BakemojiLearn Japanese by reading books in your own language
Most people who start Japanese stop at the same place: a long list of words that do not stick. Reading Japanese books would fix that, but real Japanese text is out of reach for years — three scripts, thousands of kanji, no spaces between words.
There is a way in between. You keep reading in a language you know, and a growing share of its words turn into Japanese. This is called the diglot weave, and it is what Bakemoji does with any book you open.
What is the diglot weave?
A diglot weave is a text in your language with words of the target language woven into it. At first only a few common nouns are replaced; as you learn, more words and harder ones appear. Because you understand everything around the new word, you usually guess its meaning before you look it up — and a guessed word is remembered far better than a word read off a list.
The idea is old (it was used in language courses long before apps), but it was hard to do by hand: someone had to prepare every text. Bakemoji does it for any book automatically, at your level.
Why it works
- Context does the explaining. The sentence tells you that 火事 is something people run from with buckets before the card tells you it means «fire».
- Repetition comes for free. A word that matters to a story appears again and again across chapters — spaced repetition, but in a story you want to finish.
- Reading time becomes study time. You do not need to find an extra hour a day: the minutes you already spend on a book now count.
- Real Japanese, not transliteration. Words appear in kanji and kana with furigana above them, so your eyes get used to the script from the first page.
How Bakemoji does it
- Choose a book. Open your own EPUB or FB2 file, or take a free public-domain classic from the built-in library — in English, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese or Korean.
- Choose a level. Kana for beginners, then JLPT N5, N4, N3, N2, N1, and the business vocabulary of the BJT exam. Only words of your level and below are swapped.
- Read. An AI model checks each candidate word in its sentence, so 'bank' of a river does not become 銀行. Nouns may come with their Japanese particle — «about the fire» becomes 火事について, so you see grammar in action too.
- Tap anything you do not know. The card shows the reading, the meaning, each kanji with its components and stroke order, and plays the audio.
- Close the chapter with a short exam. Words you miss come back in spaced review; words you know move on to harder ones.
How it compares
| Reading with Bakemoji | Flashcards (Anki and similar) | Japanese graded readers, LingQ, Satori Reader | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you read | Books you choose, in your language, with Japanese words woven in | Single words and sentences | Texts written in Japanese |
| Usable from | Day one (start with kana) | Day one | After the basics: kana, grammar, a few hundred words |
| Where repetition comes from | The story and spaced review after each chapter | A review schedule | Reading volume |
| Best for | Building vocabulary and kanji recognition without giving up reading | Drilling a fixed list | Practising reading Japanese itself |
These approaches work well together: Bakemoji gives you the vocabulary and the habit, and once a few thousand words feel familiar, reading native Japanese becomes far less frightening.
Tips
- Pick a book you would read anyway — or reread one you love: knowing the plot makes new words easier.
- Do not tap every word. Guess first, then check.
- Take the chapter exam; it takes a minute and decides which words return.
- Raise the level when the page starts to feel easy.
Your next book can teach you Japanese
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