Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese (kanadojo.com)

Looks neat but wish it wasn't sending user data to Google Analytics of all places.

the UI is very good. Especially on my touchscreen laptop.

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.

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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!

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

I love the fonts! So playful

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

> 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?

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)

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!

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!

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.

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.

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 looks and feels amazing and peaceful! For the kind of people who like studying without music.

this is really cool, I had no real interest in learning Japanese but this makes it kinda enjoyable.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.