Web sites and apps, the painless way to study Japanese grammar.

Ha, ha! Oh, I’m so funny. There is no painless way to study Japanese grammar. Just a lot of hard work and regular study. At some point, the pain lessens as you become more fluent in regular conversations.

At least, that’s my theory. If it ever happens to me, I’ll let you know.

This list isn’t by any means the full list of what’s out there. It contains entries I’ve had personal experience with.

I roughly break these down into the following categories:

Websites

• Imabi
  This one is the full course meal. The owner of this site has a grand passion for teaching Japanese to others, and it shows.
  Full explanations of concepts, but, you have to concentrate on the explanations, because there is no hand-holding here.
• Maggie Sensei [Patreon]
  I’ve written about her before. so not a lot more to say, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention her again. Sure, she maintains a free website. but please support her by tossing a couple of bucks her way. She is super helpful to patrons, having even corrected some of my sentences!

Apps

These are all guaranteed to exist for Android. For iOS…I dunno.

• JA Sensei
  This Android app is an interesting little duck. It tries to give you everything in one package: kana, kanji, grammar, listening practice, SRS. If you pay for a lifetime subscription, then you get more cool things. And there is a Samurai mode, which gives you even more things, for an extra fee after you pay for the lifetime membership.
  The developer is very active, listens to their users, and is constantly updating the app and the website. For a beginner, there are worse apps out there.
• LingoDeer
  A basics to advanced system of lessons. There is no way to test or change your level before you start, so you are always a rank beginner.
• Busuu
  See LingoDeer, above. These are both good for a beginning student, and they can both probably only take you so far towards fluency. At some point, you will need to go to a more advanced source, like the one mentioned above.

Websites/Apps

• Tae Kim
  This is mainly a website, but a fan also made an Android app that pulls in some of Kimさんの知識. For me, Tae Kim is more of a nice reference tool, rather than something I would use as part of a self-study course outline. This is all personal preference, of course. You might love it.

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OMG, so MUCH stuff out there for the serious student. I don’t know if other languages have this wealth of information. I think Japanese has a bit of an advantage, because

• anime fans
• Japanese over-enthusiasts
• active promotion of Japanese language studies to foreigners by the Japanese government

Wow, and there’s still more I want to say. That will have to wait for another blog post.