the website looks really nice and clean. props op
Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
71–80 of 94 posts
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#72Apps/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)
> and most importantly IMMERSE
And if that is not possible/desired, perhaps talking to an AI can help?
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#73Apps/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)
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…
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)
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#74Apps/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)
I don't disagree with this, but you need a "critical mass" of textbook knowledge to get started
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#75Apps/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)
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.
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#76Apps/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 sta…
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.
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 unle…
Every language course I’ve taken has involved has some active production of language. Day 1 of my Japanese class in HS was introducing ourselves to one another. Language exams also require proof of correct and accurate production of language. Do you have any citations for the idea that it’s better not to practice actually using the language while trying to learn it?
This is the primary researcher behind the input hypothesis. [1]
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 unle…
I think the concern about forming bad habits is real, but avoiding any writing until you’re “ready” can delay fluency.
Something that worked for me was limiting it: just 65 words a day in the target language. It forces you to think, but the risk of fossilizing mistakes is low because it’s short.
I even built a little site for this (65words.com) and it’s been fun seeing others use it. Curious if Japanese learners here think this approach makes sense.
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 sta…
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.
It's a numbers game. Sentence complexity within a given novel follows a distribution, and if you keep reading then you'll keep getting some input that is at exactly the right level for you to grow. It's normal to stumble on the exposition at the start of a chapter and then breeze through the dialogue.
I did find it helpful early on to go through web novels with a low 95% coverage vocabulary count, like the Narou stories indexed here: http://wiki.wareya.moe/Narou
Natively is a great resource too. It does Elo-style ranking of novel difficulty: https://learnnatively.com/browse/jpn/?language=jpn&lvl=
I highly recommend real stories over generated text and synthetic exercises, because the key to success is staying engaged long term. Stories are just more fun. Also get yourself a reading setup that minimises the pain of dictionary lookups, because there are going to be a lot of them. ttsu reader + yomitan is excellent.
Re: Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
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