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ntlk commented on Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese   kanadojo.com... · Posted by u/tentoumushi
coldblues · 3 months ago
Apps/platforms don't work for learning Japanese. You just need to memorize the hell out of the vocabulary, spend some time learning the grammar, and most importantly IMMERSE. Watch, read and listen to content in Japanese.

https://learnjapanese.moe

https://alljapanesealltheti.me/ (this used to be THE guide for learning)

ntlk · 3 months ago
Renshuu provides fantastic SRS based tools for memorizing the hell out of vocabulary, has a huge bank of grammar lessons and a variety of grammar quiz styles to bed in the knowledge through practical applications. There are multiple quiz styles that are more or less challenging, including typing out answers instead of multiple choice questions.

Using just Renshuu and Wanikani I learned enough Japanese to be able to engage with Japanese content and for it to be actually comprehensible.

In the past I tried learning through immersion only, made no progress, found it demotivating and gave up. You need a baseline of vocab and grammar, and I don’t think it matters much where exactly it’s coming from (apps, lessons, textbooks).

ntlk commented on Show HN: I'm making an open-source platform for learning Japanese   kanadojo.com... · Posted by u/tentoumushi
nodja · 3 months ago
This is actually NOT recommended for a beginner.

Writing and speaking are effective at establishing long term memories, it's why we do it for other things, but a language learning beginner has no idea if what they're writing makes sense or if there's any subtle mistakes in how they're pronouncing words or how they're putting them together, etc.

Language learning experts don't recommend you start speaking/writing unless you have a coach or have reached an intermediate level so that you can discern when something sounds native or not. That way you can self evaluate with recordings, etc.

It is an effective tool for learning, but for self-learning you're gonna be shooting yourself in the foot long term. You should only do it if you have, say, a partner that speaks the language and doesn't mind correcting you all the time.

For Japanese I recommend that you do learn how to write kana/kanji from the start, and even some vocab if you want. But stop there. Don't write sentences, don't try to talk to japanese people on those apps/discord etc. and wait until you're at an intermediate level to do it, otherwise you'll form some very bad habits that are very hard to undo.

ntlk · 3 months ago
Making mistakes and seeing exactly how you’re being misunderstood is the best thing for improving your speaking skills. There’s absolutely no reason to wait before speaking, as wanting to be understood provides incredible motivation to correct issues as you discover them.
ntlk commented on Removing yellow stains from fabric with blue light   acs.org/pressroom/presspa... · Posted by u/gnabgib
tianlong · 3 months ago
Interesting that blue light is enough! Sun drying clothes is the most effective way to get rid of annoying stains, as any Mediterranean parents would know (UV cleans even better than blue light!).
ntlk · 3 months ago
In the tests they’ve conducted the blue light had better results than the ordinary UV light.
ntlk commented on 9 Years of "Learning to Code" and I Still Couldn't Build a To-Do App   offpeaklog.bearblog.dev/l... · Posted by u/speckx
cookiengineer · 4 months ago
> You learn by breaking, not by watching.

I can't stress enough how important that statement is. I learned to code by refactoring and revising my old ideas. When I learned a new tech stack, a new library, a new pattern or a new methodology, I ended up refactoring old projects with the new mindset.

I always jokingly say that every codebase looks like crap after 2 months, because it is true. You see your own mistakes after what you've learned _through implementing it_.

Good engineers and architects know how to break down a large problem into small enough portions to be able to guesstimate whether it's possible. Then they build little prototypes for those unknown unknowns to come back with a better estimation. And those small prototypes / portions are something like a knowledge library, where you gain confidence over time when you solved and successfully implemented those already.

Bad engineers on the other hand always chase the new hype, instead of learning from their own mistakes they just rebuild the same crap all over again, assuming it will be better by using fancy new libraries. Unsuccessfully.

ntlk · 4 months ago
I believe this is true for all learning, we consolidate knowledge by applying it, not by hearing about it.
ntlk commented on A 1960s schools experiment that created a new alphabet   theguardian.com/education... · Posted by u/Hooke
throw310822 · 5 months ago
I always thought the exact opposite would be helpful: don't touch the alphabet but instead teach a fluent phonetic system in which each single letter has a sound and each word can be pronounced exactly as it's written. Remembering the spelling of a word is as easy as remembering its sound in the alternative phonetic system.
ntlk · 5 months ago
How would this account for wildly different regional accents?
ntlk commented on Show HN: Make your bookmarks smarter with AI   apps.apple.com/us/app/eye... · Posted by u/quinto_quarto
ntlk · 8 months ago
I like your visual approach. Very unique among bookmarking apps!
ntlk commented on As 'Bot' Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond   voiceofsandiego.org/2025/... · Posted by u/jhunter1016
apothegm · 8 months ago
What’s the point of sending a fake student to a community college? What’s the end goal of the people running these bots?
ntlk · 8 months ago
Training data?
ntlk commented on Ghost artists on Spotify   harpers.org/archive/2025/... · Posted by u/greenie_beans
Eduard · a year ago
how does one slip their tracks into someone else's playlist? I rather guess playlist curators decide on their own which tracks they put in their owned playlists.
ntlk · a year ago
A lot of playlist owners take submissions, and some have pricing lists, charging a set amount for featuring a song for a month or longer.
ntlk commented on Ghost artists on Spotify   harpers.org/archive/2025/... · Posted by u/greenie_beans
arnvald · a year ago
The way I understand it is that the 14th song is not a banger, but a song put between well known, good songs, to boost its number of streams.

I’ve noticed it a few times, I was listening to something like “best of 80s” and a few tracks were from the same band that I couldn’t find any info about. So my guess was that the creator of the list put some of the songs they (or their friends) made, then those songs got millions of streams just because they were on that playlist even though they had nothing to do with the expected content. It’s either for the money or maybe PR to make an impression that the band is popular

ntlk · a year ago
This is a technique that every music marketing outfit will recommend nowadays. It’s one of the most effective ways to promote new music, but it requires the effort to create and maintain playlists.
ntlk commented on Show HN: I am Building a Producthunt alternative   huntlie.com... · Posted by u/heyarviind2
nadermx · a year ago
If I remember correctly it started as an email list too, like Craig's list, before it needed a site.
ntlk · a year ago
It started out on a service called Linkydink https://medium.com/@rrhoover/the-wisdom-of-the-20-minute-sta...

u/ntlk

KarmaCake day326May 20, 2013View Original