Human Japanese HD | Learn Japanese with your personal sensei-in-a-box™

I would strongly recommend this app. It’s a textbook, but with lots of pictures, sound, some video, and links to deeper explanations of the words and sentences. It has animations of hiragana and katakana as well as tips on how to keep them straight. It’s great for initially learning about a topic. The author writes with humor and style. He even takes breaks to provide lessons on Japanese culture to break things up. It feels like a very personal experience. The app is titled ‘Human Japanese’ and that fits very well. The app can’t do everything on its own. I recommend the iphone/ipad app “Learn Japanese!” for help memorizing hiragana and katana. The “Learn Japanese to Survive” game series for PC (on Steam) is another great tool for learning the kana, especially if you like JRPG games. I also strongly recommend a note card program for vocabulary memorization. I use Anki, which is free on PC but available as a paid app on mobile. Finally, I would recommend Duolingo as a secondary source and review tool (but not as a primary source as Human Japanese is MUCH better at initially presenting material. Duolingo keeps me motivated and has an effective way of presenting information that helps you remember, but Duolingo’s Japanese course is very weak on explaining the material it initially presents. When you pair this Human Japanese app together with some other sources for memorization and review, its a super effective combination.

This app is packed with interesting knowledge and interactive features that makes learning Japanese fun! I started with this, and recently picked up Rosetta Stone. I think both apps are great at what they do, but together become an awesome set of language tools. Since I started with Human Japanese first, I already had a lot of the basics down, and was able to quickly plow through the first several sections of Rosetta Stone. However, I don't feel like one could replace the other, but rather that they both bring something unique to the table. Since Rosetta Stone is focused more on association, and pronunciation, I've been using it for the 'What' and 'How', and then using this app for the 'When', 'Where', and most importantly 'Why' side of things. For example, the fact that は can be pronounced 'ha' or 'wa' in specific cases is easy to understand after going through the early chapters of Human Japanese, though I imagine it could be confusing the way Rosetta Stone presents it, if you don't know anything about particles in the Japanese language. On the flip side, Rosetta Stone has tools to grade your pronunciation, and can teach new things without using any English at all. Personally, I'm glad that neither of these try to do both, and I think it would be silly to expect them to. I personally enjoy using Human Japanese for new concepts, history, and in depth understanding of how the language works. Then I use Rosetta Stone to solidify what I learned.

I tried the trial version of Rosetta Stone and felt sticker shock when I saw how much doing the rest of the lessons would cost (at least, compared to other apps on the App Store), so I browsed around and found this. It's definitely worth it! The format is like an interactive textbook, and the author has a nice friendly style with well-designed lessons. I love being able to press anything to hear how to say it. I also like the quizzes and mini-games, as they are useful for practicing when I'm short on time. And finally, I like how the syllabaries are presented. Learning to read them was my biggest obstacle in Japanese, as many books and websites seem to just assume you know them. This app forces you to practice with games and practice problems, and learning them just seems natural.

I am fluent in Spanish and speak native English. When I started to learn Japanese I tried many different programs. I don’t have access to any tutor led japanese learning classes or any teacher led programs, so finding something where you can truly come to understand the language is difficult. The Human Japanese series as a whole is incredibly thorough and a great way to get deep into Japanese. Its written and organized very well. Its not a cookie cutter program and I’ve tried many others. Name it and I’ve tried it. This is a the single most successful program I’ve seen in learning any language for self-learners.

I have been using HJ for 3 years now, has definitely been my preferred choice of learning even over my school classes. No complaints on how this is taught. Everything is told to you, nothing will be hidden. Things are explained as to why they are how they are. That would be cool if there was more customization like a theme available, but it's nothing that affects the learning. However, if you are someone who isn't good with only being able to read and hear by learning and take notes then this probably isn't for you. If you enjoy learning by getting to read and write notes then this is perfect.