For those looking for fresh, new content to read in Japanese, I have just the app recommendation for you. It’s called Tangorin and it will make things oh so much easier for those wanting to improve their reading and expand their vocabulary. I’m a bit late in discovering this, but I wanted to share it in case there were people that didn’t know about this incredibly useful app.
I remember when I first started out trying to get better at reading Japanese articles. It consisted of printing stuff from the NHK website and circling unknown words and looking them up manually. It took a long time, but eventually I got better at doing it until there were few words I didn’t know. I would have LOVED Tangorin if it were around back then.
Better Japanese Reading with Tangorin
Tangorin’s main feature would be that it is a reader for Japanese news sources. This app can comb both regular NHK News and the special NHK “News Easy” geared towards learners of Japanese. The interface is wonderfully presented with colored labels and furigana above words of a selected level.
If you are studying for the JLPT N2 and want to only see words considered that difficult or above, it just takes a toggle in the settings. Or maybe you’re just starting your journey of reading Japanese and need something really simple. That is possible with the Easy News source option. Being able to adjust the level of the furigana display is great for both beginners and advanced users alike.
Other features
For those that aren’t into news but want to read something else, Tangorin can also access Japanese folk tales and a Japan travel magazine site. This is a great way to break up your studies if you’ve been getting tired of going through study books and are looking for something to get out of a rut.
Tangorin is free and available for both Android and iOS devices. I haven’t used the iOS one, but for Android the app is free as long as you’re willing to put up with advertisements. If this is something you can’t accept, you can pay an additional fee to make them go away as well as support the developer.
Get it here: