# Nihongo Lessons — user reviews > 33 indexed App Store user reviews of Nihongo Lessons by Serpenti Sei Japan, rated 4.80/5 from 126 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nihongo-lessons/id1640204242/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nihongo-lessons/id1640204242.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 110 · 4★ 9 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 3 ## Newest reviews (10 of 33) ### 5/5 — Excellent Japanese Learning App *2024-03-19* I recently came from Jalup and started using this app. I am very impressed - the interface is simple and intuitive, and the spaced repetition system works much better to prevent getting overwhelmed with reviews as you get deeper into the sentence packs. The developer, Chris, was super helpful in answering some questions I had about importing my Jalup progress and getting me switched over from the legacy app. I am currently using this Lessons app for kana and sentence packs in combination with Nihongo Pro for Kanji / Vocab. Great combo, and it helps that the card interface is the same with the simple swipe gestures in both app. I highly recommend you give these apps a trial run to see if they suit your learning style and goals! ### 5/5 — JALUP lives on *2024-03-18* Thank you for saving this, it is some of the best Japanese learning content out there. Instantly bought the full set. Clean and snappy interface as well. Do you have a timeline/ballpark for when kanji will be added? **Developer response:** Thanks, so glad you're liking the updates! I'm honestly super embarrassed it's taken me this long to get the kanji content in, but I'm trying to do something new and pretty different from the Kanji Kingdom content (and honestly any other kanji learning content I've seen), and use the etymology of each character to inform how I teach them. I'm getting the etymological data ready now, which will first come out in a Nihongo dictionary release, hopefully in the next month. Then I'll build that into the Nihongo Lessons content, with a ballpark release date of this summer. ### 5/5 — Good support *2023-12-08* I had a problem with purchasing the beginner version and the support answered immediately. ### 5/5 — This app will be the anchor of your Japanese studies *2023-12-02* The best source for true I+1 comprehensible input Japanese cards out there, with a sleek modern interface and amazing dictionary integration! A fantastic update to the JALUP decks. Add this to your Japanese studies-don’t skip any days-and you won’t regret it! ### 5/5 — Great so far *2023-06-15* I just found out about JALUP and am so glad that someone is maintaining the project. No problems with the app so far and I’m excited to see how you grow this project moving forward! ### 5/5 — Thank you for preserving such awesome content *2023-04-02* As someone new to the Jalup community, I am thrilled and relieved that you not only saved such incredible content from the possibility of abandonment, but improved on the app presentation! Thank you! I’ve already paid for the full package in the app, and I’m loving the quality and experience. Looking forward to seeing what else you have in store for us in the future. **Developer response:** I'm so glad you like the app! I've got lots of good stuff planned, so stay tuned 😄 ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2023-03-07, version 1.0.6* Continuing Jalup with this new app is awesome! There are a lot of cool features I did not know I wanted such as reviews not piling up causing me to actually do my reviews more often! The layout of the flash cards are great and very intuitive. The learning feature blows the old Jalup app away as you take the time to learn the card instead of just accepting and waiting until the next review. Overall I highly recommend this app for anyone wanting to learn Japanese! ### 5/5 — Great! Just needs the Kanji section added *2023-01-01* Great! Just needs the Kanji section added then it will be perfect! Good audio and good n+1. **Developer response:** Glad you like the app! Kanji section is definitely on my shortlist. 🙂 ### 5/5 — Liked it~ *2022-12-28* Ooh, nice one! Really like the concept of one new word in a sentence and building up the definitions in Japanese based on the words we’ve learnt. I’m yet to unlock the levels, the price is quite high but I’d like to complete the whole level and see the results, it seems like quite an effective method~ ### 5/5 — Do you have Nihongo.app? Then this is an Instabuy. *2022-12-20* I never knew about Jalup, but should have. If you have and love Nihongo you know what to expect, this is serious quality at a serious price. Pro tools are serious $$$ and “Nihongo Lessons” is in this “professional” space, it has a LOT of structured content in those decks. My user case: intermediate to advanced, but haven’t used Japanese seriously in years, started to forget things, so bought the full monty as a “refresher course.” Even if you’re at a higher level, give this a download and try the first few decks to get a feel. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Bonus that it integrates with Nihongo with very little friction. One of the other reviewers mentioned iPad, I’d love to see the app optimized for iPad but it’s not a dealbreaker. It’s is in my iPhone dock and gets used every day. Really looking forward to the Kanji decks but busy enough with filling gaps in my grammar and vocabulary now. **Developer response:** So glad you like the new app! 😁 iPad support and kanji decks are definitely on my short list of features to add in early updates, so expect them in the coming months! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Awful sentences. *2024-04-10* Most of the content in this app is so repeated and not varied enough to warrant the price. I'd like a refund on it to be fair as the quality of the content is not justifiable. **Developer response:** Sorry you're disappointed with the content. If you have specific feedback definitely reach out to me at chris@nihongo-app.com, I'd love to improve the app. For a refund, you can do this via https://reportaproblem.apple.com. If you run into any problems, please let me know. ### 2/5 — Very confusing *2024-12-23* It's unclear what to do with the cards. Do I have to swipe? Which way? Is there a different more clear mode of input? The explanation modal flashed for a second and there's no way to bring it back. This app needs an interactive resumable and restartable tutorial. **Developer response:** Sorry for the confusion, yeah agreed that I need to update with an improved tutorial. Basically the answer is that you need to swipe the cards. When you tap on the card to flip it, little markers will appear showing what each direction means. Either you got it "correct", "OK", or "wrong". You can also swipe towards "back" to bring back the previous card. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me at chris@nihongo-app.com ### 2/5 — Clunky interface *2024-01-02* The interface pales in comparison with Bunpro for grammar. Only positive is the writing practice for Kana. Otherwise I use Nihongo flascards for Kanji writing practice, but I use WaniKani to learn them. **Developer response:** Appreciate the feedback, I'll keep working on improving the interface for grammar. It's early days for this app! If you have any specific aspects of Bunpro you really like, I'd love to hear about them. Feel free to reach out at chris@nihongo-app.com. ### 3/5 — Very expensive *2025-01-07* The app looks really interesting und motivating to me, but honestly - 129€ for only one level and 350€ for all levels - this is way too much. You should add monthly descriptions or cut the price to a level which is in relation to other high quality learning apps. Regards ### 3/5 — Awesome App with One Big Flaw *2023-01-21* I love this app. As a UX designer, I give the app’s UI a big thumbs up! It looks nice (though dark mode would be nice), it’s easy to use, and the flash card feature is super intuitive. But as a learner of Japanese and former language teacher myself, I’m skeptical about ONLY reviewing words in the context of a sentence. Learning a word in context is great! And I love that about this app. However, reviewing a word in context? Hm… how can I really test my ability to recall a word if it’s always in a context that gives away the answer? The struggle to recall a word is what really helps you learn vocabulary. That’s what any learning designer will tell you, and that’s the whole point of flash cards! Does this app help you accomplish that? Not really. Humans are really good at memorizing a sentence when they have cues. After I’ve reviewed a sentence a few times, I have the meaning of the sentence memorized, even if I haven’t memorized each word individually. Let me give you an example. I just reviewed the sentence, “ここでは、日本人は稀だ.” I can easily remember what the sentence means after reviewing that sentence once or twice, therefore I can tell you what 稀 means. Remembering the meaning of a sentence is easy because it’s full of cues. But what if you showed me the word 稀 on its own and asked me to recall the meaning. Could I? Probably not. Or what if you asked me if I knew the Japanese word for “rare”? I would probably not be able to pull the word 稀 from the recesses of my memory. Here’s my recommendation to the product owner. First you need to teach the word in context (as you’re already doing), and THEN you need to quiz for understanding using just the Japanese word. If you really want to test my understanding, then surface the Japanese definition and make me remember what the word was. That would be so good for learning! It would also really differentiate you from anything else I’ve seen. At the moment, this is an awesome app that just doesn’t accomplish its purpose. I think if you add the features I mentioned above, you’ll have the best Japanese learning app on the market. **Developer response:** Thanks, this is excellent feedback and makes a lot of sense to me. It's early days so I'm definitely open to changing things up. I'll be thinking about how to best incorporate this advice into a future update! ### 4/5 — It’s great but, ¥50,000?? *2025-05-11* I really wanted to practice more on the levels but when it was thinking about unlocking the other parts I got hit with 20,000円 to unlock each section, and a hope crushing 50,000 for a full unlock of all cards. I get that there was a lot of hard work out into the app but god damn. I can’t even afford $345 for food much less on the app. ### 4/5 — Omgg!!! It’s SOOO expensive for more days to unlock!!! *2025-04-20* When I finished my first section, I pressed the unlock button on the next section and it says it cost $100?!?! For an app that is hella crazy! Other than that the first section is good, maybe like the dictionary, maybe add the meaning for some of the words and why they are there? **Developer response:** Nothing to announce right now on the pricing, but I've heard the feedback and am working on something! Not sure I totally understand your second comment. If you want to elaborate, feel free to reach out to me at chris@nihongo-app.com! ### 4/5 — 8/10 *2025-01-07* This apps progression system is awesome. As your learn it changes the letters to what you learned. Ano, あno, あの It also ties into their other app which is just called Nihongo. If you’d like maybe a more in depth definition there’s a book in the corner that takes you to their dictionary app. Only gripe is the pricing. To pay 110 for each pack or 200+ for all 7 packs is a little rough. If you have their premium on the dictionary app you get 15% off. Not sure if you buy one pack if the pricing goes down. Over awesome for beginning. Recommend. ### 4/5 — english meaning をお願い *2024-03-25* it’s a great app. would be even better if there is translation for every sentence. **Developer response:** Thanks for this feedback! I'll add it to my roadmap. 🙂 ### 4/5 — Fantastic app with great potential *2023-03-07* So far I’ve enjoyed using the app. Quality content with quality audio. I have two requests for improving my experience. I wish there was a way to automatically play audio when flipping the card. I use the front to quiz my pronunciation and understanding and would like to automatically hear the audio upon flipping the card. Often, I have long car rides. I’d like to play the cards while driving to maximize my studying time. **Developer response:** Just released an update adding the ability to control when the audio is played! 😄 Car-mode is still on my backlog, but it's a great idea. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great app but still needs a few QOL improvements *2026-01-21* I’m learning a lot and the format is well structured. The app needs notifications and a way to add your own notecards for review. Would still highly recommend over Duolingo. ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-01-17* It’s a great app to learn Japanese. ### 5/5 — Learning to be the best *2025-09-23* I appreciate how the app tailors its lesson to my goals. Based on how people actually learn to speak, the curriculum draws from real life material and past lessons I’ve mastered, so I never feel like it’s useless pedantry. More intense and serious than Duolingo, it has set me on my goal to read all of Harry Potter in 日本語! Nice work! 素晴らしいアプリ! ### 5/5 — Is great if you actually want to learn Japanese *2025-01-11* It is definitely the best app for it but it costs a bit to use after a point ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2025-01-05* I started learning Japanese with Duolingo and was looking for something to supplement my Duolingo progress. This app is very well crafted! I appreciate how it gives you review cards each day and builds your understanding of vocabulary alongside growing your familiarity with the hiragana characters. Highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Continues a great app *2024-12-30* Everything we love about Jalup cranked to 11. The app is a major improvement over its predecessor, which was already splendid. The dev has been maintaining the app, which has been a boon. Nothing gets you reading Japanese faster than these cards with consistent practice. ### 5/5 — Amazing! *2024-11-10* I use the dictionary app already, so i tried this and i love it! its free too! ### 5/5 — Really cool *2024-09-26* Takes a few of my favorite learning methods and combines them into one app. Especially, features I would expect in other apps, but just aren't. Simple stuff, like curating a bunch of progressively harder native material (starting from Yotsuba to stuff like One Piece), with built-in "Anki" decks for all of it. Things I could hypothetically do myself, but really appreciate not having to. Anyway, it might not feel like a game (think: Duolingo) - but it does feel like I'm learning, which makes me happy. ### 5/5 — Excellent Japanese Learning App *2024-07-13* I recently came from Jalup and started using this app. I am very impressed - the interface is simple and intuitive, and the spaced repetition system works much better to prevent getting overwhelmed with reviews as you get deeper into the sentence packs. The developer, Chris, was super helpful in answering some questions I had about importing my Jalup progress and getting me switched over from the legacy app. I am currently using this Lessons app for kana and sentence packs in combination with Nihongo Pro for Kanji / Vocab. Great combo, and it helps that the card interface is the same with the simple swipe gestures in both apps. I highly recommend you give these apps a trial run to see if they suit your learning style and goals! ### 5/5 — Excellent for learning Japanese *2024-05-10* This, combined with the developer’s other app Nihongo, is the perfect companion for learning Japanese at my own pace. Easy 5 stars! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-21.*