Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese
82 comments
·September 6, 2025coldblues
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://alljapanesealltheti.me/ (this used to be THE guide for learning)
marsavar
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.
tillcarlos
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.
wren6991
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.
tkgally
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.
gyomu
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).
refactor_master
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.
gyomu
Oh yeah, my experience IRL in Japan is that 80% of Japanese learners are Chinese (and 15% are from other Asian countries, eg Thailand/Vietnam/Korea/India/Pakistan).
rootsudo
My experience with Japanese language school was different. Turns out everyone was there because of anime or YouTube bloggers. Wish I’d know. Didn’t have to study to be “good in class” and it felt like a visa mill. So much for in Japan instruction.
weird-eye-issue
I think this observation also applies to almost everything else too
Hamuko
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)
ntlk
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).
zaik
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.
awirth
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.
coldblues
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.
yorwba
I assume you're thinking about translation flashcards when you say that manual input should not be used, but I get a lot of value out of dictation flashcards in Anki: the front plays a recording of a sentence, I type in what I heard, and I mark myself correct if I wrote the right sentence and understood its meaning.
With translation, the problem is that there's often many correct answers, which makes it difficult to distinguish wrong answers from unexpected correct answers. But sentence dictation usually doesn't have this problem (barring puns with homophones.)
gregjw
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.
agnishom
I don't disagree with this, but you need a "critical mass" of textbook knowledge to get started
SenHeng
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.
OneMorePerson
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.
aizk
AJATT's impact is rather remarkable
Kuyawa
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.
TheDong
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.
wccrawford
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.
3np
Looks neat but wish it wasn't sending user data to Google Analytics of all places.
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colesantiago
What do you suggest they do instead?
me_bx
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:
* don't have web analytics at all
* self-host a Plausible Analytics or other open source analytics solution
* use the data from server-side access logs (for those using nginx, apache or other similar solutions)
* use Vercel web analytics' free tier (relevant for kanadojo which appears to be hosted there) - more privacy friendly than Google Analytics.4u00u
simpleanalytics is also a good alternative and they have a free tier
Koaisu
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.
ccozan
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.
agnishom
> 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?
redmalang
Anybody aware of anything like this for mandarin ?
famahar
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.
null
clbrmbr
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!
1317
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
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 ^ ^