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Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

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Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#91
post #7

The Japanese learning space feels so crowded. Most are marketed towards beginners, which makes sense when you see statistics (most folks give up). The top tier tools I recommend anyone are Wanikani and Bunpro. Beyond that, reading! I tried a site dedicated to it, but realized that I'm too much of a picky reader to do anything but read things I find interesting. So I read japanese and english books side by side now. I…

There are sites like japanese.io, that allow you to copy/paste any text and get vocabulary lookup, furigana support, allow to add words to a flashcard deck and other things.

I really like their idea and feel such a platform would add a lot of benefit, since you can read whatever you care about. Sadly, the site struggles with longer texts (the UI is not optimized for it) and their flashcard system isn't that great. I have been toying with a similar idea myself. I'd love to read my ebooks with an easy way to look up vocabulary and easily creating flashcard decks containing all unknown words. However, getting the morphological analysis correct while providing fast dictionary lookup has been quite the challenge. This is the first larger project I've attempted so far, so lack of experience definitely is an issue in that regard.

So if anyone has some ideas, feel free to share them. It's not something I pursue commercially, so lack of market doesn't bother me.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#92
Huge shoutout to jpdb.io, which is imho second to none as they have flashcard sets for 5600 different books/animes/mangas/novels etc.

That's literally the best way to learn to read a language: reading actual Japanese written by a Japanese. No artificial workbook sentences. Actual context that surrounds your sentences. And you only have to deal with unknown vocabulary, where jpdb steps in.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#93

This is great. I'm not going to recommend porting to web (or android) because it's too obvious :). Maybe buy out his existing other assets too? But if you aligned it with the JLPT I would subscribe. JLPT is the official gauge of progress and is a great motivator.

I don't think JLPT is granular enough to be a gauge of progress. It's only really useful to show to institutions that ask for it (implying N3 to N5 are mostly useless).

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#94
This looks great, and I remember seeing Jalup a few years ago. I'm alright at the language now (N1 a year ago, 50+ books read, etc) and so deep into Anki at this point that I doubt I'll ever transition away, but I could see recommending this to someone who wants an easier solution.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live in Japan so I have a pretty good conversation level but still struggle with reading. I tried many apps but it never really "sticked", especially as you said most are geared towards beginner and it's often a hassle until the app can figure out your actual level. So I ended up biting the bullet and taking online group lessons. It is much more expensive, but also way better! I finally got back on track an…

Online group lessons? I'm intrigued, I've only ever seen 1-on-1 stuff. Does that work like normal classrooms, but on Zoom or whatever? With possible breakouts in smaller groups? PS: Erwan, is that you?

> Does that work like normal classrooms, but on Zoom or whatever?

Yes. I really prefer group lessons, but in my area there are no group lessons for my level.

> With possible breakouts in smaller groups?

In my class we're only 3 students so no need for breakouts

> PS: Erwan, is that you?

yes :)

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#96
Your timing could not be better. Just this morning I was thinking how I'm set on the kanji front (with Anki) but I could really use a system for learning more vocab and grammar at an advanced level.

Then this came along. Excited to have a go!

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#97
post #7

The Japanese learning space feels so crowded. Most are marketed towards beginners, which makes sense when you see statistics (most folks give up). The top tier tools I recommend anyone are Wanikani and Bunpro. Beyond that, reading! I tried a site dedicated to it, but realized that I'm too much of a picky reader to do anything but read things I find interesting. So I read japanese and english books side by side now. I…

I’m learning French with reading/media too and realized media will never exhaust itself like beginner apps do. I wanted an open-ended platform to to follow that reasoning, so I created https://languageroadmap.com as a way to keep finding interesting target-language media at my skill level.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#98
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In his books, Heisig recommends learning all the joyo kanji before anything else. It's what his books are for, so it isn't a surprise, but perhaps that's where the idea that it's useful to do so came from.

Yes, that's his point of view but he's a bit alone on that. It probably works if you're not using Japanese at all while learning the Kanji, but if you do need to use Japanese (i.e. freshly arrived in Japan) it doesn't really make sense to spend 1 year on kanji before learning the language. For most people kanji is better learned with vocabulary. You definitely need to learn hiragana first, and not use romaji at all,…

The idea is somewhat persistent amongst beginners though, whether sources agree or not. I guess that’s a problem of community-lead learning, instead of instructor-lead.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#99
post #7

The Japanese learning space feels so crowded. Most are marketed towards beginners, which makes sense when you see statistics (most folks give up). The top tier tools I recommend anyone are Wanikani and Bunpro. Beyond that, reading! I tried a site dedicated to it, but realized that I'm too much of a picky reader to do anything but read things I find interesting. So I read japanese and english books side by side now. I…

I used to live in Japan so I have a pretty good conversation level but still struggle with reading. I tried many apps but it never really "sticked", especially as you said most are geared towards beginner and it's often a hassle until the app can figure out your actual level. So I ended up biting the bullet and taking online group lessons. It is much more expensive, but also way better! I finally got back on track an…

I do 1 on 1 lessons for an hour each week via Zoom. Afterwards my brain feels "rearranged" but IMO there is no substitute for it.

Re: Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition

#100
post #7

The Japanese learning space feels so crowded. Most are marketed towards beginners, which makes sense when you see statistics (most folks give up). The top tier tools I recommend anyone are Wanikani and Bunpro. Beyond that, reading! I tried a site dedicated to it, but realized that I'm too much of a picky reader to do anything but read things I find interesting. So I read japanese and english books side by side now. I…

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