About

What is Sakubo?

Sakubo is a versatile Japanese dictionary & SRS system intended to streamline your studies. Perfect for both students and enthusiasts!

Why I Made the App:

I created Sakubo out of my desire for a Japanese language app with a simple, intuitive UI. The goal is to ease the learning experience, and avoid unnecessary bloat such as ads, anime characters, and the like.

Things to Consider:

Sakubo is currently in beta and there may be bugs/errors. If you find anything you’d like to report, please send an email with details/screenshots here: support@sakubo.co. Alternatively, you can submit a report in the app itself through the settings page.

About me:

“Mikey Does”

B.S. Modern Languages – Japanese; Chinese (Secondary)
Linguistics Minor
Certificate in Media Production
mikeydoes.com

Sakubo Features:

  • Full Dictionary:
    • Over 250k Dictionary Entries (and growing!)
    • Vocab, Kanji/Kana, & Grammar Filters
    • “My Words” Filter (displays entries you have SRS data for)
    • TTS for Every Entry
    • Example Sentences/Words
    • Kanji Stroke Order (animation)
    • Add Anything to Known
    • Add Anything to Custom Lessons
    • Add Anything to Study Queue (My Queue)
  • My Stuff:
    • My Queue Management (upcoming study items)
    • Curated Lessons Designed by Sakubo (me).
    • Custom Lessons Created by the User
    • Curated Readings Designed by Sakubo
    • Custom Readings Created/Pasted by the User
  • Study Page:
    • Uses the Renowned FSRS Spaced Repetition Algorithm (automated review prompting intervals based on what the user knows and how well they know it)
    • Study Vocab, Grammar & Kanji
    • Type-To-Answer Question Types (no fill-in-the-blank here!)
    • Handwriting Question Types
    • Grammar Study
      • Fill-in-the-Blank (user types answer)
      • Word Scramble (user types)
      • Short-Form Translation (user types)
      • Short-Form Listening Dictation (user types)
    • Readings
      • Reading – Click for Dictionary Definition
      • Read + Listen – Hide words, listen, reveal
      • Listening Dictation – Listen & Write What You Hear
  • Tools:
    • Drill Mode (Ideal Before Tests!)
      • Drill Specific Study Types (Grammar, Handwriting, etc.)
      • Drill Any Lesson/List, Weak Words, or Random Words in SRS
      • Time Attack Mode
      • Drill Mode Stats
    • Translator (offline LLM, no cloud!)
  • Settings:
    • Basic Settings/Profile Etc.
    • Study Settings
      • Home Screen Selection: Dictionary or Study Page
      • Auto TTS on/off
      • Remember “My Stuff” Screen: Select Whether “My Stuff” Page Resets When You Leave Screens
      • Hide Stats During Study (reduce stress)
      • Customize Max Number of Weak Items
      • Customize Daily New Word Limit
      • Erase All SRS Data Option (for fast data resets)
    • User Stats with Calander View
  • Miscellaneous:
    • Completely Offline Capable
    • Search Nearly Any Page for Stress-Free Navigation
    • Minimalist Design to Minimize Distraction (no anime, no ads, etc.)

Sakubo Course; Pedagogy & Research

Our course uses well-studied language acquisition approaches to scaffold a comprehensible input-like environment for the learner. They are later presented with listening/reading exercises that get progressively more challenging. The transition from isolated pieces to understanding and producing full sentences is effectively supported by the structured scaffolding presented to the user.

Study Order

Vocabulary:

  • User studies vocabulary in isolation.
    • 5-7 at once. 7 being the maximum to prevent heavy cognitive load (Miller, 1956.).
    • Kana words only for the first 100 words. This order trains the learner to read kana comfortably before delving into words that use kanji.
    • User always learns vocab using kanji forms where applicable to prevent re-learning words. No furigana forms.

Grammar:

User studies grammar in a scaffolded manner in order to make later practice comprehensible Input (Krashen, 1985; Vygotsky, 1978).

  • Fill-In-The-Blank – User types the word that belongs in the blank
  • Word Scramble – User types entire sentence from a scrambled selection of words
  • Short-Form Translation – User types entire sentence from prompted text
  • Short-Form Listening Dictation – User types what they hear.
    • Why Listening Dictation specifically: Productive output, forces noticing of gaps, engages syntactic processing (Swain, 1985; Schmidt, 1990). In Sakubo, listening dictation is also presented in a manner that supports Krashen’s “i+1” formula. It’s canonically last because it’s the most cognitively demanding study type.

Reading:

Reading wraps up the course. At this point, the user is using the vocab and grammar they just drilled in order to comprehend and practice the material.

User can choose to read, to listen and then unhide the reading, or to do listening dictation. Listening dictation is set by default and is my preferred method.

Works Cited & Inspiration:

I was inspired to make this app because I wanted to do something related to the field I studied during college. I’ve had ideas about it for years and finally took the leap.

1. Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81–97.

2. Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom. Heinemann.

3. Kubota, M., & Toyoda, E. (2001). Learning strategies employed for learning words written in kanji versus kana. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 24(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.24.2.01kub

4. Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis. Longman.

5. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society. Harvard University Press.

6. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235–253). Newbury House.

7. Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In G. Cook & B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics (pp. 125–144). Oxford University Press.

8. Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129–158.

9. Izumi, S. et al. (1999). Testing the output hypothesis: Effects of output on noticing and second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 421–452.