Best resources to use

Japanese Language
#1

Hey there!

I just began my Japanese learning adventure and I am loving it so far! But! I read a lot about other apps and resources people use next to WaniKani. Its a bit overwhelming because there are just so many! Thats why I decided to ask myself:

What are good resources for Speaking japanese? I also want to pick up Bunpro once I am around level 5 or something. But I am mostly curious about speaking, next to writing and reading what I am learning here. I already use Duolingo, but the way they teach you things, doesn’t really work for me.

Thanks in advance! And happy learning!

Hobbes

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#2

I haven’t really found resources for speaking. I’m using Busuu right now and it does have you submit your answers either in text or spoken, so people fluent in Japanese can correct you (you can only choose one option each time). I suppose if I wanted to work on speaking, I’d just always submit audio answers lol. I’m a bit shy about doing it though. :slight_smile:

#3

Oh that works! But its fine as long as I learn useful sentences or something, just vocab I guess. But I feel that wanikani’s vocab is all over the place, still fun though!

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#4

I don’t have much focus on speaking so I can’t write about that but regarding writing, I think it would be of enormous help to learn the stroke orders. There’s this one website by @aruke which I found to be extremely helpful. Moreover, you are still on Level 2 so I think it will be great if you start using the option of Wanikani level vise. I’ll link the post. And NO, this is not some rickrolling scheme.

Also, welcome to the community @Hobbesisalive san. :blush:

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#5

I guess another resource I didn’t think of is HiNative. You can submit yourself speaking Japanese and have natives correct you. I’m usually just on there helping with English and it didn’t cross my mind. That’s free practice, right there!

And yeah, the vocab here is hard to grasp the context of. They’ll teach many words that mean around the same thing, and it’s hard to keep track. Sometimes I do end up asking on HiNative what the difference is, so it can get a bit better of an explanation (they do have context sentences here, but I’m not good enough with the grammar to understand many).

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#6

what i’m doing is basically using wanikani and soon bunpro to learn how to read, then i’m gonna use kitsun.io to learn all the words in the books i’m reading and grow my vocabulary. the whole time i’ll be writing sentences based on what i’m learning and listening to like shows and stuff. for learning to speak, i’ll start once i’ve got a good foundation in all the other skills. this is because it will lighten the load and make it so much easier. i’ll probably use italki or something so i can get lots and lots of feedback and refine my japanese. i’ll also probably get audiobooks of the books i’m reading so i can sentence mine and shadow.

also maybe at some point i’ll make e a demon slayer book club

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#7

I’ve been a fan of the app HelloTalk. Basically it’s like social media for language exchange. You can share posts in Japanese and have native speakers correct you (and likewise you can help them with your native language). You can record audio to go with. You can even do phone calls with native speakers in your target language.

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#8

Thanks guys! I’ll check those all out! And indeed, I am only level 2, so there is no hurry! :slight_smile:

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#9

I’ve already written once but there’s another textbook I’d like to recommend “Basic Kanji Book”. It is pretty amazing, it also has stroke orders and many many exercises including reading and writing.

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#10

Speechling or iTalki is good but expensive. Maybe get it when you are in the intermediate level or attend a local course. It would be cheaper for beginners.

HelloTalk is another route but you will need patience to find partners, but personally, I think it’s a waste of time. HiNative is also a cheap alternative to check your speaking but beware of non-native participants. BunPro is a must. iKnow is a great app to build your vocab and shadowing. I like it because it uses native speakers instead of robot voices.

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#11

Not sure how this hasn’t been posted yet, but this community has a giant list of resources here.

Personally I’d suggest to find 3-5 resources you enjoy using in different areas that you can stick with.

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