Drops: Language Learning Games Software

I've been using this app for about three weeks now, specifically to leisurely learn Japanese. I have the "genius" subscription (about $8 a month--I think--for unlimited use). I've found it to be a fun and convenient way to build my vocabulary. In the Japanese section there are over a 1000 words available, so there's plenty of material. After introducing a word, the app gives a good mix of entertaining matching, spelling, etc. drills to help cement the word. For Japanese, there's two difficulty settings: beginner (only hiragana) and intermediate (katakana and kanji). There's also an option to have romaji subtitles. I've found the beginner setting great for working on basic pronunciation and the intermediate good for getting familiar with kanji. In the beginner setting, there's a hiragana section in which you can get familiar with all the symbols (which I loved). There isn't a section for voiced hiragana or voiced katakana, but there are other flash card-style apps available for the syllabaries, so it's not a huge issue. The app has a dojo section in which you can practice all the words you've reviewed together. I've really liked it as a way of gauging my progress. For me, the dojo always crashes on the intermediate setting, but when I contacted this app about it they replied right away, and I'm confident they'll fix it. Overall, I think this is a great app and I definitely recommend it.

I really love this app! I use it for learning Korean and it has been a great addition to my studies! It is more fun than going through flash cards and uses a system similar to Anki so once it knows I have mastered a word, I won’t see it as often. It tests me in multiple ways so I’m even familiar with the writing as well as the verbal language. Uses images helps me to not have an English equivalent to Korean words and that has helped me to recall words and not stumble having to think of the English word and then the Korean one. I do have a suggestion for the Developers: Please make a group of topics for VERBS. I think verbs are the most important thing to know when trying to form my own sentences and since I don’t plan on visiting Korea for at least another year, the plethora of traveler topics are not a priority for me. I purchased the yearly subscription and the only thing that I can think of to improve this app is to add a few verbs-based topics. I also have a tip for anyone using the app; TURN ROMANIZATION OFF. It has been a huge help for me (not using romanization) since a lot of Korean does not phonetically romanize well. To avoid he confusion, turn it off and after an hour or two of wondering if you made the right decision, you’ll realize taking away the training wheels (romanization) makes this app better and helps you learn better.

I took Japanese in college and was always so terrible with vocab. I have forgotten so much and I’ve been wanting to get back into it, so I tried this app, and I feel like I know more vocab now than I did when I was taking classes! this app makes it simple and fun to learn, and is perfect in conjunction with Duolingo or teaching yourself the grammar. I do have one issue with how Japanese words are ‘broken up’ when you have to spell them using the bubbles; I’m sure all words in all languages are broken up in the same way, but at least for Japanese it feels really off putting because it goes against the way the Japanese alphabet is organized and how you should be pronouncing things properly. I think it would be easier and less confusing if you customized the way certain languages get broken up to follow the correct structure (Japanese is usually sets of two letters or just a vowel/n so if you broke up ‘konpyuutaa’ as ‘konp’ ‘yuut’ ‘aa’ it just feels wrong, and should be something like ‘kon’ ‘pyuu’ ‘taa’ etc etc). I haven’t purchased yet but I’m thinking about it, my only reservation is that the five minute chunks and having to wait basically a full day to come back to it makes me more disciplined! If I had endless time I’m afraid I wouldn’t be as diligent. We’ll see, but in the mean time, thank you for this amazing app!