Hi All,
I have learned at my peak 1500 of the kanjis which I think I have mostly forgotten.
I want to learned them again, but focusing on the writing to anchor them. I previously focused only on the recognising which I think was a mistake.
Due to how I consule learning material (never at my desk, always in short segment between real lige obligations) - I am looking for an App to help out. It needs to have the following feature: - kanji drawing capability - flexibility in the order to learn kanji (I don’t want this imposed so I can follow a routine but also add during liiing characters) - ability to add mnemonics (I learned through wanikani and still rely on these mnemonics) - IOS supported
Money is not a factor - if the app is worth it. I am currently trying Skritter and Ringotan, and so far Skritter seem more flexible.
Do you have any recommendation?
I could never get over Skritter’s UI, which I found very unpleasant to use. I’ve been using Ringotan. But honestly I’ve been happy enough with just using an Anki deck where I either write in the air, write with a pen, or just call it up in my mind (the kanji I really have done pat) and just self-grade.
I am currently actively working on an app to solve this exact problem. It is available for both iOS and Android and you can download it at kakikata.app.
One potential problem for you may be the flexibility to add whatever kanji you want. When I initially made this, I made it for myself and my partner to go through the kanji in JLPT order and the app currently forces you along that path; _however_, I had planned to change the way lessons work to make them more flexible, so if that is a deal breaker for you I will prioritize that and try and get a new version available within a week.
I honestly just started working on this full time recently after quitting my job after initially published a rough version 2 years ago, so if you could provide any feedback at all it would be super appreciated, positive or negative. I am also very open to feature requests, so if you feel anything is missing or lacking please let me know and I will to my best to incorporate it into the app.
Kanji study
By Chase Colburn, Android only: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mindtwisted.kanjistudy
I'm currently working through the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course with the SRS from Kanji Study and highly recommend it.
I wish this one was on IOS…
Check out 漢字検定DX
How about Duolingo app?
As someone who uses Duolingo every day for supplemental Kanji study, it has its place, but it lacks a lot. I like that it does have you practice writing the Kanji, and the vocab over time is good. What's bad is that it's difficult to get it to a useful point. To access the Kanji, you have to either do the normal lessons or skip ahead in the learning path, and the vocab they offer is limited to as little as a single word and pronunciation per character. It's good for exposing oneself to new Kanji, but you need to regularly be outside Duolingo to do real learning of the information. As it relates to the OP's bullet list, it also has no learning order flexibility at all, and no mnemonics.
Ringotan lets you pick from JLPT, Genki, WaniKani, or RTK order, so you are not stuck following one textbook's path. That covers the flexibility part without forcing you to rebuild your own deck from scratch.
At some point, everybody realizes that Anki is the best and every other app is just a poor imitation of it.
Does Anki allow writing, though?
I really like Robokana and highly recommend it (granted I’m more beginner than fluent so take this with a grain of salt). It breaks down kanji into their components and gives example words while learning. Very helpful for me
This is the best one for me: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lulilanguages.j5KjAnd Focused on writing and vocabulary instead of readings. Even if you don't plan for JLPT is still useful. I wish there was a payed version so I could throw some money at the devs 😂
Renshuu. The kanji writing practices are great.
Learn Kanji! is on iOS. It's a one time payment and it makes you draw the kanji! I've found it very helpful as I also learn and retain info much better if I write it by hand.
I like Ringotan better than Renshuu for drawing, but it doesn't have the mnemonics part. Renshuu does, and it does have decent drawing, I just started with Ringotan and got used to how it does/doesn't register things. Both are completely flexible order-wise. (For Renshuu, you can learn things from a "to-learn" section in the order you added them, the REVERSE of the order you added them, or in random order (good for when you added a huge block of kanji from some official list that were in reading order, so you don't hit a lesson that's "ten new kanji, all with most common reading かん, many of which have the same phonetic component, have fun telling them apart!). But if you want to fully customize, just only add the kanji you want to learn *right now* to the deck, and then study them immediately.)