Pricing: $18.99 (Windows or Mac), $14.99 (iPad), $19.99 Android/iOS

Positives

Comprehensive Japanese material
Easy to follow and understand
Well-priced
Great for writing practice

Negatives

Needs to be installed locally (no web app)
Lack of dialogue/conversation practice

Summary

A well-developed program and app that is ideal for Japanese writing practice but might not appeal to all learners.

Try Human Japanese

Alternatives

The Human Japanese team, though small, has created this program/app intending to simplify complex themes of the Japanese language.

As a newcomer to Japanese, I was curious to find out how useful this course would be.

I found out the following about Human Japanese.

Human Japanese features

When you first enter the course, you’ll notice that Human Japanese features 45 chapters.

These chapters include topics such as ‘The Writing System’, ‘The Verb To Be’ and ‘Times and Seasons’.

Another feature of the Human Japanese platform is the details on the Japanese language — such as how to accurately pronounce Japanese text.

You’ve got audio recordings available at the click of a button to also help you understand how to pronounce Japanese words.

And the words you’ll need to complete each chapter are given to you before you get started.

Learn about Japanese culture

What I found to be a nice touch with the Human Japanese app are its cultural details.

The makers of Human Japanese share these cultural details with images and give you plenty of information on the history of Japan.

The cultural information is sufficient enough to keep your attention and inform you about Japanese ways without being too overwhelming.

Animations and tips

There is no shortage of animations and tips.

These hints walk you through the richness of the Japanese language and how to speak, read, write and listen to it.

For instance, when it comes to learning more about an example sentence, all you’ll have to do is click on the yellow box to the right.

This will give you key facts to help you understand.

Reviews and assessments

If you want to take the chance to review your progress for each chapter, this app is ever so slightly gamified in this respect, giving you experience points and the chance to unlock each new chapter.

I found it rewarding finding out how well I understood the chapter on ‘Greetings’.

Great sections on writing

I found that writing Japanese was a core focus of the Human Japanese app.

It walks you through how to create characters with pencil strokes, which I found fascinating.

It demystified the concept of forming characters.

Human Japanese might not be for all learners, though.

If you are a student looking to have long dialogues with native speakers at an advanced level, you will probably need to back up what you learn on Human Japanese with other materials.

But it is a great starting point for beginners and intermediate students, who will learn plenty with this software.

For a more comprehensive (but higher priced) alternative for Japanese, definitely see Rocket Japanese.

Have you used Human Japanese before?

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