I love Japan, Japanese culture and the Japanese people. It has probably something to do with my geeky-side and that many Japanese share this side.
I tried to learn Japanese in the past, using online courses, local language courses and apps, but nothing really got me to the “I got it” moment. I have to admit that this was at least partially my fault, as I did not have the endurance to learn thousands of symbols at the time.
Still, the desire to learn Japanese continued to burn inside my brain. Whenever I start to play a Japanese video game, currently a replay of Dark Souls 2, I wish that I could play it fully in Japanese.
Anyway, I stumbled upon Human Japanese some time ago. It is available for all major platforms, with the exception of Linux. There is a “beginner” course, or app, and an intermediate course. The Japanese language learning course is not free, but you can get a lite version that includes the first eight chapters of the course for free.
That’s how I got hooked and it is ideal for finding out if the course is something for you, or not. The price of each course, basic and intermediate, differs by platform. It costs between $10 and $15 and includes the full selected course. This is a one-time payment and not a subscription.
One limitation is that the entire course is designed for English-speakers. There is no German, French or Portuguese version of the course available.
What makes Human Japanese special
What makes this course special when compared to other Japanese language learning courses? Well, there are a few things actually, but one very important aspect is reflected in the title already. The creator of the Japanese language course has designed it for humans. It includes lots of explanations and examples to better understand why something is in a specific way in Japanese.
The course leans towards the Grammar side of things, but not in the boring kind of way. It does not overburden you with rules and special rules, but focuses on the essentials. Also, there are explanations and examples everywhere to help you better understand certain concepts.
The helper tools are of equal importance. For every Japanese sentence, you get the option to listen to it and to get a word-by-word translation in English. Native Japanese speakers are used throughout the app.
The course includes cultural notes as well from time to time. These help better understand Japanese culture and customs.
Each chapter ends with a quiz. It is used to reflect the lesson and unlock the next chapter of the course. Users may unlock all chapters without passing quizzes successfully, but this is not really recommended.
In short, Human Japanese is not similar to most Japanese learning apps out there. You don’t just learn characters or words, and then take quizzes to proceed. It is a full-fledged course that is well designed and structured, and, even more important, well explained.
Can you learn Japanese with just an app?
Human Japanese is, in my opinion, the best Japanese learning app that I tried so far. There is certainly the chance that another service or app is even better, but I have yet to find it. If you think you have, let me know in the comments please.
An app, even one as good as it gets, can take you only to a certain point. It is important to expand from using the app to other sources. These can be books, videos online, podcasts, visits to Japan or local Japanese communities or other things.
In Closing
The first chapters of Human Japanese are free and it is enough to find out if this app does the trick for you or not. I bought the basic course already and will buy the intermediate course once I’m done.
Please note that there is a lot to read. If you used apps like Memrise, Babbel, Duolingo or Rosetta Stone in the past, you may find this overwhelming at first. The texts make a difference though, as they help you understand concepts that the other apps fail to teach or explain at the very least.
These other apps may still help you, for instance to learn new words or phrases.
Now You: do you use apps to learn languages?