Japanese Reviews

by カンジ・ボイ

Overall, the application is quite helpful. I believe it’s biggest strengths are its ability to break down the radicals and components of Kanji characters as well as its large sample sentence library. Its biggest drawbacks, however, is it “draw” search function. Google translate allows you to draw a Kanji character in any stroke order and provide you the correct interpretation. This application will not give you the proper interpretation unless you provide not only the proper stroke order but precise proportions. Thus, learning unknown Kanji is a pain in Japanese. Yet, if you know the basics of Kanji stroke order, it should work. Moreover, the application’s feature to show how to write a Kanji is amazing. Great application, but not recommended for new learners of this app.

by Mleuker

It's really great to see that the developer hasn't abandoned Japanese and the latest update makes this app even more useful than it was before. This goes especially for the Study function which wasn't of much use before (to me at least) and couldn't really compete with some of the other options out there.

The Text function could be great, but currently suffers from a couple of limitations. For one, compound words are often not transcribed correctly. Most of the time, only two characters can be selected and there is no way to manually add more. Also, quite a few words and phrases that are in the dictionary are greyed out. Additionally, being able to edit the text and saving it for later (list view?) would be really helpful as well.

Apart from that, marking vocabulary as read from anywhere in Japanese would be a nice addition. And a bit nit picky, but if possible, please make the Romaji transliteration method user selectable ... not a big fan of the default one.

by Will Squibbles

Japanese is incredibly useful and pretty much my go to for any situation. The dictionary is really huge and easy to search, the handwriting recognition works really well, and the precompiled vocabulary lists are incredibly helpful.
My biggest gripe about Japanese is the study system. It boasts that it uses spaced repetition to help the user memorize cards, but the actual system seems like an awkward approximation of what other apps use. Quite frequently, cards get marked as “learned” after I get them right a number of times, but they never reappear to be studied again, and I end up forgetting them. It would be great if Japanese used something like due dates for each card, showing you the card less often the more you get it right and vice versa. As it is, the “learned” category is pretty unhelpful. I end up turning to other apps like skritter and memrise to help me study, even though I like this apps interface a lot better.
Please alter the spaced repetition system to help us study more effectively!

by Servio666

Whenever i look for online resources to study languages, i am constantly left with disappointment at the sheer lack of free resources with which to study my target languages. And every one i use barely helps me through the language im trying to learn.

This single, free application has faight me all the this app i know today. And thanks to it i went from knowing 500 words to over two-thousand thanks to its GREAT SRS and progress-tracking system. Quite frankly there is a lot of potential in this application and it’s company, and i 100% HOPE that Renzo Inc. seriously considers making other apps exactly like this to help people achieve their language learning goals. The ONLY thing I dislike about Japanese, and there is absolutely very little if not nothing i dislike about Japanese but this one thing: there is no notification system. A notification system in this day and age will be a small, but substantial contribution to the effectiveness of this application to its many users, it would keep us learners consistent by reminding us to study and as a result we’d forget mess and procrastinate far less towards our linguistic goals. This company should seriously consider making more language learning applications because i would be more than delighted to use the exact features and layout this application has to learn far more than just this app.

by Tmecdaisy

I’ve tried so many ways to learn this app over the years and Japanese has always been there for me. First off, you do NOT need data or service or Wi-Fi to run Japanese. When I studied abroad and only could use my phone on Wi-Fi Japanese saved me so many times when I needed on the go translating help. Just for that it deserves a download.

There’s lists I can make that I use for translating books. I can make specific lists of vocabulary for each one. There’s kanji review (although I highly recommend wanikani) but just the grade school level awareness is helpful even when you’re searching up random words and it tells you the JLPT level it’s for. There’s a study feature I dabbled in which is good if you’re bored in transit somewhere. I just think it’s a really solid, free tool.

by Tsukiz3

I have been using Japanese for over a year. You’ll get the most out of if you have an intermediate or higher understanding of how Kanji are constructed, meaning, being able to count strokes, identifying common organizing radicals, and of course, being able to write them. This shouldn’t discourage beginners, try it out, and get what ever benefit you can. You can get started by practicing writing on the searching pad the Kanji you are familiar. You’ll feel great when you star writing more and more complex Kanji and Japanese recognizes them on your first try! More than anything, never give up on a Kanji search. This is a great tool to get you moving and motivated.

by Magppl

I've never felt compelled to write an app review before. It's a strange feeling. It's kinda like when a product's survey asks if I'd recommend the product to my friends and of course I say no. Like, why would I? The product is never that great. I found Japanese so incredibly helpful for learning this app that I've not only recommended it to my friends and family, but I'm also driven to recommend it to you. This dictionary is incredibly vast and has sections not only for learners, but also for fluent speakers. It's got basic kana, a massive section on Kanji, and a section on radicals. The vocabulary is sorted into lexical categories, specific topics, or simply assigned to the proper JLPT test rank. Each entry in the dictionary has valuable information for someone trying to learn, like sentence examples and a breakdown of every piece of the word or character. It's also got Kanji stroke order and verb conjugation. One helpful feature Japanese has is a way to create study decks of words or Kanji. When a entry is learned in a deck, the entry remembers it's been learned and doesn't show up as often as a non-learned entry. If that entry comes up in a later deck for whatever reason, it's still learned so you actually know how much of the deck you still have to learn. It's great! All in all, Japanese is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

by Laenos

This is a great app for anyone learning or already proficient in this app. I’ve been learning for about 3 months & I’ve used this as a reference countless times. It’s extremely easy to use & the organization of the content is a huge plus. It gives you essentially every single thing you need to know about every word, character, & radical (both kana & kanji) that you could possibly need, at least for learning them. One of the things I like the most though is the ability to search for any word or phrase you see elsewhere so that you instantly have a translation & an explanation of how it works & sounds, & you can also search for any kanji characters by drawing them in Japanese . Really awesome app & a must-have for anyone learning or interested in 日本語！

by Wranger Danger

I have been studying this app for 4 years now and this is by far the best tool I have. It has had most of the words I’ve tried to look up, has a system for writing the kanji you see, often provide decent example sentences to fully grasp the word you are looking at, and basically has anki built in.

My only complaints are that some entries, especially ones with words only used as part of grammar, don’t have example sentences, and that they will sometimes get the incorrect version of the word in the JLPT decks. Also it would be nice if there where emphasis markers for certain words, but most dictionaries don’t have that anyway.

But compared to Japanese as a whole, those are just nitpicks. Just get Japanese, it’s great and completely free!!

by Melon Tango

Japanese honestly has thought through almost everything. It’s easily the best app I have for studying this app. You can type this app (kanji, hiragana, katakana, Romanji) or English words into the same search bar and it’ll pull up results. The list feature is incredibly useful for bookmarking and studying vocab. There are even more features I’ve yet to try out on Japanese , but I’m already impressed since it’s covered what I need and more. The recommended words that float across are really useful for picking up new words.

One thing I might suggest is to make it easier to tap some of those recommended words. Sometimes words will cover up each other and I get a little annoyed trying to get to the one in the back. Other than that, I really like Japanese and would recommend it to anyone.

by Oitova

As someone who is just past the beginner mark of this app learning, Japanese is spectacular for expanding my vocabulary! Great for searching for unknown kanji, too. It has so many tools and resources; I don’t know what I’d do without Japanese! It’s an invaluable dictionary, and the built in list function with selective spaced repetition is an awesome study tool.

I only have one suggestion that would make Japanese perfect for all of my needs! Is it possible to add an option in the study app so that it shows ONLY the kana of a word on the front side? As opposed to just kanji with or without furigana? I find it helps me learn vocabulary quicker and more thoroughly if I memorize the word first, THEN link it to the kanji it’s spelled with.

Thanks for making this wonderful app, I hope my feedback is helpful in some way :)

by Extwentyseven

This has been my favorite this app Dictionary so far. Version 4 fixed the flaw where it forgot what word you looked up if you left Japanese and came back, as well as adding multitasking support for iPad. Now with 4.1 they’ve fixed the error with handwriting recognition. That error mad Japanese very hard to use. Now that it’s been fixed, I had to give it 5 Stars.
I’ve never messed with the flash cards. I love the conjugation Guide when you search a word. There are usually a good number of example sentences too that can help differentiate two words that can be translated the same but with different connotations. I got Japanese when it was $10 and still feel it was worth it, though I’m glad it’s free now.

by Calebkun1

I have never enjoyed an app so much. This is Japanese that has been on my phone for the longest. Whoever made this is a genius!

I love how:
- vocabulary scrolls when you are idle in the search bar
- vocabulary and Kanji are sorted out into categories such as: JLPT, Kanji Kentei, grade level, common usage, radicals, etc.
- Japanese teaches stroke order (for even kana)
- it shows you some obscure Kanji and their readings down to the Nanori
- gives detailed descriptions of Kanji (even other ways the can be read or written)
- has a lot of cool phrases as well
- the flashcard feature is AMAZING!!!! (You can even make and share sets with friends)

I just wish that it had more examples sentences. There are a lot of words that just don’t have ANY example sentences. (I know that gathering examples sentences is challenging so I will cut them some slack on that).

I also wish that you could create two separate accounts on Japanese . I would like an account dedicated for studying the Kanji Kentei and a separate account for studying the JLPT. Also maybe even a 3rd account to track all the words that I don’t know!

Other than that, Japanese is the best app in the entire world (in my opinion). It will be on my phone until I am old and gray.

by Kalapple

I have been using Japanese for over a year now and have thoroughly integrated Japanese into my this app learning routine. It is extremely useful as a dictionary, but it is also a very good flash card app and the integration of the dictionary and flash card features bring significant value for language learners.

The dictionary itself is pretty robust with good definitions and a variety of example sentences for kanji as well as this app words and some phrases. It even references common compound words using the same kanji for helpful context into the meanings. I would highly recommend this dictionary for people who would like to integrate their flash cards with their dictionary app to learn words. Japanese gives learners the opportunity to learn words more naturally as they come across them rather than in an arbitrary order.

Developer Note: As an improvement to Japanese , I would recommend adding an option to allow color coding of the dictionary entries throughout Japanese by JLPT level or by the SRS/memorization level so that language learners can keep track of words they know and words they don’t or words they should focus more on. In addition, it would be helpful to have periodic study reminders or notifications for flashcards when they are ready to be re-reviewed.

Thanks for creating such a great app! I’m looking forward to even more improvements

by Life4us

I use Japanese daily since they have all of the RTK kanji and I can create as many lists as I want in order to review. I also like how you can slightly customize the flashcards by selecting multiple colors or just a simple black/white cards (I prefer the latter) as well as the little flip animation which I also turn off as well.
The SRS system isn’t great as it will show you the same card that you haven’t mastered after almost every other different card. I have to switch it to “random,” so I can make sure I get all of the cards down. Since I study hundreds of cards at once, I’d like to see how many cards I have left remaining along the top bar. It’ll help me stay focus without losing interest and feeling like the cards will never end.

Other than that, Japanese is great with looking up phrases and kanji. If they created a place to practice writing kanji and little games that would be more fun. But definitely great for a free app.

by Satisfiedbuyer1

I’ve had Japanese for over a year now and it still amazes me. I keep forgetting about the study tool which is bad on my part because the study tool is great. It gives you a progress bar of how much you know and even suggests you 50 starting cards. I love how the resources gives you lists of words from the JLTP vocab list and shows you how much you know. It’s great for keeping progress. I also like how when you can’t remember a word, it doesn’t kill you for it like so many apps and websites. No matter what you’re still learning, this isn’t a video game, you don’t lose. I also like how it gives you a date for the next JLPT test. You can even make your own list and it keeps track of that as well. It also gives you the stroke order for each kanji and if you go to the search tab and wait a bit, a ton of random words in this app show up. This is probably the most underrated app for learning this app and I recommend it to my friends.

by ZakinR

This dictionary holds so much. It has vocabulary that is categorized by levels and the amount of ways to search things up is so efficient. Romanji, Kana, radical structures, even searching words by handwriting it works. It provides verbs with all the tenses and examples of how to use both vocab words and verbs. You can study words you add to a list and review with all the help you need. Japanese is extremely powerful and is a library of words for you to learn from N5-N1. It has Kanji Kentei and JLPT for you as well! I just wish it would update soon for IOS 11 so I can use the handwriting feature again since that crashes Japanese with IOS 11. (Searching the words and click on them has the scroll feature skewed a little with the word at the top too far up and you need to screen up to be able to see the word)

All I’d want more from Japanese is for it to update! It’s helped me so much and even some of my international transfer student friends in college use it to translate to english too!

by Shabütie

I’m going to make this short. I’ve been studying this app rigorously for nearly 15 years and have gained *near* fluency. I owe a lot to Japanese. I use it in conjunction with many other methods of study. I’ve used countless other electronic dictionaries but none have been able to compete with the intuitiveness and crisp UI that Japanese offers. It has literally every aspect of a dictionary that I need. Example sentences, common compounds, radicals, stroke order animations, verb conjugations; the best part is I don’t need to do a lot of clicking or tapping to get to what or where I need.

I cannot believe it is free. But I applaud and praise the devs who worked tirelessly on Japanese. I sincerely appreciate you sharing this wonderful bit of software with the world, and have not charged me a penny. This is something we rarely see in today’s ad-ridden society. A bunch that truly care about this language and expanding it to the world. You’ve touched my life more than I can explain and I owe a lot to what I’ve accomplished simply to your software. Your work has changed my life and opened many doors due to language fluency and immersion. Godspeed.

by Misslin1998

I have had a hard time finding an app that I find works for me in studying this app. When I first started learning this app, one of my biggest problems was that I’d hear new words or phrases being spoken when I was going about my day but before I could write them down, I’d forget them. So then I started carrying around a notebook to study this app but carrying it everywhere I went was a hassle and I also needed my phone to check the meaning of new words. Japanese solved all my problems. You can quickly type in a word in this app or in English and find that word as well as words with similar meanings. Making flash cards and being able to study them has built my vocabulary and helped me learn unique words and phrases. Whenever there’s something I want to make note of and go back and study later and search the word on the this app app and add it to one of my flash card decks. I use Japanese so much it’s one of my main apps at the bottom of my IPhone screen. I’ve tried Anki as well but I find Japanese to be much more straightforward and user friendly. I’d definitely recommend Japanese as part of your this app study arsenal!

by DEST PMA

If you are learning this app, do yourself a favor and download Japanese. It’s a great dictionary but all the features added to every single kanji and word make it invaluable. Kanji have different references like the number they are inside RTK, Henshall, etc. Also common compound word using the Kanji and the list goes on. You can also set up your own folder. So for example, I made folders for compound words using kanji by grade. So I can use their flash card system to study just that folder or the entire list. Separated verbs into folders depending on the ending as I found them on whatever book Im using to study. Right now Im going through the Nihongo so matome series and making a folder for each day lesson... which I can export and share with friends. You can then customize how you go through the cards, SRS, random, in order or just reset the whole thing and start over.

My only request or feedback if you may... is that it would be amazing if we could do sentences in the flash card system. Just write a sentence and have it as a card. It would make studying gramar a lot easier. I know its a dictionary and Im pushing it but man that would make this the only app I use if it was possible.

by Expatintokyo

One: amazing a a dictionary.
Two: very poor, never updated SRS
Three: developer(s) are very friendly, but then disappear for months if not years at a time.

As a dictionary it is excellent.
As a reliable flash card system it is, frankly, bad. Other people have commented as such. It’s such a shame because it looks gorgeous and has so many positives. But as a reliable flashcard system it fails.

If, at least, the developers would occasionally post comments or updates it would be so appreciated. But it does fall on deaf ears.

Old review to follow:

My issue, and I can't get an answer: the SRS flashcards don't seem to work properly. Some of my "learned" cards never come back for review, while others seem to repeat with high frequency. As others have noted, the color coding seems arbitrary. It is advertised as similar to Anki; it is not, and thus, not dependable as a true study tool.

This is an absolutely beautiful dictionary, but dig a bit deeper and there are legitimate flaws in the flashcard system.

I will happily give five stars and again revise review if these issues are resolved.

TO THE DEVELOPERS: we know you must be busy. But you have a Facebook page and a blog. It would only take 60 seconds per week to post an update on Japanese 's progress. You are not at all indebted to app users, but people depend on your product. I assume it is impossible to respond to all your mail but it would be easy to post progress updates once a week.

by Tokyobamboo

The new update is very visually pleasing and Japanese is priceless for the dictionary. I used to love the study function however I'm sad to see the options for color coding the cards is less and not working so well. I'm studying the N2 pack but seeing as it's a lot of vocabulary I always broke it down into my own lists. When I did this and studied them everyday the colors never changed. So I tried to study the whole pack but obviously i couldn't study over 1000 cards in one sitting to see if those cards will change color. I really need some colors! I have a lot of different levels of memorization for lots of vocal and I need to be able to separate them to make the study function useful for me!

by Beej05

I am still blown away that Japanese is free. Japanese is too good to be true, BUT IT IS TRUE! If you already know the basic sentence structure of this app and are just looking to learn thousands of new words to add to your vocabulary, Japanese is perfect for you. The only complaint I have is I don’t know where to start!!! There is so much content presented in such a great way where I don’t have to unlock harder words or kanji I can just jump straight to whatever I want. Japanese is what all other this app and language learning apps should have been. This isn’t one of those, “Learn a language in 1 month!!!” Programs, this is a free app that gives you every known thing related to this app right at your fingertips.
Absolute Perfection

by Cobalto272737

Japanese is perfect so i won't bother with small things. Thank you very much.

Just one wish: i use to watch videos and movies with this app subtitles, and every time i see a word or expression, that ive never seen before, i pause the video and just take a picture of the screen with the subtitle on it to keep the context of the expression. Then i go to your app, look for it, and add a note "as seen in... when... " i've noted that i already have notes on some expressions i forgot, but the second picture is super easy to remember. So it would be wonderful in the next version to allow us to take lowres pictures, or to add them in the notes section so we dont have to describe the pictures we take... if we could add many pictures ", in different contexts, to the same expression it would be easier to remember.

To finish: when starting learning kanji i just wanted to be able to identify the symbols, but when trying to study with your app they are mixed with the descriptions. It would be nice if you let us to study just symbols without mixing the meanings in the same session.

Thanks again!!

by Rvincentm

I can't speak highly enough of this program; it literally spurred me into studying this app again through the efficient and straightforward nature it presents translations, sample sentences, readings, etc. I use it incessantly throughout my day to look up new words, add them to my various lists and review them as flash cards. Couldn't imagine studying without it at this point. The Outlier Kanji Dictionary update is beyond. I'm obsessed with etymology and have always wanted something just like Outlier so I can learn the history behind an individual kanji and attain a better grasp on this app as a whole. Brilliant through and through, nothing but my sincerest thanks to the developers !

by Juicyslew

Has greatly improved my this app.
Skip to bottom for tl;dr

Pros:
- dictionary is great has entries for things you didn’t even know you wanted to look up
- love the scrolling words feature, seems to focus on reminding you words you have previously looked up
- different look up methods allow you to look up kanji real fast by drawing or using radicals
- the flash card sets are great collections of useful to drill knowledge

Small gripes:
- It’s unfortunate that there is no writing practice system.
- it would be nice to have a system that gives you sentences using words that you have learned
- adding more depth to the spaces repetition system would go a long ways to making Japanese useful for drilling.
- having the ability to “triple flip” a flash card between kanji, hiragana, and then the final meaning would be really nice for memorizing kanji readings, AND vocabulary recall so I can test both at the same time without turning on and off the furigana.

Tl;dr
All in all, amazing app, 9/10
Leaves a couple things left to be desired, but after searching around the store a while, this really is Japanese I always return to

by Roorylex

One of if not the most actually useful learning and practice apps to exist on Japanese store. It is truly a gem as i have been using it for a year and progressed way better than every other app i tried (and i did try almost all of them) it teaches you the stroke orders for simple and complex kanjis and has examples to help you understand a certain word and what it means. I definitely sensed the sincerity of the developer(s) specially the fact that it’s a free app with no in-app purchases or apps. You can sense how much the developers care about people’s education and interest over money. Love this incredible app indefinitely. Absolutely recommend this to anyone

by Bread2u

I thought this was a dictionary. Wow! It is a complete study system. It is so comprehensive that I am pleasantly surprised almost every time I open it. There is no need for lots of books since I have this little tool.

I have started using it daily to brush up on my this app which is rusty from 30 years of not using it. A week ago I bumped into a gaijin more recently returned than I and was very pleasantly surprised by my ability to converse in this app. I've even started greeting アメリカにいる日本人 that I pass on the street in their language.

Update after using it "daily" for a month: WOW, proverbs (kotowaza), idioms, and expressions are categories in the reference section.