For those that haven’t heard of it, Clozemaster is an app (iOS/android/web) that you can study 50+ languages with.
Japanese is one of the more popular languages on the app.
The app uses a sentences based approach and most of the sentences are from the Tatoeba database.
For Japanese, I chose to use the Fluency Fast Track deck, which contains just under 20k sentences.
Each sentence is presented with the target word missing.
Each sentence has a unique word missing, so the fluency fast track covers 20k unique “closes”, or words.
You have 2 options when it comes to closing the sentence: multiple choice, or type it manually.
Multiple choice is the easier of the 2.
The sentences have a spoken audio file to go alongside, which you hear after closing the sentence.
There is a review schedule that pushes cards back to the top of your review pile using spaced repetition.
New cards are ordered by the frequency index of their closed-out word. So you are studying based on the frequency list.
# What are my usage stats as of now?
**Sentences played:** 4136/1996 (about 20%)
**Streak:** 54 days
**Average new per day:** 46.4
**Average reviewed per day:** 245.3
**My Average speed:** 3.5-4 cards per minute. Measured using the Apple screen time app and collecting the total cards played for each session.
# Which settings do I use?
**Cards per session:** 20
**Reviews per session:** 17
**New cards per session:** 3
(This keeps my reviews manageable… I had it on 15/5 but the review load was punishing)
**Game mode:** multiple choice
# What’s good about Clozemaster?
* The sentences are actually quite diverse and after the first 1k or so stop feeling so “textbooky”.
* Every sentence has spoken audio, and it’s decent.
* It’s very customisable.
* It has quick links to almost all platforms you could need to drill down the meaning of something.
* It includes a button to generate a ChatGPT explanation of the sentence, on each card. (I use this often)
* The developer actually listens to and responds to feedback. The app has improved in the last 2 months using it.
# What’s bad about Clozemaster?
* Sometimes you need to drill down to understand the sentence because the translation offered is too ambiguous. In these instances I usually solve the problem using the ChatGPT explain button.
* The ChatGPT seed prompt is too basic for my level, and I cannot change it. It offers a word by word breakdown and spends too much time explaining basic particles, and basic grammar to me.
* The free version is not really viable. You will hit the usage limit fast, and not make meaningful progression.
* “Hard mode” aka manual text entry doesn’t work the same in Japanese as it does in other languages. The hinting mechanic is a bit broken for Japanese, due to Kanji.
# Who should use Clozemaster?
* If you know your Hiragana, Katakana, basic grammar, and at least 100 or so kanji. You can probably get started, but it will get hard at around 1k sentences.
* Clozemaster is best suited for intermediate learners around the N3-N2 level.
* For me, I expected to start hitting new words around the 6-7k mark, but in reality I started hitting unfamiliar territory around the 3k mark. So I was surprised by that.
* If you are looking for a great option for a “premade deck” and are not interested in sentence mining.
# Discussion:
So it’s been about 2 months, and I’ve been spending 1-2 hours per day studying with Clozemaster. I felt it was time to offer my thoughts to the community here about it, as I saw that hardly any posts have been made about it.
I think that Clozemaster currently offers the most time efficient path for intermediate learners. It’s using the frequency lists, and has enough sentences to go all the way to advanced understanding. Perhaps more importantly though, the sentences are fairly good, natural sounding, and diverse enough to remain interesting and engaging. I have been submitting feedback to the developer of the app, and he has been responding to all my submissions, some of which have also been developed now (likely due to popular demand).
I think the future of Clozemaster will be interesting. I see a path forward that includes deeper integration with AI and LLM’s like GPT4 that enable users to more easily leverage the power of these tools in their learning stack. There are so many interesting ways GPT’s can be integrated.
It has impressed me just enough to keep me going this far, and I think I will actually make it to the end of the fluency fast track.
**Have you used Clozemaster? What has your experience been like?**