Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese is not a phrasebook or an app that will get you speaking from day one. Instead, it is a guide that was made with the intention that learners would refer to it only when they don’t understand Japanese grammar. If you love grammar, technically you could read it from start to finish, but the guide seems most helpful as a supportive tool during your studies. That being said, learners have complained about oversimplifications and mistakes throughout the guide. Tae Kim will explain everything from scratch, breaking down sentence constructions so you can make sentences on your own. The English translations reflect the Japanese sense of the meaning, so you will be reading the literal translation of each sentence. Japanese words are typically displayed using kanji, but if you tap on a word, you can get a popup of the pronunciation in hiragana. You should already know hiragana and katakana before using the guide, as Tae Kim doesn’t use romaji at any point (Write It! Is a simple, free app that can introduce you to kana, or you can subscribe to Skritter for kana and kanji practice).