renshuu - Japanese learning

Initially, I was hesitant to give this app a high rating due to its overwhelming and unattractive UI. It felt like 2004 AOL dial-up internet threw up all over Duolingo. However, after dedicating a full day to customizing the seemingly endless, granular, user settings, I managed to make it somewhat visually appealing and user-friendly. What truly sets this app apart is its fantastic community. The forums are filled with helpful and friendly people who are eager to engage in Japanese-related discussions. When I encountered a technical issue, the app's creator promptly addressed it and pushed an update within minutes – a testament to their exceptional support. Moreover, this app replaces several others I used, such as Bunpro, WaniKani, HelloTalk, Ringotan, Drops, Duolingo, TEUIDA, and Kitsun, making it a nearly all-in-one solution for Japanese learning. My only suggestion is to add the functionality to type in word definitions as answers, similar to Kitsun. Despite this minor missing feature, the app’s comprehensive offerings, supportive community, and responsive developer make it a must-have. I started my Japanese journey from scratch just to go all in on this app. For the love of god, just make it look more polished. Invest in revamping this app visually without sacrificing any functionality and it will be the next ‘Japanese Duolingo’.

I’ve been learning Japanese for years now and I plan on continuing for the rest of my life. This app brings a lot of great things together. The dictionary is easy to use and shows thoughtfulness in design. If you need to reference the dictionary, it pops up on top of what you’re working on and when you close the dictionary you are exactly where you left off, no awkward navigation like most apps. it shows you pitch pronunciation. If you tap on kanji it’ll show you a page with its radicals and, if you need a little help memorizing it, mnemonics made by other users of the app. When it comes to your decks, you have a lot of options but what stands out is the amount of examples sentences, pictures, and usage notes (another situation where users help out and add value) that’s hard to find in other more standardized decks out there. If you don’t understand one example, you’ll have dozens of examples sentences to look at. If you’re used to Anki and making your own decks, you can do that too with the reading buddy. Community is big for Renshuu. You have Haiku submitted by users, you have a question corner and forum to discuss Japanese with your fellow learners, you have a translation request center for more urgent translation needs, shiritori games. This app rolls up all of the previous apps I’ve used to learn Japanese all into one place with a nice community that’s dedicated to learning Japanese and Japanese culture. If that sounds like people you want to be around, hop in.

Renshuu is an amazing way to start learning Japanese, and continues to be helpful as you get better. It’s fun and interactive, and the developer is kind and easy to contact. You can choose exactly what you want to work on and the games help you learn new words alongside digging up old ones you haven’t thought about in a while. The question center has you write based on a prompt, and output isn’t something you see often in language learning programs. My only issue is that it doesn’t seem like you can make all the Japanese to English multiple choice questions show the kanji instead of the furigana when the lesson isn’t specifically on kanji, but that might just be a setting I’m missing and it doesn’t take away from the usefulness of this app. From learner to learner, you won’t be able to learn everything from a single source, no matter how amazing renshuu is, so if you’ve been looking for something that will teach you Japanese by itself, like I did when I was first getting started, that’s not going to happen. I highly suggest doing other things alongside renshuu, like watching videos and plays originally in Japanese without any subtitles, talking to fluent Japanese speakers, writing short stories in Japanese, and recording yourself talking about something you like in Japanese. All in all, I recommend renshuu to any beginner who wants a steady way to learn Japanese. Just don’t use this or anything else as your only resource.