Alternatives
Products that do what I made an app for Russian language learners to help them text better does
Hey everyone! I’ve been learning the Russian language on and off for over 15 years now. I took classes in college, and of course continued my education through apps like Duolingo. I started learning the language because one of my closest friends growing up was Russian, and I thought it would be cool to be able to speak with him in his language. Of all the ways I’ve learned the language, not one of them focused on the modern way we communicate: through text. I decided to make this app to create a text-first language learning experience --mostly so I could keep up with my friends’ groupchat.…
- 1LA
Hi guys, Hope everyone is well. This app was borne out of my own frustration. I thought that I was terrible at learning languages at school, since I didn't become conversational in French after 5 years of study. However, I later traveled with some French friends and, in just under 3 weeks, I was able to hold a reasonable conversation. I realized that there's no substitute for speaking to native speakers. I tried to adopt this approach for other languages, but it's much harder to find people to practise with when you aren't travelling. I started using iTalki to meet people from different…
2023 · prettypolly.app
- 2PD
Hi! Wanted to share the project I really wanted to have. TLDR; this app lets you create your own list of words and you get a Duolingo-like experience (kind of, still needs a lot of features) practicing those words in their context. My English is not the best but not the worst either. But I realized I can't boost it up after a certain level! In my belief, in order to truly learn a language, you need to be exposed to that language often. Vocabulary is the key factor here if you really want to improve in any language. My experience is that when I read a book to improve my English vocabulary, I…
2025 · github.com
- 3AD
Hi HN, I watch A LOT of educational YouTube videos but wasn't forgetting a good chunk of the details because I was only really passively watching. So I made a tool that generates quiz questions/flashcards from YouTube videos, and uses spaced repetition like Anki or Duolingo to keep it in memory. Let me know if you find it cool/useful (or terrible ) or if you want to know a bit about the details!
2024 · platoedu.org
- 4IM
Hey there! Out of the necessity to teach my son a new language, I developed an app just for him. After months of use and realizing how effective it was, I decided to make it available to the public. Now, I’m looking for your support, feedback, and possibly help in reaching potential customers. Take a look and let me know your thoughts! Thank you!
2024 · voiczy.com
- 5
- 6LC
Hey folks! I'm Callum, and I'm working on a way to practice a new language with an AI powered tutor. I've always found that the hardest part of learning a new language is finding someone to actually converse with. Even if a partner can be found, the pressure can mean that you are more focused on not making mistakes than on actually learning new grammar or vocabulary. The service that I have been working on allows you to practice with a language tutor via online chat messages, or you can have a turn-based voice conversation. I'm working on a number of other features that will be coming out…
2023 · learnlingo.dev
- 7IB
Hello Hacker News, When learning foreign languages, I made the most progress by speaking them throughout the day, every day. So I made a site where you can *speak* to an AI language teacher to practice both listening and speaking. # The product *What I have now:* * Multilingual speech recognition: You can ask a question in English and get an answer in your target language. * Feedback on your grammar. * Suggestions: See examples of what to say next to keep the conversation flowing. * Speed: Choose a lower speed for beginners or a faster one for advanced levels. * Translations: Click to see a…
2023 · gliglish.com
- 8
- 9IB
Hi Everyone, I recently wanted to learn Japanese with duolingo but it kept giving me repetitive lessons. So I built an app that gives a variety of lessons from anime. You can try it out here:https://kanjieight.vercel.app/ Thanks everyone.
Nov 2025 · kanjieight.vercel.app
- 10IB
2011 · wordstash.com
- 11IW
As hard as I tried, I didn't find a modern language learning book that's either very academic, or like "master a language with my super-magic great method in 3 months". So I dug into the academic research, tried many techniques myself, saw what worked, wrote a book for learners of any language and any level, and made it free without ads. Today, finally, a 2 years-long project ends. I hope it helps anyone. Book's here: https://thehardway.guide/ Cheers
2023
- 12AF
I'm a long time lurker that recently quit my job to work on my own projects, a lot due to the inspiration from Hacker News. Now I have published my first serious project, an app for learning how to write Japanese characters. It's the app I always wanted but couldn't find when I was studying. It tries to be simple to use, you just start the quiz and go with the flow. There's no need to plan and manage your studies, and it uses spaced repetition for better retention. There's a promo page with more details up at http://www.kanjibyhand.com. It's only for Android so far. The free version includes…
2012
- 13LP
Hi! I am doing a learning project, attempting to build an imperative language (and interpreter). The end product will be useless for others, I just want to learn and better understand how to build imperative languages. :) If someone else shares this interest and want to give some good hints on good resources I would be grateful. Currently I am looking at an awesome text by Bob Nystrom. All suggestions and tips on resources are most welcome. I am very much a beginner in this, but I find this topic very fascinating. Mail me or post links here! Cheers! You can try a beta version Online at…
2020
- 14IA
It has been a while since I have shared my app, that I made to be able to practice my Danish while chatting with my grilfriend - I often used GPT to write as much as I can in Danish, and I replaced the words I didn't know with {Englis words in curly braces}. While this was great, it was rather annoying to type the prompt always, so I figured a GPT wrapper would work well here. Last time when I launched, it went viral! I was super happy (and grateful!) for all the feedback and excitement — but it also meant my tokens disappeared fast, and many people ended up trying an app that no longer…
Oct 2025 · menerdu.com
- 15IC
I moved to Denmark from Russia two years ago. I noticed that it's hard to learn Danish while living in Copenhagen because everyone speaks good English, and it's hard to find friends when you don't speak Danish. I joined a public language school because it's free to study Danish for the first five years of residency. I didn't learn much because, apart from this public school, I didn't have anyone to practice Danish with. I've created an app where you can speak with friends you already have, and you can all learn different languages because the app will translate it for you. You can join the…
2024 · app.fluent.im
- 16IS
I'm Tim. I speak German, English, French, Turkish, and Chinese. I learned Turkish with lairner itself -- after I built it. That's the best proof I can give you that this thing actually works. The other four I learned the hard way: talking to people, making mistakes, reading things I actually cared about, and being surrounded by the language until my brain gave in. Every language app I tried got the same thing wrong: they teach you to pass exercises, not to speak. You finish a lesson, you get your dopamine hit, you maintain your streak, and six months later you still can't order food in the…
Feb 2026 · lairner.com
- 17IS
Hello HN - Over the last few years, I've been building an app to learn languages. It supports ~85 languages and ~40 dialects, and is optimized for learning and maintaining multiple languages. Learning a language is a ton of work, but really quite simple. Find text you're interested in, dissect and understand it, and review it often. Grind that every day for a few years, and you'll be fluent. So I built Phrasing for 4 main reasons: 1. To have an app I would actually be excited to use every single day for years. 2. To do all the research, explanation, prioritization, course planning and…
Jan 2026 · phrasing.app
- 18SY
Hi HN, I built Lengpal, a simple language exchange platform where two people get instantly matched on video to practice their native and target languages. There’s a timer built in so both sides get equal time to speak. I created this because I wanted something beyond passive apps like Duolingo. Something to actually speak with real people without the hassle of scheduling or chat fatigue. Right now we are testing the concept with a waitlist. We’ve collected 77 emails so far from Reddit and IndieHackers. I would love your feedback before launching the MVP. Site:…
2025
- 19RW
Hi, I'm Igor, developer who is originally from Ukraine. Now I need to integrate in the foreign country, so I made a service which helps me to practice languages in real-world conversations. I'm doing this by discussing tweets from my feed with AI.
2023 · saruna.co
- 20CL
Hey HN, I've been building an iOS app, called Lingocat, over the last few months to help language learners become fluent faster through conversational practice. Most language learning apps are over-indexed on repetitive vocab and grammar practice. This approach helps you improve reading + writing proficiency but will leave you unable to hold a conversation in your target language. Lingocat teaches you how to speak a new language using an AI language tutor who you'll practice speaking with, in your target language to complete a variety of exercises. Each lesson is focused on improving your…
2025 · apps.apple.com
- 21LL
I once went to live for a month in Chile, at a friend's place in Santiago where only a few people spoke English. At first I could hardly follow any conversation. I had studied Spanish for a few months using Babbel, which was a good foundation but also nowhere close to really preparing me for this experience. It was difficult. I choked up, froze, constantly looked for the right words to say – it was impossible to have good conversations and form deeper connections. That’s why for the first few days, I resorted to listening and trying to figure out what people were saying. Most of the time I…
2024 · lingolooper.com
- 22IM
Hi HN! In the last couple of weeks I've been working on Cranki: Cranki = Crosswords + Anki. (It's a stupid name tbh, haha) I like doing crosswords in Spanish (to learn vocab) but none of the apps out there allowed me to use my own list of words that I come across. So I built one instead. It's entirely client-side. No server, no database, no accounts, etc. Your words and stats are stored in local storage. I built this for myself but let me know if you like it!
Apr 2026 · cranki.app
- 23AL
Hi HN, I have been studying languages as a hobby for a large portion of my life. Hence, I decided to create a spaced repetion app with the techniques that have helped me the most so far. It's aims to be made simple for the regular user to plug and play. I'd love to hear your feedback!
2025 · koshka.app
- 24DT
2022 · roshi.ai
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