“The essential app for anyone seriously wanting to learn a language, period”
Look up and learn Japanese words
Click Japanese words on websites and subtitles to look up definitions, pronunciations, images, and ChatGPT AI-generated explanations for them.
Migaku is the best way to learn Japanese, whether you want to learn basic Japanese, or pass the JLPT exam. Migaku helps you to learn the Japanese words that will help you most on your own learning journey.
youtube.com
いったい何が正解なんだい
what is the right answer
いったい何が正解なんだい
予定調和のシナリオ踏み抜いて
青い春なんてもんは
僕には似合わないんだ
Tap the words
Hover over the words
try it!
Create flashcards with one click
Create flashcards for a Japanese sentence in context! Learning Japanese from your favorite Anime and J-Drama is fun and effective.
The flashcards you create include:
The new word and its context sentence, audio, screenshot, definition, AI explanation, and much more!
netflix.com
Create a card
try it!
だって
What does this word mean in context?
The word "だって" in this context functions to emphasize the speaker's determination or insistence. It suggests
Sourced from ChatGPT
after all, because
but, even
too, as well, also
中華街だって横浜だろ
Study Japanese anytime, anywhere
Study your flashcards on your phone or computer, learning Japanese with Migaku fits into your own pace of life.
You will review your flashcards right before you’re likely to forget them. This makes learning and remembering large numbers of Japanese words and phrases much easier.
Enjoy studying like a pro anytime, anywhere
Track your progress and find content that’s a perfect fit
Migaku tracks all the Japanese words you’re learning.
This data is used to generate a Japanese comprehension score for all the sites you visit. This makes it easy to find new content at a good level to learn from.
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If you’re just beginning...
How do you learn basic Japanese?
Start learning Japanese with our Beginner Courses and learn over 80% of the most common Japanese words and grammar patterns.
Learn basic to intermediate Japanese
In-depth lessons introduce new Japanese words and grammar
Learn 1 new word at a time
The second character is り, which is represented as ri, and the pronunciation is between the ree in reed and the lee in leek.
What a cute ribbon (ri), isn’t it?
next week
The first character is ら, which is represented as /ra/, and the pronunciation is close to a combination of the /rah rah/ as if you were cheering and the /la la/ like singing.
It’s a cute rabbit (ra) with its ears.
next week
Has
I have been using Migaku for years now. However, the recent revamp has been a game changer. Especially the new card creator and Migaku memory as it is so simplistic and is very effective! Hands down the best product for language learning.
Nigoras
Good deal to be sure. 5 euros a month to make my own personalized Japanese flashcards based on what I'm CURRENTLY consuming, the context makes it much easier to remember.
Gabriel Arcega
@DaNuPkmm8ntBad
I've been studying Japanese for almost a year now and I think this is gonna be the final puzzle piece to fluency for me. Can't thank you enough! And I'll be using these tools to learn future languages as well. :)
renato_vg
Immersion methods for aquiring languages have been really effective for me, but there is a lot of work that has to be done. Sometimes I felt like I was spending more time setting up all the resources to learn rather than learning. Migaku takes care of all of that so that I can just focus on studying while the migaku tools do all the hard work.
Matty Natt
Migaku has helped expand my Japanese vocabulary knowledge from about 2,000 to 5,000 in just 3 months.
@nqqdle
When learning Japanese, creating flashcards used to consume a significant amount of time and effort for me... Migaku simplifies these processes by automating them. Highly recommended.
Vycton
Japanese words can be difficult to remember and often have nuance that doesn't come across in translations or dictionary definitions. Using Migaku to learn words in the context of the shows I liked made it way easier to remember them and get a solid grasp on the specific meaning.
Rome Drori
Migaku is extremely helpful for encouraging me to immerse in Japanese and has helped me fill in some of those final gaps to fluency.
ScrambledOmelets
I started using Migaku to start studying Japanese again after a friend recommended it to me. In just one week, it has made immersing in Japanese content so easy and not intimidating anymore, thus making me feel more confident in engaging with content in my target language. With my motivation renewed, I hope to use Migaku to help me reach near-fluency in Japanese :)
Gil
Thanks to Migaku I made so much progress in a relative short amount of time...I absolutely can recommend the tool set to everyone who wanna learn a language efficently with fun at the same time!
Bjornaman
What I love about Migaku is that I can learn from real Japanese content intended for natives rather than formulated textbooks and courses.
Baku
Using Migaku has made watching native Japanese content a lot more approachable.
Destin Estrela
An absolute game changer. I have Migaku's products to thank for getting me to JLPT N2 level Japanese with no explicit studying other than 20 minutes a day of flashcards. Never have I been so happy to subscribe to a service.
FAQ
Migaku makes learning Japanese from native content incredibly easy. For a detailed guide, see:
In brief, Migaku makes subtitles in platforms like Netflix or YouTube and text in webpages interactive.
- Parse → Parse a video or selection of text with Migaku. Migaku will make the text interactive and show roughly how difficult it is. (To read manga, an OCR software is necessary.)
- Look up → Consume the content as normal. Upon encountering unknown words, click to see definitions, audio recordings, images, and AI-generated explanations.
- Flashcards → With one click, make flashcards that contain the selected word, the sentence it appeared in, an audio snippet from your video, and a screenshot from your video
- Review → Migaku will periodically nudge you to review words you make flashcards out of, ensuring you eventually remember them.
This immersion-based approach ensures that users learn the specific Japanese vocabulary words and grammar points they need in order to do the things they enjoy.
Yes, Migaku is perfect for beginners learning Japanese! A Migaku subscription includes unlimited access to three Japanese courses that begin from zero:
- Migaku Japanese Fundamentals → Learn hiragana, katakana, proper Japanese pronunciation, and the essentials of Japanese sentence structure
- Migaku Kanji Course → Learn how to learn kanji, then learn the 800 kanji that occur in the most common ~1,700 Japanese words
- Migaku Japanese Academy → Learn the ~1,700 Japanese vocabulary words and ~380 Japanese grammar points necessary to understand 80% of Japanese Netflix
At ~30 minutes per day (~10 flashcards per day), Migaku's structured approach will bring users from zero to intermediate Japanese—ready to begin exploring Netflix, YouTube, and Japanese media—in about 6 months.
Migaku uses an intelligent spaced repetition system that (a) shows you flashcards right before you're likely to forget them and (b) filters your flashcards, showing you things you struggle with more often and things you know well less often. This scientifically-proven method makes learning and remembering large numbers of Japanese words and phrases much more efficient. You can study your Japanese flashcards on your phone or computer, allowing you to fit Japanese learning into your daily routine.
Absolutely! Migaku tracks all the Japanese words a user learns and uses that data to generate a comprehension score for websites they visit and content they consume. The comprehension score provides a rough idea of how difficult the selected content will be, given the words the user currently does and doesn't know.
User data indicates that Migaku users can sustainably learn 10 words per day, while power users regularly double or triple that amount. Some Migaku users have achieved vocabularies of over 40,000 words.
The biggest difference is intent:
- Other apps → Traditional Japanese apps are simply a means to an end. They expect that learners will subscribe, learn basic Japanese, and then move on to "real" Japanese.
- Migaku → Migaku is an end in and of itself.
- Beginner — If a user knows no Japanese, they can begin with Migaku's courses.
- Intermediate — As a user approaches the intermediate level, Migaku's toolset will enable them to begin consuming authentic native content sooner than would normally be possible.
- Advanced — Even if a user is advanced to consume native media independently, they will appreciate how Migaku streamlines the process of making flashcards, enabling them to spend more time immersing and less time creating learning materials.
For more information, see:
Migaku is not optimized around helping learners prepare for Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) success. The JLPT is a standardized test that tests learner's knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and asks them to answer reading comprehension and listening comprehension questions of a very specific style that do not really appear outside of the JLPT.
This means that learners face a choice:
- If you already understand some Japanese and your goal is specifically to pass the JLPT, you should prepare with a JLPT prep book.
- If you primarily want to consume Japanese media, you are a perfect fit for Migaku.
- If you're a total beginner, the Migaku Japanese Academy introduces 400 grammar patterns that show up on the JLPT N5 and JLPT N4, so you can get onto your feet with Migaku and decide how to continue down the road.
Ultimately, a big part of learning Japanese boils down to simply interacting with Japanese, and Migaku is built around providing users the support necessary to begin consuming authentic Japanese media earlier than would be normally possible.
For more detail, please see:
Yes, Migaku is designed for seamless cross-platform Japanese learning.
- Mobile → Create and study flashcards, browse the web, watch YouTube, leverage OCR to use Migaku with physical media like textbooks, and more
- Browser extension → Everything the mobile app can do (minus OCR), plus support for additional popular streaming sites like Netflix
Migaku believes that it is essential to maintain consistent study habits to learn a language, so we are committed to enabling users to study and interact with Japanese anywhere, on any device.
Migaku offers affordable Japanese learning starting at $10 USD per month:
- Migaku Standard → $10 monthly / $96 yearly
- Migaku EA → $15 monthly / $144 yearly
- Migaku Lifetime → $499, one-time payment
Any subscription provides unlimited access to all features—the word-lookup system, one-click flashcard creation, spaced repetition studying, progress tracking, beginner courses, and more. An EA (Early Access) subscription provides beta access to new features before they are made public.
To subscribe, or to see which features are currently in EA, see Migaku's pricing page.
