kawaiiNihongo: Learn Japanese

Quagthistle

5 years ago

Very cute and interesting Japanese learning game! In fact, it's one I'd buy in a heartbeat if it had a reasonable pricing scheme, but I'd much rather pay a 1-time fee of even $20-$30 to unlock a game permanently (or micropayments to unlocks parts of it) than a subscription, even if it's just $1 per month. I really dislike subscription pricing plans. That said, playing for free isn't too bad. There aren't a lot of ads. I just wish I could monetarily support the app in a way I'm comfortable with.

A Google user

6 years ago

Great way to introduce yourself into japanese. The app is very barebones and simple, but it doesn't need to be too fancy. It's presentation is engaging enough to be enjoyable, while its lessons are small and compact with pictures to help you relate your lessons with. Working on my hiragana with this and a couple other resources, but this app is a constant reminder to practice and keep learning, while not overdoing myself! I'm hoping to keep using this for a while!

angel

5 years ago

KawaiiNohongo is a great way to get started on learning Japanese. Now, the downfall is that its difficult to learn the words. I find it troublesome to try to remember the words and phrases even with the pictures. Maybe a bit more of audio would work. That's all that's bad about the game, though. The rest of it is amazing-- and adorable might I add. Whoever drew the images are great artists and the little story is really cute. 9.5\10 would reccomend.

A Google user

6 years ago

Generally, I'm satisfied. I use this more than other language apps. Minigames are definitely welcome. I love that writing drills are included... though it's rather oversimplified. All it does is count strokes and it's on you to improve accuracy. That's fine. The art is also a mixed bag. Fantastic, ... oh, and meh are all present; making it feel kinda hodgepodge. All that said, it's more than I've seen from similar apps and I want to see them keep improving.

A Google user

6 years ago

very helpful and fun! you do have to buy the grammar and vocab but it seems to be a fairly reasonable price and you'd have to do that anyway with any language learning program. so far i really like it! The only reason I didnt give it 5 stars is because of the free points section. please be careful because there are scammers in that section. Kinda thinking that Kawaii should remove that part completely and just stick with the commercial add points and the "Fox Pop" game points.

A Google user

5 years ago

The name is true in all senses, and the app is absolutely free. I'm nearly finished with the first "page" of lessons and feel I can speak the language in an intermediate level with limited vocabulary. りこはすごいせんせいです。かわいい日本語もすごいせんせいです。There are times I struggled to learn the material but with the ways lessons are broken up, I can proudly say I was never lost. With everything that didn't make sense, I could always review the grammar rules in a panel. This is the way to learn Japanese.

A Google user

5 years ago

I personally have been struggling with learning Japanese for almost a year, often finding myself just relearning the basics over and over. On the other hand, when I use this app I feel a constant rate of progress. Even if I have already learned the subject. I am more engaged than I was before KawaiiNihonGo. Always remember that learning is a commitment. Do your best! I believe in you!

A Google user

6 years ago

The title is a bit misleading. You can really only learn very basic sets of Hiragana and Katakana for free. In order to get anything worthwhile, you have to buy all the expansions. You'll spend about $5.00 to get both of the expansion collections which in itself is not bad really. However i do not think this app with all expansions unlocked will get one anywhere beyond a basic level.

Paul Clegg

4 years ago

Despite the cutesy (kawaii) design, really quite good for learning and practicing the Japanese kanji! What keeps it from 5 stars is that I haven't seen a good way to have the practice lessons "mix it up" with previous lessons. Once I know the less is "ka, ke, ki, ko, ku", I can kinda guess my way through the lesson, since I know I'm only going to be presented with five possible options. If it's the first time you're doing the lesson, sure, you don't want to get distracted, you want to practice those specific hiragana. But it would be good to be able to "mix it up". I can see an option to 'Create your own lesson" but you have to complete one grammar lesson first. I'd really like to be able to test myself against all the hiragana I've "learned so far" and not just individual blocks of hiragana.

Ashly Curtis

2 years ago

This will not teach you Japanese, but it is a *great* tool to learn hiragana and katakana, although with the writing practice only stroke count matters and not actual accuracy, and also to *review* Japanese you're already learning. I appreciate that grammar rules are explained (though simplified in some cases). I would like to see more vocab in the lessons, as well as additional lessons such as dates (names of days and months, etc.). All in all it's a very creative and useful app. 👍🏻

Loveable_Cam223

3 years ago

This is a HUGE help to me learning Japanese, especially with the level units. It's great more both beginners and mid level learners. I also love how you can go back and view lessons as to the fact you can skin past the Hiragana (I chose not to) straight to the Katakana. You can also view the alphabet and how the pronunciation changes. It would be even more fun if you could play with friends, you may be able to I don't know because I'm yet to try. This app is awesome, keep up the work ❗💪

A Google user

6 years ago

I started on the old version, and enjoyed it a great deal. The only problem was not being able to concentrate on memorizing certain cards. This version has fixed that, and I've found my learning to be much faster. I took basic Japanese in college twenty years ago and did okay, but I think I would have aced all my classes if I'd had an app like this to help back then. Arigato gozaimsu!

A Google user

5 years ago

This app is the best for learning Japanese, and it contains everything you need: vocab, grammar, pronunciation, kanji and teaches it the right way. It's also fun and they have mini-games through which you can boost what you learned, and you can always take a lesson you already know to restore a life. The best part is, they have individual lessons and you can unlock a membership absolutely free by watching ads, playing in the arcade, or doing tasks.

Thomas Pylant

5 years ago

Duo lingo is great for learning vocabulary quickly, but is quite overbearing. KawaiiNihongo is much more friendly with its teaching speed, and does a phenomenal job of teaching grammar with the vocab. This app has helped me with realistic sentence building more than anything else I've tried. Just finished the last lesson today, and I'm really looking forward to the new ones.

A Google user

5 years ago

Better than duo-lingo for early beginners! This app teaches you to type, sound out AND finger draw the hiragana, katakana, and Kanji not just recognize them. I like the flash card set up, and the fact that they explain the grammar. Very helpful. The archade games are good for review. A couple of the sounds of characters with tenten are a bit different than other versions I have learned. Overall though, this is my favorite app for early learning I have tried several!

A Google user

5 years ago

Hands down the best Japanese learning phone app out there by a large margin. As of this review it teaches beginner to intermediate Japanese, I hope they update more in the future! The only things I found needed improvement were: Sometimes it doesn't take text input correctly if you type too fast so typing 'no' could end up writing 'お'. Make sure you double check your sentence before you submit your answer! I would like a bit more variety in the sentences used when you learn new vocabulary

D.O.P. D.O.P.

4 years ago

Okay, I've gained a better understanding of how this app works. The alphabet cards at the beginning had really overwhelmed me, so I didn't realize that they were alphabets (I thought they were conjugations). But now that I know that this app was capable of teaching the construction of Japanese sentences, I got excited to learn. I'm not a big fan of the tutorial, but I admire the implementation of visuals, pronunciations, and handwriting correction. I wonder if other Japanese apps are like this?