Hi everyone, I wanted to share a small project I made called Uchinalingo.
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/uchinalingo/id6753190366?l=en-US
It’s a free, ad-free app for learning about the Okinawan language and the history of Okinawa, including the Battle of Okinawa. The app supports both Japanese and English, and I especially made it with naichaa (Japanese people from outside Okinawa) and international users in mind.
I’m actually naichaa myself, and I’m not an engineer. I built this through a lot of trial and error and AI-assisted “vibe coding.” It’s still a small project, but I wanted to make something useful and respectful.
One reason I made it is that Okinawan languages are at risk of disappearing, but there still aren’t many accessible learning apps for them.
Another big reason was that I learned about the Okinawan idea of “yo-gawari”. I was deeply struck by the idea that people in Okinawa have lived through dramatic historical shifts that can be understood as different “world changes” or turning points: the Ryukyu Kingdom, Japanese rule, the Battle of Okinawa, the U.S. occupation, and the present day. I didn’t know about this myself before, and that shock became a major motivation for making the app. I wanted to create something that could help express that history and what I learned from it.
I also want more people, including people outside Japan, to learn about the Battle of Okinawa. I think a lot of people still know very little about it, even though it is such an important part of Okinawan history.
I originally wanted to include audio, but that turned out to be much harder to implement than I expected, so the current version is mainly focused on text-based learning.
It’s not perfect, but I hope it can be a small contribution. If you’re interested in Okinawa, endangered languages, or history, I’d really appreciate any feedback.
by mcmurphy55