About Tunanuki

How I learned Japanese

I first visited Japan in 2022. Like many people, my interest in Japan started with anime and manga when I was a child. Over time it grew into something much broader: Japanese culture, food, and especially cinema. I'm a big fan of Japanese movies, from classics by Kurosawa and Ozu to more recent filmmakers like Takeshi Kitano. Hana-bi is my favorite movie of all time.

I moved to Japan in 2024 and stayed for two years. Learning Japanese was a real struggle for me. I took classes, but the traditional classroom approach wasn't really my thing. I also tried studying at home with the Genki textbooks, but I struggled to stay consistent. Little by little I reached around JLPT N3 level, but I knew I could do better.

At some point I discovered WaniKani for learning kanji, and I loved it. The idea that you could learn over 2,000 kanji in about two years just by showing up every day was amazing to me. It made learning feel manageable, structured, and even fun.

Around the same time I discovered shadowing and input-based language learning, especially Stephen Krashen's ideas about how we acquire languages through comprehensible input. I found the approach fascinating, but something was missing: I wanted a tool that combined the effectiveness of input-based learning with the structure, consistency, and engaging experience of an app like WaniKani.

Why I built Tunanuki

That's what inspired Tunanuki. I decided to use my technical skills to build a web app that makes Japanese listening and speaking practice more engaging and easier to stick with.

The goal is simple: help people improve their Japanese through real conversations, with a structured learning path that encourages them to show up every day without making learning feel like a chore. I wanted to build something I'd genuinely enjoy using myself, rather than another language-learning app full of grammar quizzes, points, and progress bars.

How the dialogues are written and recorded

I asked a Japanese friend with a degree in literature, who works as a translator, to help me create the curriculum and write the dialogues.

For the audio, I auditioned several Japanese voice actors to find the right voices for the project. The two I chose are professionals: one has voiced anime, the other works in advertising. One thing I feel strongly about is not using AI-generated voices. After talking about it with several Japanese friends, I realized they could easily tell natural Japanese apart from dialogue that sounded artificial. For a product built around listening to real Japanese, authenticity is essential.

Where Tunanuki is now

I launched the beta of Tunanuki in the summer of 2026. I'm really happy with how it's going so far, and I'm excited to keep improving it. It's still the beginning of the journey, so all feedback is welcome. If you try Tunanuki, I'd genuinely love to hear what you think.