Japanese at B2: what actually works

Turns Netflix and YouTube into a comprehensible-input machine — dual subtitles, hover-to-translate, save words straight from what you watch. The single best free tool on this list.

The spaced-repetition workhorse. Mine sentences from your input, review them daily, the words stick. Ugly, free, and undefeated. (Costs money only on iOS.)

Browser + Anki toolkit that turns shows, music and articles into mined flashcards with audio and screenshots. Input-first, automated. The power-user upgrade once Anki feels manual.

Read and listen to real content with every word tappable — it tracks what you know and feeds you more of what you don't. Input-first reading, done well. Clunky UI, worth it.

Mass-sentence audio drilling with spaced repetition baked in — you shadow real sentences until the patterns are reflex. Brutal, effective, audio-first. Best as a supplement, not your only thing.

The free, step-by-step roadmap for the immersion / input-first approach — exactly how to go from zero to fluent on comprehensible input. Read this before you spend a cent.

Real native speakers pronouncing any word, free. When the robot voice in your app sounds off, this is the human check. A tiny tool you'll use forever.

A huge free database of example sentences with audio across dozens of languages. Perfect for mining real sentence context for your Anki deck instead of memorizing naked words.

Book real tutors by the hour when speaking starts to emerge — not day one. Cheap community tutors exist; treat it as conversation reps, not a grammar classroom.

Chat and voice-note with natives who want your language back. Sister to Tandem — good for low-pressure text reps once you have anything to say. Mute the chat-roulette energy.

Record yourself saying real sentences; a human coach corrects pronunciation for free (limited) or paid. The missing output half once your ears are ahead of your mouth.

Japanese vocab SRS mined from anime, novels and drama — frequency + media you actually watch. Anki with better taste for immersion learners.

Browser popup dictionary for Japanese (and more) — hover any word on a page, save to Anki. The reading unlock once you leave graded apps.

Japanese graded stories with built-in audio, furigana and sentence breakdowns — reading that feels like a podcast you can pause. Paid, worth it once CI Japanese feels easy.

Text and talk with real native speakers who are learning your language back. The honest way to get speaking practice and live input — for free — once you have something to say.

Fill-in-the-blank sentences at scale — better than naked word flashcards, still not real input. Fine as a side game once you're already drowning in shows and articles.

Sentence drills ≠ hours of understanding. Side quest only.