Teajessie

I think it comes in very handy to know how to write with the proper stroke order when you're trying to decipher someone's handwritten note. Think about it, wouldn't it just suck to be fluent but not to understand a note on your fridge? Natives are often so used to writing kanjis that they scribble them instead of writing them clearly, which of course makes the reading trickier... Besides, you'll have to write to take the test, right? My Japanese professor in university used to have us redo entire exercise pages if we got the strokes wrong on an answer, he always said he could tell. He said that once we'd get good at it we'd start scribbling too, and then having the stroke order down properly would be crucial.

When I was studying Japanese literature in university, my professor recommended all those mentionned by @Mim, as well as Maihime (舞姫) by Mori Ogai, Rashomon (羅生門) by Akira Kurosawa(though it was probably because we then watched the film and compared them), and I Am a Cat (吾輩は猫である) and Botchan (坊っちゃん) by Nastume Sôseki. Of course, as first year students, we only read the translated works to get an idea of the content, so I can't really give you my opinion on any of them in its original version.

Hi, I didn't take any of the test, but my mother is in charge of the TOEFL training in her university, so I got to test it for it for fun. It seems that the TOEFL is the test preferred by universities, as it mostly focuses on grammar, whereas the TOEIC is more field-specific, and thus more likely to be required by a company. Though it is subjective. I expect you'd have to have a very good TOEFL score for a job which required you to write in English. As for the IELTS, from what I know, in France only students applying for masters in the States take it. Hope I was of some help.

Hi Your app seems great, any plans of making an Apple version of it? I'd like to read side-by-side in Japanese and Korean. Thanks,