App Profile: Umi - Language Learning

Frylocs

Rating: 5/5

I downloaded this app as I had seen it advertised and we just booked a trip to Japan. I’ve always loved watching anime and would love to be able to understand while I’m watching as well. The way this system immerses you into the learning process is actually really surprising. I’ve done a lot of different language apps before and this is the first one where I feel as though I am picking it up extremely quickly. I absolutely would recommend this app to anyone looking for a different method to how many of the other apps work. Along with that I was having an issue with the app and wrote into support. To my surprise the CEO emailed me directly within the day and made things right. Along with that they were incredibly responsive. Really just made me like this app even more!

Applewhymustiputinanewnickname

Rating: 5/5

This is an amazing app. A wonderful approach that is kanji-first, that allows you to customize furigana use, romji use, etc. it uses small snippets from anime and j-drama (and I suppose k-drama, although I am not learning Hangul). This makes it very engaging, because you are getting lots of new input all the time. Then, it has several unique testing methods, like Ai-graded speech practice. Also, the speech is far superior to Duolingo, whose characters (especially the young girl character) often have unnatural intonation. Now, I LOVE duo, but this is (for Japanese at least) better. You hear actual Japanese as it is actually spoken by professional voice actors, and so the speech input you are getting is top notch. Overall, absolutely fantastic and very worth it, especially at the sale price of $50 for a year, $150 for a lifetime. The amount of money and time that goes into this app must have been astonishing. Not sure if it has a “draw the kanji” mode, but that would make a great addition to when they “introduce the word,” as finger drawing the characters does help in memorizing them. Another cool feature could be showing the meaning of the radicals that the Kanji are made of, as understanding that can help memorize the characters and lead to interesting cultural insights.

KMoussa33

Rating: 5/5

I’ve been using Duolingo and another app for speaking to learn Korean for about 9 months… while they gave me general knowledge, I still couldn’t speak with confidence or understand native speakers that well. I’ve only been using this app for 4 days… 4 DAYS! and I can remember things so easily already. It’s shocking me how well I’m retaining the sentences just by using clips from dramas. I will say it can get a little frustrating when the AI has issues understanding the voice clips- but that isn’t often & not really a huge deal compared to how great everything else is. There isn’t an in depth explanation about when to use certain forms of root words but you get it based off the clip context, which I think makes a huge difference! This app is amazing, thank you so much to the developers!