KanaSensei is a web app for learning to read Japanese. Practice hiragana and katakana with adaptive drills, challenges, memorable mnemonics, native audio, and progress tracking.
π Hey Product Hunt, I'm Samuel β the person behind KanaSensei.
Last year I went to Japan. I had the trip planned to the detail, but the moment I landed I realized I couldn't read a single thing β menus, train signs, konbini shelves, all just squiggles. I promised myself I'd actually learn to read kana before going back.
So I did what I usually do: I tried the existing apps. And they were either bloated, gamified into oblivion, or made a genuinely simple thing feel like a chore. Learning hiragana and katakana isn't a hard problem β it's ~200 characters β but everything I tried buried that under clutter.
So I built the tool I wished I'd had. Just for me, at first. Type the reading, build a streak, and lean on picture-story mnemonics that turn each character into something you literally can't forget. No noise, no 40-screen onboarding β you open it and you're learning. I obsessed over making the UX clean and the whole thing genuinely pleasant to use, because that's the part everyone else skips.
I had a stupid amount of fun building it. And once it actually got me reading kana in a couple of weeks, it seemed silly to keep it to myself β so here it is. If you've ever wanted to read Japanese and bounced off the usual apps, I made this for you too.
Would love your honest feedback β I'm right here in the comments all day. π
What's the trickiest kana pair (katakana γ·/γ, maybe?) and how'd you mnemonic your way around it?
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the "picture-story mnemonic per character" approach is the right call - rote repetition is exactly where I've bounced off other apps before. the part of kana that actually got me stuck on my own trip wasn't the characters in isolation, it was the lookalike pairs, shi/tsu, ki/ka, so/n, that I'd nail individually in an app and then blank on side by side on an actual sign. does KanaSensei's drill deliberately pit those confusable pairs against each other, or is it mostly one character at a time and the mixing happens naturally once you're further into the deck
@galdayanΒ That's a really sharp catch, and you've nailed the exact thing I want to build next.
Right now the drill pulls randomly from whatever set you've selected (and won't repeat a character twice in a row), so the lookalike pairs do start colliding once you widen your selection β but I'll be honest, that's natural mixing, not the app deliberately pitting shi vs. tsu against each other.
And you're spot on that isolation is the trap: nailing γ alone tells you nothing about spotting it next to γ· on a real sign. So a mode that deliberately drills the confusable sets against each other β shi/tsu, ki/ka, so/n β is going straight on the roadmap. Really appreciate the feedback, this is exactly the kind that shapes what's next.
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@sajmumelΒ good honesty about calling it natural mixing rather than overselling it. glad the confusable-pairs mode is going on the roadmap either way - that's the one that would actually move the needle for me. will keep an eye out for it
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"Two weeks is a bold promise and I like it. As a solo app builder I respect the focus here, one skill done well instead of ten done halfway. Good luck with the launch!"
KanaSensei
@sajmumelΒ Great Product Samuel!
What's the trickiest kana pair (katakana γ·/γ, maybe?) and how'd you mnemonic your way around it?
the "picture-story mnemonic per character" approach is the right call - rote repetition is exactly where I've bounced off other apps before. the part of kana that actually got me stuck on my own trip wasn't the characters in isolation, it was the lookalike pairs, shi/tsu, ki/ka, so/n, that I'd nail individually in an app and then blank on side by side on an actual sign. does KanaSensei's drill deliberately pit those confusable pairs against each other, or is it mostly one character at a time and the mixing happens naturally once you're further into the deck
KanaSensei
@galdayanΒ That's a really sharp catch, and you've nailed the exact thing I want to build next.
Right now the drill pulls randomly from whatever set you've selected (and won't repeat a character twice in a row), so the lookalike pairs do start colliding once you widen your selection β but I'll be honest, that's natural mixing, not the app deliberately pitting shi vs. tsu against each other.
And you're spot on that isolation is the trap: nailing γ alone tells you nothing about spotting it next to γ· on a real sign. So a mode that deliberately drills the confusable sets against each other β shi/tsu, ki/ka, so/n β is going straight on the roadmap. Really appreciate the feedback, this is exactly the kind that shapes what's next.
@sajmumelΒ good honesty about calling it natural mixing rather than overselling it. glad the confusable-pairs mode is going on the roadmap either way - that's the one that would actually move the needle for me. will keep an eye out for it
"Two weeks is a bold promise and I like it. As a solo app builder I respect the focus here, one skill done well instead of ten done halfway. Good luck with the launch!"