I’ve been studying Japanese for a few years, both independently and with tutors, and one thing I always wanted was a flashcard tool focused on speaking instead of typing. WaniKani has been great for recognition, but I personally recall words much faster when I hear and say them out loud.

I wanted something that would actually show me a Japanese word, listen for my response, and tell me if I got it right or wrong without typing anything. I couldn’t find anything like that, so over the last couple of years I’ve been building and testing it. It’s really helped my recognition and pronunciation. It’s also way faster than typing, so if you’ve got 100 reviews you can rip through them in 10-15 minutes.

Anyway, I know Reddit isn’t huge on promotion, but if this sounds useful, feel free to check it out. It’s called JLPT Speak and it’s on the iOS App Store (Android coming later). I launched with N5 vocab first and I’m working on the higher levels and grammar now.

No ads, no subscriptions, no social media, no AI slop. Just a focused study tool. The first 200 words are free, and if you like it you can unlock the full 668-word deck.

Totally open to suggestions or feedback if there’s something you think would make it better.

A community dedicated to the buying and selling of Japanese media in Japanese for people living in the U.S. Media includes books, manga, DVDs, CDs, Blu-rays, and more. Ship items at the USPS via media mail!

Hey! I'm Japanese and native Japanese speaker.
Quick questions:
What's missing from tools you already use?
What would make you switch to something
new?
All levels welcome. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I'm a solo dev who's been building a Japanese learning app called Mojigari (文字狩り — "kanji hunting") for the past several months, and I'm getting ready to launch on the Google Play Store.

Before I do, I'm looking for a few people from this community who'd be willing to try it out and tell me what's working and what isn't.

If you'd like to try it: the web version is live at https://mojigari.com and I'm recruiting closed testers for the Android Play Store release.

A bit of honest backstory: I started learning Japanese a few years ago and bounced off of every kanji method I tried, WaniKani felt too rigid, Anki decks felt joyless, and reading native material was overwhelming because I couldn't tell which kanji were worth studying first.

I'm an architect by training who pivoted to finance and software dev, and the kanji-as-collectibles idea came from missing the tangible satisfaction of building something tactile.

So I built an app that treats every kanji as a card with a rarity tier (N5 common → N1+ mythical), and the loop is: paste any Japanese text you actually care about → the app analyzes it → the kanji you discover become cards in your collection → you train them in a belt-ranked SRS dojo.

It works with your own texts. Songs, manga lines, news headlines, a random tweet you don't understand, paste it in, get furigana, an interactive glossary, and a Deep Analysis breakdown showing how the sentence is built (particles, cutting words, compound verbs, etc.). The library has curated texts too (haiku, folk tales, song lyrics) for when you don't have something on hand.

It's aimed at advanced beginners through upper intermediate/advanced (roughly late N5 through N2).

It's privacy-first (no tracking, no analytics), and there's a generous free tier with optional Premium for full access.

A few other things in it: a daily booster pack mechanic, a Discovery feature that introduces 2 grammar patterns + 3 kanji per session with a synthesis quiz to distinguish similar patterns, opt-in stroke-order writing practice, JLPT promotion exams, and audio playback. There's also a small contemplative feature coming in the next update where unlocking achievements gives you a curated haiku paired with an ukiyo-e print — a nod to the cultural side of the language that most apps skip.

Drop a comment or DM me if you're interested. I read every piece of feedback — there are "send me a note" links throughout the app for exactly this reason, and the data sources, dictionary edge cases, and grammar database are all built around real user reports.

If it's not for you, no worries — but I'd love to hear what works and what doesn't from people who actually study this stuff seriously.

Thanks for reading.

[I made this] Sharing a free Japanese vocabulary tool that organizes ~1,600 words across 71 everyday themes — no signup, no paywall.

https://www.gyanmirai.com/tools/japanese-vocabulary-by-theme

What's in it:

• Bank (25 words) — account, deposit, withdraw, ATM, interest, currency exchange
• Kitchen Tools (17), Tableware (17), Seasoning (15), Taste (15)
• Weather (32) — sun, rain, snow + related verbs and adjectives
• Occupation (50) — doctor, engineer, journalist, banker, chef…
• Body Parts (35), Family (30), Clothes (32), Countries (123), Numbers (36)
• Situational: Pharmacy, Court, Police Station, Salon, Post Office, Gas Station, Kindergarten, Library, Supermarket, Cafe, Fast Food

Each theme page has:

• Sortable table — kanji + hiragana + romaji + English
• JLPT sort order (N5→N1 or N1→N5)
• Copy-All button for dropping the list straight into Anki

Suggested study workflow: pick a theme tied to something you're doing this week, sort N5→N1, copy the words you don't know yet into your SRS deck.

Open to feedback — what's missing, what's wrong, what would actually help your study.

(No login, no paywall, no email collection.)

any news on when or if it will be up again?