Hey gang. I just wanted to share my experience as a smartphone only Japanese learner.
TLDR; Duolingo and Migaku
So, as most people around here agree, I feel like it’s probably not worth spending time learning Japanese unless it’s fun.
It’s a hobby for me, just like watching anime and playing video games.
I just can’t bring myself to sit on my PC and mine words via all these sophisticated Anki extensions and integrations. I work on software all day and I never want to touch my laptop when I get home.
So I started Duo about 2 years ago. At first I was super hard core about it, then kinda leveled out. I know it’s not “the best learning resource”, but it’s fun for me as a gamification and I have several friends on it too.
I did want two more things though, and I finally found Migaku about 2 months ago.
Migaku 1) offers a very different style of curated learning lessons than Duo, 2) teaches plain form Japanese by default (this has been so hard to find) which is great after so much polite form, and 3) has AI powered flash card creation functionality.
Now, I’m a huge AI hype hater. So annoying. And I also hate Duo for making itself worse with AI while trying to replace humans.
But the service of making arbitrary flash cards with the help of AI is an ethically and technically reasonable use-case.
I’m playing Fantasy Life i on PS5 in Japanese. I can see a word or phrase, type into Migaku, hit the magic AI button, and get a full featured flash card in like 60 seconds on my iPhone.
I get the word, a custom sample sentence, furigana, definition, translation, voice recordings, a semi relevant picture, and even some culture notes. Effortlessly.
I do pay for both of these, but i find it’s worth it for me and my friends.
by MedicOfTime