Released 2025-12-22 · Store name “假名私塾：假名鍵盤” · v1.3.2 · 114 MB · free · fully offline
Kana Juku is a kana learning tool built for native Chinese speakers, with a custom keyboard and on-device AI. It was the first of the nine apps, and most of what the later ones do grew out of it.
Why it was made#
Because my father does not read English. Every usable app on the market teaches Japanese through romaji, so he was stuck with traditional textbooks plus cassette tapes or videos. I wanted an app that teaches the fifty sounds without requiring any English.
The trigger was right after a family trip to Japan, when my father and I were at the peak of our interest in learning Japanese.
Who it is for#
People who do not read English and cannot use romaji. People who like to annotate kana with their own zhuyin or invent their own mnemonics.
How it was done, and where it got stuck#
It runs fully offline, including a locally deployed AI model, so you can cram kana on the flight to Japan and on the flight home, and kill time while you are at it. The keyboard is custom-built, because the system keyboard defaults to romaji input, which is the opposite of this app’s premise.
It was stuck for a long time at the beginning, because I was writing the app, learning kana, and learning how to write an app all at the same time, and kept having to go back to the textbook while coding.
Where it stands#
It stops at the fifty sounds. Once my own Japanese reaches verbs, I will add material and features for learning them. I currently have a one-hour tutoring session a week, so this is moving at a crawl.