I’m about two months into duolingo and I (mostly) know hirigana and katakana. I use iPhone and a windows pc. I’ve seen some complicated setups and i just don’t know what’s going on with this lmao
What would you recommend?
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This is obviously very biased, considering we’re on their community board…
But start WaniKani ASAP.
The convenience in being able to read Kanji and recognizing patterns in vocabulary is invaluable.
If you don’t like textbooks for learning grammar, BunPro is pretty good.
Good luck.
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Bunpro or bunpo?
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I tried Duolingo and hated it. I love RocketLanguages.com a LOT, and WK, of course, for kanji.
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highly recommend https://realkana.com/ for help with mastering hiragana/katakana. especially as it has various fonts you can use to make sure you are recognizing them. (there is an IOS app version as well)
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Have you checked this thread? And also Resources category.
My online resources were Tae Kim and Imabi. I saw Google Doc complete guide somewhere. I also think Irodori looks good.
Or buy a beginner book. Genki and Minna no Nihongo are popular ones.
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@KariforuniaJin is correct, it’s BunPro: https://bunpro.jp/
The product name is a pun on “bunpou / 文法”, which means “grammar” in Japanese
And I second strongly on using WK, this has been by far the best resource I used to be able to start reading native japanese material.
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I’m more of a book person and Genki suited me better than sites/apps for grammar.
There is also an unrelated app named bunpo, though, so it can get a bit confusing 
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You’re right, I 100% forgot about the Bunpo app. Which I disliked when I tried it out, sorry!
For sites, https://marumori.io/ has been evolving greatly and is a great option.
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I remember I tried the BunPo app a couple of years ago when I was testing out a lot of different apps. It didn’t really interest me and I chose for other apps like BunPro (with an r), WaniKani and Kanji Study for my daily practice.
But recently I took a look at BunPo again and man, it has got some really amazing features now. They integrated AI so you can have tons of spoken dialogues, do wordgames with the AI, ask the AI for help and whatnot. It really feels like having my own tutor to do daily practice with. You need the Platinum subscription for the AI features though which is 80 euro per year, but after trying it out for 5 minutes I immediately bought it.
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May I recommend You can Kana for that? it’s a game available on Steam. Cheap, very well made and it tought me to type Kana lightning fast in only a couple of hours.
(Please don’t mind my neat way of posting. This is just me and my nature 
)
- I agree with you about BunPo (without the R)
- Since I’m in a phase where I can’t focus on serious language studies (my head’s just blocked, I don’t know why) I’m dedicating this time to researching the best free Japanese learning sources. I think I’ve checked out most of them already, but I haven’t been able to find or get enough info about these last three: Tae Kim’s Japanese learning guide app, Minna no Nihongo iMina, and Minna no Nihongo jHami. I couldn’t find the first one, and I’m not sure if the second and third are worth my precious mobile data. Do you have any ideas?
Looking forward to your reply!
Thank you in advance!
Off topic: I wish you a soon, second visit to Japan that’s much much much happier than the first! 
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If you need Tae Kim totally offline, you might find a way to download the whole website. After that, everything can be used without internet. (Alternatively, buy a paperback.)
Is there a specific feature you need from the app?
(Ignore those who doubt your writing style, those comments were so, so silly. See it as a big compliment.)
I don’t think there is an app for Tae Kim, I simply made a shortcut from the website to my Android homepage. I also bought the ebook, but actually found the website handier to use.
If you need basic grammar help I’m sure you’ve already seen Cure Dolly on Youtube recommended. Despite the somewhat creepy doll and voice, her explanations are great.
I can give you a list of the apps which I use if that helps -
HelloTalk. Free, great way to meet Japanese people who are studying your language. I met a really nice woman which I talk daily with now. She invited me and my wife for dinner when we will go to Japan again in November It’s also supermotivating for me to talk daily Japanese with real people.
Bunpro (paid if you want to do the srs)
Bunpo (paid if you want to use the AI but so, so worth it. I use it for dialogue practice and when some grammar explanation is not clear, Bunpo each time manages to make it completely clear to me. I’m sure there are enough free AI tools for this too, I just really like how BunPo does this. It’s like having my own teacher.
FlamingDurtles (still use that to look up Kanji which I forgot)
Migaku (bough the lifetime for that. It’s 50% off until 4th of feb, after that the price increases a lot. So if you’re interested, now would be the time to buy it). You can achieve mostly the same results for free using Yomitan and a texthooker, Setting that up takes a bit of time, but this guide explains perfectly how to: Setup Introduction - Lazy Guide
Learn Japanese - Kanji Study, from Luli Languages LLC. Small price to unlock all the Kanji. I started with that 2 months ago to redo all the Kanji. Up until WK level 30 or so is well etched into my brain, but for especially the later levels I forgot quite a lof of Kanji since they are less common.
Miraa - great app to listen to podcasts with AI transcriptions (paid)
Kanji Study (the best Kanji app imho)
AnkiDroid
Renshuu
JAccent (dictionary that also shows pitch)
J-Crosswords
Todaii easy Japanese
Migii JLPT (practice JLPT tests)
So most apps I used are not free unfortunately, but I found each of them well worth my money.
Off topic: Thanks 
First time was overwhelming with everything being new, the preparation for the next trip is already way more chill to do now that we know what we can expect and what we have to think of before we go.
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Obenkyo on android has tae kim’s material built into that app (see Grammar section in app)
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Tae Kim’s guide is already available as a pdf for offline use: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/grammar_guide.pdf
I have also purchased the printed edition which is I believe completely identical to the pdf.
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Words aren’t enough to thank you… so, I’ll have to go out of my own way and reveal that my tears that you don’t see are my thank you. I needed this and got it from you. It’s my endless pleasure to meet you and know that someone like you actually exist in life. I hope that somehow I can be of any help to you in future… I’ll make sure these words of yours are engraved in my weak head so that I can apply and generalise them to any and all occasions in life.
As for the rest of your answer. Thank you so much for the effort you put into typing it. At the moment I’ll unfortunately have to suffice with the free parts of each paid app until I’m able to pay them (hopefully soon), and will certainly get all the totally free ones (even if they need time, it’s okay). Having read your experience, I’m excited to try the Hellotalk app out.
Thank you so much once again from the bottom of my heart! I wish you all the best and happiest in life, as you deserve it…
As for Tae Kim’s app, this is where I found out about it:
Off topic: That’s very nice to hear (or rather read ). I hope it’s sooner than later 
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A new name… Thanks! 
I’ll check it out.
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