As a long time Japanese learner, I always wanted there to be a simple online trainer for learning kana, Kanji and vocabulary - like Anki, but for the web. Originally, I created the website for personal use simply as a better alternative to kana pro and realkana, and as an alternative to Chase Colburn’s Kanji Study app, because Kanji Study was pretty complicated for me to use as a beginner and didn’t have a simpler way of just grinding Kanji like you can grind the kana on kana pro.

I’m doing this because I grew tired of all the subscriptions and paywalls. I want to make the most user-friendly, customizable, aesthetic and fun platform for learning Japanese currently available. Accessible to all, fully open-source and free forever - and driven not by profit, but made by the community, for the community.

We already have more than 30+ active contributors from all over the world, and we really want to make the first definitive 100% free, open-source platform for learning Japanese - in contrast to most other apps for learning Japanese, which are often paid and monetized aggressively.

If you’re interested, you can check it out here: https://kanadojo.com/ ^ ^

GitHub if you’re a dev and interested in contributing: https://github.com/lingdojo/kana-dojo

The app is still in its early alpha stages - but with your help, we can make it even better and give the Japanese learning community its first completely free, open-source and community-driven learning platform! どうもありがとうございます!

  • Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    8·
    29 days ago

    I gotta ask, why is that there are tons of dedicated open source tools for Japanese but not for other languages?

    • aliceblossom@lemmy.world
      7·
      29 days ago

      I think it goes something like: you spend nearly all of your time on the English speaking part of the internet - > for English speakers Japanese is one of the hardest languages you can choose to learn - > people want strong tools and resources to help learn it.

      Couple that with the reach and popularity of Japanese media and boom.

      • Devjavu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2·
        28 days ago

        Makes sense.

        Though it is possible that with the sentence
        “you spend nearly all of your time on the english speaking part of the internet”
        You could be implying there is another part of the internet where open source language learning tools for other languages are as readily available as those for Japanese. If that is the case, could you guide me towards that?

        • aliceblossom@lemmy.world
          2·
          27 days ago

          I think it’s possible, but I don’t personally know. I started with that point/assumption because “Japanese is a hard language to learn” isn’t generally true, but is true for English (only) speakers.

      • emb@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        28 days ago

        Yep, I think that pretty much nails it. The combination of being super popular in the West, plus difficult with lots of info to memorize, organize, and analyze. Tons of people try to learn it, and find it difficult enough that they think, ‘if only I had a tool that could show me the parts of the Kanji this way, or that could display flashcards that way’. So there’s this super rich ecosystem of learning material.

      • TwilightKiddy@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        29 days ago

        Well, I’m a LibreWolf + uBlock hard mode guy, but that’s, I think, the first time one of those anti-bot systems just outright crumbles without any even potential way to fix it. When requesting a challenge the server responds with a 708 code, which is not a standard one, so, I have absolutey zero idea on how to make it happy.

        If you can’t fix it, I propose you replace it with something like anubis.
        Another funny way to combat bots that does not disrupt the user is honeypotting bots with a hidden link on the page that just blacklists the IP address of anyone touching the endpoint.

  • rehydrate5503@lemmy.world
    29·
    1 month ago

    This is awesome, thank you for making it open source. I really appreciate being able to give it a try without having to sign up and what not as well, good touch!

  • BroBot9000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    1 month ago

    You rock! 🤘

    I wish you lots of luck and hope you get lots of contributors. Will be sharing the link with people I know currently learning Japanese.

  • bunnyBoy@pawb.socialEnglish
    3·
    29 days ago

    My roommate and I are both in the very early stages of learning Japanese and this is awesome!! Definitely gonna forward this around <3

  • LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    3·
    30 days ago

    Thank you. Japan is on my bucket list, and even though the climate looks like I may never make it there (lots of stuff going on that I can’t control…), I’d still like to be somewhat prepared if I do get the opportunity to go.

    Thank you for providing knowledge for free! :-]

  • BertramDitore@lemmy.zipEnglish
    17·
    1 month ago

    This is HUGE, I’ve been looking for something like this for a while, awesome work. And extra kudos for making it so pretty!

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
    10·
    1 month ago

    I read “platformer” and was excited for a sucessor to Mario Teaches Typing."

    But this is still pretty awesome.