Recently, I’ve tried writing smaller apps to supplement what Duo provides because they have a great product and I’ll never compete directly as a solo developer.
Anyway, any other small app ideas that people would like to see implemented? Game ideas that help with the necessary repetition, for example?
Also as someone trying to pick back up on my Japanese after letting it slide for a decade (well to be honest I never had more than enough to do greetings and basic restaurant ordering), many kana/kanji matching apps leave a lot to be desired. Katakana is a personal weak point and the apps I've tried all limit the extent of matches to picking one of the matching 3 or 4. Process of elimination makes it so that I can get 100% of these quizzes despite only knowing 80% of the material. Something that would allow customizing 10 or 20 possible answers to pick from would be nice. But I don't know if this would have any bearing on other languages to be worth developing (and there might be an existing app I just haven't found yet).
They're also each a dollar to unlock voiced/combined readings and remove ads. My pihole did block the ads while I was just trying them out.
That idea doesn't scale. Much simpler to look at definitions and example sentences, especially for non-obvious words like abstract ideas, context-dependent words, and particles.
> Katakana is a personal weak point
Just use flash cards. It's rote memorization, so there's no substitute for time and repetition. If you're able to commit an hour each day, you should be done by the end of the week.
>Just use flash cards.
That is effectively what the apps are mimicking and what I am using. What I'm bringing up in a desired feature I haven't found (granted, I've only checked out a dozen or so apps which is worlds apart from serious market research). As for why I use an app over flash cards? Phone is more convenient and always on me. Also, other than a stack of the most common kanji, flash cards don't really scale in a portable format.
But I probably should buy a deck including kanji for at home usage.
And I'm only recommending flash cards and other rote tools for kana, because recalling them instantly is both important and relatively low-effort. I don't have a strong opinion on how to learn vocabulary, other than to prioritize based on actual usage: media you read/listen to, conversations, etc.