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Alternatives

Products that do what Gem and I built an open-source app to learn Japanese does

I've been fascinated by the Japanese language and culture for a while now, and I wanted to create a simple, no-fuss way for beginners to get started. So, I built *[Nihongo](https://nihongo.site/)*, a free and open-source web app designed to help you learn the fundamentals of Japanese in about a month. The name of the app, Nihongo (日本語), is the Japanese word for the "Japanese language." You can check it out here: *[https://nihongo.site/](https://nihongo.site/)* And for those who like to tinker, the code is available on GitHub:…

  1. 1IM

    The idea is actually quite simple. As a Japanese learner and a coder, I've always wanted there to be an open-source, 100% free for learning Japanese, similar to Monkeytype in the typing community. Unfortunately, pretty much all language learning apps are closed-sourced and paid these days, and the ones that are free have unfortunately been abandoned. But of course, just creating yet another language learning app was not enough - there has to be a unique selling point. And then I thought to myself: why not make it crazy and do what no other language learning app ever did by adding a gazillion…

    Sep 2025 · kanadojo.com

  2. 2NS
  3. 3AF

    I'm a long time lurker that recently quit my job to work on my own projects, a lot due to the inspiration from Hacker News. Now I have published my first serious project, an app for learning how to write Japanese characters. It's the app I always wanted but couldn't find when I was studying. It tries to be simple to use, you just start the quiz and go with the flow. There's no need to plan and manage your studies, and it uses spaced repetition for better retention. There's a promo page with more details up at http://www.kanjibyhand.com. It's only for Android so far. The free version includes…

    2012

  4. 4

    Learn Japanese with every new tab

    2019

  5. 5LJ

    Hi HN, Just wanted to share a tool i've been working on to help with my own study routine. It’s a browser extension called Lingoku. The idea is simple: we spend hours browsing the web in English every day. This tool replaces some of the english words with Japanese vocabulary based on your japanese level (Similar to Toucan, but with a better user experience). It’s basically an attempt to make the "i+1" method actually passive, you understand the sentence because it's mostly english, but you pick up Japanese words naturally from the context. It uses an LLM in the backend to make sure the…

    Dec 2025 · lingoku.ai

  6. 6
    Mainichi133

    Learn Japanese, one prefecture at a time.

    Jul 2026 · mainichiapp.com

  7. 7
    Mainichi112

    Learn Japanese each time you open a new tab

    2015

  8. 8IB

    Hi Everyone, I recently wanted to learn Japanese with duolingo but it kept giving me repetitive lessons. So I built an app that gives a variety of lessons from anime. You can try it out here:https://kanjieight.vercel.app/ Thanks everyone.

    Nov 2025 · kanjieight.vercel.app

  9. 9

    Learn Japanese with Anime

    2025

  10. 10
    Douzo127

    Free Japanese typing practice organized by JLPT level

    Mar 2026

  11. 11
    Fujiyama192

    Practice natural Japanese conversation in real-time with AI

    2024

  12. 12

    Learn Japanese hiragana and vocabulary with cute characters

    2023

  13. 13

    Turn anything into a language lesson, instantly

    2022

  14. 14
    Learnji181

    Learn a new language using emoji 😊

    2017

  15. 15
    Kanaji95

    Learn Japanese Kanji

    Nov 2025

  16. 16
    Kann173

    Master Japanese vocabulary you care about!

    2024

  17. 17
    YiChi94

    Learn to speak fluent Chinese Mandarin

    2021

  18. 18

    Learn Japanese with 1000 phrases and intelligent flashcards

    2016

  19. 19

    Read & listen to native Japanese and Chinese, tap any word

    Jul 2026 · apps.apple.com

  20. 20
    Taptaro130

    Tap. Learn. Repeat. 450+ free Japanese words and phrases

    2017

  21. 21

    Learn Japanese vocabulary you care about!

    2025

  22. 22

    Fun game to learn 1000+ Japanese characters

    2016

  23. 23
    Kanso105

    A better way to learn Japanese 🇯🇵

    2017

  24. 24LC

    Just for fun, I built a language learning tool. It represents Chinese and Japanese as graphs of characters, with connections indicating given characters can form a word. It can also decompose characters to give clues on how they're pronounced, analyzes words to understand which ones are commonly used together, and more. It's fully interactive, supports offline use, generates flashcards, has sentences from humans and from AI, and plenty of other features. Check out the README for details. https://github.com/mreichhoff/HanziGraph

    2024 · github.com

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