App Profile: Kanji Book

Abikjn

Rating: 5/5

I’m updating my review now that I’ve spent a few weeks using this app. I think it’s pretty fantastic! I have dozens of apps for learning Japanese, and I have found few that teach writing the kanji. There are a couple of things I love about this one. The kanji are presented in an order that makes sense for actually learning to write kanji. Other apps that also focus on vocabulary building present kanji that are difficult to remember how to write very early on, which is frustrating. Also, since it’s not SRS, there’s no mounting backlog of reviews if you take a day or two off. SRS is fabulous but my life right now is too hectic to commit to daily study. I have been studying Japanese for a while so the kanji so far are all familiar. I’m not sure this would be an ideal introduction to kanji. The simplicity of this app is a wonderful thing, but it necessarily leaves out a lot of info. That being said the link to Jisho is brilliant - if you want more, go there! I don’t think adding tons of more stuff would make it better though - I like the focus on straight up memorizing kanji writing. The only addition that I might like would be an option to display the Japanese word for the compounds, such as ふたり and むいか, before dismissing. But, maybe that would be overload. Also, I love the interface - it’s very pleasing. The stickers are a cute feature.

K 3 PO

Rating: 5/5

I just started and already know about 300+ kanji going in. I love how it is self paced, no timers, you can revisit cards as often as you like (with cute incentives), and the program shows you the stroke order! My favorite little surprise was the compound words game where you can build your vocabulary and discover just how practical a pictographic text can be (no furigana given, but I have my jisho for that). I would have liked audio, but if you know your hiragana going into using this app, you are SET. Love this product! As a teacher of languages myself, I highly recommend it. Thank you for making and keeping it free!

MoonDrop 🌙

Rating: 5/5

I’m at approx 1000 Kanji and this app legitimately is helping me reach my goal of learning how to read Japanese! It started asking me about on' and kun'yomi and I’m not sure if that will be helpful to me but I’m willing to give it a shot! While I’m no where read fluent, this app and a little bit of word and grammar knowledge have gotten me this far. My only gripe are the bugs where the screen stays stuck on the opening screen or when other things glitch out but you seem aware and attentive of them. Thank you, this has been a major help!