Journal
Notes on building Hiroi — and on learning a language from real life.
Hiroi is live on the App Store — a translation × learning app, built solo in six months
A solo dev app launch, honestly told — Hiroi, the real-time translation × learning app for Japanese, English and Chinese, is now on the App Store. The road, the rejections, and a first ask.
Shipping an app without a subscription — the case for pay-per-use
Shipping an app without a subscription — why I chose pay-per-use time packs whose hours never expire, and the trust trade-off a solo dev accepts.
Learn Japanese from real conversations, not just textbooks
Aced JLPT vocab but freeze in real conversation? Why spoken Japanese differs from textbooks, and how to learn Japanese from conversations, a few words at a time.
Adding a real-time speech-to-text API to your app: streaming with Soniox
How to add a real-time speech-to-text API to your app with Soniox — streaming vs batch, WebSocket and PCM frames, interim tokens, and the unglamorous reliability layer that decides it.
Surviving all-English meetings as a non-native speaker
Surviving all-English meetings isn't about catching every word. A before, during, and after playbook: prep vocab, catch four things, study the rest.
Live subtitles for online meetings: catching English on Zoom & Teams
Want live subtitles for online meetings? Why built-in Zoom and Teams captions lag or miss jargon, and how to run your phone as a second caption screen beside the call.
Killing the feature I spent the most time on — a solo dev's hardest cut
Killing the feature I spent the most time on was the hardest call of the project. Why I cut Hiroi's voice interpreter — and why subtraction made the product better.
Why learn a language when AI can translate?
Why learn a language when AI can translate for free? Translation gets you through a moment; learning lets you carry it. An essay on what still matters.
Learn vocabulary from conversations — reviewing right before you forget (FSRS)
Why you learn vocabulary from conversations better than from wordlists — and how spaced repetition (FSRS) times review to the forgetting curve so words actually stick.
How a real-time meeting translation app actually changes a meeting
A real-time meeting translation app only helps if captions stream as people talk, not after each sentence. A solo developer's honest guide to what to look for.
When you can't follow English meetings — what to do during, and after
Can't follow English meetings even though you mostly understand? Practical listening tactics for the meeting itself, plus the after-the-meeting habit that actually closes the gap.