Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
6 days ago (kanadojo.com)
The idea is actually quite simple. As a Japanese learner and a coder, I've always wanted there to be an open-source, 100% free for learning Japanese, similar to Monkeytype in the typing community.
Unfortunately, pretty much all language learning apps are closed-sourced and paid these days, and the ones that are free have unfortunately been abandoned.
But of course, just creating yet another language learning app was not enough - there has to be a unique selling point. And then I thought to myself: why not make it crazy and do what no other language learning app ever did by adding a gazillion different color themes and fonts, to really hit it home and honor the app's original inspiration, Monkeytype?
And so I did. Now, I'm looking to find contributors and testers for the early stages of the app.
Why? Because weebs and otakus deserve to have a 100% free, beautiful, quality language learning app too！
For anyone interested, you can check it out at --> https://kanadojo.com and let me know what you think ^ ^
Apps/platforms don't work for learning Japanese. You just need to memorize the hell out of the vocabulary, spend some time learning the grammar, and most importantly IMMERSE. Watch, read and listen to content in Japanese.
https://learnjapanese.moe
https://alljapanesealltheti.me/ (this used to be THE guide for learning)
People are reacting quite strongly to this answer, but it is unfortunately correct. OP has essentially created an application for memorising vocabulary, which is... fine, and it's an achievement to be celebrated.
But no amount of flashcards will make you a competent language speaker. There is no substitute for immersion.
What made it really click for me for me was reading. Lots and lots of it. My suggestion is to start with short, easy stuff (stories for kids) and then move on to progressively harder material (short newspaper articles, essays).
I passed JLPT N1 back in 2013, and preparing for the test was just an exercise in memorising vocabulary and grammar patterns. What really made the language click for me was reading novels in Japanese. That alone helped me more than any amount of Anki-style JLPT prep material ever did.
Vocabulary is important, but it's much, much easier to absorb and retain if you learn it in context.
Do you know of a tool that can generate texts to read based on exactly your level?
I think that was Krashen’s input hypothesis. If I read a text in Vietnamese with more than one unknown word, it’s too much. Exactly one would do it.
Haven’t seen a tool doing that.
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That matches my experience, too. I passed JLPT N1—then called 1-kyū—back in 1985 (!).
I did spend a lot of time memorizing vocabulary with flashcards, but I spent even more time on extensive reading—novels, newspapers, magazines, anything I was interested in, even if at first I understood little. The repeated exposure to vocabulary in real-world contexts really made a difference.
The “culture” around learning Japanese is so different from other languages. There’s a large amount of software engineers studying the language, so there’s tons of apps/websites that center around it (for better or worse).
The communities are also… particular. People tend to espouse certain deep beliefs or attitudes that you just don’t see for other languages (and I don’t think complexity is the reason; you don’t see that for Chinese or Russian or Finnish, to name some other notoriously hard languages).
Funny thing is, these communities aren’t readily visible in real life. At the Japanese language school I attend people are mostly regular people with regular lives and regular limitations. Online, you’d believe that everybody did Wanikani on Adderall for several hours a day.
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There's no real reason to learn Finnish other than curiosity, so I'm not surprised there's no community around learning it. You can move to Finland without knowing the language at all, since everyone else around you will happily speak English with you. Hell, you can even get Finnish citizenship as long as you learn Swedish instead. And when a language is spoken by around five million people, there's no large amount of creative works only unlocked by learning the language either.
(I'm a native Finnish speaker)
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Long term Japanese learner here:
They might not be effective in the long run but saying 'they don't work' is an oversimplification, it depends what benchmark you're setting.
They're definitely worth using for beginning, but yeah, returns slope off.
Renshuu provides fantastic SRS based tools for memorizing the hell out of vocabulary, has a huge bank of grammar lessons and a variety of grammar quiz styles to bed in the knowledge through practical applications. There are multiple quiz styles that are more or less challenging, including typing out answers instead of multiple choice questions.
Using just Renshuu and Wanikani I learned enough Japanese to be able to engage with Japanese content and for it to be actually comprehensible.
In the past I tried learning through immersion only, made no progress, found it demotivating and gave up. You need a baseline of vocab and grammar, and I don’t think it matters much where exactly it’s coming from (apps, lessons, textbooks).
Anki definitely works for memorizing the hell out of vocabulary and I also don't regret completing WaniKani, although I would probably choose an Anki only approach if I had to start over. At some intermediate level I stopped looking at the mnemonics completely and just did as many reviews as possible until it stuck.
I also got a lot of value out of wanikani even without completing it.
I tried and failed several times to get started with Anki before having success with Wanikani. The key diffentiator for me was the learning step. Anki is great for remembering things you were taught or learned outside of it, but using Anki to learn new things is very much a learned skill that Wanikani holds your hand through.
I have N2 and am working on N1 now, and feel I still have a very long way to go before getting to CEFR C1. Now I only use Anki with the yomitan and takoboto integrations to quickly add any words I look up, which seems to be working well.
I agree with you, but Anki is a generalized flashcard SRS memorization tool, not specifically made for learning Japanese, so it's not within my area of critique; I'm thinking of apps similar to Duolingo. It works extremely well because it helps you memorize very efficiently. One of the few applications that will indeed boost your learning by a lot. Anything requiring manual input rather than a simple Again or Good button choice tends to be worse. Any Anki deck requiring manual input as an answer should not be used.
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My argument in support of the general immersion concept but against AJATT is that most people can't actually effectively use that method without hitting a wall. The amount differs for everyone but after some ratio (say around 50% of your waking hours) your brain will stop working as well and you need space to process what you learned. Finishing a long study session (say listening to a few YouTube videos then having a session on iTalki with a tutor, etc.) and having my phone in Japanese just sounds like hell to me.
Ajatt is absolutely ridiculous and I never understood how it rose to prominence online.
His result to efforts ratio listed back in the days was terrible and reading through is blog - back when it was a blog - was impossible. Everything read like an informercial and never got to the point.
Last time I checked it was a book club. Didn’t bother to check this time.
What's ridiculous about it? Long before AJATT was a site, I think most people would've told you that immersion is a good way to learn a second language.
You mention "result to efforts ratio," but I'm not sure I understand what this could me. In language learning, "results" and "efforts" are more or less the same thing. If you read a lot of books, you'll be good at reading books. It's not like there's some reading that is "effort" reading and other reading that is "results" reading; it's all just reading. For most people, the goal of learning Japanese is to be able to use Japanese in the real world. In which case I don’t see why any amount of time spent using Japanese should count as effort (but not results), since that’s the whole point.
I never paid any money to AJATT nor agree with everything on the site, but did find it inspirational in various ways early on in my studies. I'm fluent in written and spoken Japanese, and I do think living in Japan as well as immersing myself in Japanese media was a big part of that. I studied French in high school and college using traditional courses and I was never a great French speaker, I think in large part because I didn't do much with French outside the classroom.
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I don't disagree with this, but you need a "critical mass" of textbook knowledge to get started
I disagree with your disagreement.
I started off by memorising the hiragana table, then went hardcore. Got a simple manga (Hikaru no go) and a Japanese to English dictionary and just winged it.
Initially it took me a month to read an entire volume. It gets easier.
That was 20 years ago without any of the fancy tools people have today.
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Agreed. For immersing at home, reading mangas/webtoons with an OCR translated layer and watching Japanese vlogs with dual subtitles has been effective for me.
And maybe talk to people in Japanese? And do some writing? Not just passive consumption.
This is actually NOT recommended for a beginner.
Writing and speaking are effective at establishing long term memories, it's why we do it for other things, but a language learning beginner has no idea if what they're writing makes sense or if there's any subtle mistakes in how they're pronouncing words or how they're putting them together, etc.
Language learning experts don't recommend you start speaking/writing unless you have a coach or have reached an intermediate level so that you can discern when something sounds native or not. That way you can self evaluate with recordings, etc.
It is an effective tool for learning, but for self-learning you're gonna be shooting yourself in the foot long term. You should only do it if you have, say, a partner that speaks the language and doesn't mind correcting you all the time.
For Japanese I recommend that you do learn how to write kana/kanji from the start, and even some vocab if you want. But stop there. Don't write sentences, don't try to talk to japanese people on those apps/discord etc. and wait until you're at an intermediate level to do it, otherwise you'll form some very bad habits that are very hard to undo.
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Writing is not that necessary of a skill in Japanese- even many native Japanese speakers no longer remember how to write many characters.
There's even a self-deprecating slang term: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%83%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%97...
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If only there is a native speaker who is willing to correct your mistakes.
Output (writing and speaking) is a big beginner trap for language learners. If you can't afford a private tutor or moving to another country, my suggestion is just to skip it until you're able to understand daily conversation in the target language.
People are going to tell you making mistakes makes you improve. Which is true, if and only if you know what mistakes you made.
You’re just wrong. There are multiple pieces to learning languages. I had immense success with wanikani, improving my listening and reading.
Speaking can only be improved by speaking. No amount of language intake will improve output.
I think you are oversimplifying it. Thinking is output.
Why did this used to be the guide? Did it go down in quality? Outdated?
I remember reading everything from this guide almost 15 years ago, and remembered it really did help
Apps are really good at the first two though.
I'd say that's how any language is best learned. What makes japanese special in that regard?
> and most importantly IMMERSE
And if that is not possible/desired, perhaps talking to an AI can help?
>You just need to memorize the hell out of the vocabulary,
That's what this tool helps you do.
AJATT's impact is rather remarkable
Isn’t this the same as any language?
Some constructive criticism:
1. For picking the kana answers, using the keyboard key is better than numbers. When you actually type an え, you type 'e', so it's a useful mapping to learn in terms of how IME works.
2. For vocabulary, there should be an option to turn off romaji in favor of kana only. No explanation needed I think
3. The vocab quiz, between kanji and just an english word, is an anti-pattern in my opinion. Recognizing the meaning if vocab in a full japanese sentence is a much better basic quiz, especially since not all words have 1-1 mappings. It also doesn't quiz on the reading, which seems weird. Also, an easy example of something confusing there is that 辺 is 'area', but if I see 'area' my first thought is 面積 (like the area of a triangle), while 辺 would be edge in that context... and my second thought is 地域, like "the area of the country I grew up in". I think 辺 is maybe 4th or 5th for 'area', and that's just because 'area' is a broad english word. My point is, quizzing vocab -> english word, without reading, without an example sentence, is a recipe to confuse learner's brains.
4. Same complaints as vocab for the kanji quiz, but moreso since kanji's meaning is more abstract.
The beautiful aesthetic and open-source way to learn Japanese is to make Anki flash cards, and customize the cards using html (which it already supports).
This entire site could have been anki decks, and then it would have had spaced repetition for free, and users could even more easily edit things to suit themselves ad add to it.
Absolutely.
As a long-term Japanese user, I won't even consider a learning system for Japanese unless it has #2, and the other 3 are highly, highly desirable. So much so, that I can't imagine picking a system that doesn't understand why they're better, since so many other systems already exist that do.
It looks great. I would suggest changing the kanji next to the label "Kanji" to 字 instead of 出, though. 字 is the second character in the word 漢字 (kanji) and means "character." I would also suggest changing the kanji next to the "Vocabulary" label from 言 to 語. 語 is the second character in the word 単語 (tango) and means "word." The あ next to the "Kana" label is perfect.
出 means "to go out or exit" and doesn't have anything to do with learning Kanji. 言 means "to say" and is only tangentially related to learning vocabulary.
Still, great job!
Agreed. PR opened.
Looks neat but wish it wasn't sending user data to Google Analytics of all places.
Related discussions:
Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics (plausible.io)
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https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31852384
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What do you suggest they do instead?
What do they need Google Analytics for? Is it a must-have or a nice to have? In my experience most small website owners have web analytics setup but barely ever check the reports.
Some alternatives:
simpleanalytics is also a good alternative and they have a free tier
Role playing using common sentences is the best way to learn ANY language.
Start with a taxi lesson so you can move everywhere. Then a restaurant lesson so you can order from any menu at least the meals you like. Then a grocery shopping lesson. That'l cover 50% of your basic tourist needs. Then meeting people, elevator, bus, just remember the most important words 'sumimasen, onegaishimasu, kudasai, hajimemashite, arigato' and you'll be welcome everywhere you go.
It looks good, but it doesn't seem like a learning app and more like a practice app with just a big list of words. I was presented with multiple choices for things I wasn't taught. Closed sourced apps have a curriculum and guided learning steps. The cost is justified through original learning material integrated into studying and practice. I commend your effort and look forward to updates.
> Unfortunately, pretty much all language learning apps are closed-sourced
Mainly because of the content. Designing a beautiful UI and framework is one thing, but what is your plan for pooling together enough effort to produce enough learning material that the app becomes a meaningful learning resource?
A suggestion: give me a way to disable all romaji in the app. I find it distracting and problematic for learning: my lazy mind will always read romaji if it can find it. When learning Kanji, I only want to see hiragana and katakana, never romaji.
Great app - but as other said, this only works to reinforce what you learn.
My experience learning Japanese is a follows: - learn the sounds - no need to learn the writing ( yet )
- immerse in language and culture - just watch anime and movies as much as possible - I tell you what happens: at some points your brain makes click! and you start seeing the words and the sounds. Nice about the japanese is the very finite sounds they use.
- when I heard the japanese spoken, I started to visualize in my mind vision the romaji , like mental writing -> then I started to replace the romaji with hiragana and now slowly I replace with kanji ( as much as possible , still learning ) so in this way I bring the writing like a transcription service.
Till now speaking is still hard as I am yet to grasp full grammar in expressing complex ideas. Japanese has a beautiful information compression by linking parts of the sentence in ( for now ) complex chains that express ideas. I mean, yes, if I am stranded in Japan, I will survive, but I wont be able to go out with my friends and tell a story. That is still very far away. Maybe this needs reading books.
Great start! I like the aesthetic and focus on a single language. Most of all, making it open source and just getting it out there!
I'd love to collaborate, but I think we've got to look at overall concept first. There's a lot of information on the screen and it's not really clear how the learner journeys through. Greatly reducing the amount of info on the screen at once, focusing learner's attention on a single path would be helpful.
There's many theories of language acquisition, but I think Krashen is most on-point: we learn through comprehensible input. New vocabulary really needs to be encountered in context of meaningful sentences that are understandable to the learner. Further, when training, production with spaced repetition is really the most effective strategy.
I'd love to see there be a really great free learning tool that brings a pedagogically sound approach to Japanese learners!
Looks great and I thinks it’s a nice way to review vocab I learned some years ago now that I will be in Japan for vacation. Thanks!
However, it would be great if it was easier to select multiple vocabulary sets at once. Right now, I have to minimize many sets to get to let’s say set 20 and then select a maybe 20 to 25. That’s a lot of clicking here I would say. Maybe include a button that’s like select all sets of one level.
A second thing, I haven’t found is furigana or some pronunciation hint when doing the vocabulary test exercises. I know the meaning of the most of the words but it would be great to see also the pronunciation (maybe after clicking the right answer? Or as a tool tip). Or include a practicing mode for default word -> hiragana or something like that.
Otherwise, looks great I love the default font.
I'm afraid I found selecting sets to be very unclear, and I only figured it out by poking around the interface until it let me press the button
Edit: I didn't realise there were multiple modes either until I stumbled upon that as well
anyway drilling vocab/characters isn't the same thing as learning a language
Most of the apps to learn Japanese/Chinese seems to focus on the reading part, where it will present a word, and ask the user if they remember the meaning/pronounciation.
I find that I learn much faster (and remember a word for longer) when I focus on writing, instead of just... look. And writing is something most apps just skip. Some apps do show the animation of the stroke orders, but I think the user needs to be proactively write it down somewhere to remember it better.
Congrats on the launch, this looks great.
More languages should have a free first class experience to learn them.
If you ever have a making of blog post would love to read and learn more.
Speaking as someone who knows nothing about Japanese and is unlikely to use any app to ever learn Japanese... but just as a software ui/ux dev first time in. (ie take this with a pinch of salt)
On the test screens I was expecting there to be an option to shown the answers (ie cheat mode) so I could go through and get 100% score first few times.
And use that as a kind of flash card mode to get my footing in understanding stuff.
Then move out of cheat mode and see if I learnt anything!
I'm not sure what you're using for the UI exactly, but on a typical app or web page in iOS, I can tap the top "status bar" on my phone (where the clock and battery/wifi indicators are) and it should scroll me to the top of whatever view I'm in. It doesn't seem to work on your app though. I tried using it after scrolling through a long list of kanji when I wanted to return to the top.
This is super cool! Thank you so much for creating this and sharing it with the community. I'll definitely be trying it out.
It's pretty good straight out of the gate. I think giving customization of fonts is an excellent idea. There's huge variation in this area and font-switching is a definite stumbling block for anyone doing JSL. If someone has gotten used to a sans serif font from a textbook or Anki deck, for example, the more visually complex serif fronts used on official documents and exam papers require extra mental effort to parse. Likewise being able to switch color combinations easily is a good idea.
Might be good to allow the kanji/vocabulary to be filtered by JLPT or Jouyou stage. Picking multiple sets on the kanji units was a bit tedious, it's be nice to 'pick all' for a drill (but I was using it to test myself rather than learn new ones). I don't understand the pick options (pick, reverse, input, output) - they seem superfluous and perhaps need tooltips. Maybe add audio recordings at some point, although that's a bunch of work. You can use AI to generate it of course and it will be mostly correct as far as individual words go, but Japanese AI voices still seem to get pitch shapes and timing wrong sometimes.
I really like the UI’s use of screen real estate on mobile!
For studying N5 and N4, I’ve found Bunpro’s lesson grouping by JLPT levels a really nice format. It’s been encouraging seeing a progress bar for each step of the journey. I’d suggest looking for inspo there too if that interests you.
Specific piece of feedback I have is the font is a bit hard to read (as someone who reads Japanese) and not representative of the forms you will most often see, as a beginner. Basic font is best, a beginner won’t know stylized rounded edges from the actual form.
It looks and feels amazing and peaceful! For the kind of people who like studying without music.
I think the onboarding is missing something, I clicked and nothing interacted with me, but it’s a good idea! Try to make more “dopamine spike” for the user first interaction.
the website looks really nice and clean. props op
I think there is something wrong with the total time for round stat. It only told me 0 minutes 0 seconds. The other time related stats were fine
this is really cool, I had no real interest in learning Japanese but this makes it kinda enjoyable.
I love the fonts! So playful
The site allows the user to pick a font, but most of them are gimmicky.
A textbook font like Motoya Kyotai would be ideal.
I want the ability to turn off romaji completely.
Anybody aware of anything like this for mandarin ?
Curious about the answer as well.
Did you found anything?
the UI is very good. Especially on my touchscreen laptop.
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