As someone who loves both coding and learning Japanese, I’ve always wished there was an open-source, truly free tool for learning Japanese, kind of like what Monkeytype is in the typing community (fun fact: we actually have 2 Monkeytype devs on board with us now!)
Unfortunately, most language learning apps these days are either paid or closed-source, and the few free ones that are still out there haven’t really been kept up to date. I felt like that left a gap for people who just want a straightforward, open-source, high-quality learning tool that isn’t trying to milk them and/or sell them something.
That being said, I didn’t want to just make another “me too” language app just for the sake of creating one. There needed to be something special about it. That’s when I thought: why not truly hit it home and do something no other language learning app has done by adding tons of color themes, fonts and an extremely fun and customizable experience, as a little tribute to the vibe that inspired me in the first place, Monkeytype.
So, that’s what I’m doing now. We’ve already hit half a thousand stars on GitHub and reached thousands of Japanese learners worldwide, and we’re looking to grow our forever free, open-source platform even more.
Why? Because Japanese learners and weebs deserve a free and genuinely fun learning experience too.
Live demo: https://kanadojo.com/
If you wanna make our day by dropping us a star or even contributing, then you can do so here --> https://github.com/lingdojo/kana-dojo ^^
どもありがとうございます！
Could this be adjusted for traditional Chinese as well? Or Korean? Seeing as how they are also kind of ‘blocky’ languages?
I was always thinking of creating a Chinese fork once this is polished enough! I’m learning Chinese too at the moment
I would also like more languages, but I’m not sure what you mean by blocky?
It’s more of a feeling than a technical definition. The opposite end of the ”blocky letters” spectrum would be Sanskrit or Arabic.
Like all the words fit in boxes? Like a pictogram? I’m sure there’s a technical term for it
I just wanted to point out that https://github.com/fabd/kanji-koohii is also open source and a really awesome tool, too.
I was wondering if it’s possible to create an account or if it’s planned, because if I loose my cookies all progress will be lost. :(
I fucking love you!!! I knew you could do it!! Thanks for doing this!!
Edit: I can’t get in error code when opening website
noooo, I can’t let that happen! if you want, you can privately message me on discord or email me with your browser, OS and all other relevant info so we can fix it ASAP (it might be just Vercel’s anti-bot mode though)
Sure I’ll do that with ya tomorrow. Also it doesnt work on any browsers on mobile, & laptop so defi itely a wider problem of whatever it is
It could also be that Vercel automatically blocks certain IPs for whatever reason. Even had that happen to me a couple times, and as far as I’m aware, I don’t seem to be living in Iran, Russia or China lol
I’m currently learning Japanese, and this is suuuper useful! Thanks so very much!
I tried it and really like how open and not contrived (compared to there language apps) it is. Can you add a grammar section? I am at the point where I have the hiragana down and am okayish with Katakana, I know a lot of words/vocabulary but still feel like I cannot do anything with it because I don’t grasp the grammar and conjugation-like rules of the language. Thank you.
It took me a while to be able to tolerate the voice but it’s the single best resource for learning Japanese grammar. The video creator passed on but they are by far the best teacher I’ve ever come across
You were not kidding about the voice. Sheesh.
Yeah, it’s rough, I almost quit five mins into the video and I told my wife it’s the most grating thing I’ve ever heard. After finishing the first and second video I was able to tolerate it and concepts that I had read about but never understood were clicking left and right.
I later realized it might have been because the video creator was sick and was constantly in and out of hospitals so using an artificial voice may have just made everything easier and made me feel bad for being judgy.
I’m not super far in the series yet but there’s put out so many amazing videos, there’s problem sets with answers, and the comments are filled with personal anecdotes where the creator answered DMs to questions in a very in-depth and patient manner.
There’s almost no fluff to the videos after the first one, they’re very concise and the explanations make so much sense. It’s easy to read things like “wa is the topic marker, ga is the subject marker” and not gain any clarity, but I finally understand it thanks to the vids. I’m sure one day I’ll finish the series and wish I could hear more
There’s a google doc transcription of this series , so you mostly dont need to suffer through the voice, if you don’t want.
That’s fantastic, thank you! I prefer reading to listening when learning so that’s a huge help!
Other recommendation for grammar: check out bunpro. It does nag for log in and try to push subscription for SRS (flashcards), but the last time I used it, it did a great job of laying out the grammar points (by profiency level or following textbook order), and linking to various sources of info on them.
Wow! Just in time… I’m planning on learning Japanese, at least conversational level, as I’m planning a trip to Japan in 2027.
Very nice, I like the UI and theme selection! I don’t see a way to add themes or fonts myself, though; any plans for this?
Unfortunately, adding your own fonts would be impossible by definition, but creating your own custom themes is something that’s definitely coming down the line! ^^
Very cool
What an amazing tool! I have no need to learn Japanese but always been curious about the language and tried multiple times to learn the kana at least. Might go practicing about with this.
Is there plans to get a drawing tool to practice? That’s what mostly interests me, not just to read or write with a keyboard.
On my phone there are keyboard options to draw characters for Chinese and Japanese inputs, if that’s a solution for you.
Ah… Very good point! I have to check if the OpenSource keyboard I use allows it… But I guess I would need to learn very well how to draw them to use them or the keyboard won’t recognize it. I would need something that allows me to learn slowly the patterns and drawing directions specifically. Something that starts giving you a pattern to draw on top and then slowly make it more difficult.
Pretty cool.
Would be awesome to create an offlined ZIM archive with this like they did with FreeCodeCamp so you can use on your local device with Kiwix.
I really like what you’re doing, keep it up!
Application error: a client-side exception has occurred while loading kanadojo.com (see the browser console for more information).
You should also crosspost this to !japaneselanguage@sopuli.xyz and !learnjapanese@lemmy.ml!
This looks neat, I’ll have to sit down and give this a proper try some time ☺️
I love this! I will use it everyday as I really don’t like Duolingo anymore.
One issue noticed, pronunciation and ui sounds are inadvertently linked.
For example
I don’t want UI sounds, but I want the pronunciation button to work. It does not with these settings.
