Apps on iPod Touch/iPhone for learning Japanese.

[jacobf]

Hey guys, just thought I would post about something that I've been using. It's called iKanji Touch and it is an app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I have found it extremely helpful for learning and brainstorming. It quizzes you on the following of your choice:

• Teach me these kanji (meaning, reading, stroke order, stroke number)
• Kanji Meanings
• Kanji Readings
• Kanji Compounds
• Kanji Stroke Order

It organizes it very nice, allowing you to add specific kanji to your test list, and remove them from it, and organizes the kanji nicely by the following:

• JLPT Level 1
• JLPT Level 2
• JLPT Level 3
• JLPT Level 4
• Grade 1
• Grade 2
• Grade 3
• Grade 4
• Grade 5
• Grade 6

It does a great job with randomizing the material and quizzing you often. (It's an SRS system I think).

The app costs $9.99 but is well worth the money. You can find more information about it here.

Another app that I use is free and it is called Kotoba! It is a Japanese to a multitude of language translator that accepts romaji, english, hiragana, katakana, and kanji input. So, if you don't know what a certain kanji is, then just write it in the search and get your answer! It's very nice to have when learning and reading books and what not.

Hope these apps help out other people, let me know if have any others you like to use.

How To Enable Kanji/Japanese Input on iPhone/iPod Touch

1. Go to your Settings on the iPhone/iPod Touch (Silver gears icon)
2. Tap on General >
3. Scroll down and tap on Keyboard >
4. Scroll down and tap on International Keyboards >
5. Scroll down and tap Japanese >
6. Tap QWERTY for the familiar IME setup (type and press Space to convert), tap Kana for a Japanese Cell-Phone like input.
7. Go back to the list and scroll down and tap on Chinese (Simplified) >
8. Tap on Handwriting to turn on Kanji recognition

Whenever you want to switch between these, just tap on the new globe icon that is on the on-screen keyboard.

Hope this helps!

[Kantara]

I find Human Japanese really interesting and informative. It gives background material on the origin the Japanese language and has a really nice UI. Though its definitely for beginners as it doesn't even touch kanji that I noticed.

Its good for learning the Hiragana and Katakana and leaving nouns, verbs, and the such and you also get exposure to other goodies like counters for objects, animals, etc. Check it out on itunes.

[Tsuwabuki]

Jisho.org has a wonderful safari version. I use it all the time.

I had to have my iphone set to English, yay softbank!

[dougbrowne]

I also use iKanji Touch on my iPhone, and I can say.. It is by far some of the best $10 I have ever spent. iKanji Touch is in my opinion the best resource out there be it paper or digital. It teaches stroke order, reading, and meaning in a very well organized way. You memorize the Kanji amazingly fast with it's SRS algorithm. On my first attempt to learn kanji, I took the simple route.. Pick 3 kanji a day and study there meaning, reading, and stroke order.. This was painfully slow and boring and not fool proof by any means.. Then I resorted to Heisig's Method, but I really wasn't happy without learning the reading of the kanji. Then.. Then I found iKanji Touch. wow. What an improvement. I can get 20 kanji down in a mere more/less 3 days. Not only that but the app keeps enforcing your memory of them with it's SRS system.

Sorry if that whole thing sounded like a TV commercial, but heh, it truly is awesome, and if I didn't already have an iPhone I would buy one (or an iTouch) just for this app.

[uniopp]

Does anyone know if there is an Iphone app that converts the kanji you draw into English (e.g. Kanji handwriting recognition). If so, is it any good?
I also read somewhere about an app/software that allows you to take a picture of kanji and it returns the English. That would be great but a doubt it is available on the Iphone.
Thanks.

[KyleGoetz]

Anki is free and is a great flashcarding program. You have to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod, though.

As far as handwriting recognition, there is one on the Apple App Store. I forget what it's called though, as I didn't have an iTouch at the time.

[Chikavelli]

I'm low middle intermediate japanese speaker so I'll let you know what I think! Thanks for the post...