that offers free tertiary education though. And heavily depends on the city you live in, since East Asian departments are usually pretty small and much more commonly found in higher density cities.
Holy crap! YouGlish has blown my mind at how simple it is (database is probably just the search term with the video's URL + timestamp)! While I've only been slowly using Anki (~2 years now) to learn kanji (also a bit of vocab), it's hard to believe this site never appeared while I was looking up tips to learn Japanese. Other than that, I've been using Mazii for a dictionary because it's writing search matches the shape of the kanji rather than the strokes you used to make it. Jisho won't know the kanji if you didn't write it with the correct stroke order. I couldn't guess (4 strokes) how 世 was written correctly and Jisho failed. Mazii got it first try and I discovered it was actually 5 strokes in an order I hadn't encountered before.
This kanji series is absolutely necessary and you're doing a really good thing here. This is one of the biggest barriers to basic entry and it's because of the same lack of easy, free options to do so you're talking about.
Do you reccomend "Kanshudo" for figuring out new Kanji? I used to just use Google lense to have it auto detect the character I didn't recognize, then copy paste it to look up a definition, but on Kanshudo, you can attempt to draw the Kanji /radicals you think are a part of it to search for it. I think this helps me keep up with remembering the different radicals. And makes figuring out what they mean a bit more involved
I learned to type on a Japanese keyboard with direct input bascially from the beginning (1 month in). I am at the point where attempting to type romaji is a struggle. My brain/fingers know where the kana are for the most part and if I try and type say "hirigana" I will normally end up typing "vlt@u" which are the keys for direct input. This also means that I struggle to read romaji. I personally dont see this as a flaw though.
4:08 I thought I was tripping on this but when I watched the video on a browser as soon as you said "hit the like button" the actual like button glowed even when I replayed it, and I was like wtf is it detecting your voice in the video or can you add that manually when you upload??
i recommend jpdb it is like anki deck but with a dictionary inside of it and it is fantastic for kanji as it will step by step teach you all the radicals and kanji components and then the full kanji. then showing you how the kanji are used in words using example sentences
I'll 100% second using tofugu to learn the kanas. If I am blanking on a kana I see I'll often just think of whatever mnemonic they had with it (such as hiragana for ka looks like a mosquito, and ka is the japanese word for mosquito). I have been using an app called "Reword" for my vocabulary, interested to know if that's actually pretty good, I like that it has categories including JLPT levels as well as categories for months vs days of the week vs body parts etc
I recommend 'Kanji Study' for android. It has about 6k Kanji, structured in N5 to N1. You can look up the components of each Kanji & its meanings, stroke orders, do multiple choice tests, see vocabular using this kanji etc. Full version costs about 10€, it's way more useful than a textbook. Unfortunately, the ios version does not have all these great features.
KANJI... I am new to Japanese and I find once I learn the alphabet of a language I can pronounce the words... BUT learning grammar and (extra added words to make the sentence (which English don't have ) hard ....... so any and all help is appreciated :D
Thanks so much for the reccomendations. I would also reccomend to other learners Mazii which I've been using for about 5 years now. It has most of the things we need to learn japanese: dictionary with AI explanations, kanji writing practice, a learners community, jlpt mock tests, grammar learning... Just give it a try 😁😁
When it comes to learning how to write kanji or hiragana / katakana I use 2 different apps on iPhone “kanji!” And “Japanese!” Highly recommend, you buy all content for a small amount
I was trying to learn russian a couple years ago, i had never really learned a language seriously before, so i was grinding vocab and pronunciation 5-8hrs a day and after a few months i really just regretted it because japanese was really the language i wanted to learn but i thought it would be too hard, so i went with russian, i eventually got burned out and even to this day im not a fan of just memorizing lists of vocab, i did use Anki to start with japanese but after i felt i didnt absolutely need to, i moved onto other things, i think anki is great but i dont enjoy it very much, as of now im 7-8months into japanese and i have made a handful of close japanese friends i talk to every day
so... you qre telling me i spent the last 4hours to build a few decks when better, more efficient ones etc where already out there ? well, that's good to know. i seriously didn't know i could download a premade deck but to be honest i don't think i'll really use it since building them myself make me think about how i'm gonna use mines :D on a more serious note even if im a year late this video will surely help ! ありがとございます
Many Japanese Games on PC (Steam) offer Japanese settings, for eg: Nier Automata (my favorite) Nier Replicant, of course the most famous Final Fantasy Games and other JRPGs (Japanese Rollplay Games). Haven't check Death Stranding, i would bet is has too.
When I was still learning English, I tried to use Anki for new vocabulary and I just couldn't. It was so boring. I tried 3 times during the course of 1 year and every time ended up stop using it. Now that I'm starting with Japanese, its not one of my options anymore. If anyone is interested I've been using Busuu for 1 year now, and I thing for beginners its really good.
i'm using chat gpt a lot. it's good because you can tell it what kind of "problems" you want to try your hand at. something like "write me a short simple kids' story in japanese only using hiragana and katakana (no kanji), and then come up with 10 questions about the story for me to answer. Afterwards, grade me on the test." chat gpt is pretty good at languages.
A bit late for me to say this, but I'll say it anyway. I can somewhat forgive Kanji Garden for not being completely free, purely because you have the choice between a continuous subscription model or a larger one-time payment with no difference in quality/features. The only real drawback that Kanji Garden is that sometimes it can be slow to load, and its vocabulary list (at the time of writing) doesn't include obscure, and possibly interesting, readings/vocabulary, and leaves out some really common words like 今日.
For Kanji the "Recognition RTK" deck by Refold is great imo. Sort of like remembering the kanji but in an anki deck and somewhat modified I think. Easy to memorize too
What's better: learning kanji relying on classic table of radicals (so-called classic 214 keys) or alternative ststems? Many websites offer their own classifications of radicals not based on classic keys. Opinion?
Do you recommend graded readers to complete beginners? I have the kana down, but my vocabulary is non-existent, and I have a hard time keeping up with my JP1K anki deck. Remembering words I saw mere seconds before is also an issue I have with anki (which makes doing anki every day very hard and more time consuming than recommend).
Pretty sure Anki is not free anymore. In fact its one of the most expensive educational apps out there, around ¥3500-4000... Also 'Japanese' dictionary app is kinda lame IMHO, Imiwa is much better I feel..
Free version of renshuu replaces 90% of the apps in this video. I got paid version that replaces 100% of the apps (and other resources) mentioned in this video...
Similarly to Netflix but possibly easier, Disney+. Ever since the 90s Disney has been steadily putting things out in multiple languages as to be more accessible worldwide. Most of what Disney+ offers allows you to change both the spoken and subtitle languages. This also goes for many of their newer Marvel and Lucas Arts offerings. Just change the audio and caption languages to Japanese. (That’s right. Lots of Star Wars in Japanese, baby!)
Heads up that the Japanese app may be region locked or something. I couldn't find the Japanese app on Google Play (I'm in the UK). When I follow the link you give above, I can get to it in Google Play but it won't let me install it on my Android Samsung Galaxy A52 5G smartphone - it says "This phone isn't compatible with this app".
Koohii is good when going through Remembering the Kanji. I used it instead of Anki after I got through the first 500 or so kanji because I just liked it better and has good story recommendations.
My frustration with most Japanese learning tools I've tried has been that I feel like I'm not the intended audience. That is, the sample phrases and vocabulary typically don't involve situations that are useful to me. For example, one textbook had a full on lesson about how to talk about family members, pretty early on in the book. I have family, but they're not here in Japan. I'm not introducing them on a regular basis, or talking about them really. Genki was notoriously frustrating for this, and I think it's geared toward students. I learned how to ask someone if they are a student, a college student, and which college they go to. Meanwhile, uh, I teach primary school here so it would be silly for me to ask students if they're students, and it'd be silly for me to ask people at the train station or grocery store if they're students, when there's no major university anywhere near here. And kanji. I find most tools that drill individual kanji meanings and readings have been useless. Not 'frustrating', mind you. Useless. I dislike the book 'Remembering the Kanji' mostly for this reason. Most individual kanji don't exist in the wild. I DO HAVE A USEFUL TIP/TOOL for you though (I'm not just commenting to bash any of these tools). There's a certification test, and associated practice book called 'Kanji Kentei'. It starts at level 10 with I think 84 kanji, and so far it has been useful. The presentation is simple, and does not explain the rules beyond a few examples, but the examples are there, and it makes your brain figure out what the pronunciation rule is. For example, if this kanji is the first kanji, it's probably this pronunciation. If it's alone, it's probably this. If it's followed by 'wa', it's probably this. I think it has been the best so far for me. Everyone learns differently. Kanji Kentei.
I would definitely add Migaku to the list of paid tools, and KanjiGOD from the same team if you like Heisig's approach but want to start reading earlier than after going through the whole book.
I've been working through Heisig's Remembering the Kanji for four or five months now, and I can't recommend it enough. It, combined with a paired Anki deck, is the only thing that's really gotten kanji to stick in my brain. The knowledge isn't immediately super useful, but I know it'll make learning way easier down the line.
If you going to mention the Nintendo switch, then it only make sense to also mention Steam which have language options for games. Many of the old classics are available there like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Okami and so on. There's also a bunch of visual novels like Higurashi and Umineko.
I got a Recognition RTK deck for free. If you can find a kanji deck that is less than 1000 flashcards, that’d be ideal, and the. Just focus on reading (and watching shows with Japanese subtitles) and picking up kanji from there.
There is this app called kana it is really simple a easy and free it gives you vocabulary as well as help you learn ひりがな (Hirigana) and カタカナ(Katakana) sorry if i wrote it wrong i’m still figuring out this japanese keyboard😅
I would also recommend making friends at your college who wish to learn another language that you know and can help them with in exchange for learning a language they may know. Some colleges even have dedicated buildings for this reason so check your colleges.
A series on Kanji will be so helpful. I am lost as I am starting out. I am just writing the basic Kanji, but do learn the readings at the same time or do I just practice the writing & learning the English meaning. How do it transition to the other Kanji, e.g. 月, then for Monday theres a new kanji 曜. Do I now add this ? 😅lots of confusion. How do I structure my notes ? Please help 🤣🙏🏽
It appears that "Japanese" no longer works on the newest version of Android! Sorry about that!
I think Takoboto is the best Japanese dictionary on Android by far. It's a free offline dictionary with lists, pitch accent information and example sentences. It can also be used online in a browser.
While the app "Japanese" looks pretty awesome, something else I found is "Japanese Dictionary Takoboto". It looks to have a very similar set of features.
Not sure who said that but the app still works on my Pixel running the latest Android (13)!
I recommend Takoboto for those who use Android. I can also recommend Yomiwa on iOS. The best thing about "Japanese" is the Reference tab IMO.
@@muskit_ It might be it is delisted from the store but still works if already downloaded. I can't see it present, but I'd be happy to be corrected on that
I find japanese game "let's play" videos on youtube to be a tremendous aid in learning because they are mostly always talking about what is going on on screen, meaning that it is absolutely wonderful comprehensible input for immersion
Definitely one of the best options for listening immersion! =)
No joke, watching Japanese Let's Plays is soooo underrated. I wanted to play Witcher 3 in Japanese, but figured there was too much dead time when running arround between quests, that is was not worth immersing, but when watching a Let's Play there is no dead time practically, as you either here the ingame voices, or the let's players narration, perfect combo in my opinion.
I watch Game Gengo and find his videos to be helpful.
Anyone know which japanese lets players are fun to watch?
@@sakamotoscarf Just search for whatever game your interested in in Japanese. "実況プレイ" means Let's play so you can put that after whatever game interests you. I liked おついちs witcher 3 let's play really good for example but you have to watch what's interesting to you.
Ed Sheeran teaches you Japanese
true 😂
Lol
I JUST BURSTED OUT MY WATER IN MY MOUTH HELP NOW MY CLOTHES ARE WET😭😭🙏
Bro 😂
Edo Sheeran
Definitely think a kanji series would be great. WaniKani works really well for me personally, but I think having a completely free resource for people the other tools just don't work for is really important.
Time to get to work then! Thank you for watching! =)
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 Many folks like Busuu and LingoDeer more than Duolingo, but I'm afraid you're in for a pretty big time commitment no matter what, haha. I wish it was possible to pack more into the day, but ultimately, you just have to get those study hours in to make progress.
Fortunately, studying can be extremely fun and satisfying once you get into the groove!
@@sparklesparklesparkle6318 No matter which tools you use, if you don’t dedicate a significant amount of CONSISTENT time learning Japanese, your progress will be very slow and feel stagnant. After all, Japanese is amongst the top 3 hardest languages to learn for a native English speaker, which might be the reason why you probably feel like you’re not progressing fast enough (hence the reason you’re looking for better apps). Depending on how fast you want to learn, you’ll have to re-adjust your schedule to make more time for Japanese. Personally, I recommend at least 1hr a day (bare minimum). Anything less will not give you the results you’re probably expecting, just being frank with you. And even that is going to be slow. Sure, anything is better than nothing, but It all boils down to time, and unfortunately Japanese is one of those things that requires a lot of it. Heck, ANY language requires a significant amount of time to learn properly, imagine Japanese.
Anyway, I’m not trying to scare you, or anything like that. I’m only giving you a reality check, so that you can set your expectations accordingly. Personally I don’t know of any app like Duolingo, but better. Perhaps someone else can point to one. However, I suspect that you’ve tried enough apps to realize what I’ve been saying, and thus you’re looking for a “shortcut”, sort of speak. Everything that Andy mentioned in this video is actually amongst the best free tools for learning Japanese. He didn’t mention BunPro, given it’s a paid subscription website to learn grammar, which is a great resource btw. But also Andy’s website is excellent!!. I highly, highly, recommend it, if you can afford it (which is not expensive at all). If you’re not satisfied with his list, then I don’t know what will be better. Hope you can find what you’re looking for though.
Well, good luck. And I hope you keep learning this incredible language.
Arguably the WaniKani Anki deck is basically getting WaniKani for free. 😅
That's what I've been using.
But agree, more good free Kanji resources is always good.
@Kaleigh C there is a WANIKANI Deck, and I dont have to pay Anki 300.00 USD?? I have Anki, but how do i get another deck, and how do I make sure it wont replace or screw up my only deck(genki) that I use??( how do i toggle decks?)... as the app Totally confuses me more than japanese itself.
Yes please do a series on kanji on your channel, I absolutely love your teaching methods especially with the Genki series so a kanji one will be super appreciated!
Thank you! Time for me to get to work then! =)
He did it, and its great!!!!
Really suprised you haven't mentioned Kanji Koohii. It's a pretty popular free site for learning Kanji that's been around for almost 20 years now. It allows users to share their mnemonics based on the Heisig method, to select favorites, and to remember them with an SRT system akin to Anki. I honestly think that it is just plain better than working through the RTK book(s) on your own.
After 3 years of self-study (trying to stay as free as possible minus an Italki lesson or a textbook here and there), I find that Kanji are the only thing that I haven't been able to find a great way to study... so seeing you agree made me feel a little better about that. I would love to see a series for Kanji here!
Yeah, I definitely feel like this is a lacking area. At least in the free department.
Yomikata-Z is great, and free now :) (a new release is coming soon)
I was an on and off self learner too for like 4-5 years and also felt that my kanji was lacking. But then I discovered Heisig's Remembering the kanji and it was an absolute game changer. I think I reached N2 level within 1 year.
@@sekaijin8193 is that a book or a website or an app??...thanks!
@@madmax8620book
A KANJI SERIES!? That would be awesome! I'm a second year student at depaul university in chicago and japanese Studies is my major. My class is using the genki series and I watch your videos before we start each class. A kanji break down from you would be awesome!
I'm glad to hear that the Genki series is useful for you!
I've got my work cut out for me with the kanji series! I hope I can make it just as useful as the Genki videos. =)
@@ToKiniAndy Please I would love one and i'm glad I came across your video! I had no idea wani kani was only free to a certain extent.
Personally, changing my phone's language setting to JP had an amazing effect.
First, seeing kanji everyday decreases my resistance to it, and sometimes even picking up and reinforcing what I've learned.
Second, it's not that bad. It's really bad for the first three days, but after that, most basic functions you remember well will return with relatively high proficiency. Special functions will force you to read japanese, and that's a good things.
Three, my phone automatically became a reminder for to learn jp everyday, since I'm staring at it everyday.
This 100 %
At which level did you switch your phone language? I struggle a lot with it ;
Ha, you masochist! MS office on my laptop accidentally put itself into Japanese (when I tried to install a hiragana keyboard opiton) and it couldn't be put back (until eventually I phoned the helpline.) I certainly learned the kanji for "save" and "print" pretty quickly, but they were stressful times I don't want to repeat.
What was your level of Japanese when you switched? I also think input is important, but it has to be input at your level.
I highly recommend Renshuu as an alternative to Anki or Memrise. I find it much better than either, as it is specifically built for Japanese. It handles kanji particularly well, both for learning kanji individually (e.g. their meaning and readings), and smoothly transitioning your vocab "decks" from hiragana to kanji as you learn them. It has audio, nmenomics, example sentences, grammar lessons, etc.
Hey there I'm also a fan of Renshuu. My Japanese went through the roof after I discovered it.
Renshuu is missing a lot of audio which is why I stopped using it.
Yeah this is the best Japanese app I have found throughout my years learning. I just love all the extra things that help you engage with the app (Shiritori, daily challenges, their discord, your GARDEN lol).
For Kanji, I’ve started just learning vocabulary first and looking up the word in the Jisho dictionary app/website. If it’s usually written in Kanji, I’ll write it down. That way, I learn the kanji within the context of vocabulary I already know and it makes it much simpler than learning the kanji itself when the kanji can mean so many different things. I only need to know what it means in the context I’m currently learning, and when I come across that kanji in another word I’ll learn that word too.
Jisho is a great dictionary app because it also teaches you how to write the kanji!
Really looking forward to your kanji series. I feel like you would really help a lot of people understand kanji and have it actually stick for us!
I hope so!
I've got my work cut out for me. =)
GOJO SENSEIIII
for kanji, there's a free dictionary I've been using for 500+ days which is called kanji study. it's honestly so helpful and it contains writing and reading exercises (reading is a bit limited). I've bought the premium version like a month ago but I've been using it before completely free and it's a lifesaver honestly. I totally recommend it!
Also thank you so much Andy for the video, I really look forward to the videos you make a lot :)
Thank you Space Threads! I'm glad you enjoy the videos! And thanks for the recommendation. =)
This is what I use too! I was surprised it wasn't mentioned. It's totally saved my life
@@doreans4276 yea exactly, it's my main app for Japanese and it's so amazing! idk how it wasn't mentioned 😭😭
Especially when they added the SRS into the app, though you have to pay for it.
Android only or did I find the wrong one?
The Migaku Kanji God Anki add-on is absolutely brilliant and completely free. It scans your existing vocab decks and automatically generates Heisig style cards which display the words from your collection containing that kanji. Unlike when doing RTK traditionally or with a premade deck, it allows you to prioritise learning the kanji relevant to your own vocabulary rather than having to follow some arbitrary order. There's also a feature where you can just give it a bunch of text and have it automatically add all the unknown kanji from there, so it's easy to generate relevant cards even if you don't actually use anki to memorise vocabulary. I used to feed it lyrics from songs I liked so I could learn to recognise the kanji first, and then used that knowledge to help me learn the readings in the context of words just by listening to music and reading a whole lot of children's novels with furigana. I've memorised well over 2000 kanji in the 10 months since I started learning Japanese, can't recommend this add-on enough :)
Scrolled through comments to see if someone mentioned this! 100% agree
Another tool that I've found that's super helpful (it's pretty much free with some extras that you can pay for) is Renshuu. I haven't heard many people talk about it tbh. It's got kanji learning, vocabulary with sentence examples, user generated mnemonics, games, a weekly forum, and so much more. Some draw backs is that it can be a bit of a learning curve when starting out and it's online only (the app needs internet to function too), but the cloud syncing is nice and it's got a lot of features.
Yeah same I never see it on these type of lists or videos, it's so good and one of my staples next to Satori reader. Level 264 in renshuu and going strong! 2,586 terms the grind has been real lol
Me too, I love Renshuu a lot. I wish I'd discovered it earlier.
I tried it but for some reason the audio wasn’t working do u have any tips to fix it?
@@Bizzareadventurefan I downloaded it last week and it seems to be ok. Sometimes I have to cick the audio button a few times. I think it just takes a while to download as the app is lightweight
Please please do a kanji series..❤️❤️ That would be a great help...❤️🩹
I wanna start kanji... But unable to find a good free resources....so please help us 🥲
guess i have to come to this video back!
Love to see Matt and Andy helping each other out and yeah Game Gengo is a brilliant channel, him and Andy are some of the best free resources out there!
Matt's the man. =)
As far as games go I have been finding the Yakuza series to be a nice addition to my learning and exposure. One of the things I like the most is that it is set in towns covered in Japanese signage so I get loads of reading practice.
Seconding this! I accidentally learned how to play riichi mahjong because of Yakuza 0, which made me interested in learning the Japanese terms used. Now I spend half my time playing just staring at the signs and slowly figuring out what they mean!
A couple of days ago I realised you can go into first person mode by clicking in the right joystick, and it's made it much easier to look at stuff :)
@@CaptainSlowbeard Right on. I just finished up Ghostwire Tokyo the other day and had the same experience again. I love combining gaming and learning. :)
Learned all hiragana in 5 days with tofugu. Learned 30 katakana in a day after that. Surprised how good the tool is, and how relatively easy it has been!
I just learned to read and type Hiragana and Katakana in 3 days using the tofugu guides! I thought it would take me weeks at least to get good at it but with the mnemonics it was so easy and fun! However I still can't handwrite them but I don't need that for now to keep advancing in learning Japanese
If you made a free kanji series of videos (similar to your Genki and Quartet series) you would easily be the best resource for English speakers to learn Japanese on TH-cam. I can only imagine how difficult it would be though… では、がんばって！
I have just been doing the WaniKani Anki deck as my free Kanji learning, and it works well enough for me. It's like a slightly stripped down WK experience.
I am super excited to see TokiniAndy Kanji lessons though. Your teaching style is so easy to understand and relatable, I'm sure it'll be great and mega helpful.
I really don't like Anki. It just makes Japanese boring and sterile for me. The software itself doesn't feel good to use either.
Maybe some of the decks people have created are actually quite decent, but I can't be bothered honestly.
I rather engage with Japanese in the most interesting and fun ways I can find.
So TH-cam videos, manga, games etc...
Please do the Kanji series! I'm currently doing an Anki deck based on RTK, and I've memorized around 500 kanji since July. It is incredibly hard to find good material for free, and learning a language should be something accessible for everyone (like education in general should be)
がんばります！
listening japanese for like 10+ years but only know some phrases, that are not ormally spoken in japan though! :(
Hey Andy, I passed and got the JLPT N5 diplome 2 years ago. I remember watching your genki I video and it was very helpful to follow along. Now i Lost pretty much of this N5 level. I wanted to ask you If your prenium website his enough to learn grammar. I want to redo the Genki 1 ans Go further. Do I have to buy textbook to follow along with the website or can your website is enough ? 🤔
Agreed, new kanji series would be great.
I've struggled learning kanji and I have been taking a lot of time to wrap my head around how you learn them.
Do I memorize everything regarding every kanji (onyomi, kuyomi, meaning, stroke order)?
Do I start with memorizing the radicals and their meaning, come up with a mnemonic to memorize various kanji after that?
I'll definitely have to work on it! =)
Don't bother learning everything. Learn what a kanji is made of, what it means, and then when you learn new words make sure to learn them with their kanji, that way you will learn the readings naturally. =)
Glad that learning by gaming was included (don't see that very often as a suggestion), because in my opinion it's a really great way to learn Kanji and vocabulary without it getting tedious or feeling like a chore. Another thing I'd like to add is just surrounding your everyday life with the language you want to learn. English isn't my first or even second language and when I decided that I want to get better at it (because I sucked at it during school), I started playing all my games in english and also started watching youtube almost enitrely in english among other things (and now I'm trying to do the same with japanese).
A kanji series would be absolutely amazing!
For grammar I suggest Bunpro, its paid but really good
Only the SRS is not free, the explanations are completely free!
@@Laaliya thats true, ive been a lifetime for so long ive forgotten
Bro really wanted to drink a burger 😂
idk if anyone mentioned this yet but a great (and maybe little offensive) resource is Kanji Damage. It has all the things that kanji learner could ask for and has an Anki deck
The Migaku Kanji GOD Plugin for Anki is a godsend when it comes to learning Kanji. It looks through your decks and finds kanji that you don't know and makes flashcards for them first starting with the particles them the kanji itself. I highly recommend this method since you can learn the meanings AND readings to kanji in real time.
It trully is awesome but it's full of glitches which made it unusable for me, though I also have the newest Anki version which might explain things... May I ask what Anki version you are running and whether you have encountered any bugs?
Can't believe there's only one other person in this entire comment section who's mentioned it D: Extremely underrated add-on!
@@adriangrana1239 I updated anki at some point last year and the update broke kanji god for me (...and some other add-ons too) so I just went back to using version 2.1.49 and everything works perfectly just as before, I haven't noticed any issues - maybe try downgrading?
@@languageoclock Yea I maybe am gonna downgrade it, only reason I haven't is because of laziness and I also like the more modern look anki has in its newest version. I am also a bit afraid that downgrading might break other add-ons... But I should give it a try nonetheless.^^
@@adriangrana1239 I would say it’s worth it anyway just for kanji god, it’s my favourite deck and I’m kinda sad now that I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t really need to add new cards anymore (almost at 3000) and my daily reps are starting to peter out :P
Does the update make that drastic a difference? I have a couple of of other add-ons that make Anki look less industrial and I use a nintendo switch controller instead of the keyboard or on screen buttons… took a while for me to figure it all out but I reckon the combination makes even using an old version a pretty pleasant experience for me at this point.
you didn't mention my two favorite tools: mokuro and kitsunekko
I never heard of these, but SUPER cool! Although, Kitsunekko appears to be down.
Kanji Damage has a free Anki deck. It presents the kanji by introducing a radical and then various kanji made with that radical and other kanji you already know. The order is very logical and it covers most of the jōyo kanji. They also introduce example vocab for each kanji. However, it is not good for everyone as the mnemonics are immature!
Are those radicals are classic keys? Or devised by someone?
That new series on how Kanji are made & tips for memorizing would be incredibly appreciated
Here's the playlist 😊 : th-cam.com/play/PLA_RcUI8km1ME3ewzc4pcJ-cA-cw0-nKa.html&si=GbN-csus8xtBdzcd
@@ToKiniAndy Thanks so much man, I'm gonna move to Japan in a couple of months and this will definitely be of help!
Who is this handsome man in my Suggested feed 😃
haha! I guess TH-cam wants you to learn Japanese.
Kanji study combined with the kanji learner's course with the genkoyoshi book is personally what works best for me. You may spend like $30 but I think it's well worth it. Kanji Study also just introduced SRS
Kanji study is an amazing app! It has so much stuff in it. The price is not very cheap but it is totally worth it.
Tools to learn English
Amazing video ! Would love to see you trying our app. W'ere new but think that's the best way to learn Japanese :)
Been on and off with my Japanese studies, but Renshuu works really well for practice.
Especially for Hiragana, Katakana, & Kanji! For the Kanji kana and sentences/phrases I use the built-in dictionary within the app.
There's also reading practice with the short comics and the daily 1-panel strips.
There's even games and activities to practice your skills such as Haiku, Shiritori or Crosswords. There are other games that I haven't tried out yet.
I think the only thing that's missing is the listening practice (that or I haven't found that function yet).
Thanks for the ones you mentioned too, Andy! I'll look into those!
The listening practice is part of their pro edition sadly, but the app is already so good for free so I get it.
@@adia4344 Oh! Thanks for that! I might have to get another app for listening practice!
Cool HAIR man!!! 😎
I think your views just trippled from that!!
Might be an unpopular opinion, but i find just reading + Anki the best method to develop all skills at the same time. It might be a pain when you start from scratches, but i believe that studing how to write or recognize every single radical or kanji is too much time consuming and risk to fossilize on remote /unused kanjis . I believe that getting yourself straight into the context as soon as possible is the best way to learn how to speak and read more naturally: news, easy novels, netflix, games.. designed for native speakers!
Btw thank you very much Andy, i love you channel, when i saw you using videogames for passing N1 it was a blast and i'm doing the same (with game boy advance) with great results! You rock!
Reading and Anki are powerful tools together.
Glad to hear you're enjoying immersing in games! I have a few GBA games on my backburner that I want to go back to in Japanese! Golden Sun, Pokemon Emerald, and a few others. Such a fun system. =)
@@ToKiniAndy that games are so funny! I'm planning to go japan this summer and i'll buy a japanese 3ds because there is a larger game library. Can't wait!
You don't read for free. You read free.
Lol I’m actually playing throu Yokai watch 4 in. Japanese 😂.
I'm old school and love anki. I studied Japanese decades ago predigital sources. All of this free stuff is amazing. Thank you!
My lifehack was to just enroll in my university's Japanese Studies major- only is free if you live in a country that offers free tertiary education though. And heavily depends on the city you live in, since East Asian departments are usually pretty small and much more commonly found in higher density cities.
Make the kanji series please!
The only thing I really dislike about the haesig books is that there's no japanese pronunciation for the words you learn
Holy crap! YouGlish has blown my mind at how simple it is (database is probably just the search term with the video's URL + timestamp)!
While I've only been slowly using Anki (~2 years now) to learn kanji (also a bit of vocab), it's hard to believe this site never appeared while I was looking up tips to learn Japanese.
Other than that, I've been using Mazii for a dictionary because it's writing search matches the shape of the kanji rather than the strokes you used to make it. Jisho won't know the kanji if you didn't write it with the correct stroke order. I couldn't guess (4 strokes) how 世 was written correctly and Jisho failed. Mazii got it first try and I discovered it was actually 5 strokes in an order I hadn't encountered before.
Yes, please! Make a series on kanji, I've been really struggling trying to find a good free source for them. 'Kanji Study' is fantastic, but not free.
This kanji series is absolutely necessary and you're doing a really good thing here. This is one of the biggest barriers to basic entry and it's because of the same lack of easy, free options to do so you're talking about.
Funny, with this hairstyle and the beard you look just like Matt vs Japan, which means you are almost Japanese 😂
He's just copying me from my college days. ;-) haha
But yes, ALMOST Japanese... So close. lol
@@ToKiniAndy So he is copying you 😎 btw love your videos, keep up the good work. I also work hard to become "almost" Japanese!! 頑張ります!
Do you reccomend "Kanshudo" for figuring out new Kanji? I used to just use Google lense to have it auto detect the character I didn't recognize, then copy paste it to look up a definition, but on Kanshudo, you can attempt to draw the Kanji /radicals you think are a part of it to search for it. I think this helps me keep up with remembering the different radicals. And makes figuring out what they mean a bit more involved
I learned to type on a Japanese keyboard with direct input bascially from the beginning (1 month in). I am at the point where attempting to type romaji is a struggle. My brain/fingers know where the kana are for the most part and if I try and type say "hirigana" I will normally end up typing "vlt@u" which are the keys for direct input. This also means that I struggle to read romaji. I personally dont see this as a flaw though.
FPR KANJI USE RENSHUU IT TEACHES YOU GRAMMAR KANJI WORDS READINGS STROKE ORDERS MNEMONICS AND IT HAS A BUILT IN DICTIONARYYYY111111111!!!!!!!!
4:08 I thought I was tripping on this but when I watched the video on a browser as soon as you said "hit the like button" the actual like button glowed even when I replayed it, and I was like wtf is it detecting your voice in the video or can you add that manually when you upload??
i recommend jpdb it is like anki deck but with a dictionary inside of it and it is fantastic for kanji as it will step by step teach you all the radicals and kanji components and then the full kanji. then showing you how the kanji are used in words using example sentences
jpdb does look pretty neat. Thank you! =)
I'll 100% second using tofugu to learn the kanas. If I am blanking on a kana I see I'll often just think of whatever mnemonic they had with it (such as hiragana for ka looks like a mosquito, and ka is the japanese word for mosquito).
I have been using an app called "Reword" for my vocabulary, interested to know if that's actually pretty good, I like that it has categories including JLPT levels as well as categories for months vs days of the week vs body parts etc
I recommend 'Kanji Study' for android. It has about 6k Kanji, structured in N5 to N1. You can look up the components of each Kanji & its meanings, stroke orders, do multiple choice tests, see vocabular using this kanji etc. Full version costs about 10€, it's way more useful than a textbook. Unfortunately, the ios version does not have all these great features.
KANJI... I am new to Japanese and I find once I learn the alphabet of a language I can pronounce the words... BUT learning grammar and (extra added words to make the sentence (which English don't have ) hard ....... so any and all help is appreciated :D
Best tool is "Wife"....or maybe I'm the tool. Anyway, it'll make you fluent in Japanese....albeit it's really costly.
Thanks so much for the reccomendations. I would also reccomend to other learners Mazii which I've been using for about 5 years now. It has most of the things we need to learn japanese: dictionary with AI explanations, kanji writing practice, a learners community, jlpt mock tests, grammar learning... Just give it a try 😁😁
Great mention to Game Gengo! One of the best japanese teaching channels of all youtube!
Thankyou for an excellent introduction that I am drinking in.
When it comes to learning how to write kanji or hiragana / katakana I use 2 different apps on iPhone “kanji!” And “Japanese!”
Highly recommend, you buy all content for a small amount
I was trying to learn russian a couple years ago, i had never really learned a language seriously before, so i was grinding vocab and pronunciation 5-8hrs a day and after a few months i really just regretted it because japanese was really the language i wanted to learn but i thought it would be too hard, so i went with russian, i eventually got burned out and even to this day im not a fan of just memorizing lists of vocab, i did use Anki to start with japanese but after i felt i didnt absolutely need to, i moved onto other things, i think anki is great but i dont enjoy it very much, as of now im 7-8months into japanese and i have made a handful of close japanese friends i talk to every day
For the turning my switch into a Japanese one, I should probably learn both Hiragana and Katakana first right?
so... you qre telling me i spent the last 4hours to build a few decks when better, more efficient ones etc where already out there ? well, that's good to know. i seriously didn't know i could download a premade deck but to be honest i don't think i'll really use it since building them myself make me think about how i'm gonna use mines :D
on a more serious note even if im a year late this video will surely help ! ありがとございます
Thanks so much for this vid, you're awesome.
I'd be super stoked if you make a video series on kanji with stroke order and radicals breakdown.
日本語の教師の私からしても、勉強になる動画です！ありがとうございます！
Many Japanese Games on PC (Steam) offer Japanese settings, for eg: Nier Automata (my favorite) Nier Replicant, of course the most famous Final Fantasy Games and other JRPGs (Japanese Rollplay Games). Haven't check Death Stranding, i would bet is has too.
When I was still learning English, I tried to use Anki for new vocabulary and I just couldn't. It was so boring. I tried 3 times during the course of 1 year and every time ended up stop using it.
Now that I'm starting with Japanese, its not one of my options anymore.
If anyone is interested I've been using Busuu for 1 year now, and I thing for beginners its really good.
i'm using chat gpt a lot. it's good because you can tell it what kind of "problems" you want to try your hand at. something like "write me a short simple kids' story in japanese only using hiragana and katakana (no kanji), and then come up with 10 questions about the story for me to answer. Afterwards, grade me on the test."
chat gpt is pretty good at languages.
A bit late for me to say this, but I'll say it anyway. I can somewhat forgive Kanji Garden for not being completely free, purely because you have the choice between a continuous subscription model or a larger one-time payment with no difference in quality/features. The only real drawback that Kanji Garden is that sometimes it can be slow to load, and its vocabulary list (at the time of writing) doesn't include obscure, and possibly interesting, readings/vocabulary, and leaves out some really common words like 今日.
I learn better from reading/writing rather than listening - are there any written tools for grammar rather than videos?
For Kanji the "Recognition RTK" deck by Refold is great imo. Sort of like remembering the kanji but in an anki deck and somewhat modified I think. Easy to memorize too
What's better: learning kanji relying on classic table of radicals (so-called classic 214 keys) or alternative ststems? Many websites offer their own classifications of radicals not based on classic keys. Opinion?
Do you recommend graded readers to complete beginners? I have the kana down, but my vocabulary is non-existent, and I have a hard time keeping up with my JP1K anki deck. Remembering words I saw mere seconds before is also an issue I have with anki (which makes doing anki every day very hard and more time consuming than recommend).
Pretty sure Anki is not free anymore. In fact its one of the most expensive educational apps out there, around ¥3500-4000... Also 'Japanese' dictionary app is kinda lame IMHO, Imiwa is much better I feel..
Free version of renshuu replaces 90% of the apps in this video. I got paid version that replaces 100% of the apps (and other resources) mentioned in this video...
ToKini I just arrived in Japan about 4 months ago. I am half way through Hiragana and Katakana. What do you advice I do after that!?
Make sure to change the language of your phone to Japanese, also, your PC's Operating System, as well as the websites you visit to Japanese.
Similarly to Netflix but possibly easier, Disney+.
Ever since the 90s Disney has been steadily putting things out in multiple languages as to be more accessible worldwide. Most of what Disney+ offers allows you to change both the spoken and subtitle languages. This also goes for many of their newer Marvel and Lucas Arts offerings.
Just change the audio and caption languages to Japanese.
(That’s right. Lots of Star Wars in Japanese, baby!)
Heads up that the Japanese app may be region locked or something. I couldn't find the Japanese app on Google Play (I'm in the UK). When I follow the link you give above, I can get to it in Google Play but it won't let me install it on my Android Samsung Galaxy A52 5G smartphone - it says "This phone isn't compatible with this app".
Koohii is good when going through Remembering the Kanji. I used it instead of Anki after I got through the first 500 or so kanji because I just liked it better and has good story recommendations.
My frustration with most Japanese learning tools I've tried has been that I feel like I'm not the intended audience. That is, the sample phrases and vocabulary typically don't involve situations that are useful to me. For example, one textbook had a full on lesson about how to talk about family members, pretty early on in the book. I have family, but they're not here in Japan. I'm not introducing them on a regular basis, or talking about them really. Genki was notoriously frustrating for this, and I think it's geared toward students. I learned how to ask someone if they are a student, a college student, and which college they go to. Meanwhile, uh, I teach primary school here so it would be silly for me to ask students if they're students, and it'd be silly for me to ask people at the train station or grocery store if they're students, when there's no major university anywhere near here.
And kanji. I find most tools that drill individual kanji meanings and readings have been useless. Not 'frustrating', mind you. Useless. I dislike the book 'Remembering the Kanji' mostly for this reason. Most individual kanji don't exist in the wild. I DO HAVE A USEFUL TIP/TOOL for you though (I'm not just commenting to bash any of these tools). There's a certification test, and associated practice book called 'Kanji Kentei'. It starts at level 10 with I think 84 kanji, and so far it has been useful. The presentation is simple, and does not explain the rules beyond a few examples, but the examples are there, and it makes your brain figure out what the pronunciation rule is. For example, if this kanji is the first kanji, it's probably this pronunciation. If it's alone, it's probably this. If it's followed by 'wa', it's probably this. I think it has been the best so far for me. Everyone learns differently. Kanji Kentei.
I use Kanji Study and it's great. It's free and has everything you would want to know about each kanji.
1:25 my friend recommended weblio to me! It does JPN->ENG and while I haven’t figured out how to get it to do readings it’s great for kanji idk
I use Quizlet for kanji. It helps with recognizing the characters.
I would definitely add Migaku to the list of paid tools, and KanjiGOD from the same team if you like Heisig's approach but want to start reading earlier than after going through the whole book.
I've been working through Heisig's Remembering the Kanji for four or five months now, and I can't recommend it enough. It, combined with a paired Anki deck, is the only thing that's really gotten kanji to stick in my brain. The knowledge isn't immediately super useful, but I know it'll make learning way easier down the line.
I feel the same. I don't regret doing RTK all those years ago, at all! =)
ANKI absolutely sucks. The decks are amazing, but the app is one of the worst platforms and UI I’ve come across and the developers refuse to fix it.
Важко писати підібрати слова,тим паче англійською,тож коротко напишу для просування відео.Дуже дякую!
If you going to mention the Nintendo switch, then it only make sense to also mention Steam which have language options for games.
Many of the old classics are available there like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, Okami and so on.
There's also a bunch of visual novels like Higurashi and Umineko.
I got a Recognition RTK deck for free. If you can find a kanji deck that is less than 1000 flashcards, that’d be ideal, and the. Just focus on reading (and watching shows with Japanese subtitles) and picking up kanji from there.
I used memrise for hiragana and katana, but the lesson suddenly jumps to complex kanji so I couldn’t continue 😢
There is this app called kana it is really simple a easy and free it gives you vocabulary as well as help you learn ひりがな (Hirigana) and カタカナ(Katakana) sorry if i wrote it wrong i’m still figuring out this japanese keyboard😅
I would also recommend making friends at your college who wish to learn another language that you know and can help them with in exchange for learning a language they may know. Some colleges even have dedicated buildings for this reason so check your colleges.
A series on Kanji will be so helpful. I am lost as I am starting out.
I am just writing the basic Kanji, but do learn the readings at the same time or do I just practice the writing & learning the English meaning.
How do it transition to the other Kanji, e.g. 月, then for Monday theres a new kanji 曜. Do I now add this ? 😅lots of confusion.
How do I structure my notes ?
Please help 🤣🙏🏽