Glossarie
Languages and libraries
language learning app
SHOW HN2024
363points
155comments
#133of 3,515 in 2024
Top 4%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
10 positive, 35 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 30 critical, out of 78 comments about the project. Thread score -0.22.
Idea: 7 for, 11 againstExecution: 0 for, 12 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 againstPricing: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Reading in context with vocabulary introduced is effective and pleasant
From 3 comments
I’ve been wanting to get back my faded ability to read French after having neglected this skill for far too long. This is a pleasant way to ease me into this, I am loving this app!
tidojo on HNThis such an awesome and unique new way to learn a language. I use both Pimsleurs and DuoLingo but it's always kind of a chore. Will definitely give this a shot. Really…
gleenn on HNThe LLM based explanations were the key thing about this app for me. It’s hard for me to fit foreign vocabularies into context for long-term recall without etymologies and…
trelliscoded on HN
LLM-based explanations are useful
From 1 comment
The LLM based explanations were the key thing about this app for me. It’s hard for me to fit foreign vocabularies into context for long-term recall without etymologies and…
trelliscoded on HN
Objections
Word-by-word replacement produces poor grammar
From 2 comments
I have to admit I don't quite understand this. Does it just replace words on a word-by-word basis? But the ordering of words in English is different from the ordering of words in…
SamBam on HNHey a little later to the party here but I'm really enjoying this. I started reading a book with it and while I agree with others it's not great for grammar it certainly shows me…
raybb on HN
Not available in many regions
From 3 comments
Bummer, it’s not available in my country.
harshitpdoshi on HNWhy the developer doesn’t make this app available in all regions beats me. If you’re reading this, please do so so I can download it.
sunnybeetroot on HNNot available for India ?
nameisconcealed on HN
iOS 17 only
From 2 comments
This looks really cool. I’d have loved to give it a try as someone interested in improving my French, but I wasn’t able to download the app since it’s pinned to the latest…
foundry27 on HNIt only works with iOS 17.0+ Could you make it work with any versions lower than 17.0?
tremarley on HN
Uses AI, which some dislike
From 1 comment
Not interested if it uses AI.
vouaobrasil on HN
Requests
Android availability
From 2 comments
Is there a waiting list for Android? :)
unhammer on HNLooks great! I'd like to try it but the play store link has this error: > We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.
vaughnegut on HN
More languages such as German, Portuguese, Chinese or Japanese
From 4 comments
Love the idea; can I kindly ask if you're expanding to include German?
mft_ on HNPortugals Portuguese please (no Brazil, almost all the apps that teach Portuguese, teach the Brazil version, which makes you sound like a joke here; thanks Duolingo!).
anonzzzies on HNNo Chinese. We had this on HN: https://github.com/simjanos-dev/LinguaCafe
Beijinger on HNWhen will you have Farsi, Japanese & Mandarin?
IOT_Apprentice on HN
Browser extension
From 2 comments
I hate browser plugins - but this needs to be a browser plugin. Then I would use it while reading HN. ;-) I would suggest tackling dynamic difficulty and algorithmic selection of…
yaj54 on HNThis would be super cool as a browser extention. Turn news articles or hacker news into a language learning tool.
PawgerZ on HN
Better book selection, including modern books
From 1 comment
I'd use this if it had a book I wanted to read. A while back, I tried Prismatext (https://prismatext.com/). It only offered old classics that had come out of copyright (ie,…
troydavis on HN
Questions
What is the business model
From 1 comment
What’s the planned business model? Neither the website nor the app page mention “free”. There is no pricing link or an FAQ page on the website about the business model. Clarity…
AnonHP on HN
How does it handle languages with different grammar order
From 2 comments
I'd love to try this out, but I'm unsure how it would work with a language that has such different grammar from English. Would it just be vocabulary then? Or would it just be…
cyrialize on HNHow would you deal with things like Japanese and English, where the source and target languages are awfully apart? French, Italian and Spanish all share the same root and English…
juancn on HN
Alternatives named
LingQ
From 1 comment
This looks really cool! Too bad you don’t have Korean though. But I’m already a LingQ user, how is Glossarie different?
opdahl on HN
Toucan
From 1 comment
This looks nice and similar to toucan [1]. I have built something similar but a bit different for the web [2]. Happy, to share the code in a non-so-permissive license with you if…
igeligel_dev on HN
Language Transfer
From 1 comment
Shout out for an app called Language Transfer that I just came across via Reddit (https://www.languagetransfer.org/). It teaches languages speaking first through a simple audio…
ximeng on HN
Prismatext
From 1 comment
I'd use this if it had a book I wanted to read. A while back, I tried Prismatext (https://prismatext.com/). It only offered old classics that had come out of copyright (ie,…
troydavis on HN