Bunpo: Learn Japanese, Korean

I was a little worried purchasing this app at first, but it is absolutely worth it. It teaches you step by step everything you need to learn first, including the alphabet and explains all the rules and things too, without throwing you in the deep end or expecting you to learn as you go without much explaination. Compared to Duolingo, this app is far better! I found I constantly struggled with Duo and learned nothing and used the translations quite a lot to cheat. I love how it is all set out as lessons, rather than a game with hearts - you redo what you fail until you get it right. I have the lifetime purchase option, I do not regret it one bit.

I appreciate how it teaches you phrases more than it does words. Words are of course also fundamental, but I was at a point where I could say essentially anything I want, but it wouldn’t really sound right. Some of the things I’d say would sound stiff, and the Japanese people I spike to understood me but found my speech sort of awkward. Another thing I appreciate about this app, is it doesn’t just teach you a word and throw you right into it. It really explains how it’s used, when it’s used, and the exact meaning of the word being used. It gives you example sentences for an idea, and after describing it thoroughly, it will THEN send you into a lesson. Bunpo is an incredible tool.

This app is fantastic for learning Japanese (I use it alongside other apps as I find each one teaches something different). Bunpo seems to excel so far with teaching conjugation for Japanese. I have three issues: 1) The sound constantly cuts out, doesn’t play, or seems to glitch at least once every time I use the app. Both the speakers of the language and the sound effects used by the app. It is my only app to do this. 2) The daily streak function likes to just reset itself randomly. I use all my language apps at the same time every night, this is the only one of three that reverts back to 0 before I have a chance to extend the streak. 3) The biggest by far, the appearance of “premium” and asking for more money (a quite expensive subscription in comparison to others too). I paid for a lifetime membership to Bunpo, and have now had features taken away from me as they require an additional subscription *on top of* what I have already paid for a lifetime membership. I can’t even go back to see why I got a question wrong nor can I see past the pop up box showing the correct answer to see how to improve since that’s a “premium only” feature now. A lifetime membership in every other app has been a case of NO further subscription required. I honestly wish I hadn’t bought it now and it really is a shame. The fact that I have already purchased it is probably the only reason I’m still even using Bunpo. I really do wish I could give a higher rating but I did deduct a star for each of these issues. My apologies.

I love it

The main reason i got this (after trying others) was because it had a lifetime price at a reasonable amount - i am so sick of subscriptions!! So far the lessons seem quite appropriate but, i’m learning Chinese and part of the test questions is character recognition - on the screen the characters are TINY and not zoomable making answering questions quite a guess. Um, maybe make them bigger please…? Didnt realise there was a different tier again - platinum. Seems like a sneaky way to hook u in (with payment) then still have to subscribe. I dont know now… Got to 2nd stage and i’m supposed to know Chinese characters and it seems use a Chinese keyboard. What…!? What…!! I stumped how this progression is supposed to work. Also noticed errors in the examples which are different to the test answers. Going for a refund!

Downloaded to get familiar with the basics of Japanese & was already finding it quite helpful. I managed to do 3 lessons in hiragana before noticing everything after that is paid access only. May as well make the app paid to download. If you’re looking for a free app to learn from, this won’t help at all. Shame :(

I’ve been using this app for a while now and its is ver useful for pronunciation of hiragana, katakana and etc…

Great app, has helped me improve my skills in Japanese and make particles easier to identify, but in a lesson, I used kanji for わたし(watashi, I), にほんご (nihongo, Japanese) and せんせい (Sensei teacher) and apparently got the question wrong, even though the kanji was correct. Could you make it so in questions earlier on, kanji used in an answer is valid? I’m unsure if this is the case for all questions or just the first few. Still, it’s a great app and the art is adorable! Highly recommend.

Glad we’re looking at the characters Keeps it simple but informative

For simply re-learning or even learning languages it is really helpful. It asks what you are learning the language for to then provide the course to suit your needs.