Our final year student Emily Mott (graduation cohort 2023/24) is sharing her favourite Japanese learning resources. Emily spent four years studying Japanese at YSJ, including her study abroad year at Kwansei Gakuin in Japan. She has some experience teaching Japanese too, so she was able to evaluate these resources from both perspectives. Read more here!
Have you tried these Japanese learning resources before?
Here’s a blog post about some of the Japanese language learning resources that I’ve come across and I thought that I might share them here!
Each resource is useful for different areas of Japanese and what I find is that I sometimes use a resource and leave it for a bit once I get bored or it’s not serving its purpose anymore and then I tend to come back to it after a while.
So here are just a few that I’ve found particularly useful at times, let me know if you use these resources too and whether you find them helpful or not!
Maru Mori
Link: https://marumori.io/adventure
I recently came across this resource and I think it might be quite a new resource. Essentially it is a platform dedicated to Japanese through different pathway levels that take you through grammar lessons.
The illustrations are stunning and when I tried out this resource during the free (30 day!) trial I found it really motivating to have the cute red panda cheering you on.
It is a paid resource at about £7.99 a month and so I suggest really making the most of the free trial before you decide to pay for it, plus you don’t have to put in your card details whilst you check out the trial (As like me you may find it particularly annoying and off putting when you have to provide your card details)
Other materials on this site are also on its way and coming soon to the platform such as practice JLPT tests and some new games and so I’m eagerly waiting to see what these are like!
Key features: Grammar lessons, vocab games
Recommended use: I recommend trying out the 30 day trial and using this platform to introduce new grammar into your studying. I tend to go through the lesson and read through it all and then make notes after (this way I focus more on the content and then see how much I took in).
Bunpro
Link: https://bunpro.jp/dashboard
I was told about this resource during the study abroad by my Norwegian friend and she recommended it to me to practise grammar and vocab and since then I’ve been using it a lot.
Its main focus is Grammar and vocabulary and it’s mostly useful for reviewing and cramming. One of the main useful features is that it can be linked up to different pathways from different textbooks such as Genki I and II and also the Mina no Nihongo textbooks. It also has a JLPT feature where it states which level specific grammar and vocab appears in.
This platform does also have a paid subscription in order to access offline content and the cram features but I find that the free version works just fine. I used the paid offline feature a lot when I was commuting on the train to my university (Kwansei Gakuin) in Japan!
Key features: Recapping grammar and vocab
Recommended use:
I recommend using it mostly for reviewing and as the reviews can stack up quite quickly I recommend not overdoing it with new content because it can get quite overwhelming and unmotivating quite quickly!
Wani Kani
You may have heard of this platform as it’s quite well known. I used to use this a lot in first year and then I kind of forgot about it for a while and now I’m using it again.
Wani Kani focuses on Kanji by looking at the different radicals and explores different mnemonics for remembering kanji. Initially I felt that using mnemonics for kanji was a waste of time or that I just didn’t get on well with this method (to an extent I still feel this way) but since using Wani Kani again I’ve found it quite useful and throughout studying I often find myself remembering kanji using the methods from wani kani.
You can regularly review kanji throughout the day (it teaches and tests you on both on-yomi and kun-yomi) and once a day you can take a lesson which adds more kanji and radicals to your deck.
You have to start off at level 1, which is really quite basic, and pass all the kanji to reach the next levels. This can be a bit unmotivating if it’s too easy but try and stick with it.
Key features: Kanji and radicals
Recommended use: I recommend giving Wani Kani a try and whenever you have free time during your day go through the reviews. I have gotten into a routine of going through the reviews in the morning and in the evening either when making breakfast or dinner. I think it can feel like it’s not really helping you straight away but if you keep at it, you’ll notice it is.
Japanese Comprehensible Videos
Link: https://www.youtube.com/@cijapanese
Now this resource is a bit different because it’s a Youtube channel rather than platforms like the rest. I recently came across this Youtube channel over Christmas and I have found it so useful. We all understand how beneficial comprehensible input is for language learning and so I highly recommend checking out Yuki’s channel. She creates videos for a range of different levels about a range of different topics such as life in Japan, the seasons, fairy tales etc.
The videos are completely in Japanese and Yuki makes the input comprehensible through the use of slower and clearer speech and props and pictures.
Key features: Listening practice, interesting topics
Recommended use: I recommend watching a few of these videos throughout the week, whenever you have time really. I tend to watch a video all the way through and then make a note of key words or phrases that I didn’t quite understand.
So that’s been 4 key resources that I’ve been trying out and using for the last few months! If you try out any of these resources then let me know how you find them! If you’d like to have another post exploring more Japanese learning resources then let me know!
Disclaimer: The resources stated above are evaluated by the blog post author are not officially endorsed by YSJ. This is not a paid partnership.