Hi. I’m new to learning Japanese but an experienced developer. I love building websites, apps and other software projects. For my next project I want to build something that has to to with Japan, like a learning tool or something else that’s focused on Japanese language/culture.
I have a few things in mind but nothing that’s really carrying me away yet. That’s why I’m asking you guys: What app/website do you wish existed for learning Japanese? Or what app/website do you wish existed that’s related to Japan?
Looking forward your suggestions!
2 comments
Foreigners typically remember kanji by learning visualizations of the radicals. Sites like Wani Kani have rich stories to aid memorization through visualization. I wish someone would build something like Wani Kani but instead of hard to remember stories it would have visually striking images generated by Dalle 2, midjourney or something similar. Each radical would have a unique and distinctive visual image and the picture would represent a kanji by showing a story made up of the images of its radicals. I think this could revolutionize kanji learning.
Some app to learn new vocabulary through choosing the right kanjis one by one at the right order.
E.g:
Q1: Choose the right kanjis in the right order for the word:
ざぶとん(Japanese cushion)
Options:
家 体 座
牛 団 肉
布 大 帰
Answer: _ _ _
A lack of this kind of practice ultimately made me confuse words that have kanjis in reverse order, e.g:
料理 (cuisine) and 理科 (science)
There is a fairly popular app like this for iOS https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/learn-japanese-kanji/id1078107994?l=en
But the developers always find a way to break it. Right now it is nearly in an abandoned state, filled with bugs for higher level kanjis, so I stopped using it.
I have thought about making an open source version of it, but my front end skills sucks and I eventually gave up. If you ever consider it, I would gladly contribute to this.