Umi - Language Learning

Learning with context is so much better than other language apps. Could use some more explanations

Really appreciate learning words with so much context. It is much more engaging and helpful than any other language learning app. But I’d say the Korean courses are a little tricky because you learn a word, and then the examples frequently change the case/grammar of that word without explaining much of why that is. I felt like the Japanese courses didn’t have that issue nearly as much. Maybe when a new word is introduced for Korean it could explain different conjugations or forms of there is a formal or informal use of the word. Overall the best language learning app I’ve used.

Serious Issues

This app feels extremely poorly made. I cannot for the life of me get the “record your voice” part of any lesson to work. I have been speaking Japanese for 5 years and am no stranger to proper pronunciation and the speed of speech, but whether I speak quickly, slowly, spell it out one by one or OVERLY-pronounce each word, nothing works. I get 0% every time because it does not pick up what I’m actually saying. Also, translations aren’t completely accurate much of the time, and the automated voice itself even mispronounces things. this is not the biggest example, but one that I see constantly which is very annoying—は(wa) is not pronounced “ha”, it is pronounced wa within sentences. Extremely basic knowledge. Overall, although the concept is helpful (using real speech from movies and shows), the app itself cannot keep up with the things that it is using, because there’s nothing natural about it.