Learn Japanese vocabulary in a simple and effective way
I built this app to prepare for my trip to Japan, I didn't like Anki so I tried to make my own method. I made lists of words grouped by theme which really helped me get on a basic level quickly.
Lists
- City and Transport
- Restaurant & Bar
- Travel Essentials
- Body Parts
- Numbers
- Basic Question Words
Wise men say that you can understand about 80% of conversations by knowing 20% of the words. So, by that philosophy I started researching what those words were and packaged them in easy-to-learn units. During the lessons with my sensei, each time I tried to say something and didn't know the word he wrote it down. So a lot of the lists are also based on natural vocabulary. I recommend you try to make those as well and add them as a list in the app. In this app you will find lots of basic lists as a starting point.
These are the lists I used, so you don't have to go looking. With an account you can edit them, split them, or make your own. Starter Kit, the first list, covers the greetings, pronouns and polite forms most sentences lean on and is an easy list to get you going.
Lessons
I started learning Kanji after my trip and stumbled upon WaniKani, I really liked that structure of daily reviews and lessons in small batches so I tried implementing my version of it for my vocab lists.
The first five words of Starter Kit:
- 初めましてHajimemashite Nice to meet you
- いただけますかItadakemasu ka? Can I have a…? / Could I receive…?
- いいねIi ne Nice! / That's good
- 少しSukoshi A little
- お会計お願いしますO kaikei onegaishimasu Can I have the bill please
A lesson is five words. You see each one before you answer for it. It takes a couple of minutes. The review system is designed to help you retain vocabulary effectively with spaced repetition, and the ones you got wrong come back first.
There are four learning modes: Japanese to English, English to Japanese, speech, or multiple choice. Kana and kanji sit alongside romaji, so you can read a word from day one.
No account needed
Your progress saves in your browser, but I recommend making an account as it keeps it across devices and lets you edit or build your own lists. You can sign in or make one whenever you want.
Accounts store your lists and progress and nothing else.
It's free
There are no ads, no microtransactions and nothing costs money. I mainly built it for myself but have now opened it up for anyone to use.
Why I built it
I had five months before my trip and I wanted to cram as many words as I could, so that was the whole plan. I've been to Japan since, and it worked. I've had some genuine conversations with people, albeit with broken Japanese.
I've been refining this bit by bit. If something is missing or you encounter a bug, please tell me. I'm at petyabouianov.com. Right now I'm trying to cram more kanji.
A donation is welcome but never expected, and it goes towards keeping the site running.