I launched my Web App: Learn Japanese through sentences
It has been almost a year or so since I launched The Polyglot Scrivener (https://polyglotscrivener.com/).
I always wanted to create my own product and have some "online presence". I work in the IT industry, in the e-commerce space to be precise. Together with my software development background I can create sites and apps.
I have been always interested in language learning, considering that I am currently living in Japan, I decided to put all this together creating a Japanese learning website with the main goal of creating at some point a Japanese learning app.
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In March 2022 I launched the website, https://polyglotscrivener.com/. The website focuses on improving writing skills, an aspect of language learning that is often neglected. To drive traffic, I knew I needed quality content, but as a programmer, I struggled with content creation. So, I decided to create a web app that would be easier and more rewarding. The website serves as a launching pad for the app.
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In December 2022, I launched the app, which focuses on Japanese language learning through sentences. It includes features such as spaced repetition learning, bite-sized grammar lessons, audio, difficulty levels, furigana, and a writing practice. I recently added a feature that allows users to access the app without registering.
My next steps are to gather user feedback and focus on marketing the product. It's still a proof of concept, so monetization will depend on how things go in the next few months.
Please check out my app at https://polyglotscrivener.com/language-app and let me know what you think. Any tips on marketing or determining the worth of the idea would be greatly appreciated.
How do you differentiate yourself from services like Duolingo and Babble?
I see my app as a tool focused only on Japanese language. Big players try to cover too much, Duolingo 40+ languages, Babbel 14, they definitely have the resources to do great in all of them but I feel that they miss some aspects that are very specific to some languages.
I would also like to focus even more on an aspect of the language that is normally left aside, which is writing. Japanese language writing, maybe too niche. As I keep trying to unlock new features that users find useful, the idea is to move more towards those writing skills.
Trying to cover more aspects of the Japanese language may market better, so, still very early to tell. I wanted to get the product out there and get some feedback. It is my first project, there is still a lot to learn.
Finally, its time to learn some Japanese!
It is never late! :). Let me know if you have some problem starting using the app. The onboarding seems to be quite weak and might not be that intuitive as I thought.
Thanks for any feedback in advance!
Do you do anything to attract visitors to your app? How many users do you have
Hi George,
The main website, https://polyglotscrivener.com/, was meant to attract some traffic to the app using a landing page and a Klaviyo popup. I am very low on posts and quality content so traffic is almost non-existent as the SEO might be quite bad for now.
Apart from that:
My idea is to get some users to check the app to get some feedback. Driving traffic directly there seems to be difficult for now but I will start speding time on that and almost no time on the app itself.
Any idea how to bring users to the app? I have like zero marketing skills for now.
Thanks!
In my case I was able to drive about 15k visits to www.automealplanner.com in a month using reddit! I do not use other techniques, at least for now.
I guess with that number of visits things can start rolling. I haven't really used Reddit that much in the past... any specific way you did it? I created a new post in a relevant channel explaining a bit about the app, but no comments for now. In some channels they don't allow linking to your stuff, in theory, when replying to other people. Is it that strict?
I tried to comment in a relevant YouTube channel, not just a spammy message with the link, but with some comment relevant to the video. The comment was removed instantly lol.
I suggest you try smaller subreddits that are more flexible regarding self promotion
Hi Javier, that sounds like an interesting app. I'm also learning Japanese so this is a fun concept.
Some flaws that I've observed while using the app.
I've tried clicking "Learn" and there's no lessons, however, clicking on the "Home" icon on the top left corner brings up a whole set of lessons.
Clicking on "Writing" just brings up an empty screen
I think these 2 issues are pretty much stopping me from actually using the application.
Hi! Oh, I definitely need to make it more clear, the onboarding is a bit weak. You need to add some of the bundles available in the second tab “bundles” after opening the home icon menu, next to the lessons.
Until you add some sentences and learn them the writing section will not be available. Some message over there is missing I guess. The writing part though is just a test so, it is not integrated with the main sentences game but for now it could be useful for practicing some writing.
Thanks your your interest and looking forward to more feedback!
I see, thanks for that! Managed to add the bundles and get it working now. I think Learning and Practicing is pretty much the same as Duolingo.
What made it interesting is the Writing feature with the helping grid and stroke order.
Not sure if it's just me though, but it seems like the character recognition might be too strict.
For some characters, I've traced the entire kanji with the correct stroke orders but it is still not letting me pass the test.
Hi, I am glad you managed. I will try to make that more intuitive.
Yes, the mini games to go through the sentences are similar to other apps. I just made it easier to see your "recall/memory strength" with the global bar and the per sentence bar.
I know where the writing issues come from, the machine learning model is meant to recognize characters, not really to be used to learn writing them so, it might be quite strict though I can lower the score to go through. After trying extensively myself, I realized that it also varies a bit from character to character, for some it feels a bit too strict, for some others it let you go through easier.
Thanks for the feedback, one of the differentiating factors I wanted to have was the writing approach to learning. Currently it is disabled, but instead of selecting the correct word in the game, you can also write it (with the keyboard this time). With a bit of work I could allow writing the word which might be quite interesting to make the game a bit different to other apps.
That's cool, looking forward to future versions!