I don’t write reviews. This may be my first ever. This app is perfect for me so far. It’s bite sized and great for personalized, controlled, and engaging learning. You can work on reading and listening at your own learning pace! There’s also kanji and vocab learning tools. It pretty much works on everything except writing and speaking. But input (as opposed to output) is most important for learning, especially early on. I know n5 grammar and vocab, and can read and write hiragana/katakana, so it’s a perfect next step for me. Best part of all is that all of the learning is actually in context (in this case, situated in stories with visuals) and teaches culture at the same time. Learning is often out of context (flash cards, textbooks, route memory work, classroom, etc). Culture and context are two of the most important ingredients for learning language correctly and it actually sticking in your memory. In summary, this app is great for input (listening/reading) and learning in context!!

Yesterday I started actually using this app and I feel like it’s really going to help improve my reading skills when it comes to Japanese. It’s very helpful in the sense that it explains every word in the story if you tap on them, and there’s a feature to bookmark the words you don’t know. From what I see, there are no adds but you do have to wait 12 hours to unlock a key which are used to unlock new stories. It’ll definitely improve your reading skills. Its good for anyone just starting out, however Im sure it can also be great for more advanced learners, seeing as they have levels all the way from: starter to expert. Overall, this is a very good app for anyone just starting Japanese, or anyone who just wants to get some reading practice in.

The tools are all here. It will provide short stories with translations. You can select a word to get just that word. It will read to you as well but I find that I’m more comfortable reading it myself.The test after each lesson is a decent way to check comprehension but sometimes you are able to read the story and yet forget a detail about it. Not the end of the world though. The app will notify you when it is time to practice based on the time you set. If you are learning Japanese and put a whole hour a side each day, this will make for the perfect 15 minute chunk of reading. Add some other apps, read something else, or listen to shows/music for the other 45 minutes. I have a feeling the results will be visible.

I lived in Japan for a couple years and learned how to read and speak there. Though my reading skills are weak this makes it fun for me, I usually have a hard time staying focused when learning so in this format I’m reading a story and learning at the same time!! Reading actual stories and learning conversational Japanese is a really great way to learn. It takes a small learning curve to learn where everything is at, but you can get the dictionary form of a word to u destined it and study it. You can save it and you can even translate the sentences into English to see how well you did with your understanding! Great app!