Language App Review Wednesday #36: Japanese Vocabulary and Kanji Study

Screencaps from Playstore

Alright, this review will be reviewing two apps created by the same developer, Poro Nihongo. Both apps will still be scored individually and the final score will be the average score. Which, just basically means adding both scores and dividing by two to get the average score.

About Japanese Vocabulary and Japanese Kanji Study

While the titles are self explanatory regarding the purpose of the apps, both apps can be utilized to learn vocabulary. Each Kanji has at least one meaning, and combining them forms a variety of vocabulary words to learn and memorize. There are two other Japanese apps Poro Nihongo developed. But, those two will be reviewed individually when I get to them.

Strengths

There are multiple strengths between them. The first one that comes to mind is both share having audio for vocabulary words. In the case of Japanese Kanji Study, each Kanji has example vocabulary words and those words each have an audio icon to tap in order to hear how to pronounce each word. They serve as example words, similar to other apps that focus on learning Kanji. Both also make use of different quiz style features, Kanji testing for Japanese Kanji Study and Vocabulary words for Japanese Vocabulary. Regarding beginner level friendliness, both provide Furigana above each kanji. So, both apps are a good starting point for those that mastered both Kana (Hiragana and Katakana).

Weakness

Between the two apps, Japanese Kanji Study has the feature to turn off romanization. Japanese Vocabulary, however, doesn’t provide an option to do the same thing despite having an audio feature that would show how to say the words without the need to know how they would be romanized. So, regarding giving them two different scores, Japanese Vocabulary already gets a -.5 deduction right off the bat.

It also doesn’t help that Japanese Vocabulary has less quiz features than Japanese Kanji Study. It’s not exactly something that would warrant a deduction though. But, it does give the impression that one could just simply make use of the Japanese Kanji Study app without having a need to make use of the Japanese Vocabulary app altogether.

Effectiveness in Learning/Reviewing

The variety of quiz options available in Japanese Kanji Study goes a long way if going for a learning method that deviates from writing practice to memorize kanji and/or vocabulary that way. There’s even a JLPTsection to get quizzed on content meant for N5-N1 exam preparation. Each N5-N1 level has up thirty tests and each test has up to twenty questions. That’s basically six hundred questions per level!

For Japanese Vocabulary…that one I highly suggest writing practice to memorize vocabulary words due to romanization being stuck there for each vocabulary word. There’s also creating a vocabulary list in either word or excel, especially when the categories are already there in the app itself.

Ability to Stay Motivated

Regarding motivation to learn, they both provide a means of doing that. I find the audio for vocabulary words the motivating aspect to keep learning with both apps. I plan to learn up to a decent level so I can read (as in comprehension level) manga at a much faster pace regarding the original Japanese text instead so I don’t have to depend on translated and/or localized translations. Current level is basically spending time documenting words to learn and what grammar parts to learn and then review.

Offline (Optional)

I did a quick check. Both apps cane be used offline. It’s useful as using them doesn’t require making any accounts and if the ad frequency is that much troublesome to get through when making use of the free version.

Overall Score: 4.75/5

Japanese Kanji Study scored 5/5 while Japanese Vocabulary scored a 4.5/5 due a romanization deduction mentioned earlier. That results in a 4.75 score as the average. This summer is passing by really fast. It’s already July! As always, if you ever feel any of my reviews are too harsh, feel free to go over why in the comments below. See you next time!