Human Japanese is a fantastic Japanese Language Course for Android

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 25, 2014
Updated • Mar 2, 2015
Google Android
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6

Japanese is a language that I really want to learn. While I have started some courses, I could not really convince myself to complete them because of how they were laid out and other issues such as participants already knowing the basics while I had to spend day after day trying to memorize the two syllabic scripts hiragana and katakana as well as kanji.

I stumbled upon Human Japanese Lite for Android recently and have used it with great success so far. Lite means that it makes available eight chapters of the Japanese language course while chapters 9 to 42 are only available in the paid version.

This is probably the best option when it comes to courses. If you like the course, you probably want to complete it and don't mind the €6.99 that it available for.

What sets Human Japanese apart is how contents are taught. First, it offers lots of text. While that may discourage some learners, it is actually well written and very informative.

While that may sound scary, it is without doubt the best guide that I ever read on the topic. Not only does it explain everything to you, it is filled with sound samples that you can play over and over again.

Plus, Japanese pronunciation is easy when compared to many other languages as there are just a few rules that you need to follow.

The first eight chapters that are available for free are the following ones:

  1. Pronunciation.
  2. The Writing System.
  3. Hiragana Part 1.
  4. Geography.
  5. Hiragana Part 2.
  6. Greetings.
  7. The Verb To Be.
  8. At Home.

The first chapter is entirely in English while the following seventeen chapters mix Romaji (Roman letters) with Japanese signs.From chapter 18 on, only Japanese signs are used (except for explanations and such which remain in English).

The app is different from the majority of language learning apps. Instead of throwing canned phrases and situations at you, it makes things clearer and easier to understand with how the course is structured and how each lesson is taught.

The app features lots of text but also recordings, animations, photos and more that improve the learning experience significantly. Most learning apps and books that I encountered previously did use information that you were expected to know even if they were not taught in the app or book.

learn japanese android

A quiz is added to each chapter after the first one. The app is configured by default to lock chapters until the quiz of the previous chapter has been taken. It is however possible to modify that preference in the options to unlock all chapters at once. This can be useful to learners who don't start at the very beginning.

Apart from that, a note taking option has been added to the app which you can use to add custom notes to any page or lesson.

Conclusion

The app offers a warmer learning environment thanks to how it is laid out and how the lessons are taught. While that may not be to everyone's liking, it should appeal to the majority of learners and especially those who shied away from Japanese because of how it is taught usually.

The same author has created an intermediary course as well which is also offered as a lite version and a full version. As far as Japanese learning courses are concerned, this gets my seal of approval. Thumbs up.

 

Summary
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Author Rating
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2.5 based on 4 votes
Software Name
Human Japanese
Operating System
Android
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Comments

  1. nonqu said on August 26, 2014 at 8:18 pm
    Reply

    I’ll give this another try. I’ve spend a busride reading it and didn’t find the first chapter especially useful for non-english speakers. The pronunciation guide was a funny read (watching Americans speak Japanese is almost as funny as watching Japanese speak English) but not really needed. Same with the writing system – that’s a material for a total beginner. I wish they gave a sample of the advanced material for free.

    Still, I trust your judgement as after reading this blog I have noticed we have a similar taste in software. I’ll give the app another chance.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 26, 2014 at 8:29 pm
      Reply

      You can download a lite version of the intermediary course here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.braksoftware.HumanJapaneseIntermediateLite

      1. nonqu said on August 26, 2014 at 8:33 pm
        Reply

        Now I feel stupid, and rightfully so. Thanks for the link.

  2. Siddarth Singh said on August 26, 2014 at 5:01 pm
    Reply

    Hii Martin.

    Great Informative Articles, buddy. :) I’m actually using Human Japanese after reading through your article. Also, i added you on FB so if you don’t mind, add me.

    Thanks

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 26, 2014 at 5:07 pm
      Reply

      Glad you started using it. I don’t really use Facebook except for Ghacks posts though :)

  3. funix said on August 26, 2014 at 4:05 pm
    Reply

    Hey, thanks for the review. I was also trying to learn japanese in the past (damn anime ^^) and will definetely give this a try!

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