Benkyu

Benkyu is a Japanese learning app that guides learners from zero through kana, the 2,000 most common words, and grammar, before moving into real anime, YouTube videos, books and websites. It is built for complete beginners as well as learners who already study Japanese through immersion. The whole path is designed to be followed in order, so learners always know what to study next.

Each study session mixes due reviews with new words from Benkyu Core, and a short grammar lesson appears exactly when the next words require it. Core sentences always contain exactly one unfamiliar word, so learners are never faced with text they cannot parse. The cards are scheduled with FSRS, the spaced-repetition algorithm also used by modern Anki, so reviews come back just before they would be forgotten.

A browser extension for Chrome and Firefox marks every word in Netflix, YouTube and Prime Video subtitles and on ordinary Japanese webpages by how well the learner knows it, with furigana shown only where needed. A reader opens EPUB files or pasted text the same way. Clicking an unfamiliar word in a one-new-word sentence opens the dictionary and turns it into a reviewable card with its audio.

Benkyu is one plan with everything included, free for the first 3 days with no card required. After the trial, the Monthly plan costs $8/month, the Yearly plan costs $6/month billed as $72 a year, and a Lifetime plan costs $200 once. Access can be cancelled at any time from Settings. A mobile app for iPhone and Android is coming; a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox is already available.

Use cases

• Starting Japanese from zero with no prior knowledge
• Replacing a separate reader, dictionary, Anki setup and grammar site
• Watching anime and dramas with comprehension-aware subtitles
• Reading real Japanese news, blogs, wikis and shops