[vncecartersknee]

That's cool I'd love to hear more about it, I've actually been thinking about ways that a language app could work better. Seems like all the current research is that "immersion" in the target language is critical, an app that just played me conversations, had me read text, etc and 'creatively' formulate responses, not just simply fill in the missing word, obviously in increasing difficulty would be ideal.

[kouteiheika]

> Seems like all the current research is that "immersion" in the target language is critical

This, a hundred times this. Immersion is not only effective in getting you used to the language, but also really helps you solidify what you've learned, and is extremely motivating.

Virtually all of the people that I know in the Japanese learning community who learned the language really fast heavily immersed in a lot of content.

In my own language learning app that I'm making I'm explicitly targeting a feedback loop which looks something like this:

1) You pick an easy show/book/etc. to consume. (I have a list ranked according to difficulty, generated through machine learning.)

2) You prelearn the vocabulary used within using an SRS.

3) You consume it.

4) You continue maintaining your vocabulary through SRS, so the app knows which words you're supposed to know.

5) The app recommends you the next show/book/etc. to consume based on what you've already learned.

6) Rinse and repeat. Gradually the whole thing snowballs and you have to learn less and less for each new work you consume.

I personally believe this to be the most effective way of learning a language, and I'm already seeing some of my users having a lot of success with it.

[davidzweig]

We are moving 'Language Learning with Netflix' in this direction. There's some stuff to see already: https://www.languagereactor.com/ (my email is in my profile, I'd be happy to hear from you :)

[dorchadas]

If you could do step one that wasn't based entirely on anime I'd love it. That's always been my biggest hurdle with the Japanese learning community -- almost all recommendations seem to be anime, and I'm just not that interested.

[kouteiheika]

I also have Japanese dramas, light novels, a few normal novels, visual novels and I recently started adding YouTube videos, so it's definitely not only anime.

[dorchadas]

Perfect, thank you! Please let me know when you release, I'd definitely be interested in it.

[kouteiheika]

Well, it's already publicly available. (:

Here's the link in case you want to take a look: https://jpdb.io

Just a fair bit of warning: it still has ways go to, so don't expect a perfectly polished experienced. That said, in spite of its rough edges I do already have users who use it do hundreds of cards per week and successfully immerse, so it is usable.

[dorchadas]

Thanks, looks interesting!

[k__]

I had a somewhat similar idea once.

You share Twitter accounts with a service, and it would use the tweets of that account to generate a language course.

I was hoping that this would lead to learning something that I could use right away.

[monkeybutton]

Immersion provides the strongest motivation to learn and to try. When you want something or have a problem that needs to be solved and the other party doesn't speak English, you're going to be very motivated. The 'dopamine hit' from getting it right and communicating successfully in another language is also way better than from an app/game. The results are just so much more real and tangible.

[Jare]

Immersion also creates connections between the language and other stimuli (visual, emotional, etc). Connections are powerful for creating reliable memories.

[jcranberry]

My "theory" is that learning a language is like learning any other discipline to a high degree of fluency. If you study a couple hours a week even if you don't forget what you learned in short order it's something which requires a period of immersion for you to be able to recall it as well as the day you learned it. To be able to expound at length on a topic at the drop of a hat you essentially need to dedicate a few hours a day every day. I think languages work the same way.

[ngokevin]

I'm targeting couples that are bilingual that want to learn each other's languages. Immersion is difficult to achieve alone. So I'm trying to channel a native speaking resource that is around you all the time.

Right now the system is a mixture of SRS on your own, sourcing vocabulary from songs and podcasts, and combined with immersive multiplayer mini-games with the native speaking partner.