How to move from beginner apps to intermediate Japanese
Intermediate Japanese starts when apps stop being the whole method. Keep the review habit that still fits. Replace extra beginner products with pages and audio you finish.
Beginner apps are good at the first month and quiet at the tenth. They keep offering another streak, another tree, another “new” lesson that looks like the last one.
Moving on is not a personality upgrade. It is a change of job: from collecting introductions to finishing Japanese that was not written as a tutorial.
If you still need a first path, start on Japanese resources for beginners. This guide assumes kana is readable and a beginner course has at least been sampled.
Keep one loop. Retire the rest
If Duolingo is the only Japanese you still do, keep it as a five-minute warmup or drop it. Do not keep it as the plan.
If you already review with Anki, Inku, WaniKani, or a course SRS, keep one queue that fits a weekday. Pause new lessons on the others for two weeks. The burnout rules in How to use SRS without burning out still apply.
Inku is made and operated by our team. If it is already your iPhone review loop, you do not have to replace it to become intermediate. You have to add input beside it.
Make input the main event
Intermediate learners stall on speed and volume, not on missing a fourth flashcard app.
Pick one finishable source and put it on three weekdays:
- NHK News Web Easy if a short article is realistic.
- Satori Reader if you want notes and audio on a story.
- Tadoku if you will finish easy books.
The reading shortlist explains the jobs. Do not subscribe to three libraries this week.
Yomitan can sit on the page once lookups are a rule, not a rabbit hole. The argument for starting before you feel ready is in How to read Japanese before you feel ready.
A next course is optional
Tobira is a common textbook after Genki or Minna. It works if you will do chapters. It fails as a purchase that represents the person you meant to become.
If the last textbook died at chapter four, do not buy a thicker one. Use annotated reading as the sentence source until a book habit exists.
When you do want a book-versus-book decision at beginner level, use Genki vs Minna no Nihongo.
Grammar as retrieval, not as a new app identity
Bunpro helps when you recognize a pattern in a lesson and still cannot produce it. Add it after reading is already happening. Bunpro without input is another closed game.
A reference such as A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar is for looking up a pattern you met. It is not a reason to stop reading.
A two-week exit
Week 1. No new beginner apps. One review queue at maintenance or modest new cards. Three finished articles, episodes, or graded chapters.
Week 2. Same review cap. Same input habit. Only then decide whether Tobira, Bunpro, or a video subtitle tool deserves a slot.
If week 1 already collapses, you do not need a more ambitious stack. You need the combine-your-tools guide and a smaller week.
The intermediate hub keeps the shortlist: Japanese resources for intermediate learners.