Last, but not least, we also missed this resource from March called SuperKanaDrill: Learn Japanese Hiragana & Katakana, a cute little app for beginners to learn hiragana, katakana, and about 80 super common words. It’s clean, simple, and teaches the basics of hiragana and katakana for free.
When you open the app it immediately lets you choose which “alphabet” you’d like to learn. Then it quizzes you on different combinations of those first five (あいうえお) with multiple choice answers (you already know how we feel about multiple choice here, but again, beginners get some slack). There are three types of quizzes:
- Japanese to English
- English to Japanese
- Audio to Japanese
It’s all nice and random, which is good for your brain. But there is a catch – every five mistakes you are shown an advertisement as punishment. The first time you do it you get a little message (pictured right).
Pretty good motivation, I’d say.
Other options include toggling the English in the overview on/off as well as changing the amount of your reviews from 5, 10, or 20.
If you’re trying to get into Japanese for the first time, this free app could help start you on your way!