Dr. Moku's Katakana LITE User Reviews

Top reviews

Worst app you’d have to buy everything

Only 15-20% of the alphabets are available in the free version. The mnemonics displayed were also stupidish.

Awesome app!!!

I had already bought Dr Moku’s hiragana app and absolutely loved it. I had been really struggling with memorizing all the different Japanese letters and that app made it so simple to learn and actually remember day to day, month to month. All the silly pictures and sayings make it nearly impossible to forget! I thought that I would try and get by with just the lite version of Dr Moku’s katakana. It took me months of practice before I felt like I knew all the letters pretty well. Then I got busy and didn’t work on any Japanese for a month or so, and when I got back to it, the only Katakana letters I could remember were the ones that I learned from the katakana app. I had no problem remembering all the hiragana and the few katakana letters from the lite app because I could associate them with the pictures and phrases. I was so frustrated and tried to practice writing them over and over hoping it would help. I finally decided to go ahead and get the full version of the app. I hate myself for not doing it sooner- All the unnecessary stress! The app is awesome and just as helpful as the hiragana app. I’m so grateful for the stories that tie in all the similar looking katakana. It just makes learning this alphabet so simple. I can’t recommend both apps enough. Spend the money, it’s well worth it! *Also as a side note, I contacted the app support team with a question and they responded very quickly and were so helpful and friendly. I couldn’t have asked for better service.
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A student studying japanese

Very good but the lite version is very limmited and has got hardly any japanese in it I recommend to get the full version even though i cannot buy it due to not having any money of my own pls send me a version where i dont have to pay for a full version since i have my exams coming up.

Amazing

^^

Easy

It is the lite version so naturally it is easy.
But it's very well thought out and the corresponding pictures makes it a breeze to learn.

IMPRESSED

Much more effective than just repetition of the kana over and over again. I put off learning katakana because I already knew hiragana and it took me a while using a different app. I didn't want to spent a long time learning katakana but I learned 13 of them almost instantly! YAYYY

Awesome

It really helps me remember katakana characters. Before I actually started studying hiragana and katakana I thought that katakana would be easier, but imo it's easier to remember hiragana because a few katakana characters look very similar to each other, such as shi and tsu. In just five to ten minutes I was able to remember thirteen characters. The reason I give this four stars is because it's addicting, but there seems to be a small amount of katakana characters. Maybe add another three to five more characters? I still use it even though I already know them just to be safe and I am willing to buy the app if I ever get an iTunes card.
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Incredibly awesome!

This free version contains 13 words to memorize. Now memorizing becomes easier because of this amazing game! I can memorize 13 katakana words in less than 45 minutes!

But the words are too few, if you want more, you have to prepare some dollars to purchase.

Great mnemonics, shame about the bugs!

The mnemonics this app uses are fantastic. It's just a shame the app is buggy. None of the modified katakana quizzes work, and the simple katakana quizzes often have the right answer as two of the four options. It's also impossible to exit a quiz once started, and the actual katakana cards seem to only be available from the quick ref screen. Simple bugs to fix - pls do so, especially given you are charging for this app!
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Dr. Moku katakana

Volume doesn't work even after doing everything asked. Too bad looks like it would be great. Doesn't work on iPad mini just website...

Hiragana and katakana

BEST APPS EVER THEY HELP ME SOO MUCH!!

Some pronunciations are incorrect

This program rather badly confuses certain English and Japanese vowels. For example, it teaches you to associate "ne" with "Neo", the character from The Matrix. "ne" is not pronounced like "knee", it is pronounced like "neigh". If you attempt to learn katakana with this app, you will learn incorrect pronunciations of many of the kana.
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Response from developer

Hello, our mnemonics try to be as basic and rudimentary as possible. But you make a good point. "Neo" is pronounced "ney-oh" by many though!

Great content and graphics, unusable interface

I have no idea what or how this is written, but it is the worst app I have had to use in recent times when it comes to interface. Apple designed a usable interface of navigation controller and view hierarchy, so please use it!

Not s good as hiragana

This one isnt as good as the hiragana fre download. Some of the mnemonic styles are not sensible but I was willing to try them over and over. However when I tried to test myself the quiz gave me the majority of unfamiliar katakana on its easiest setting. Therefore I couldn't test the 10 learnt. I would hope they improve these inconsistencies so the app can be enjoyed.
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Works great

I struggled with katakana on a DS title for a long time. I was a little burned out after learning hiragana on DS through tracing. The similarity of many katakana symbols always tripped me up. This has held me back in reading Japanese.

However... I ran through Dr Moku one time... And took the hard quiz and got every katakana symbol correct. I was amazed at how well it worked! I have never used visual mnemonics before but I am a convert!

Please do one for kanji... Like the most important kanji a tourist should know to survive in Japan.
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