Japanese resources for intermediate learners

Intermediate Japanese is usually not a missing app. It is not enough Japanese on the page.

If you still need a first course, kana, and a dictionary habit, use the beginner hub. This page is for people who finished a beginner series, or who have been circling beginner apps for a year.

The jobs change:

1. Input volume: pages and audio you can finish at a stretch.
2. Retrieval: grammar and words that appear when a sentence asks, not only when an app shows a prompt.
3. Lookup infrastructure: a dictionary that lives on the text, not a separate homework step.
4. One review loop: keep it. Do not restart it.

A next course, not a new beginner path

Tobira is the usual textbook after Genki or Minna no Nihongo. It is heavy. Open it after you actually finished a beginner series. Jumping early is how chapters stall. If the other next book is Quartet, use Tobira vs Quartet and buy only one.

If a second textbook would sit closed, skip it. Spend that time on reading. A course is useful only if the exercises happen.

Grammar you can retrieve

Explanations you have read are not the same as patterns you can produce.

Bunpro is for typed retrieval in sentences. Keep reading beside it so the pattern exists outside a blank. A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar is a lookup shelf, not a syllabus. Buy it to check entries, not to read three volumes in order.

Do not add Bunpro, a new textbook, and a third grammar SRS in the same week. Details are in How to move from beginner apps to intermediate Japanese.

Reading until it is ordinary

Pick the reading job, then one source.

• Graded books: Tadoku when you will finish an easy title.
• Annotated text: Satori Reader. Use the free chapters before paying.
• Native material: Natively to choose a book or show by community difficulty. It does not teach the title.

NHK News Web Easy still works if a daily article is the habit that actually happens.

The shortlist is Japanese reading resources for beginners. Intermediate readers still use those sources. They just finish more of them, then step to native titles.

Lookup on the page

Yomitan is the hover dictionary for browser text. It is setup-heavy and worth it once you can scan kana. It is not a course. Pair it with pages you already intend to finish.

Listening that is not another lesson app

Language Reactor helps if you already watch Japanese video and want dual subtitles. It is a poor replacement for a podcast or news audio you never press play on. Keep one daily audio source. Add video tools only if the show is already in your life.

Kanji without rebuilding your whole stack

WaniKani is a sequenced kanji path. Add it if the absence of a kanji plan is the bottleneck, not if you want a full Japanese course. Compare it with Anki in Anki vs WaniKani before paying for a second review identity. The limit case is Is WaniKani enough?.

If you already have a working SRS, read How to use SRS without burning out before stacking WaniKani on top.

If you registered for the JLPT

Exam practice is a separate job from input volume. Start with official sample questions, then use the JLPT study resources shortlist. Do not add a mock-test app and a new textbook in the same week.

Output without a new course

If written Japanese is the bottleneck, use the writing-feedback shortlist. If the problem is pitch or recorded pronunciation, use the pronunciation and pitch-accent shortlist. Do not add a journal, a coach, and a tutor marketplace in the same week.

What to stop

Stop collecting beginner apps that still teach hiragana proudly. Stop restarting Genki from lesson one as a comfort ritual. Stop running three review queues that all claim to be the main event.

Keep the review system you already use if it fits an ordinary day. Add input. Combine the pieces on purpose with How to combine a textbook, SRS, reading, and listening.