Yes, Sign in with Apple is a reasonable request. The app works without a Google account, and you can use a sync code if you want to move progress between devices, but Apple sign-in is not enabled yet. I’m adding that to the update list.
Restaurants and bars are already part of the content, including menus, ordering, recommendations, paying, izakaya vocabulary, and some of the questions you hear from staff. I’m also considering a focused review option so you can choose that material instead of waiting for it to surface in the normal mix.
Is your priority ordering and staff questions, or reading menus and signs?
I haven’t picked a hotel yet, but I’m looking for one in the Ariake area. I’m going there for a concert, so I want to be nearby. I’m planning on visiting Akihabara, Nakano Broadway, Ikebukuro, Roppongi, Asakusa, and Shibuya PARCO.
I’m using a Chromebook and I can’t get the sound to work. It works on wanikani, etc. When I look at the drop-down for “Japanese voice” in the settings, it seems like there’s a long list of things, but they’re grayed out?
I think either one would work for me, but if I had to pick I’d choose the more specific individual sessions! Even if it got more granular with vocab and phrases like izakaya, cafe, hotel, etc, that would be a neat way to practice situationally. Thanks so much for considering this!
Thanks, that’s useful. The voice choices should not be disabled, so this sounds like a Chromebook-specific bug rather than anything you need to configure.
Could you check two things for me: does the Test button beside Japanese voice make any sound, and which ChromeOS version are you running? If you leave the menu on Automatic (best available), do the speaker buttons elsewhere in Yokoso stay silent too?
That lines up pretty closely with what I ended up building. There is now a Practice a situation row in the web app with Signs and stations, Restaurants and bars, Shopping and the register, and Errands and paperwork. It still uses the normal review queue, so it does not create a second backlog.
I kept the first version fairly broad so each option has enough material, but cafe, hotel, and izakaya are exactly the kind of directions I could take it next. If you get a chance to try the web version, I would be interested to hear which of the four sections feels like it needs to be split first.
That sounds like a fun Tokyo trip. You will get a lot of use out of station and shopping language on that route, especially around Akihabara, Nakano Broadway, Ikebukuro, and Shibuya PARCO. I just added Signs and stations and Shopping and the register as focused sessions in the web app, so those should be useful before October.
Quick update: Restaurants and bars is now one of the focused sessions in the web app, with menus, ordering, paying, and izakaya vocabulary pulled from the same review system.
I also moved the no-account sync code option above sign-in in Settings and made it clearer that Yokoso never requires an account. Sign in with Apple is still on the list, but I do not want to promise a date until the iOS side is fully wired up.
If you try the new session, I would be interested to hear whether the staff-question side or the menu-reading side feels thinner.
I think I would like to prioritize reading signs and menus at first, since with ordering I can usually get by pointing to things and saying __ と__ と_____ おねがいします. Of course I would eventually like to take in all of it.
Just poked around a bit to try it out. I think your instructions for downloading higher quality macOS voices are out of date? I think the correct way to get to the advanced voices is:
Accessability > Read & Speak > scroll to System Voice and click ⓘ > click Japanese in left menu of popup > Voice > click download icons next to enhanced options.
In any case, it doesn’t seem like the enhanced voices are actually used once they are downloaded. The app just continues to use Kyoko when Best Available is selected, even when the enhanced Japanese voice is chosen as the system voice.
I tried out the situation tabs and also “a day in town”, this is pretty neat! I think the thing that I’m missing is that I can’t learn new things from the “practice a situation” tab, unless I missed something! I understand what ya mean about pulling from the normal review queue, but I’d personally prefer to be able to keep learning new words from that particular section, instead of just the relevant reviews from the main section. If there’s a way to add new items to your review queue that are specific to each particular situation, that would be awesome. (then they could still pop up in the normal review later when the srs is ready to show em again, too.) If this is already the case and I just didn’t realize it, ignore me!
One more suggestion if possible - to hide or eliminate certain terms from study altogether. If I could hide 一二三 etc that would streamline things a lot.
As for which could be separated further at the moment, the first thing I’d pick is practicing prices as its own category.
@Nightscotsman Thanks for checking this. You’re right that Apple’s path has moved, so the instructions need an update. The part where Best Available still chooses Kyoko after an enhanced voice is installed is the more important bug. Which enhanced voice did you download, and which macOS version are you on? That will help pin it down. Your point about signs and menus also makes sense. For a short trip, being able to read what’s in front of you probably does more work than having a perfect ordering script.
@syzygy14 You didn’t miss anything. The situation buttons currently filter reviews that are already due; they do not introduce new cards. I kept the first pass inside the same queue so it wouldn’t create another backlog, but your version is a natural next step: choose a situation, learn new items from it, then let those items return through the normal SRS. A reversible way to hide material you already know is useful too, and prices is the clearest first category split I’ve heard. I’m going to work on all three.
@servette@Belthazar You’re both seeing a real platform gap. The public App Store build is still 1.2.0, while focused situations and the newest content are on the web and in the current TestFlight build. You aren’t missing a hidden iOS setting. On the web, choosing “I read hiragana + katakana” should mark all 92 kana as known and move into words. If it still starts teaching hiragana after that choice, please tell me which option you picked at the first screen and what browser you’re using.
Awesome, thanks so much for considering those ideas! Like Belthazar, I also noticed that even though I’ve toggled on “I already read hiragana” it still tests me on them. I’d definitely opt to get rid of those reviews altogether if that were an option, too!
@servette Thanks, the Brave detail is useful. Since clearing the cache fixed Home, this looks like an old web bundle or service worker rather than anything in your account. It is supposed to update itself without a hard reload, so I’m passing this along as a Brave regression case.
@Belthazar@syzygy14 You’re both right, and I described the setting badly. “I read hiragana + katakana” is an onboarding choice, not a setting you can return to later. The Settings toggle only covers hiragana. It marks those characters as known and skips the lessons, but it still schedules a light verification pass, which is why kana questions can keep appearing.
The current web version lets you set aside individual items without deleting your progress, but doing that 92 times is obviously not a real solution. I need to make the setting clearer and work out a sensible bulk option for people who want kana out of the queue entirely.