Dr. Moku's Hiragana Mnemonics 4+

Overall a really good app

I once learned Hiragana on my own through some book I had and memorizing the chart. Without use the memory faded and even so some hiragana was still a struggle to keep.

Point is—in like 10 minutes max this had me reading hiragana better than I ever did before thanks to the mnemonics. I finally feel like I have a good foothold of a start to learning Japanese.

However there are some weak connections for some of them. It may differ for other people, I also unfortunately don’t have suggestions for an alternative (though I am going to try so I can get last few to cement down). The ones I found are weak are: ka, ke, se, so, mi, and ri.

This app is certainly worth the price though, I really appreciate getting most of them super quick. The quizzes are really nice.

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much! Yes, when you struggle with a certain group of characters, sometimes it is best to practice with quizzes and create your own mnemonic ideas (then email me them!)

Perfect for the visual learner

I am a visual learner attempting to teach myself Japanese. Early on in my studies, I discovered that mastering hiragana is the foundation to learning Japanese. Being a visual learner, I constantly use mnemonics to help jog my memory. But with hiragana, I found it difficult to come up with mnemonics on my own, and I kept confusing similar-looking hiragana altogether. Most hiragana characters are unique in the sense that it’s hard to associate them with anything tangible. I was getting frustrated and my progress was stumped because of this. I then discovered Dr. Moku’s Hiragana app. This app is brilliant because it uses quirky animations to teach you the sound that each hiragana is associate with. It saves you the work of coming up with the mnemonic (which is where I was struggling), and teaches you in a way that absolutely works. Don’t get me wrong, it will still be a lot of work on your part - but this app cuts the effort considerably. I highly recommend the paid version of this app for anyone who is serious about learning Japanese.

I memorized all 46 hiragana in one night!

I have a very visual-based memory, and this style of learning just clicked. I’ve tried using other language learning apps and sites in the past but always had problems memorizing the characters. I’ll continue to take the quizzes until I don’t have to think when I see the characters. Thank you for such a simple yet effective tool.