Most of us find themselves staring on their phones way too much. And yes it is very annoying. Especially if you’re hanging out with someone and the person is constantly looking on their blinking screen. Reading messages which would never have been sent if one had to pay for them. Wasn’t such a bad time back then. You’re now probably aware of all the hours you spending with your phone. Each day and most of the time it’s something like a reflex. To look on your phone when there could be an idle moment. But now comes the good part. Instead of reading stupid stuff on facebook or looking at hentai pics on twitter you can now squeeze in some Japanese learning here and there.
Kanji Box is the name of the little App I’m currently working with on my Phone and Tablet alike. There is even the option to synchronize your data among the two (and a web version as well if I’m correctly informed). What this app does is the following: You can learn Kanji, Vocab and Grammar with it. Sorted after the JLPT. There is a space repetition system at work much along the lines as with WaniKani and Anki but you don’t have recurring batches you need to work your way through. It just shows you the words you don’t know that well more often. You’re answering with multiple choice each time (four choices to choose from) but each time are words with very similar Kanji and readings chosen. That brings two nice benefits. Choosing the correct answer gets more difficult and you are made aware of very different sounding/looking words each time and make them stick better. Nice touch.
Learn grammar with Kanji Box
There is a really neat statistics feature inside the app as well which makes learning Japanese a little like playing a game where you just want to have 100% everywhere. A little like getting all there stars in each difficulty mode in Mario Kart (still playing it). But now on to the things that makes Kanji Box really worth your while: Grammar. Everybody can learn vocabulary and Kanji but using them the right way is the difficult part. The one where you need some experience with the language. There are several in-app purchases available (just 1$ each/four packs total) where you can buy Grammar-packs to practice using particles or expressing location and time or space in Japanese. And honestly, the Kanji Box pricing is ridiculously low. The App itself is just a little under 4$. An absolute no brainer even even you get it for the grammar packs alone.
Inside the various grammar packs you will work with multiple choice as well. There is a also a statistics feature and it just works exactly like the vocab or Kanji part. But there are many different way to learn vocab and Kanji pretty comfortable but few options for grammar. Maybe EtoEto will be something to look out for but so far Kanji Box is the most pleasant way to brush up on your grammar skills. You usually make the mistake of not practicing new learned grammar first hand. You just read the explanations and think to yourself “ok, everything is clear now”. But when you actually find it in the “wild” you won’t know how to deal with it more then often. This is where Kanji Box comes into play and will help you to practice. Seriously get the App just for that, it’s worth it. On a side note if you’re solely looking to learn some new vocabulary I recently signed up with iknow and love their service.
Multiple customization options
Another very neat feature is that you can customize your learning experience to your hearts content. Furigana, no Furigana, only no Furigana for Kanji you already “unlocked”, do what you gotta do. Just try it for yourself. First thing you should do for your Japanese in 2015: Get this App or sign up (free) online, Kanji Box is awesome.
would love to try is just shame no android :(
dont need it if you have facebook, you can use it while youre on FB
Really? How does that work?
I’m glad you reviewed this app! I’ve already downloaded it along with all of the in-app purchases despite not being at the level to make much use of it’s many features. But, I certainly have something to look forward too! Thanks for helping to introduce me to all of these great products to assist in learning Japanese! Not only are they great for the purpose of learning but most of the things that you cover sound like a lot of fun! Isn’t that the best way to learn a language? Apps! Manga! Graded readers! The more context the merrier! :D I will definitely be trying out a lot of your recommendations! But first I need to improve my Japanese! If I am ever able to read something as simple (…Or complex, from my perspective 0.0) as a Japanese level 0 graded reader, I will feel accomplished! That will be a real achievement! I can barely imagine what might come next!
Kanji Box is great and especially the grammar features come in very handy. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to read the Japanese Graded Readers series pretty soon. Will be a great reward for all the hard work and time you spent learning Japanese. I clearly remember how difficult I thought よつばと！was in Japanese when I bought my first volume (have to admit the first one actually is a little more difficult than the rest of the bunch). It’s probably not such a bad idea to re-read som stuff you started with and had some problems, come back to it at a later date and notice all the progress you’ve made.
Hi ! I`ve seen a lot of learning tools and the best I`ve stuck to is iknow.jp. Its Japanese Core course is awesome. You are able to learn alphabets and words along with their real usage in sentences. All sentences are voiced. Has android and ios apps. It`s fee-based service but it’s worth it. You should try.
Thanks a lot for letting me know about this site. I already knew the Anki decks of the Core 6000 “program” but what iknow (which offered their sentences formerly for free as far as I know) did with it now is amazing. Really, it’s just perfect. Instantly subscribed for 6months.
Hi Jakob
Nice review, Kanji Box is a neat app – if you like that you’ll probably also like the online/mobile games at http://www.kanjigames.com
Enjoy!
Oliver
Kann dem nur zustimmen :) Hatte die App damals während meines Japanologie-Studiums immer verwendet! :D Ziemlich nützlich zum auffrischen und irgendwann klickt man automatisch auf das Richtige und damals konnte man noch auf Zeit gegen andere sein Wissen austesten, weiß nicht mehr, ob das bis heute noch geht.
Die battle funktion klingt wirklich sehr cool. Leider habe ich hier niemanden gegen den ich antreten könnte. Da kommt eine Japanologie-Studium dann schon ganz gut. Wie lange hast du eigentlich studiert, bis du zu Jura gewechselt bist?
Hmm merkwürdig, früher konnte man gegen irgendwelche Leute, die die App haben, sein Wissen zur Probe stellen :/ Ich hab ein ganzes Jahr studiert :D Ich musste mich auch ziemlich schnell entscheiden, da ich ja Bafög bekomme, musste ich mich spätestens vor dem 3. Semester beim Prüfungsamt etc wegen dem Fachwechsel Bescheid geben :) Weißt ja, manchmal brauchen die sehr früh Papierkram und brauchen dafür unendlich lange -__-
Aber Leute aus einem anderen Institut können, auch einfach in den Japanologie-Kurs gehen, wenn sie nett fragen. (Selbstverständlich ohne Benotung)
Wahrscheinlich habe ich die Funktion einfach noch nicht entdeckt :) Japanologie zu studieren ist mit Sicherheit spassig. Die Frage ist nur leider was man damit später mal macht. Ging dir wahrscheinlich genauso. Da ist man dann als Selbstlernen besser bedient. Japanisches Recht kommt übrigens super. Hat meine Freundin als Schwerpunkt gemacht. Vielleicht planst du das ja schon :)
Japanologie war ziemliche gut, um die Grammatik zu verinnerlichen bzw. besser nachzuvollziehen (,obwohl ich gestehen muss, dass der Satzbau bei den Japanern ziemlich aus den Rudern geraten kann :’D das merke ich beim Übersetzen, da muss ich oftmals ‘nen ticken länger nachdenken). Japanisches Recht?!?!?!?!! Ich hatte mal ‘nen Flyer bei uns gesehen, dass einige nach dem 1. Examen in Japan ein 3-monatiges Praktikum machen können, aber den Schwerpunkt habe ich an meiner Uni leider nicht :( Ich könnte nur über Wettbewerbsrecht am nächsten hinkommen :( Und sonst bieten sie hier nur Wirtschaftsrecht in China und evtl. Strafrechtszweig in Südkorea an. v.v