Must have books and apps to learn Japanese

These are helpful resources to Learn Japanese! The must haves are indicated by [Recommended] tag!

Quick Links [Index]

Helpful App to Learn Japanese
   • Easy Learn Japanese Android App
   • Komorebi: Japanese Word Drill
Recommended Self-learning Textbook
   • TRY!
   • Shin Nihongo 500 mon
Common Staple Textbook
   • Genki
   • Minna no Nihongo
Recommended Dictionary
   • Grammar Dictionary
   • Electric Dictionary (Denshi Jisho)
Books for Listening & Conversational Purpose
   • Shadowing
   • Yasashii Nihongo
Books for Beginner’s Reading Practice
   • Ghibli’s Picture Book
   • Easy Manga
   • Bilingual Comic

Resourceful Android App to learn Japanese

Try Series [Recommended]

While most course will recommend you to use/buy the genki & minna no nihongo series, we believe that this book is more cost effective and better for self-learning. This is because the book is focusing in grammar pattern, one at a time and give you enough short English explanations that help you to understand the pattern you’re currently learning about. But this book doesn’t cover in-depth explanation about the pattern, in some case, you might need supplementary grammar dictionaries at the beginning to help you. Click to see more detailed review.

Becareful though since this series are also provided in Thai & Chinese. These links below are links for English version.

Shin 500 Mon JLPT Series [Recommended]

This book is filled with questions categorized into 3 section (kanji,vocabulary and grammar). It is best used with Click to see more detailed review.

Recommended Dictionaries

Denshi Jisho (Japanese Electronic Dictionary)

This is a very helpful tool when you want to start increasing your vocabularies by reading manga or playing games. Most manga and games have very few furigana, and you will have trouble identifying the kanji. You can draw the unknown character on the denshi jisho to identify them easily. Not all denshi jisho worth the price. The best & only one you need is the one with Kenkyusha Japanese – English dictionary. Click here to read more details. Or here to learn how to use it.

Current cheapest model you can easily find is the XD-K9800. Or if you’re feeling lucky, try to search for a used XD-U9800 or XD-D9800, you might get a lower price. The recent model is the XD-G9800

Common Japanese Staple Textbook

Genki & Minna no Nihongo are two major staple textbook used in a lot of Japanese courses.

Books for Listening & Conversational Japanese

You can live in Japan without able to read hard Japanese sentence. If you want to focus on studying conversational Japanese, be sure to get The First Japanese Textbook for Foreigner in English, then move on to Shadowing series. Use Yasashii no Nihongo book when you’re ready to hone your listening skill. Click for more information about learning for conversational purpose.

Books for Japanese Beginner’s Reading Practice

Note that you need to have at least basic knowledge about Japanese grammar before starting to use these book to practice. Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar is a great book if you just want to read one book before you start jumping into reading manga / children books.

As a beginner, you want to read something which equipped with furigana, use everyday language with as little made up word as possible (most fantasy manga will be hard to read). Children books are your best bet. One of the best children book series is Ghibli’s picture book. They are very thick (over 150 pages) and really worth the price. If you prefer manga though, you can try easy to read manga such as >Bilingual books are for intermediate learner since they don’t have furigana. You will need electronic dictionary to help you read.

Ghibli’s Movie Picture Book

Big picture book with over 150 pages with scene from the original movie. Really worth the price. Especially if you’re a fan of Ghibli’s! If you plan just to buy one book for Beginner’s Japanese reading practice, get one of these books 😀 This is also a great book as a gift for friend.

These books use elementary level kanji and aided with furigana so you can search for the kanji’s meaning on dictionary easily. Check out the detailed review here.

Easy to read Manga for Beginners

If you just started to learn Japanese, you can’t simply pick any manga to learn. In fact, most manga will not be a good learning material. Click to read more about this.

If you want to use manga as your reading practice material, you can pick these mangas below. They are all equipped with furigana and have simple everyday conversational sentences with funny & adorable characters!

Bilingual Manga for Reading Comprehension Practice

This bilingual manga is made for Japanese people who wants to learn English. But it can also be used other way around. For beginners though, easy manga equipped with furigana is better since this bilingual book isn’t equipped with furigana. To read the kanji you will require a denshi jisho to help you.