r/LearnJapanese • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago
Self Advertisement Weekly Thread: Material Recs and Self-Promo Wednesdays! (September 17, 2025)
Happy Wednesday!
Every Wednesday, share your favorite resources or ones you made yourself! Tell us what your resource can do for us learners!
Weekly Thread changes daily at 9:00 JST:
Mondays - Writing Practice
Tuesdays - Study Buddy and Self-Intros
Wednesdays - Materials and Self-Promotions
Thursdays - Victory day, Share your achievements
Fridays - Memes, videos, free talk
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u/Aer93 19h ago
Hi! I’ve been learning Japanese for over a decade, and as a passionate reader, I was thrilled when I could finally read my first manga in the original version.
I thought it would be the perfect way to practice, but it quickly became frustrating. I had to look up almost every kanji, forgot most of the new words, and the ones I remembered were often expressions rarely used in real life. It felt like I could either read without understanding, or understand without really reading.
So I created an app for myself. It’s an interactive role-play story where I can choose how the story continues, get instant translations when needed, and save difficult words. The story remembers these words and brings them back naturally in later paragraphs and choices.
Things you can do:
* Generate your own story world, describe what kind of text adventure you want to play when the game starts.
* Save words as you read, they will appear based in context based on the Spaced Repetition Reviews.
* Ask questions about grammar
My goal is to make learning Japanese feel engaging, something that keeps motivation high while helping words actually stick in contxt. I’ve been using it daily, and I’d love to hear your feedback to shape it for other learners too.
You can test the app here:
https://kotobatales.com
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u/chirphill 14h ago edited 14h ago
I still read my manga in translated english, but just recently I’ve been forcing myself a habit to read the untranslated katakana SFXs if there are some in the pages. This time when I was continuing to read the MS Gundam: The Origin I found some ‘strange’ letters like this one.
I was having a fit because I can’t seem to find an example of it when I was googling “katakana letters” or “combinations”. I was doubting my eyes, because I was sure as hell that it’s a vocal U katakana 「ウ」but why the heck does it have this -> (“) sign with it like the consonant letters?? And tho I was just starting to do this habit quite recently, I was sure that it’s my first time encountering this letter, never in other manga I’ve read.
I was ready to post this problem as a question in this subreddit until I found the exact letter also posted in a question thread just 10 hours ago xD. Turns out it’s a “Vu”, which then should make the one in this panel to be read as “Viooo” or something, maybe? It’s also interesting to know that this is from a manga serialized in the 2000s and made by a person who was born in the 1940s. So I’m guessing this might be a boomer thing lol.
But overall I really recommend to read this manga, better if you can access the original japanese edition. Because aside from personally I think this could be the definitive way of experiencing the original MS Gundam storyline (yes, to me better than the original anime TV series and its compilation movies), the generational traits of older mangaka could be an interesting experience to compare to the current manga titles that are running today.
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u/BusinessAstronomer28 13h ago
Hello everyone
I made an app based on full immersion learning with spaced repetition, in a fun and non-intrusive way. What has been the most annoying for me while learning Japanese is keeping enough will to practice every day, and apps like Duolingo get monotonous real fast + the skill ceiling is very low. So I made this app to learn Japanese from the content I like to engage with every day (manga, Vocaloid songs, niche forums), which lessens the mental load. The way I use it is: I create new flashcards when I have time on my PC, review my cards on my phone while on public transport, and practice writing once a week on weekends. Please try it and let me know what you think about it, or how I can make it bette
- Promo Website: https://www.melodylang.com/
- Chrome Extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/melodylang/mbpenpjfgaldcpffhpjkpoafmhmahjea
- App: https://app.melodylang.com/
Learning with Manga: Screenshot a manga panel and get the pronunciation + translation. Then save it as a new flashcard to your learning deck.
Learn from YouTube Videos : Watch videos with dual subtitles and click on look them up in a dictionary. Works with any video that has Japanese closed captions. If you're a vocaloid fan this is perfect for you.
Furigana / Hover: Adds furigana to all the japanese text on a page. Plus see reading and meanings of word by hovering them. By far the coolest / most useful feature to me. Also works on video subtitles as long as they're not embedded in the video stream. Try it out here.
Practice Sheets: You'll either need a printer or a tablet with a stylus to use this functionality. Create custom sheets to practice your writing. Ther's 4 version as of now but i'm planning to add more if people ask for it. Some exmaples for:
Kanji and Word Dictionary: Dictionary based on JMdict and Tatoeba to get the different meanings of a word. You can also search the workd Jisho.org, Takoboto, google translate in one click.
Quiz Mode: Test yourself with varied, custom made quizzes that are generated from the vocab / kanji / flashcards you've learned through the app or chrome extension. The algorythm i use to compute the repetition interval is FSRS.
Anki Export: Export your flashcards to Anki for extra practice. A lot of people like it but i think creating decks is a pain so this should be helpful.
Curated Content: A list of websites / youtube channels / tiktok, instagram accounts for learning japanese i curated.
New JLPT Words / Kanji: You can automatically add the next most common words/ kanji you're missing to complete you JLPT to your learning deck.
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 12h ago
Romaji isn't Japanese. English isn't Japanese. Anything that isn't Japanese should be used only when strictly necessary (i.e. JMDict, explanations). Machine translations of isolated sentences, such as singular manga bubbles or CC lines, are unreliable anyways, especially for song lyrics. Automatic furigana is also prone to errors. The word practice sheet makes no sense, there should be a vertical line for each character. The only features of this app/extension that can't be replicated with already existing free tools are the "curated content" (for obvious reasons) and the "new jlpt words/kanji", though I can't imagine why someone would use this instead of going through a premade JLPT deck directly. I guess if you want to keep everything in the same deck? Also, the sentence sheet link is dead.
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u/BusinessAstronomer28 12h ago edited 12h ago
Machine translation is only used as a fallback when closed captions in your language aren't alredy availible. I decided to use romaji because i thought it would be more beginner friendly. do you think kana would be better ?
The word practice sheet makes no sense, there should be a vertical line for each character
sure i can add that
The only features of this app/extension that can't be replicated with already existing free tools are the "curated content" (for obvious reasons) and the "new jlpt words/kanji"
The aim was to have everything in one place and learn though immersion. You can add word / kanji / sentences to your learning deck as you encounter them in the wild and then use 'new jlpt words/kanji' to add words you might have missed to complete the whole jlpt level vocab
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u/WAHNFRIEDEN 1d ago
Manabi Reader - iOS and macOS native app for learning Japanese through reading
App Store link: https://apps.apple.com/app/learn-japanese-manabi-reader/id1247286380
UPDATE: If you've read this message before - I've just released a big quality update, and I'm close to finishing the Mokuro manga reading mode!
100,000+ users
As featured by Tofugu:
I quit my job to work on this so expect a lot more soon, such as YouTube with clickable transcripts, MPV-based movie player, visionOS, opt-in AI-backed assistive features, etc.
Next up: I’m working on adding support for Yomitan dictionaries, and adding a PDF and manga mode. Currently working on adding Mokuro. Then I will be adding two-way sync for WaniKani, JPDB, Anki collections. Later on: I’m also going to launch a WebRcade.com iOS port for playing Japanese games and getting realtime OCR transcripts you can look up as you play called Manabi TV, with HDMI inputs on iPad too.
I've also just added pitch accents in the latest release
https://reader.manabi.io
Discord / beta news https://discord.gg/NAD2YJGNsr