Furigana was always all or nothing
Most tools either show readings over every kanji or hide them completely. Show them all and you never actually learn to read; your eyes jump to the kana. Hide them all and a beginner is stuck on every second word.
What we wanted was simple: help where we still needed it, and no help where we should already know the word. That idea became one of KotoNexa's defining settings, hide furigana for your current level, so you practise reading exactly the kanji you are studying while harder ones keep their readings.
One endless list per level
Most apps sort vocabulary by JLPT level and stop there. N3 alone is over 2,000 words, so you get one long list with food next to politics next to grammar words, and no sense of how far through it you are.
We wanted to study the way a level actually feels: in themes. So every level in KotoNexa is split into topic categories. Pick one or more levels, choose the categories you want, or study everything at once, and each category shows how many of its words you have already learned.
Five tabs to learn one word
If you have studied for the JLPT, you probably know the routine. A word list in one tab. A dictionary in another to check the reading. A sentence site to see how the word is actually used. Somewhere else to hear it pronounced. Then a flashcard app where you type it all in yourself, and hope you got it right.
By the time a card was ready, the motivation to study it was often gone. And the cards we made were thin: a word on one side and a translation on the other. We could recognise words on a flashcard and still freeze when we met them in a sentence.
A word only really sticks when you can read it, hear it and use it in a sentence. Every card should give you all three.
Studying alone is the hardest part
The JLPT is a long road. Months of daily reviews, with nobody to ask when a word doesn't make sense and nobody to celebrate with when a level finally clicks. Most people don't quit because the material is too hard. They quit because they feel alone and can't see their progress.
So we built the Community Garden into the app itself, a place to ask questions, share streaks and rank-ups, and encourage each other. And we made progress visible with daily targets, streaks, weekly charts and 13 ranks to climb.
What KotoNexa is today
- 8,090+ curated JLPT words across N5, N4, N3, N2 and N1, every level complete
- A natural example sentence, native audio (male or female voice) and an illustration for every word
- Every level split into topic categories, with progress shown for each one
- Furigana you can show, hide, or hide only for your current level, plus optional romaji
- Smart Review that brings words back until you have mastered them, on your own mastery bar
- A built-in community and clear progress tracking
Why it's free
Good study tools shouldn't depend on what you can afford. KotoNexa is free for every learner: every level, every sentence, every sound file and the whole community. No trial and no credit card.
Where we're going
We are working on a downloadable Android app and more ways to practise. If you have an idea, or something isn't working the way you expect, tell us on the contact page or in the Community Garden. KotoNexa is shaped by the learners who use it.
