Real Japanese, with a teacher for the words you don’t know yet.

While you listen to a podcast, Bebop pauses at a word you probably don’t know. A teacher explains it in simple Japanese, gives you the English, and the line plays again in the speaker’s voice. Every other word can be looked up, saved and counted.

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多聴・多読 Extensive listening and reading Podcasts, lessons and news Free on iPhone

雨の日のラジオ第12回　雨宿りの話

A working copy of the Bebop read-along with the teacher on, playing a podcast invented for this page. The demo is silent, so what the teacher says is written out besideaboveon the card; in the app you hear it. Try the buttons on the teacher card, choose a word in the list, or change how often the teacher stops.

先生Teach mode

One word, explained in 16 seconds, then the line again

Bebop picks the words in each episode worth teaching and skips the ones it knows you know. It waits for the end of the sentence, explains the word in about 16 seconds, then plays the line again so you hear it in the speaker’s own voice.

What the teacher says

One stop, for 雨宿り in the episode above, recorded in the teacher’s voice. Times are seconds into the stop.

0:00A chime: three rising notes
10:01The word「あまやどり」。
20:02What it means, in simple Japanese雨がやむまで、屋根のある所で待つことです。
30:07What it means in this sentenceここでは、急な雨で、古本屋に入って待った、という話です。
40:12The English英語で言うと、taking shelter from the rain.
50:16The word again「あまやどり」。
0:17Three falling notes
0:17The episode carries on from just before the word話者1近くの古本屋で雨宿りしたんですよ。

How often it stops

Each mark is a stop in one 11-minute episode of a Japanese radio show. A stop takes about 28 seconds with the chimes and the replay. Many, highlighted, is the setting in the demo above. You can change it as you listen.

Which words it teaches

Never the 1,000 most common words. The next thousand only when the episode keeps using them.
Not the words you know. Press “I know this”, or let Bebop skip any word it puts at 80% or more likely known.
Phrases as well as words. Idioms, set phrases and cultural references, each explained for the sentence it is in.
Checked first. Every transcript is checked for mishearings before a word in it is taught.

Episodes with the teacher: 320
Explanations: 13,116
Average explanation: 16 s
Works in: The iPhone appand the web app (early access)

アプリiPhone app

Bebop for iPhone is free on the App Store

Over 2,200 podcast episodes with transcripts that follow the audio word by word, and a teacher who stops for words you don’t know yet. Nearly 1,000 Teacher radio lessons, news written for your JLPT level, sentence mining with reviews, and a record of your listening time and the words you know. Your reviews and progress sync to your account.

Get the iPhone app Free on the App StoreiOS 26 or later

Scan with your iPhone to open the App Store

The App Store screenshots. The time and word counts are a sample learner’s.

見る・聴く・読むLibrary

Watch, listen and read

Everything in Bebop is in Japanese, and every word can be looked up. Background listening counts too; Bebop keeps it separate from the time you spend following along.

Silent clip · click any word in the subtitles to look it up

00:12:30

Shows and films are in the web app (early access). This is a working copy of its player, playing a silent scene from a show invented and drawn for this page. Click inside the player to use its shortcuts: Space play or pause (hold for 2×), ← → previous or next line, K mine, Shift+K recent lines, [ ] speed, M mute, F fullscreen.

Episode 3 is in the player above

Watch Anime, drama and film, in the web app

Japanese audio with Japanese subtitles, retimed to the speech. Point at a word to look it up, or press K to save the line. With auto-pause on, the episode stops after each line so you have time to read it.

第1話開店は午前零時We open at midnight24:10
第2話針を落とす前にBefore the needle drops23:55
第3話雨の日のB面A B-side for a rainy dayPlaying
第4話最後の一枚The last record24:05

Subtitles retimed to the speechAuto-pause after each lineIntro skip

Listen Podcasts and audiobooks

The transcript follows the audio word by word, and the teacher stops for the words you don’t know yet. Slow it down, or pause after each phrase and say it back.

Read News and your own text

Japanese news, with the stories you know most of the words in shown first. You can also paste in any text you want to read.

週末は全国的に晴れ、気温も上がる見込み94%

新しい駅ビルが来月オープン89%

地域の図書館で夜間の開館を試行81%

例文Sentence mining

Click any word to save the sentence it’s in

Try it. Point at any word below and click. Bebop saves the whole sentence with the word’s reading, its meaning and where you found it, and drops it into your sentence bank. In the web app, K does the same without pausing the episode.

Mine 3 sentences to build your first review deck

0 sentences in your sentence bank

Anime · 夜更けのレコード屋 · S1 E3

Podcast · sample episode

4:08

4:13

Audiobook · sample, chapter 2

News · sample, weather

週末は全国的に晴れ　気温も上昇へ

Words with a wavy line are good ones to try. Any word works.

Review them on the web, and on iPhone

Every sentence you mine becomes a review card in the iPhone app and the web app. Answer on one and the other keeps up.

The sentence comes first, without furigana. Reveal it for the reading, the meaning and the English. Reviews are scheduled with FSRS, so each card comes back just before you would forget it.

This is a sample deck. Mine a sentence above and it appears here.

単語Your words

Bebop keeps a record of every word you meet

When a word goes by while you’re following along, Bebop notes where you met it. Looking it up, mining it, reviewing it and marking it known count too. From all of that it works out how likely you are to know each of 27,753 everyday words (the 20,000 most common, plus every word on the Bebop JLPT list) and adds them up into your count of known words.

雨宿りあまやどりtaking shelter from the rain

Chance you know it, over six weeks

A sample word. Time spent only listening in the background is never counted as meeting a word.

Your words, most common first

The first 9,000 of the 27,753 words, one square each in rows of 100, for a sample learner with 3,412 known words. In the web app you can arrange the grid by JLPT level and point at any square to see its word.

Known words: 3,412+48 this week
Looked up this week: 37
Following along: 4 h 20 m
In the background: 6 h 05 m

Sample figures for one learner, for this week.

The N1 word list covers 79% of TV dialogue

Share of words in Japanese TV dialogue that are on the Bebop JLPT Word List. Each level includes the levels below it. Grammar words are left out.

The 20,000 most common words cover 90%Sample learner, placed by word count

Reviewed until remembered 812Marked as known 1,431Met often while watching and reading 1,169

新しいタブChrome extension

A word on every new tab

The Bebop Chrome extension shows one Japanese word each time you open a new tab in Chrome: its reading, meaning and kanji, three example sentences with furigana, and a full illustration. Choose any mix of levels from N5 to beyond N1, or keep one word for the whole day. It works on its own: no account, and you don’t need the Bebop app.

Add to Chrome Free on the Chrome Web Store

For Chrome on a computer. See it on the Chrome Web Store

Browse all 14,221 words

The Bebop new tab showing 音楽, music, over an illustration of a family playing music at home, with three example sentences

The Bebop new tab showing 雨, rain, over an illustration of a mother and child splashing through a rainy street

Screenshots of the current build at 1280 × 800.

Add to Chrome

ラジオTeacher radio

Free lessons on YouTube and in your podcast app

Each Teacher radio lesson teaches one common word in about five minutes, in simple Japanese with the English meaning. The teacher shows how the word is used, with examples you can follow. New lessons come out every day.

On YouTube

Each video tells the lesson in pictures, with captions, furigana and a question to answer. There’s a playlist for each JLPT level.

Subscribe on YouTube Playlists by level

The Teacher radio teacher at her microphone

As a podcast

One show for each JLPT level, so you hear only the words at yours.

Listen with a teacher. Keep a record of every word.

Bebop for iPhone is free on the App Store, with the teacher, Teacher radio, news, mining and reviews.