Ringotan

Useful, has many features, but lacks in design at the moment

I was grateful to find an app that would test my writing ability, as writing practice helps me learn/review, but I wanted something app-based. I’m using it paired with WaniKani and the Minna no Nihongo textbook series.

It has some interesting features but some design choices that made it unusable for me. The worst being a lack of support for dark mode and settings for people with less than great vision. Poor contrast in some places, forced white space in much of the UI. Does not respect increasing font size, etc. For me this was enough to delete the app, if it hurts my eyes to use then it’s no good for me. Other things that bugged me were things like only able to select one learning resource. I know I am not the only one using textbooks and online resources such as Wanikani and jpbd.io. Also, no way I could see to create and save my own learning list, I could select a lot of kanji from the jplt list for a custom study but I could not find a way to save it. On the really big plus side, no ads. If the UI had been designed better to support Apple’s in place mechanisms for vision impaired I could have perhaps dealt with the lack of customizability. If your eyes are great and you don’t a flexible and customizable learning plan then give this app a test run, it might very well work for you. If you are a more advanced learner using multiple resources I think you will also find this app too restrictive. Being free and without ads it’s worth giving it a try. Still searching for a well designed kanji writing practice app.

This app is very useful for getting in spaced repetition for learning Kanji. There is only one thing I would change that would make all the difference. After you get far enough in, the phonetic hint for the kanji is not enough. For example the kanji for 写真　has two characters that both give the “SHA shin” hint but each kanji’s first strokes start in different places. And there are several Kanji that are like that. Even if you know both in your mind if you start in the wrong place it will count it as wrong. If there was a way to hint that it is one character or the other this app would be 5 stars without question.

Using this with my 2 classroom textbooks and Wanikani is really great! It’s frustrating to have so many different arrangements of kanji (in each book), but Ringotan makes it easy to study exactly what you want. I find that writing out the kanji is an important step to learn them, beyond just reading flash cards. Thanks for this!

Duolingo has much to learn from this app. Currently it lets you try using a symbol five or six times and when it thinks you’re good, you never see it again. This app makes sure you never forget (granted you try).

Props to developer for making something to help people learn Japanese and not prioritizing making money.

Very challenging.it helps me to remember the stroke order.

This is an amazing app. I can’t believe it’s free. (Why is this free?!) I’ve learned so much from this app. Very easy to use and it makes learning Kanji enjoyable. 5 stars all the way. Thank you for making it.

I was so frustrated doing anki and other SRS vocab apps because I never got any practice writing the kanji! Ringotan absolutely solves that problem and does a great job teaching stroke order without feeling overly repetitive.