Kana LS Touch App Reviews

I tried many apps and this one is not the prettiest one but is very effective for learning kanji. It’s possible to select a subset of characters to work effectively on a few at a time.

perfect in almost every respect. dont deliberate any further and download this truly great app.

I use this buggy app - or rather dont - on an iPad 2 with now IOS 7. All but the first version of the App are not working at all, simply because you cannot write. At the slightest shake of the device your writing gets erased, wich is usually with the start of any stroke. Resetting, reinstalling, nothing helps. The only ease is to keep your device flat on a table, which is hardly practical.

This is an excellent app for people just starting to learn Japanese writing. The UI could use a little attention however. Definitely not the prettiest app in the world.

The UI has some pretty rough edges and obviously no artist was involved. Requires many unnecessary taps and indirect manipulations. Authors do read the Apple iOS HIG! However, the app itself is great! I love how you can draw over the predrawn kana with directions nicely overlaid. Worth its money 100%.

The best application yet for writing and reading Japanese!!! I am constantly pulling out my iPhone to practice writing! I am in the n-series right now. I start with just a few characters, then start adding some more. 5 stars if feature is added where u can save your progress when you exit the program, or if you receive a call. Very frustrating! Great app though!!! Recommended for beginners interested in learning to read/write Japanese!!!

I have been very disappointed in many of the on-line and iPhone Hiragana and Katakana programs . . . and I have explored more than my share. It is way too easy to think you have "learned" kana because you can recognize it. Or, because you can actually write all the characters on paper. I thought I had it down too . . . until I downloaded this ap. It is way too easy to look at a character you just drew on your notepad and think, "looks just like the picture!" But does it? Using this application you can see the characters as YOU drew them, side-by-side with the correct characters. And, even more importantly, you can walk through the character you drew, stroke-by-stroke as YOU drew it, side-by-side with a stroke-by-stroke review of a correctly drawn character. Seem like overkill? Wait until you are in Japan and you try to write something out and hand it to a native Japanese person who is not used to dealing with foreigners. It can look perfect to you when you compare it to the picture in the book, but if you did not use the correct key strokes in the correct order, each stroke starting and finishing in the correct direction and angle, you will get a look of complete confusion from your native Japanese reader. If you REALLY want to be able to write, correctly, in Hiragana and Katakana, you need to spend some SERIOUS time with this program. After you write each character, take some time and really compare it via the side-by-side correctly drawn character. Compare your stroke order, stroke-by-stroke, with the correct character being sure you started each stroke from the correct direction and your slant is going the correct way and to the correct degree. Japanese often make sense out of someones hastily scrawled Kanji and Kana characters, which may seem unrecognizable when you try to compare them to the pictures in the books, by determining the stroke order the writer used for each character. Get one stroke out of order, or leaning at the wrong angle, or start the stroke from the wrong direction, and they will not be able to interpret it. If you really want to impress someone with your Japanese, be sure your writing is perfect. When I worked in a Sushi bar there was a waitress/prep cook who had done the calligraphy drawing of the Kanji characters for the menu. I think she often got more respect and praise than the top sushi chefs from our native Japanese customers (which is saying a LOT!). She had her "masters" in calligraphy writing. At the time I did not understand what all the fuss was about. Then I took my first college Japanese course. I seriously wanted to strangle the professor! How could she be marking this wrong! And how could she tell a week later whether I drew that stroke starting from the left or the right? Believe me . . . she could! And so can almost all native Japanese writers. It is essential so that they can tell the difference between, lets say, a Katana so character and no character. Once they get into advanced Kanji this ability to differentiate the minute details becomes even more critical. And, I can not stress enough, there is a lot of respect given to those who can write these characters correctly and beautifully. If you are learning the Kanji characters as well, be SURE to download the Kanji version of this program --> "Kanji LS Touch." Mina-san . . . gambatte kudasai!

This is an excellent tool for learning kana! I havent spent a huge amount of time with this app yet, but I already memorized the stroke-order and pronunciation of several hiragana and katakana characters. The only thing that I could possibly want next (at the moment) is a randomizer for the practice section.

This is a fantastic learning tool. I would enthusiastically recommend it to any student of Japanese. This also goes for its companion, Kanji LS. I do have a few issues with it, though. Firstly, it has crashed on me a few times. Im not sure what the cause is. Considering how frequently I use it, the amount of crashes is rare enough not to bother me too much. Secondly, the user interface could use some tweaking. My biggest gripe is how the top "bar" of the screen you draw your kana on eats up valuable screen real estate. I often start drawing a downward stroke, but it doesnt appear because I was too close to that top bar. Worse, the "solve" button is in the upper right corner on that bar. If I get to close to it when drawing my "ten ten", I prematurely trigger the solution screen for that kana. I really wish the controls in the top bar could be moved to the bottom bar where I think this wouldnt be as much of an issue. Switching test modes is awkward and selecting ranges of kana to study is also a bit tedious (you have to type in the kana numbers). Despite these issues, I absolutely love this app. It was worth every penny.

Im a college student taking beginning Japanese. Ive downloaded a wide variety of iphone apps devoted to learning Hiragana and Katakana. Some of them have been free, others have been paid apps. Of the many that Ive tried, Kana LS is by far the best and well worth the price. I really appreciate that this app tracks which characters you remember and which ones you dont so that you dont have to waste time practicing ones you already know over and over. The writing practice and writing tests are extremely helpful. It teaches you the proper stroke order in addition to the proper shape. You can choose to start out with just Hiragana or just Katakana which is nice, but you can also drill down to an even smaller level and choose exactly which characters to begin with. This was very helpful for me since some apps try to have you learn them all at once which I found overwhelming. On the tests you can choose from various levels of difficulty. You can have it test you on just recognizing the characters and translating them into their romanization or by being able to draw the characters when given the romanization. You can choose from directly giving the correct answer or by having multiple choice, and if you pick multiple choice you can set the amount of seconds that youre given to answer. Once youve taken a test, it tracks which ones you got wrong. From there, you can choose to only practice those characters and then retake the test with only them. I use this app while Im on the bus or waiting around and its already made a noticeable improvement. Apparently the same developer also made a similar app for Kanji. When I graduate to learning Kanji, Ill definitely be buying that one too.

This makes learning the alphabet easy (relatively speaking). As you learn the stroke order, you automatically learn and memorize the alphabet. Ive downloaded quite a few Japanese language learning apps and this is one of my favorites (along with Human Japanese). Every time Im waiting for or riding on the train/bus, I whip this out and practice.

Ive been using a different program (Real Kana) for a while, to study with. While it is the best flash card type study program (worth its cost and one Id also recommend), having Kana LS to practice writing with has been invaluable. Having to know the strokes also makes recognition easier. I can read handwritten kana much easier, and knowing how to write characters further engrains them into memory, aiding my other studies. I definitely recommend Kana LS (and Real Kana).

Ive had this app for about two weeks trying to get some exposure before moving to japan. As of today I can write and recognize 8 letters in both hiragana and katakana. Highly recommend

Many people have written long reviews, so Ill make mine short :) If your goal is to quickly learn both hirigana and katakana, this is the app you want to download. Five stars, two thumbs up!

Bought this app to help my 9 year old daughter with her Japanese. She is playing with it right now and thinks its a fun game (thats a good sign right there!) The only issues I have with the app are minor. First, I think it is a mistake to put the "Ya, yu, yo" kanas at the end of the alphabet sequence. In every book and class Ive been in, those kanas come between "mo" and "wa". It is like putting R, S, and T after Z. Id recommend putting the kana in the proper (standard) order in a future version. My other issue is only with the stroke shape on certain kana. They are missing small parts (usually the little up stroke tail like on "ki" and "sa"). I used to miss a point or get a knock on the head if I forgot those details, but someone just trying to learn to recognize the kana will still get it so it is not critical. Overall, I think it is a wonderful tool for learning. Looking forward to seeing others from you! Omedeto!

I have it on both my iPhone and my iPad. I just wish the little info button to toggle the hints was in the iPad version too. So 4 stars until then.

Best and fastest way to learn hirigana and katana!

Well, yes this is an awesome app. Its incredibly useful and very helpful as just another method to practice my kanas. I definitely recommend this to anyone learning. Although my one gripe is having the go, ji, zi, etc (you know the ones with the double hatch marks to the upper right hand corner) with the normal ka ki ke ku ko and so forth, I feel as though Im not learning those as an individual kana so much as just adjusting the other ones. Although I guess thats not so much a complaint as a suggestion. Either way this is still a fantastic app. Worth the money.

Would like some way to toggle the word hints during practice other than using my thumb. You can group selections by any pattern you wish, such as wa, re, ne, or sa, chi, ra. Being able to practice strokes with finger swipe feels strangely traditional.

I have tried several other ipad apps for learning hiragana and katakana and while some of them might arguably be a better reference, none of them provided good feedback or a regimented way to practice writing kana like Kana LS. Being forced to remember a glyph without having a guide to draw on top of, followed by feedback on stroke order and shape has really helped.