Japanese resources for Android

[phil321]

Hi, besides Ankidroid, are there any other Japanese learning apps that I can install from Google Play Store? E.g., Japanese-English dictionaries that let you look up words on the fly? Thanks.

[laddr]

Tons. A few that I use or have tried is Jalup, ebireader, line, hellotalk, japanesepod101, podcasts. I don’t have a good dictionary recommendation though.

[cophnia61]

I use DroidWing for EPWING dictionaries.

I use the “Kenkyusha Daijiten” as a Japanese to English dictionary with it.

[phil321]

Thanks. Can you please provide a link to the Kenkyusha Daijiten?

[cophnia61]

Matt vs Japan has put a link under the description of this video.

[sholum]

Is anyone here familiar with the different reader apps for Android?

What I want is an application that can display txt files (stuff from ncode.syosetu.com), but more importantly has a character counting feature.
Dictionary support would be nice, but not super important.

Basically, I’ll be away from my computer for an extended period during the next Tadoku and want to be able to calculate my score from my phone.

Do y’all know of a reader app that will facilitate this?

[Skullclutter]

Akebi is my go-to dictionary (JP-ENG, can draw kanji to look it up, can automatically add a word to Anki)

And I use Tangoristo (NHK Easy, NHK etc reader, tap to look up a word, can colour code words by JLPT level, or review words by JLPT level before you read the article)

[sholum]

So I found a workable (if mildly inconvenient) solution: Google Docs.
Now I’m just debating whether I want a reader or not.

[phil321]

What is a good android app for playing mp3 files? I’m looking for one with separate bass and treble controls. Thanks.

[phil321]

Can someone please recommend an Android app for inputting Japanese kanji and kana text? I have a Japanese grammar book in searchable .pdf on my smartphone; unfortunately because it does not have romaji I cannot search inside it unless I can input kanji and kana. Thanks!

[sholum]

I use Multiling O keyboard.

[phil321]

Thanks. Does it work when you’re not connected to the internet?

[sholum]

Yes. It’s a keyboard you replace your normal keyboard with.

[pm215]

I use the ‘Google Japanese Input’ keyboard/app, which I think is the ‘stock’ IME for Android. I can’t remember at this point if I had to manually install it or if it was on this tablet by default, but it seems to be in the Play store if it’s not on your phone already.

[phil321]

Thanks. I installed the Google Japanese Input keyboard this morning. It works great.

[Bokusenou]

There’s a bunch of recommendations here although I haven’t updated it in a while, but all my main recommendations are there. (By the way, I just came over here after finding the Koohii forum dead, and searching around in archive.org backups of it to find a link to this site. I took a long break from the Koohii forums after a lot of setbacks happened in my personal life all at once, so I’m still getting used to this place. )

My favorite Japanese-related Android apps besides AnkiDroid:

• EBPocket Pro (For browsing EPWING dictionaries. Once you’re around JLPT N2 level or higher EPWING dictionaries start becoming more useful than the sparsely worded definitions at jisho.org and other sites/apps which use the same data. The app is paid, but there’s a free version with less features you can try.)

• アルテ日本語入力キーボード (A flick style keyboard with time-saving enhancements. Google Japanese Input is good too.)

• the kanji games here (Lots of free kanji games I like to go through when bored.)

• Abema TV (A free app to watch Japanese TV shows, with different themed “channels”. VPN needed if not in Japan.)

• NHK Radio (NHK’s radio app, with different programs from talk shows to foreign language learning programs to music. Has three different channels. VPN needed if not in Japan.)

• Asobigokoro’s escape games (Some of the stories are really good on these. If, like me, you’re not good at escape games, you can typically find walkthroughs online. My recommendation on where to start is the あやかし夜市 one, which really reminded me of Spirited Away or Natsume Yuujinchou. It’s a must play game if you like youkai/supernatural-themed stories. I don’t remember the dialogue being too hard either, but I’m an advanced learner and it’s been a while since I started out with Japanese, so make of that what you will. )

• Yomiwa (It has dictionary functionality but the thing I use it for is the awesome OCR feature. You can take a picture and highlight the words to look them up. I wish it had a kokugo/monolingual dictionary option, but it’s still pretty good for what it is. I think the OCR feature was a paid in-app-purchase.)

• 常用漢字筆順辞典 FREE ( It helps me when I forget a kanji’s stroke order. It’s only on the Japanese Play Store but you can likely find it on ApkPure.com or other sites, or just use a VPN and download it from the Play Store once. Then you get updates automatically without needing a VPN.)

• Fadosh (Reads Aozora Bunko-formatted books aloud while highlighting the text so you can follow along.)

• 読書尚友 Free ( An Aozora Bunko-formatted txt reader.)

I don’t have time to put in links to everything now and most of the things I didn’t link to are linked to in the wiki article above, but if you can’t find anything just let me know!

[phil321]

I made an interesting discovery about Akebi. It seems that in almost every case for the jouyou kanji the very first English meaning given is the Heisig keyword. This is VERY convenient!

[pm215]

I tend to treat that as a sign that the dictionary is not very trustable for ‘kanji meaning’ (to the extent that such a thing is well defined at all), given that Heisig keywords are definitely not kanji meanings… (Chances are it’s using the same KANJIDIC data everybody else uses, though.)