All Language Resources is an independent review site. If you click a product link, we may earn money from a seller at no cost to you. Writing and analyses are author opinions. Learn More

Japanese

Go! Go! Nihon & Akamonkai Online Japanese Course Mini Review

In our search for the best way to learn Japanese, we came across an interesting Japanese course called Go! Go! Nihon. Here’s a quick review about our findings.

Go! Go! Nihon & Akamonkai Online Japanese Course

Rating 2.7
Price:

90,000¥

Summary

This 12-week beginners Japanese course attempts to recreates the experience of enrolling at a Japanese language school, but from the comfort of your home. You’ll get three to four hours worth of work, including homework, Monday to Friday for almost three months, plus access to a community forum – but it comes at a very high cost. The course is designed to let you pass the JLPT N5  exam, which means you’ll learn the kana, 80 kanji, 1,000 words, and basic survival Japanese for introducing yourself, shopping, expressing opinions, and so on. The lessons make use of text, video, downloadable worksheets, audio files, slideshows that break down grammar, and more. You’re prompted to repeat dialogue and participate in role-plays, and you’ll get the answers to your homework the following morning. However, it’s eye-wateringly expensive. The school justifies it because of the admittedly very high price of studying intensive Japanese courses in Japan. But of course, it’s not really the same as attending a Japanese language school. You’re still studying alone, even though there are learner forums. There’s no pronunciation feedback or group work, just like there aren’t any opportunities to use Japanese outside of the classroom. If you’re happy with the price point and have four hours free each day, then this course might be a good choice for you. However, there are lots more Japanese courses to choose from, most of which are more affordable. Alternatively, you could study a textbook such as Minna no Nihongo or Genki with the help of an online teacher.

Go! Go! Nihon & Akamonkai Online Japanese Course Mini Review Read More »

BunPro Mini Review: Japanese Grammar Flashcards For N5–N1

BunPro

Rating 4.0
Price:

$3/month

Summary

BunPro – not to be confused with Bunpo (review) – is a flashcard-based website and app that focuses on grammar. It’s best used as a supplementary resource, and BunPro knows it. In fact, as you go through the flashcards, BunPro will recommend websites where you can learn more about the grammatical feature or word in question, as well as the page number you should go to in certain textbooks. And as well as opting for the standard course order that seems to correspond with the JLPT, you can choose to study the flashcards in pathways that correspond with Genki, Minna no Nihongo, Tae Kim, and more. You can dip in and out of the pathways as you wish, and add and remove content from your flashcard reviews. Each level is divided into sublevels and themes, which makes it easy to spot material you don’t yet know. There are also community discussions about the different grammar points. You could skip the textbooks and just study with BunPro, although it would be a much more superficial introduction to Japanese. What’s more, you would need additional resources for the kana, kanji, vocabulary, and reading, writing, listening and speaking practice. The clue’s in the name, after all: BunPro wants to help you become a pro at Japanese bunpō or grammar. It doesn’t do much else, but as a supplementary grammar resource, it’s a great tool.

BunPro Mini Review: Japanese Grammar Flashcards For N5–N1 Read More »

Genki Mini Review: Beginner-Friendly Japanese Textbooks

Genki

Rating 4.5
Price:

From $48 per volume

Summary

Genki, along with Minna no Nihongo, is one of the most popular Japanese textbook series around – and for good reason. There are two volumes, and each of them has an accompanying workbook that you can buy. The main text will teach you reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and more. The chapters are focused on a specific activity, e.g. going shopping, which helps you to immediately put the language in context. While not designed to align with JLPT or CEFR levels, studying both volumes should take you roughly up to A2/N4. Genki is slightly more accessible than Minna no Nihongo: it uses English-language explanations and overall teaches less vocabulary and grammar, while still giving you a fairly decent introduction to the language. That said, you’ll find Genki easier to use if you’ve already studied the kana. If you haven’t yet, don’t worry – it won’t take you long to master that with an app like Skritter (review) or LingoDeer (review).  In short, if you’re looking for something beginner-friendly with English explanations, or are just learning Japanese as a hobby, Genki is an ideal textbook. If you’re planning to move to Japan, however, or want to challenge yourself with a more comprehensive textbook, check out our review of the Minna no Nihongo series.

Genki Mini Review: Beginner-Friendly Japanese Textbooks Read More »

Lang Workbooks Mini Review: Thorough Writing Practice

Lang Workbooks

Rating 4.0
Price:

$5.99

Summary

For learners of languages that use unfamiliar writing systems, the Lang Workbooks series can be a helpful and practical way to master the intricacies of writing in their target languages. Among numerous other writing systems, the series includes the Korean, Russian Cyrillic, and Armenian alphabets; Persian and Thai script; the Hindi Devanāgarī abugida; Chinese characters; and Japanese Hiragana and Katakana. The series also covers languages that use the Latin alphabet with diacritical (accent) marks, such as French, German, and Portuguese. Many books in the series have been translated into other languages, such as Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The series also covers writing systems that may have fewer available resources for learners, such as Lao script and the Cherokee syllabary. Each book in the series presents its featured writing system with suggested pronunciations. The practice pages in each workbook have useful features for each letter, symbol, or character, such as a recommended stroke order, font variations, example words, and a “Trace and Learn” section. Each workbook is relatively inexpensive. In addition, the publishers of the series have granted teachers and students a license to make photocopies of the workbook pages for personal use, so you can get unlimited chances to practice. Considering the depth of information in each language’s workbook, the books in this series can provide great value for learners.

Lang Workbooks Mini Review: Thorough Writing Practice Read More »

LingQ Review – Extensive Reading Made Easy

LingQ

Rating 4.0

Summary

LingQ is a language-learning platform that focuses on extensive reading for over 30 different languages. You can import your own content or choose from the community library of books, articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more.

The app highlights unknown words across every lesson and makes them reviewable via different types of SRS flashcards. The more you read, the more accurately you will be able to identify content that is suitable for your level.

Although I did not find it beneficial for languages I had never studied before, I think LingQ can be helpful for upper-beginner to advanced language learners who enjoy reading. It is especially helpful if you struggle to find graded readers in your target language.


Quality 4.0

The LingQ reading app is enjoyable in most languages, easy to use, and can expand your vocabulary. However, I found the user content frustrating to navigate.

Thoroughness 4.0

With the import function, users can choose to study almost anything they want.

Value 4.0

Now that other apps provide similar functions, the monthly subscription may be a bit overpriced. However, the yearly subscription seems fair.

I Like
  • I can easily import almost any material I want to study.
  • I can use SRS flashcards to quiz new words from a specific page.
  • Each lesson in the library displays the percentage of known and unknown words based on my reading history.
  • There are many dictionaries to choose from for definitions.
I Don’t Like
  • Reviewing words is chaotic. Every word you look up gets added to a huge queue that quickly becomes unmanageable.
  • The extra features are overpriced and can be found other places for cheaper.
  • Very little of the content is original. Much of it was uploaded by users from other places.
  • The free version is extremely limited.
Price

Premium membership costs $12.99/mo, $71.94/half-year, $107.88/year, $191.76/2-years; single-language lifetime membership costs $199

When I first signed up for LingQ, I wasn’t very impressed. Its seemingly random lesson library, filled with custom cover photos and inconsistent title formats, made me want to click on just about anything to get away from that page.

LingQ Review – Extensive Reading Made Easy Read More »

OPLingo Mini Review: Community Driven, Non-Profit

OPLingo

Rating 3.5
Price:

Freemium, Premium Subscriptions cost $6.99/mo, $60/Year

Summary

OPLingo is a community-oriented, non-profit language learning site. It essentially combines the functions of LingQ, LangCorrect, Readlang, iTalki, and HelloTalk. The free version gives you limited access to some functions, but by paying for a membership you support ethical causes — such as building a primary school in Tanzania. You can browse user-contributed texts or easily import your own YouTube videos, articles, or ebooks into the Reading Tool. OPLingo has also developed hundreds of audio conversations in several languages, including Tagalog, Cebuano, Thai, Swahili, and Russian. Within each page, you can read a transcript and get definitions and pronunciations of unknown words. By identifying which words you don’t know, the next passages you read will highlight the number of known or unknown vocabulary words. In their Write & Correct section, you can write in over 100 languages and exchange corrections with other users, although Spanish, French, and English learners have a better chance of receiving corrections than other languages at the moment. You can also practice a language by texting with fellow community members, or by hiring a teacher in your target language. OPLingo has a lot of potential and is a good alternative to LingQ, but it needs a community of learners to help it grow — so check it out!

OPLingo Mini Review: Community Driven, Non-Profit Read More »

YesJapan Mini Review: Simple Explanations With Intuitive UI

YesJapan

Rating 4.0
Price:

Free

Summary

YesJapan is a free website and YouTube channel for beginner to intermediate learners. It is based on the textbook series, Japanese From Zero!  The online courses consist of lesson videos, new phrases and words, cultural notes, grammar explanations, dialogues, and quizzes. You can choose to display each lesson’s Japanese words in romaji, hiragana, hiragana and katakana, or Kanji, depending on your comfort level. Also, throughout each lesson, you can add sentences or phrases to be saved to your Notebook for future review. To support your listening comprehension and speaking abilities, every word, sentence and conversation has been recorded by native Japanese speakers. Their 5 levels of courses supposedly bring you from being a total beginner to a high intermediate learner, but since they are each only about 13 lessons long, you will probably need extra support from a tutor or language exchange partner to feel comfortable with the language. Despite what the website advertises, it seems that Course 1 is 100% free, while other courses require an upgrade to a premium membership. The membership also gives you access to the Ask-a-Teacher function. There doesn’t seem to be any writing practice included in the lessons, so you may need to use Skritter, or LangCorrect for practice.  Overall, YesJapan seems like an effective resource to introduce beginners to Japanese in a simple and engaging way.

YesJapan Mini Review: Simple Explanations With Intuitive UI Read More »

NHK World Mini Review: A Quality Introduction to Japanese

NHK World

Rating 4.2
Price:

Free

Summary

Easy Japanese, by NHK World Radio Japan, provides a series of free Japanese grammar and conversation lessons for beginners. The 48 10-minute audio lessons and 48 30-second video lessons are designed like an audio-drama. They will teach you useful expressions through practical everyday scenarios, such as in the classroom, at a bakery, or during conversations with friends. You can keep track of your study records and add vocabulary notes to your notebook in the My Haru-san dashboard. If you haven’t yet learned hiragana and katakana, you will find a table with stroke order diagrams and audio. NHK World recommends using Memory Hint, another free app that teaches you basic hiragana, katakana, and kanji through mnemonic devices. Although it is sometimes a little confusing to navigate, overall, NHK World is a high-quality resource for beginners to start learning the basics of Japanese writing, grammar, conversation, and culture. The bite-sized animated videos and step-by-step lessons seem both manageable and fun.

NHK World Mini Review: A Quality Introduction to Japanese Read More »

AmazingTalker Mini Review: Not Our Top Pick for Web Classes

AmazingTalker

Rating 2.5
Price:

From around $10 per 50-minute class

Summary

AmazingTalker is an italki and Verbling competitor that lets you book classes with language teachers and academic tutors of your choice. It has a lot of attractive features for students, but teachers complain about high commission rates and lack of support. It boasts a 3% acceptance rate for teachers and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with your class, they’ll rebook you another one for free. There are lots of teachers to choose from, or you can also use their AI Matching Service to find a tutor. The teachers’ profiles include videos, reviews, and their résumé. However, AmazingTalker doesn’t seem a great choice for teachers. It charges English and Japanese teachers astonishingly high commission rates of up to 30%. While these rates fall as teachers earn more through the site, they have to make $1,500 a month before the commission reaches levels comparable to italki and Verbling. Making it worse, there’s an additional 8% fee for payment processing and tax that all teachers have to pay, no matter what language they teach.  There have also been complaints on Reddit from teachers claiming to have been harassed by students and fellow teachers. However, we cannot corroborate these. Given all this, we’d recommend trying italki (review) or Verbling (review) first. Alternatively, check out our guide to the best platforms for online language classes.

AmazingTalker Mini Review: Not Our Top Pick for Web Classes Read More »

Verbling Review: Online Classes With Helpful Revision Tools

Verbling

Rating 4.6

Summary

Verbling is an online language-class marketplace where you can take lessons with teachers of your choice. It has some student-friendly extra features, including a built-in online classroom, flashcards, homework calendar, and a filing system for lesson materials. There are also useful but disorganized forums where you can discuss languages, share writing for critique, and do free language drills and exercises.

The lessons are generally high quality and well structured, plus the filters make it easy to find teachers who specialize in everything from accent reduction to interview preparation. 

However, it can be slightly pricier than alternatives, so if you’re on a tight budget, you may want to look elsewhere. It also has fewer languages than some of the bigger competitors, so it might not be a good choice if you want to study Azerbaijani, Khmer, or Yoruba.


Quality 4.5

There are some less experienced teachers, but I found the lessons to be more consistently high quality than on italki.

Thoroughness 5.0

The classroom technology, flashcards, and filing system are fantastic for learners and easy to use.

Value 4.5

Some teachers charge more than on italki, but you get better classroom technology, more privacy, and fewer disorganized teachers.

I Like
  • I quickly found great teachers.
  • The platform’s extra features, such as teacher-made, personalized flashcards, help you review the material learned in each lesson.
  • It seems focused on long-term progression as well as immediate student satisfaction.
  • You don’t have to give out your contact details, thanks to the classroom technology.
I Don’t Like
  • Some teachers don’t use the platform’s flashcards and materials system.
  • There are fewer languages available than on italki.
  • You can only pay in US dollars, plus there’s a hidden fee.
  • The forums need more moderation.
Price

Prices are set by the teacher and range from $5 to $75 for an hour-long lesson. You can get discounts for buying packs of 5, 10, or 20 lessons with a teacher. Every student gets one free trial lesson, after which they’re $6 each.

I’ve got a confession to make: italki is one of my least favorite online language-learning resources. However, it was my go-to option for a long time, and I understand why people love it: it’s cheap, has teachers in nearly every language imaginable, and the app has a bunch of extra community features.

Verbling Review: Online Classes With Helpful Revision Tools Read More »