It’s true that you may get by in Japan with just a rudimentary understanding of ordinary pleasantries. However, if you want to remain here for an extended period of time, believe me when I tell that having a greater command of the language will result in an increased knowledge of the culture. Learning Japanese will significantly improve your quality of life in Japan.

Learning Japanese and all of its writing systems, such as hiragana, katakana, and kanji, might seem like a difficult endeavor, and you can feel intimidated before you ever begin. Fortunately, we live in a digital age when a plethora of information is actually accessible at your fingertips owing to your smartphone.

Numerous applications are available that may help you improve your understanding of several facets of the Japanese language, including grammar, writing, and accurate pronunciation. These are 5 applications that I have personally found to be helpful if you’re trying to improve your Japanese speaking speed.

Pimsleur Japanese is designed to strengthen your competence in the fundamentals and give you more confidence in your discussions with native speakers if you’re a survivalist who is weary of simply getting by and want to increase your vocabulary and understanding. Despite being well-known for many years, the Pimsleur Method has just lately been made accessible through an app.

Pimsleur Japanese is an audio language program, therefore speaking and listening skills are its main priorities rather than reading or writing. But what distinguishes Pimsleur Japanese from other audio learning applications is its question/recall/response approach, which many users swear to as a key factor in enhancing their conversational skills.

As a user of audio lesson applications myself, I can attest to the fact that there is a discernible difference. As contrast to the way of rigorous memorization employed merely from studying rules charts without any natural context, this style of teaching enables you to more naturally acquire grammatical rules in a conversational situation.

The sort of Japanese you will learn to speak is a major downside of Pimsleur Japanese. Nearly all of it will be formal (nice) Japanese. This is totally OK if, like me, you work in Japan and desire to improve communication in the workplace. If you overdo the pleasantries, though, informal talks with pals could come out as a bit uncomfortable.

Existence: iOS and Android

JA Sensei, one of the most feature-rich Japanese language applications, provides reading comprehension practice, kanji stroke order drills, and conversational Japanese courses that are tailored to the context of everyday situations. The following parts make up the JA Sensei app:

・Vocabulary
・Grammar
・Vocabulary
・Kana
・Kanji

For the benefit of people visiting Japan for the first time or just beginning their study of the language, the app also has a phrasebook and a section on Japanese culture. JA Sensei uses quizzes to test students’ retention of what they have studied. These tests give you the chance to reinforce what you’ve learned and put additional effort into fixing mistakes you may have made.

One of JA Sensei’s unique features is a kanji section that enables you to practice writing with the correct stroke sequence immediately on your smartphone or tablet screen. With its subscription model, JA Sensei provides a variety of instructional tools to lead you all the way to N1-level competence.

Accessible through Android

Anyone who has studied Japanese will be able to attest to the language’s singularity in the way it is entwined with every facet of the culture. By utilizing the gaps in between classes to provide cultural insights about Japan that lend more weight and meaning to the entire education, the Human Japanese app includes this significant component of Japan into its curriculum.

Human Japanese constantly wins praise for its personable teaching style, thoroughness, and pace-focus. For individuals who wish to keep learning, it is available in a basic edition as well as an advanced software.

Some users have reported that information retention with this software has been more effective than with more costly courses from private instructors and Japanese language institutions, despite the fact that each Human Japanese app costs $10.

Existence: iOS and Android

Perhaps a one-on-one setting is best for you, but hiring a private instructor may be a bit out of your price range. This is exactly how I was thinking, therefore it made me delighted to find that other Japanese learners of English had the same thoughts. At that point, I learned about HelloTalk.

This software combines language exchange with social networking benefits. Find people who want to learn your language and who are native speakers of the language you wish to learn. If you know a little bit of Japanese and wish to improve, this software is excellent for you. Sending messages to your pals, who may then change them and send them back to you to show you what you missed, is the genius of HelloTalk.

You may hone your writing and conversational skills by using HelloTalk, which also supports audio interactions. I made pals online using this app who I eventually met in person to study with!

Existence: iOS and Android

One of the most popular language learning programs available is Duolingo, and because to its freemium pricing structure, learning Japanese is made simple. This software provides a staggering quantity of lessons, including instruction on the different Japanese writing systems as well as tests that help you develop a strong vocabulary and sentence structure using flash cards.

Even while Duolingo is appealing because of how simple it is to use and how little time it takes to learn a language, many people believe it is more of an introductory program. I have to agree that it’s a nice initial app with a kind face, but if you want to become serious about learning Japanese, you’ll need to find a different app. You would be better served to spend your money on JA Sensei as suggested above for more effective writing system workouts, especially those for learning kanji.

Existence: iOS and Android

There are 2,000 kanji need to achieve N1 competency in Japanese. The idea of learning a few thousand Chinese characters on top of hiragana and katakana originally felt like an impossibility to me as a native speaker of a language with just 26 letters. However, as many people who vouch for WaniKani are sure to tell you, it could take some time, but you can get there.

By the end of middle school, students are expected to be proficient in the majority of the Joyo kanji, which are the kanji approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education for use in official documents. WaniKani has established a solid reputation as a reliable kanji-learning tool. You may learn these kanji using WaniKani, which will also help you expand your vocabulary to more than 6,000 words.

Since WaniKani is a PC-based language study software, it isn’t on the official list since there isn’t an official WaniKani app, but it’s simply too beneficial to ignore. There are, however, a few excellent WaniKani-related supplemental applications that allow you to put everything you’ve learned from the PC software into practice while you’re on the move. Check out Flaming Durtles for Android and Tsurukame for iOS.

There are many ways to study Japanese, including language schools, online and offline tutoring services, and a variety of other methods, but if you put the effort in, there are also an increasing number of targeted, well-designed applications that may help you become fluent in Japanese just as rapidly. One install might put you at native-level!