chrisvasselli

9 ms·

1. 31.▲
   by chrisvasselli 4y ago

   Thanks! Phone-only for now just because I wanted to get it out the door and focus on polishing a single user experience, but I definitely plan on adding iPad support soon. That's good feedback that you like studying on your Mac, I&#x27
2. 32.▲
   Show HN: A Japanese learning app focused on efficient vocab/grammar acquisition(lessons.nihongo-app.com)

   161 points by chrisvasselli 4y ago|116 comments
3. 33.▲
   by chrisvasselli 6y ago

   I think you're hitting on something real here, that translation doesn't "scale up". You can't rely entirely on learning translations to learn a language, and in some ways it can really hold you back if you think of
4. 34.▲
   by chrisvasselli 6y ago

   I added OCR into my Japanese dictionary app Nihongo recently, with manga as one of the key use cases I was thinking about. I came up with an interface I don't feel like I've seen elsewhere, where you just tap on words to look them
5. 35.▲
   by chrisvasselli 6y ago

   Thanks! Yeah, that has been a struggle. This feature is new, but the app has been known as Nihongo since launch, and I still only place 7th in Google for the "Nihongo" search. Perhaps with a good dedicated page for this feature, I
6. 36.▲
   by chrisvasselli 6y ago

   Hi everybody, I'm an indie app developer and the creator of the Japanese dictionary and study app Nihongo. I've been working for the last year on this update to add OCR to the app. I wanted to try to come up with a more intuitive
7. 37.▲
   Show HN: Nihongo – A new approach to OCR interfaces, for Japanese word lookup(youtube.com)

   4 points by chrisvasselli 6y ago|3 comments
8. 38.▲
   ExpectNotNil: Handling Swift optionals that should never be nil(blog.nihongo-app.com)

   2 points by chrisvasselli 7y ago|0 comments
9. 39.▲
   by chrisvasselli 7y ago

   Yeah, definitely a good point.
10. 40.▲
    by chrisvasselli 7y ago

    I spend a lot of time playing games as a way to study Japanese. So I wrote a blog post summing up everything I've learned! From picking the right game, to finding scripts, to study strategies, this is how I get the most learning out of
11. 41.▲
    Using Videogames to Study Japanese(blog.nihongo-app.com)

    3 points by chrisvasselli 7y ago|3 comments
12. 42.▲
    by chrisvasselli 9y ago

    Demo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjYUfrQW7W0 Hey HN! I’m the creator of the Nihongo Safari Extension, a new tool that can add furigana or romaji to Japanese webpages from within Safari on iOS. It will also make a
13. 43.▲
    Show HN: Nihongo Safari Extension – Add Furigana to Japanese Webpages on iOS(nihongo-app.com)

    3 points by chrisvasselli 9y ago|2 comments
14. 44.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    By the way, if you have any specific papers in mind that you think would be good reading, please let me know!
15. 45.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Thanks, you've definitely given me a lot to chew on. I definitely struggled with a lot of the same questions. I thought a lot about the question of "when do you know a word well enough, and prune it?" and I came to generally
16. 46.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Ah, sorry, I didn't realize that! Unfortunately I make use of some of the features in iOS 8 in a way that would make it difficult to add support for iOS 7. If you ever get a new device compatible with iOS 8 I hope you'll check it
17. 47.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Hmm, I actually use that novels corpus. Sounds like you may have found a bug in Nihongo. I'll look into it. Thanks!
18. 48.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Thanks, it's useful to hear that the difference between "uncommon" and "rare" was unclear to you. I'll think about how to make that better. I definitely would love to have a distinction in the app for "thi
19. 49.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    To be honest, I haven't spent a huge amount of time exploring mecab and chasen, although I probably should. The decision to write our own was partially just because it seemed like a fun academic exercise, and we learned a lot from buil
20. 50.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Not that I know of! I'd love to expand to other languages at some point. One of the tricks is that I think it's important for there to be a best-in-class dictionary attached to it. If users feel like they'd rather use a diffe
21. 51.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Actually, I should give some proper credit here. My husband Justin wrote this component, which turned out awesome. He's really into Japanese linguistics. =)
22. 52.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Yep, I'm working on it right now! That's going to be the next big update. I'm aiming to release shortly after iOS 9 comes out, so September/October probably.
23. 53.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Sorry, it's all closed source right now. There are pieces of it I might release as open-source at some point though. As for Android and Windows, I just don't have the time unfortunately. This is a solo side-project for me. But if
24. 54.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Yeah, it's definitely a weakness in Nihongo. I'd love to have a really well-integrated Japanese-Japanese dictionary, but I've never been able to find a J-J open-source database like JMDict/EDict. My solution for now is t
25. 55.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Looks promising, thanks. I initially tried with iCloud syncing, and it was a mess.
26. 56.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Yeah, unfortunately it's all built very iOS-specific. And since this is a side-project for me, I'm not sure I'll find the time to make an Android version anytime soon. If I ever have the time/resources, it's somethi
27. 57.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Very interesting! Nihongo does use spaced repetition, and it looks like there are some similarities and some differences with JLDrill. Here's the overview: - When you select a deck, you study words 10 at a time in "learn" mod
28. 58.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    I think I have a fair number of new ideas in Nihongo that improve on imiwa. I used to use imiwa, and it's a good app, but I wouldn't have built Nihongo if I didn't think there were significant ways I could improve on it. I ho
29. 59.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Really good observations. With regards to English->Japanese cards, I actually decided not to support them in the app. I used to study with both J->E and E->J flashcards, but I find that E->J gets you into the habit of thinking a
30. 60.▲
    by chrisvasselli 11y ago

    Interesting, I hadn't heard that before. Still, for people learning Japanese, I tend to think it's a good choice. At my level, it's easy to get lost when reading things that I don't already know the general plot for. Har