SRS Listening App - Kikikata

Japanese Language Listening
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Hi everyone! :blush: I’m a level 60 WaniKani user and have tried Bunpro, Torii SRS in my Japanese learning journey. But I’ve always struggled with listening comprehension :headphones: – it felt like it was always lagging behind other skills, no matter how much I practiced.

I wondered if others felt the same way, so I created Kikikata, an SRS-based site focused just on listening. The site helps users improve by reviewing sentences, tracking progress :chart_with_upwards_trend:, and reinforcing vocabulary in context. You can even drill down into specific words within sentences to build a stronger listening foundation.

If listening is something you’re working on, I’d love for you to check it out and share your feedback! :pray::sparkles:

Link - kikikata.web.app

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Certainly is an interesting, and potentially useful tool. However, it does not seem to be one that is all that useful until one has accumulated enough vocabulary and understanding of grammar. I am only on WK level 9 and out of the N5 sentences I clicked on there was not one that did not contain vocabulary I have not learned yet. So, I bookmarked it with the intent to check it out again at a later stage in my learning. I don’t see any value in adding something that will obviously just be frustrating at this point into my tight learning Japanese learning schedule.

The audio files voices sure sound familiar. Like from WaniKani even.
I know that Jisho uses WK audio also and I use that site a lot. Also, I do all my practicing on Anki and some of the audio I have comes Forvo and some of that sure sounds like the audio also, I didn’t find all the voices to be equally understandable at this point. It would be nice to be able to select one or more voices exclusively to get used to.

While I totally believe that it is important to learn at normal/natural speeds, it would certainly help a lot in the beginning to be able to slow down the playback some. I learned French as a second language at a Berlitz and the human instructors would speak new vocabulary slowly at first until I got it then would gradually speed up toward natural/native speaker speed. I will sometimes use Apple music with the display lyrics option turned on to listen to J-Pop, J-Rock and Anisong stations and the slower songs are a lot easier to follow at my level. Speed makes a difference in learning to hear pronunciation.

Another thing about about Apple’s lyrics display; for many of the songs, the words are being highlighted as they are being sung. I think this is really helpful also. Being able to read along with what is being said, with indication of the kana being pronounced, I think would be a helpful feature on your site as well.

Something else that would be helpful is the option to turn on and off furigana for each kanji individually. This would really help with kanji I have never seen before, or have and forgot the reading. Being able to turn off the furigana per kanji would solve the problem of relying on furigana and not learning/reading the kanji.

Anyway, those are my comments for the moment. I think it has potential but until I have enough vocabulary it would be a waste of $6 every month once I finished the free N5. But I see it as a huge potential frustrating also. WIth real people you can ask them to slow down, to elaborate on a pronunciation, etc. and with sites like Superprof and Italki a person’s hard earned money maybe better spent there for practice with listening comprehension and simultaneously speaking practice. I had a Superprof native Japanese instructor for a while and that was much more useful than WK has been, though it was costing me more and I was having a hard time with scheduling since my schedule is so erratic. I think when my year is up with WK I will be moving to Kanshudo as WK is ticking me off with their unhelpful changes that have broken most of the extensions I have come to use to make the WK experience worthwhile. I really think that adding listening comprehension into my learning routine would be great but the tool would have to take my WK level into account and adjust for that.

Hope that is helpful. :pensive:

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I struggle a lot with listening comprehension, too. Yet, it seems too easy for me (I studied a few years and see myself as intermediate) Maybe it gets harder once I lvl up. It’s not a complete waste of time though: I already came across unfamiliar words.
I’ll give it a few weeks try and see how it goes.
Thanks for sharing anyway.

Edit: I just realized N.4 sentences and above are restricted to subscibers. Fair enough, but I don’t know if it’s worth it, for me. If you could provide sample sentences for N. 4 to N.1, that could help me (and others) to make my mind (especially for talking speed)

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Thank you so much for the comprehensive feedback! :blush:

Firstly, Kikikata is indeed designed for learners with some foundation in Japanese – it’s most effective as a supplement to resources like WaniKani or Bunpro to help enhance listening comprehension.

Regarding the audio files, yes, they’re sourced from iKnow!, which is also commonly used by Anki decks and various language sites. Some words were missing audio, so I’ve filled those in with TTS for now, but I plan to replace them with native recordings as we grow.
Initially, I wanted to add multiple voice options, but it’s challenging since most sentences aren’t available in multiple recordings. I also think it’s valuable to get accustomed to various voices and accents – even those that may be harder to understand, as we often encounter in real life.

Audio speed control is a fantastic idea, and I’ll look into implementing that soon. I agree that gradually adjusting speed can ease comprehension for learners at different levels.

Highlighting words as they’re spoken is another excellent suggestion! Implementing it would be complex since each word would need independent timing, but it’s definitely a feature I’d love to explore in the future.

As for furigana controls, per-word toggling would be tricky to implement since the app can’t predict which words in upcoming sentences sentences you might know and which you might not. I could add a setting to turn off furigana entirely, but I believe it’s helpful to have furigana visible for unfamiliar words. Without it, users might end up needing to click on each word to reveal its kana.

The main idea behind Kikikata, and SRS in general, is to enable “micro-sessions” throughout the day. With just a few spare minutes on the bus or between tasks, users can make consistent progress by reviewing words and sentences. While live interaction with a Japanese instructor can be more immersive, it’s often challenging to fit into busy schedules, whereas apps like Kikikata make practice feasible anytime.

I hope you’ll give it another try when you’re ready! Thank you again for sharing such valuable insights. :blush:

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Thanks for the feedback! You can definitely give the N5 level a try with 5 sentences per day – that’s almost 2 months of listening practice, which could introduce you to new words, sentence structures, and pronunciations. You can also see the whole course under the Course → Words/Sentences tab, which lists all available sentences and words per level (N5-N1).

Just a heads up: N5 is only a small part of the course, with 279 sentences. From there, the content expands significantly:

  • N4 - 565 sentences
  • N3 - 2743 sentences
  • N2 - 1472 sentences
  • N1 - 3293 sentences

Again thanks for the feedback and I hope you will give it a try!