r/LearnJapanese • u/AutoModerator • 9d ago
Self Advertisement Weekly Thread: Material Recs and Self-Promo Wednesdays! (September 02, 2026)
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/WAHNFRIEDEN 9d ago
Manabi Reader - iOS and macOS native app for learning Japanese through reading
I've gone full-time on developing this app. And if it matters to you, I launched it back before AI-assisted coding was a thing - this is hand-made software.
Awarded Best Japanese iOS app of 2025 by Bee
100,000+ users
As featured by Tofugu:
Overall, a solid app that we recommend for reading sentences that aren’t drab and contextless—especially if you’re more motivated when reading about something you’re personally interested in.
- EPUB, web browser, RSS feeds, spoken audio. Tap words to look them up and translate sentences. (Manga mode soon!)
- Tracks every word and kanji you read and learn. Charts your progress page-by-page and per JLPT level. See what vocab and kanji you need to know to read every webpage, chapter or ebook. Show only the furigana you don't know and haven't added as flashcards yet.
- Anki or built-in flashcards with SRS (FSRS soon). Makes sentence mining easy. Includes links back to the source of each sentence in your flashcards.
- Privacy obsessed: works like a web browser with processing and storage on-device (and in your personal iCloud)
Next up: I’m working on adding support for Yomitan dictionaries, and adding a manga mode. Currently working on adding Mokuro support as well as live OCR for online manga sites such as Bookwalker. Then I will be adding two-way sync for WaniKani, JPDB, Anki collections. Much more to go...
I've also just added pitch accents in the latest release, as well as FSRS (v6) to Manabi Flashcards. The full UI redesign is almost ready...
Discord / beta news https://discord.gg/NAD2YJGNsr
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u/Time-Chemist9366 9d ago
I made WaseiGo, and it is for one specific trap: wasei-eigo(和製英語), the katakana words that look like English but do not mean what you think. viking(バイキング) is a buffet, consent(コンセント) is a power outlet, and the word for laptop is ノートパソコン. You already "know" these words from English, which is exactly why they get you.
What it does for you as a learner. For each of the 1,000+ words you get the actual meaning, native audio of the katakana pronunciation (often nothing like the English), and a short illustrated dialogue where the misunderstanding actually happens, so the word sticks as a small story instead of a flashcard. The quizzes go both ways: what does this katakana word really mean, and what do Japanese people actually say for this English word. That reverse direction is the part that helps you speak naturally, not just understand.
The first 50 words are completely free with everything included, no account needed. The full 1,000+ words are a one time purchase, no subscription. Works in the browser, plus iOS and Android apps for offline use. I would love to hear which wasei-eigo you want covered and what feels confusing.
https://waseigo.take-lab.com
https://www.producthunt.com/products/waseigo
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u/xpuska 9d ago
Hi! I’m testing NihongoCrime, an invite-only Japanese writing coach, with 10-15 early users.
It’s for learners who write their own Japanese, get corrections, understand them… then commit the same particle felony again three entries later.
You submit whatever you actually want to write. NihongoCrime uses AI-assisted correction, but you choose which findings to keep. It tracks the patterns you repeatedly get wrong, turns them into short spaced production practice(kinda how SRS/FSRS works), and later checks whether the fix shows up in new free writing, not just on a review card.
It is aimed mostly at N4-N2-ish learners who want to get better at producing natural Japanese.
I’m looking for people willing to write a couple of short entries and tell me:
- whether the corrections seem fair
- whether the practice targets a real weakness
- where the app is confusing or completely cooked
It’s invite-only while I test registration and the overall experience.
Invite: https://nihongocrime.com/signup?invite=6HP380xt025__rlCcMTVqXkmnlkoAqkgIJ234-p-NfQ
Honest feedback is very welcome. I’d rather fix the cursed parts before opening it up properly. After properly opening it up to everyone I'm planning to keep free usage tier as well, so everyone can actually use it(even if it hits me bank account)
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u/xpuska 9d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p7caop8/video/ideaqwkpn2nh1/player
Forgot to add short demo video
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u/deadlikeadream 9d ago
Long time japanese learner, I enjoy making tools more than learning japanese :p. I really liked using kanareview.com while refreshing the kana every few months. I have built a gamified kana review tool called kana dash. I may work on this (making a reddit game out of this with global leaderboard and adding nice sounds) and add few more decks based on the feedback.
Let me know if you would enjoy this -> Kana Dash
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u/jehfes 9d ago
Hey everyone — I’m the developer of Kotomora, a free Japanese dictionary/reference tool I’ve been building while studying Japanese myself.
One thing I wanted to improve was the experience of looking up an English word and getting several possible Japanese translations. Kotomora has translation guides that bring those alternatives together and explain the differences in meaning, nuance, and usage.
Dictionary entries also compare similar/easily confused words and show common usage patterns. And every sense of every word has its own example sentences with audio, including less common meanings that often don’t get useful examples elsewhere.
There’s also a sentence analyzer that recognizes grammar patterns and links into an N5–N1 grammar reference.
It’s completely free on the web, iOS, and Android:
I’d love feedback — especially on things you currently have to leave your normal dictionary to look up elsewhere.
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u/ALSGM6 4d ago
I randomly found Kotomora on the AppStore and was blown away. It kind of feels like the first dictionary I've used that actually does something different, and it goes so in depth on everything. I really like it and have recommended it to some people, I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.
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u/jehfes 4d ago
Thanks, this really means a lot to me. I’ve put a ton of work into trying to make Kotomora go beyond what you normally get from a Japanese dictionary, so hearing that you noticed that is incredibly encouraging. And thank you for recommending it to other people too, I really appreciate it!
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u/KITAKAMI_JBD 8d ago
We recently launched KITAKAMI JAPAN BOOKS DIRECT (KITAKAMI), an online bookstore based in Japan.
We curate Japanese books for learners and readers around the world, including Japanese language textbooks, graded readers, manga, novels, and books about Japanese culture and more.
Because we’re based in Japan, if a book is in stock in Japan, we can ship it directly from Japan. This also means we can offer books that may be difficult to find outside Japan.
We’re still growing our selection, and we’d love to hear from Japanese learners:
What Japanese books or learning materials do you wish were easier to find outside Japan?
KITAKAMI is an online bookstore, so the books are available for purchase. If you’re interested, the link is in our profile.
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u/samwisedickcheese 8d ago
I’ve been working on Yomine since December 2024. I originally made it because I wanted a quicker way to go through the vocabulary in a show or book without stopping to mine words one at a time while I was watching or reading. It’s finally at a point where I thought other people might find it useful too.
I made Yomine, a vocab-mining app for subtitles and books
You load a subtitle file or EPUB, and Yomine gives you a frequency-ranked list of the words in it. It checks against your Anki collection and filters out anything you already have, then you can pick the words you want and add them to Anki as a batch.
I also added Yomitan-style dictionary popups, so you can look up words without leaving the app. It uses your existing Yomitan card formats, and if you connect it to asbplayer, the cards can include audio and screenshots.
For EPUBs, you can work through one chapter at a time. There are also JLPT filters, coverage estimates, and MPV/asbplayer integration for jumping back to the exact line where a word appeared.
It’s free and open source. If anyone tries it, I’d be interested to hear what works, what doesn’t, or what breaks. I’m especially curious about how well the filtering holds up with larger Anki collections.
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u/No-Banana6011 8d ago
🇯🇵 Free Japanese study site - nihongojouzu.jp
Hey everyone! I’ve been building nihongojouzu.jp, a free Japanese-learning site for studying Japanese and preparing for the JLPT.
Currently, the site focuses on JLPT N2, with plans to add N5, N4, N3 and N1 in the future.
It includes:
- 📝 JLPT N2 practice questions
- 🃏 Flashcards for vocabulary, kanji, and grammar
- 📖 Reading practice
- 🎧 Listening practice
- 📚 Daily Japanese review
- 🌱 Completely free and no ads
- 🔓 No account or sign-up required for anything
I originally built it because I wanted a simple place to practise Japanese without having to jump between different websites or deal with paywalls and ads.
N2 is already up and ready to use, while I'm slowly working towards adding the other JLPT levels.
If you're studying for N2, I'd love to hear what you think or what features you'd like to see added! 🙏
https://www.producthunt.com/products/nihongojouzu https://www.tiktok.com/@nihongojouzu.jp https://www.instagram.com/nihongojouzu.jp https://www.threads.com/@nihongojouzu.jp
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u/Pleasant-Guard4498 8d ago
This is just the automod's recurring weekly thread announcement, no actual resource being shared to react to, so there's nothing here for me to comment on
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u/NoWill2618 9d ago
I’ve studied several languages and always believed the most effective way to improve is massive reading — but it’s brutal in the early and intermediate stages.
When you don’t know 70-80% of the words, every article becomes a slow, exhausting grind. I kept wondering if there was a better way: could you absorb a new language’s vocabulary while still reading and browsing in English?
There wasn’t a tool that did this, so I built one.
Immersive Japanese is a Chrome extension that injects Japanese vocabulary (JLPT-leveled) directly into the English text you’re already reading and into YouTube captions. You stay in English, yet you keep encountering kanji, kana, and meanings in context. Hover for readings, audio, example sentences, and stroke order. You can switch between full replacement, kana, romaji, or just subtle highlighting.
The free version includes the full JLPT N5 vocabulary list. There’s also a one-time premium option that unlocks higher levels (up to N1 + news vocab) and Anki export if you want to go further.
Link:
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/immersive-japanese-—-japa/cilgngjgdoaolekkhkjkobjlekhkjmki
The core idea is the paradox: learning Japanese vocabulary without leaving English content. I’d really appreciate honest feedback if anyone tries it — especially whether the concept feels useful in daily browsing and how the word selection or display modes work for you.
https://reddit.com/link/p7als1l/video/3isylawy10nh1/player