The most comprehensive all-in-one system for learning Japanese.
Japanese Learning Resource: NativShark – For those who have the money to spend.
I know most of you don’t have the money, but IF by chance some of you DO, and IF you are Serious about learning Japanese either Professionally or for a Committed Hobby, NativShark (formerly NihongoShark) is, UNTIL JAN 31 2020, running a very steep discount on their lifetime subscription - $250 instead of $1500. TLDR if you have the cash, or if JP is part of your current/future careers, I consider this very well worth it. Read on for details:
I certainly do not represent them, but I used some of NihongoShark’s free resources and methods when I started studying Japanese professionally, and I found them to be extremely useful and game changing, and a critical piece of how well I succeeded in my Japanese school. The individual running NihongoShark has since done work to transfer what used to be a general and sometimes random (but fun) Japanese learning blog into a full-fledged Zero to Hero (aka. Native-level) learning platform.
Because I had experience with NihongoShark’s original content (their kanji-learning method and damn good JP grammar newsletters), I consider NativShark to be pretty legit and trustworthy. If their website is everything it’s cracked up to be, it’s gonna be pretty remarkable. I just wish they’d keep the free grammar newsletters coming, because those were worth their weight in gold (and probably one reason why NihongoShark was taken from hobbyist to paid platform riprip).
Having said all that, learning Japanese is actually part of my professional career, so I consider $250 for a lifetime subscription to be very reasonable. I could easily pay that and more in one year for a couple hour/week tutoring sessions, at say, $10/hour. I would balk at $1500…I do not think I’d pay it sight unseen. Therefore, I can only recommend NativShark for those with the money to spend, or for those for whom Japanese is a part of their current or future professional careers.
I expect that once the full price gets enacted at the end of the month, that there will be other subscription plans added – monthly based, or limited content based, that would let people try out what they have. For now, lifetime is the only one that they are offering. I think there is a limited amount of free content you can check out now, as well.
I did take a gamble and bought the lifetime subscription for $250, so I will be looking forward to seeing how it stacks up to all the other professional and hobbyist methods I’ve used through the years, and I hope to make a future blog post about it. Certainly, I’ve spent well over $250 in Japanese learning materials in the past, and one of NativShark’s claims is that they are a one-stop-shop – you will not need any other books or materials besides them. At the very least, I’m quite sure they will beat Rosetta Stone in content and quality (I have completed Rosetta in Japanese and found it to be ok in some areas and sadly lacking in others, and not a platform I generally recommend). I am very much looking forward to going from Zero*cough*HighIntermediate* to Hero with NativShark….and with all the rest of my materials because what can I say, I like diversity LOL.
Hit me up with questions.
For the rest of you, I’ll be compiling a long blog post on all the other methods I’ve used, some free, some not, so that you can get your Japanese kicks at a budget that suits you.
