Shirabe Jisho Review 2024: Best for iOS Users (+ Alternatives)

As an anime lover, I always had a wish to travel to Japan. However, a few months ago, my wish came true. My friends and I decided to travel there. Of course, I was excited, but I was also unsure how would we communicate with people there. So I decided to check out some apps that could help us to learn Japanese. Though there were many apps that I used, Shirabe Jisho was the only app I thought must be downloaded on my way. You must be thinking, “Why? What is so interesting about it?”

Well, I will answer all your questions in this Shirabe Jisho review and also give some alternatives to it.

Quick Takeaways 

• Shirabe Jisho is the online dictionary for iOS device users to learn Japanese words.
• It has 1,70,000 words covered on the platform.
• There are different ways in which the platform works like Kanji and handwriting practice, wildcard search, search by Romania, etc.

What is Shirabe Jisho?

Shirabe Jisho is the perfect choice for anyone interested in learning Japanese vocabulary. It offers translations in both English to Japanese and Japanese to the English language. However, it is presently supported only on the iOS device. If you also use iOS and are planning to go to Japan, Congratulations!, you get a partner to travel with. There are 1,70,000 words with readings and English translations. In addition to that there are more than 7,30,000 Japanese names, places, institutions, etc., and 6,500 Kanji Characters on the platform. 

How does Shirabe Jisho work?

Shirabe Jisho is a platform that covers multiple features to teach the language. Below I have discussed all the factors that are covered on this platform-

1. Handwriting recognition

This app can recognize the wrong strokes and major and minor writing mistakes. The platform’s keyboard recognizes Kanji and the Hiragana style in a single tab and Katakana in a different one. It becomes easy to understand the mistakes. It also makes it easy to add character Variations to the content. 

2. Wildcard search

Every new learner will make a lot of mistakes or forget the translations while practicing the language. To help us with this thing, this tool is added. In this tool, all I had to do was to add ‘*’ for any number of Characters and ‘?’ for a single character. If something goes wrong, this helped me to find the words I wanted. This can be used for both, English to Japanese and Japanese to English.

3. Kanji preview

It is very common to have repetitive Kanjis in the content. If there are similar characters again and again, no need to try them again. Press long on one of the results and get the results of both after adding the character itself. Once it is done, just replace it with another result and click on the results to get the confirmation.

4. Multi-radical search tool

This tool helped me to search the Kanjis used in the content with the help of the Components in it. The characters are allowed to order based on the increasing number of Strokes. 

5. Search by romaji

Even if you are adding English transcription over Japanese words, the app could still get the correct answers for it. If you want, you can mix the three writing styles of the language – Romaji, Hiragana, and Katakana.

Shirabe Jisho Review: Is it really useful?

Shirabe Jisho is a perfect choice for anyone who wants to learn Japanese. The app is basically an online Dictionary app that is specially created for the apple users. It means no other user can have access to it. There are over 1,70,000 words in the dictionary that are entered in both Japanese and English language. I was able to search the words with the help of Radicals, Romaji, etc. Each word covers the right strokes and Kanjis. This helped me a lot in understanding the language.

The best part is that the platform is created in both Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese order. There are premade lists but I was able to customize them. The content created on the platform is based on the JLPT level. Moreover, the app is fully free and anyone can easily access it. 

What are the benefits and drawbacks of Shirabe Jisho?

The following table is the representation of what is the good and bad things about Shirabe Jisho-

Pros	Cons
Dictionary of 1,70,000 Japanese words	Only available for iOS devices
Free to use
Teaches the conjugations for many of the words

Shirabe Jisho Alternatives

Shirabe Jisho is definitely a nice platform for people learning Japanese and having iOS devices. But what about the other Android users? If you are one of them, don’t worry. I will be sharing some apps to learn Japanese-

1. Teuida

Teuida is an app that is specially designed to teach Korean and Japanese. I feel this platform is for those who are more interested in learning the conversational part than the grammatical one. The course is divided into levels, units, and lessons. Each lesson has a lot of speaking exercises making it a perfect choice for improving pronunciation along with learning vocabulary. 

2. LingoDeer

Whenever I learn a language that has a totally different writing style, I prefer learning the characters before the vocabulary words. LingoDeer is the only platform that suits my learning style. It has a full course that helped me to learn the language along with its characters.

3. Speaky

The best way to know if you have learned the language or not is to practice with others. Speaky is a platform that allowed me to get connected with different native speakers from all over the world. Though I have used different language exchange partner programs, I find the people of my age more here. This is like a social media platform for serious language learners. You can connect with the people and have conversations in the targeted language. 

Conclusion

Shirabe Jisho is a platform that provides an online dictionary for Japanese learners. The platform has 170,000 words to learn. It gives translations from English to Japanese and Japanese to English. I could easily search for words through Pinyin and radicals. It also teaches how to make the correct stroke order. The platform provides premade lists to learn the words, but I was still allowed to customize them. Additionally, the app is completely free, and the content is based on JLPT levels. However, the biggest drawback of the platform is that it is only available for iOS users. Thus, if you are an Android user, try using some other alternatives.

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