https://learnjapanese.moe

https://alljapanesealltheti.me/ (this used to be THE guide for learning)

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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'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!

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

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.