Wakatta: Japanese Podcasts

Mariano Matayoshi

About this app

Learn Japanese with real podcasts and YouTube videos — the ones native speakers actually listen to. Wakatta turns native Japanese audio into a lesson you can follow, with a live transcript, one-tap word lookup and AI grammar explanations.

HOW IT WORKS
Press play on a podcast and follow a live transcript that lights up word by word as it is spoken. Tap any word you do not know to see its reading, meaning and part of speech — without leaving the audio. When a sentence will not click, tap Explain and an AI sensei breaks the grammar down in plain language, in your language.

Lost the thread? One tap marks the last ten seconds, eyes-free, and it is waiting for you afterwards, already explained. Every word and moment you save becomes a spaced-repetition flashcard, replayed with the exact sentence and audio you first heard it in.

WHY WAKATTA
• Real native audio and video — not textbook dialogues
• Japanese podcasts for learners, plus the open podcast world
• 170+ hand-picked Japanese YouTube channels
• Live tappable transcript with karaoke-style word highlighting
• Instant dictionary lookup: reading, meaning, part of speech
• AI Japanese grammar explanations for any sentence, in your language
• Furigana and romaji toggles for every kanji
• "I got lost" — mark a confusing moment hands-free and review it later
• Spaced repetition (SRS) review with the original audio or video
• Listening practice you can do on a commute, hands-free
• Follow shows and channels and build your own library
• Works with headphones in the background while you do something else

MADE FOR YOUR JLPT LEVEL
Tell Wakatta your level — JLPT N5, N4, N3, N2 or N1 — and it recommends episodes matched to your level. Beginners start with slow, clear Japanese podcasts and full furigana. Intermediate and advanced learners move to unscripted native Japanese conversation, news and interviews.

JAPANESE LISTENING AND IMMERSION PRACTICE
Wakatta is built for comprehensible input: Japanese immersion you can actually understand. Instead of drilling isolated vocabulary, you listen to real Japanese, see the transcript, and pick up kanji, grammar and vocabulary in context. It is listening practice, reading practice and grammar study in one session.

WHO IT IS FOR
• Learners who finished a beginner Japanese app and want real Japanese
• JLPT candidates who need Japanese listening practice
• Anyone learning Japanese with podcasts, YouTube or anime who keeps getting lost
• Self-study learners who want Japanese immersion without moving to Japan

WHAT YOU CAN LISTEN TO
• Slow, learner-friendly Japanese podcasts for beginners
• Native podcasts on daily life, culture, news and interviews
• Japanese YouTube channels with real, unscripted speech
• Any show from the open podcast world — search, follow and listen in Japanese

FREE TO START
Wakatta is free to start: listen, follow the transcript and tap any word to look it up.

Start free. Listen to Japanese podcasts, tap any word, and get AI grammar explanations from day one.

What’s new

Bring your Anki deck. Import an .apkg and choose what comes over: the words you already know, the ones you're learning, or the ones you haven't started.

Search the dictionary the way you speak — look up 飲んだ and get 飲む, or paste a whole sentence and we'll split it into words. Save straight from the results, and find anything you've looked up in your history.

Filter your saved words by category, level, or where they came from.

Plus credits for the dictionary data, and fixes.