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June 28, 2024

Supercharge Your Language Learning: Tracking Learned Words

Learning statuses can be a powerful tool in your toolbox, but how can you use them to their full potential? What can each learning status indicate to you while engaging with native media? How should you change your engagement depending on the learning status of a word? Today, we will answer these questions and more.

June 26, 2024

Extension Release v1.13.0

šŸ†• Introducing the Toolbar "Grabby Tabby"

We've updated the way opening the toolbar functions:

  • Instead of hovering at the top of the screen, there is now a visible tab to click to open the Toolbar
  • Click and drag to reposition the tab anywhere along the top of the page
  • The grabby tabby is hidden when video is playing
  • Pause video to reveal the it again
  • Or, hover at the top of your screen while the video is playing (just like old times)

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Fix: undo-ing one-click card creation now restores data to Card Creator
  • Fix: Chinese cards created from the subtitle browser no longer include duplicate Target Words

šŸ“° Early Access update

Video playback and skip modes have just hit Early Access! Check it out on community Discord, in the "#early-access" channel.

June 26, 2024

The Japanese Alphabets

Coming from a western language, one might be inclined to call the Japanese writing system(s) an alphabet, but that is not correct. In this article we will go over the three writing systems used in Japanese and clear up all the misconceptions. These three writing systems are hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The first two have a lot more in common, and are collectively called kana. Each system serves a specific purpose and is used in different contexts.

Hiragana

Hiragana is a syllabary, meaning that each character represents a syllable, rather than a full word or individual sound. It is primarily used for native Japanese words, grammatical elements, and the inflection of verbs and adjectives.

See the full article

June 17, 2024

The Japanese Kanji for Love

Love is one of the fundamental things that humans strive for in life, and it is one of our most precious emotions. Even the Beatles knew that all you need is love. However, different cultures can express this same general concept in various ways, especially in language, and Japanese is no exception.

Whether you are trying to avoid embarrassing yourself when confessing to your sweetheart, or just looking for the right kanji for your next stylish tattoo, learning how Japanese expresses love is crucial. And as always, we've got you covered.

Japanese has a multitude of words that can express love and affection, with 儽(恙)恍, ꁋ(恓恄) and ꄛ(恂恄) being the most frequently used ones. But what are the differences between those three? Let's find out.

See the full article

June 13, 2024

Extension Release v1.12.0

šŸ’¬ Subtitle features

  • šŸ”„ The Subtitle browser has landed!
    • Toggle open/closed in the Toolbar, or with hotkey G
    • Resize width with edge click-and-drag
  • šŸ”„ Click-and-drag on the subtitle overlay to vertically reposition
  • šŸ”„ Increase/decrease subtitle size in Toolbar video settings
    • Base subtitle font size is now responsive, based on browser width
  • šŸ”„ Comprehension stats are now supported on video pages, based on the subtitle browser
  • Merge multiple subtitles into one card
  • Smart auto-scroll; supports temporary manual scrolling
  • Changed secondary subtitle font

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Fix: video screenshot sometimes captured with incorrect dimensions
  • Fix: subtitles now load more reliably when changing subtitles, and switching videos rapidly
  • Fix: numerous tweaks and improvements to prev/next subtitle navigation
  • Fix: more reliable pause-on-hover feature
  • Fix: highlighting and copying subtitle text is now less "sticky", and comes with fewer newlines
  • Fix: Up Arrow no longer adjusts YouTube volume if video is focused
  • Fix: YouTube bug where lower quality streams could make the video appear small in frame
  • Fix: improved reliability of learning status changes within subtitles
  • Fix: Chinese Known Word count-mode setting is now saved/stored reliably
  • One-click card creation will now show in-page milestone notifications
    • e.g. šŸŽ‰ You've created 5 cards today!
  • Clipboard: increased bottom padding, so one-click notifications do not obscure text

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ’» Dev update

This is a big one! Over the past month we've been iterating with our Early Access users on a number of subtitle-related features, including the long-anticipated subtitle browser. Next up we will be adding more video features, such as playback and skip modes, subtitle customisation and filtering, and bulk card creation. Thank you everyone as always for your support šŸ™‡ā€ā™‚ļø ā¤ļø

June 13, 2024

Top 12 Greetings in Japanese

Greetings are an important aspect of any language and are used to acknowledge someone's presence, initiate communication, or show respect and friendliness. They are a fundamental part of social interaction and can vary widely across different cultures and contexts. Japanese, in particular, has its own set of greetings that you should be familiar with for smooth communication.

Ohayōgozaimasu - 恊ćÆć‚ˆć†ć”ć–ć„ć¾ć™

Meaning: Good morning
Usage: From sunrise to noon
Kanji form: å¾”(恊)ę—©(ćÆ悈)ć†å¾”(恔)åŗ§(恖)ć„ć¾ć™
Note: Often shortened to 恊ćÆ悈恆 in casual settings

See the full article

June 11, 2024

Extension Release v1.11.1

šŸ“‹ Clipboard enhancements

  • Fix: Chinese character conversion now works
  • Fix: improved sentence detection when sending to the Card Creator
  • Fix: automatic "scroll-to-bottom" on paste no longer gets in the way of manual pasting

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Fix: Card Creator Target Word now parses reading/coloring correctly again
  • Fix: highlighting and copying subtitle text is now less "sticky", and comes with fewer newlines
  • Parsing: numbers are no longer given learning statuses
  • Menu: shortcut buttons now include all locations, including Dashboard

šŸ“° Early Access update

Subtitle comprehension stats have just landed into Early Access, and now we are in our final phase of testing and tweaking the subtitle browser and its related features. Later this week, everyone can look forward to a big v1.12.0 release which will include the subtitle browser, the ability to resize and reposition the subtitle overlay, subtitle comprehension stats, and more.

June 5, 2024

I learned fluent Japanese by IGNORING the details

In this video, we will discuss why it is important, especially for beginners, to not get bogged down by details and instead focus more on getting a rough overview of the meaning of words and grammar. Once you are more advanced, you will get more value out of revisiting detailed explanations of grammar and the differences between similar grammar points and words.

June 4, 2024

Extension Release v1.11.0

šŸ“‹ The Clipboard is here!

  • Open the Clipboard tab via the extension Menu, or in the Migaku App window
  • Toggle between edit/read mode, similar to the mobile Clipboard
  • Clipboard contents persist even after the tab is closed
    • Turn on "auto-paste" to synchronise with your system clipboard
  • You can also configure text size, and display settings

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Fix: cursor vanishing sometimes when watching videos and switching tabs
  • Fix: some valid subtitle options were not available for selection
  • Fix: Target Word reading now included when sending to Card Creator
  • Fix: changing language from the Menu could cause loading glitches/loops
  • Card Creator: you can now opt in or out of Word Audio TTS

šŸ“° Early Access update

Thanks to all our Early Access users for helping test and refine the Clipboard over the past month! Up next: the subtitle browser, the ability to resize/reposition subtitles, and more! These features are already in Early Access and will be ready for everyone very soon! šŸ˜ø

May 25, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.6

šŸ’¬ Subtitle enhancements

  • Fix: Disney+ sometimes loaded subtitles incorrectly when going to the next episode
  • Fix: YouTube video ratio no longer broken on smaller viewports
  • Fix: some valid subtitle options were not available for selection
  • Fix: subtitles loading forever on Netflix sometimes
  • Fix: subtitles now decode/replace HTML entities like  , &quot, etc.
  • Fix: video/audio capture would stop working after changing known/tracking status

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • You can now use the popup dictionary on Migaku Memory web
    • (Target Word and Sentence lookups when the Migaku App window is open)
  • Fix: Main Dictionary search could sometimes get stuck

May 9, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.5

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • šŸ‡­šŸ‡° Cantonese parser improvements
  • Card Creator: auto-bolding now updates when Target Word field changed
    • šŸ“¹ (See the attached video for a little demo)
  • Fix: Disney+ subtitles not loading correctly after changing episode

šŸ“° Early Access update

The subtitle browser is coming along nicely, with a few iterations since its release last week. Check it out in the "#early-access" channel on our community Discord if you're curious about the next major feature to make its way to all all users šŸ™‚

May 6, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.4

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • ā— Video player controls are now clickable again
  • Numerous tweaks to make Target Word auto-bolding behaviour more reliable
  • Alt+D dictionary lookup shortcut no longer clashes with WASD hotkeys

May 5, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.3

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • šŸ”„ Card Creator: "Target Words" are now bolded automatically in the "Sentence" field
  • ā— Disney+ has been patched to accommodate their recent changes
  • Toolbar: added a new configuration for pitch/tone/gender coloring, to display "On hover"
  • Hotkey: you can now use to "Alt+D" to open/search for a word in the Main Dictionary window
  • Japanese: half-width katakana is now converted, for consistent parsing/lookups
  • Fix: some notifications were not properly anchored to the bottom of the screen
  • Fix: resolved various alignment issues in vertical parsed text

šŸ“° Early Access update

The subtitle browser has just been released into Early Access! Along with other enhancements like click-and-drag to reposition, and increase/decrease subtitle font size. Check out the update in the "#early-access" channel on our community Discord, which includes an update from the dev team.

April 26, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.2

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • šŸ”„ Card Creator: you can now paste and drag-and-drop audio and images
  • Fix: hotkeys that toggle subtitle visibility are now more reliable
  • Some preventative measures making sync issues less likely

April 23, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.1

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • Fix: Translation field generation errors
  • Fix: "enable page" hotkey no longer conflicts with Chrome menu hotkey (changed to Alt+Shift+E)
  • Card Creator: it's now possible to opt-out of Definitions auto pre-fill
  • Card Creator: conflicts now always combine (removed "replace/combine" pop-up)
  • Subtitles: minor tweaks to font weight/kerning for target language subs

šŸ“° Early Access update

The Clipboard has just hit Early Access! This will be released to everyone in a few weeks once we've added a few more features (like comprehension stats) and everything's looking stable. Check it out in the "#early-access" channel on our community Discord!

March 22, 2024

Extension Release v1.10.0

šŸ–±ļø One-click card creation

  • šŸ”„ You can now opt-in to automatic, one-click card creation in the Card Creator settings
    • This will allow you to create cards entirely in-page, without needing to submit the Card Creator
  • šŸ”„ New hotkey paradigm: Q for one-click, and E to send to Card Creator. Try it out when:
    • Hovering over a specific word in a sentence/subtitle
    • Selecting a specific portion of text, or items in your pop-up dictionary
    • Hovering over an image when reading news/blogs (E only)
    • Combo move: Select text and hover over an image
  • When one-click is enabled, there are now two "create" buttons: one-click, and manual

šŸ“ŗ Video enhancements

  • Netflix: fixed subtitles sometimes not appearing when going to next episode
  • Fixed an issue where subtitle navigation wouldn't seek the video accordingly
  • Rapid backwards subtitle navigation is now more reliable
  • Added "Lookup on hover" option for subtitles in Toolbar video options, default true
  • Detect, fix, and merge "halved" subtitles, when they appear with the same timestamp

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Added advanced setting in the Card Creator for opt-in ChatGPT translations
  • It is now possible to "cancel" and "undo" card creation
  • It is now possible to clear the Card Creator while generating/uploading
  • Fixed a number of issues where hotkeys weren't behaving as expected
  • First-time install of the extension now opens the "Starter Guide" page on our website
  • Toolbar hotkey info popup now fits on smaller screens

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ’» Dev update

Big update! One-click card creation is now stable enough for everyone to enjoy. We're really excited about this featureset, so we'll be keen to hear what you think! Let us know if you come across any issues āœŒļø

March 17, 2024

Extension Release v1.9.4

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • šŸ”„ All Card Creator audio is now normalised to a consistent volume
  • ā— Disney+ has been fixed: added support for their recent stealth overhaul
  • Added advanced setting in the Card Creator for opt-in ChatGPT translations
  • Added first-time install instructions for pinning the extension button
  • Fixed spacebar behaviour on Animelon

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ’» Dev update

Disney+ have stealthily rolled out some complex/big changes recently, which the team have been grinding on to get things operational again. We're happy to report that functionality has now been restored. One-click card creation is now feeling pretty stable/refined in Early Access, so you can expect this featureset will be released to everyone next week.

March 7, 2024

How to ACTUALLY learn Japanese with flashcards - Learn 2x faster!

Your background with traditional education is slowing your progress. In this video we tell you how to learn Japanese from flashcards more effectively. Whether you're using Migaku Memory, Anki, Memrise, or another spaced repetition app (SRS), the learning method explained here will help you.

March 2, 2024

Extension Release v1.9.3

āœØ New Feature

  • You can now right-click on an image, or selected text, and "Send to Card Creator"

šŸ“ŗ Video stability tweaks

  • Fixed issue affecting some users from being able to exit fullscreen
  • Chinese: character conversion preference now applied in more places, e.g. subtitle copy-to-clipboard
  • Cantonese: available subtitle selection is now wider, includes all Chinese subtitles

šŸ“° Early Access update

One-click card creation is being steadily refined, and will soon be available to everyone. Check out the recent updates on our community Discord, in the "#early-access" announcements channel, if you're curious! Meanwhile, the subtitle browser is in active development and is on track for an Early Access release in the near future. āœŒļø

February 28, 2024

The best way to learn Japanese vocabulary

How many words do you need to know to reach fluency? How can you go about it the right way using the frequency approach, and how can you do this with Migaku? These and many more questions are what we will answer in this video.

February 22, 2024

Extension Release v1.9.2

šŸ“ŗ Video stability tweaks

  • ā— Fixed an issue where Disney+ was not being detected as a "video site" with some interface languages
  • Detect and correct jumbled subtitle data, e.g. where two subtitle halves appear in reverse order

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • šŸ”„ The popup dictionary now includes a tab for convenient lookups in popular online dictionaries
  • Improved hotkey compatibility with international keyboards (such as Korean, Japanese, etc.)
  • Japanese: Sentence generation reliability has been improved

February 19, 2024

Extension Release v1.9.1

šŸ“ŗ Video stability tweaks

  • Added C hotkey to copy current subtitle text to clipboard
  • Fixed issue causing Rakuten Viki to be broken for a number of users
  • Fixed "you have a card for this word" checkmarks not appearing in subtitles, after card creation
  • Fixed an issue where some media recording would fail for some specific subtitle text

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • "Enabled domains" are now saved on per-language basis
  • Generating a translation no longer errors if the input/output languages match, e.g. English -> English
  • Generating definitions no longer errors when there are no results in dictionary
  • English: fixed an issue where some dictionary results were not being properly combined
  • Korean: fixed issue where some Target Words weren't generating Word Audio as expected
  • European langs: Sentence field generation results are now more reliable
  • European langs: comma-separated Target Words now properly affect related generation

February 9, 2024

We're back on YouTube Q&A livestream!

In this livestream, Lucas and Stevi talk about what happened during our absence from YouTube, what our current and future plans are for Migaku, and much more.

February 9, 2024

Extension Release v1.9.0

šŸŖ„ Card Creator generate & auto pre-fill

  • šŸ”„ Card fields are now auto-generated when creating cards
  • Customize the fields you want automatically added to your cards, in Card Creator settings
    • Opt in/out to any field. Includes advanced settings
  • Added "Generate" buttons to every field in the Card Creator
  • šŸ”„ You can now specify the GPT/DeepL output language in Card Creator settings
    • Affects: dictionary GPT explanations, and generated Translation/Notes values

šŸ“ŗ Video stability tweaks

  • Added "Pause on hover" and "Auto-resume" options to Toolbar video options
  • Added hotkey to toggle secondary subtitle visibility Shift + (Up or W)
  • Improve secondary subtitle accuracy when creating cards (for the Translation field)
  • Fixed the "If there are unknown words" secondary subtitle display mode
  • Fixed blank video recording detection feature
  • Fixed video getting stuck when recording (especially if recording failed for any reason)
  • Fixed target subtitles disappearing when secondary subtitles set to 'None'
  • Fixed issue on Disney+ where subtitles sometimes didn't load
  • Fixed issue on Viki where video features sometimes wouldn't load at all
  • Fixed issue on YouTube where subtitle overlay could sometimes be off-screen
  • General improvements to all video sites for loading stability (still some work to do here)

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Fixed some stability issues with Card Creator syntax inputs

February 5, 2024

Extension Release v1.8.4

šŸ“ŗ Video stability tweaks

  • YouTube: video is no longer cropped/zoomed on some screen dimensions
  • YouTube: nicer compatibility with Migaku hotkeys (1234/UTKL)
  • It is now possible to highlight target language subtitles (for copy/paste)
  • Selected images in the popup dictionary are now included when creating cards from subtitles
  • When "blank recording" is detected, a notice now appears explaining how to fix it (disable hardware acceleration)
  • Added a notification if your subtitles are hidden at the start of your video session (for clarity)

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Fixed an issue where text inputs were losing initial focus when page first loads
  • Migaku hotkeys no longer interfere with typing on some websites
  • Fixed an issue where Card Creator fields were frozen/blank after card creation
  • You can now delete your Known Words in Settings

January 30, 2024

Migaku is Back - Big Updates!

šŸŒŸ We're Back on YouTube! šŸŒŸ After a two-year hiatus, the Migaku team is excited to return and share some major updates on our projects. šŸš€

January 26, 2024

Extension Release v1.8.3

šŸ“ŗ Video stability tweaks

  • YouTube click-to-lookup is now much more reliable
  • Page no longer gets "stuck" if video recording failed
  • Subtitles now load more reliably on slower connections
  • Fixed some scenarios when video sites could "load forever"
  • It is now clearer when no subtitles are available in the target language
  • Secondary subtitles now appear below target subtitles, instead of above
  • Secondary subtitles are now more accurate (e.g. when navigating, and with "When unknown" option)
  • Video will now stay paused after mousing-away from subtitle overlay (rather than auto-resume)

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Other enhancements

  • Mandarin zhuyin readings now properly appear in the dictionary, and on subtitles
  • Added hover-labels to the Toolbar buttons

January 19, 2024

Android App Release v1.12.0

šŸ“‹ Clipboard

Introducing the Clipboard, mirroring the capabilities of our Chrome extension. Easily Copy and paste text into our Clipboard to read, look up words, and create cards. Easily edit Clipboard contents with the new paste button. Switch between 'read' and 'edit' modes to either view parsed content or modify the text. Plus, your text is automatically persisted across sessions.

Tap the target word + or sentence on the back of the card and look up word definitions while studying. The ability to look up words while you are editing your card is coming soon āœØ

šŸ“ Create cards from the app

Manually create new cards on-the-go right from the mobile app āŒØļø. This first version is a simple version as you will need to copy and paste your own content into the fields, however, this feature will expand further in the near future.

šŸ¤– Google TTS and DeepL in Card Creator

When manually creating cards, you can auto-generate sentence audio (Google TTS) and sentence translations text (DeepL) for target sentences! This will be available soon when editing cards.

šŸ›œ Offline feature on/off toggle

You can now choose to enable/disable media download. When enabled, images and audio will store locally onto your device for a seamless offline study experience. For those concerned about disk space, you can disable this and to reclaim your storage back.

šŸ”§ Numerous Minor Tweaks and Improvements

We've made several small adjustments and fixes to enhance your app experience. Exciting new updates are on the horizon, so stay tuned!

January 19, 2024

Extension Release v1.8.2

šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§ Enhancements

  • Dictionary no longer hides some results (due to de-duplication false positives)
  • Toggle subtitle visibility with the up arrow key (mirrors the "W" hotkey)
  • Hover over "Create card" button in the Card Creator to see how many cards you've created today
  • Japanese learners can now search with romaji in the main dictionary
  • German learners now have content recommendations on the Dashboard
  • ā„¹ļø We are now using GPT-4 Turbo under the hood, so you might notice GPT response quality improvements

December 22, 2023

Extension release v1.8.0

šŸŽ Happy Holidays from Migaku

Big update! We're excited to announce that basic video support is now available for everyone. Things are at a point where we consider them to be stable enough for all users to enjoy and find useful.

šŸŽ¬ Video support (open beta)

  • Lookup and create cards from Netflix, Disney+, Viki, and Animelon
  • YouTube also has experimental support šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”¬
  • Video support is not yet a perfect, stable experience. But most issues you may encounter can be fixed by a page refresh šŸ™‚
  • Early next year we will spend a lot of time fine-tuning this key part of our software, and making it awesome šŸ§‘ā€šŸ”§

āœØ Send cards to Anki

  • Grab the latest Migaku Anki Add-on from Ankiweb, or update if you have it already
  • In Card Creator settings, you can now choose between Migaku Memory & Anki
  • In Anki, you can select the destination Deck and Note Type via the Migaku toolbar
    • This includes the ability to map each field to any custom Note Type you like šŸ™‚

šŸ˜» Other enhancements

  • GPT explanations have been added to the popup/main dictionaries, with inbuilt prompt "explain word X in sentence Y" šŸ¤–šŸ’¬
    • Quickly and conveniently add these explanations to the "Notes" field in the Card
  • The Migaku App now has a Dashboard! šŸ§‘ā€šŸ«
    • Basic content recommendations are available for Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin (simplified and traditional)
    • More language recommendations coming next year, along with other cool stuff!
  • The Dictionary now has a clickable search history
  • Fixed slow/stuck parsing that affected some languages more than others (like Korean)
  • Dozens of other enhancements and fixes

Have a wonderful end of year, and good luck with your language studies!
ā¤ļø From the team at Migaku

December 22, 2023

iOS App Release v1.2.27

Dictionary is now enriched with media tabs. Use the media tabs to send your favorite audio, images, and example sentences directly to the Card Creator.

šŸ†• Clipboard

With the Clipboard, you can parse and interact with text in a way similar to the Chrome extension. Edit the Clipboard content with just one touch using the paste and clear buttons. Toggle between 'read' and 'edit' mode to see your parsed content, or adjust the source text. Content will also be persisted between sessions on a per language basis. Your known word count at the top of the page will accurately reflect any learning status adjustments you make in the Clipboard.

šŸš€ Improved parser performance

We've fine-tuned the parsers to use fewer resources and work even faster than before.

šŸ”© And maaaaany more small fixes and enhancements. Stay tuned for much more in the weeks and months to come!

November 20, 2023

iOS App Release v1.11.1

Tap on any word to quickly get its definition. This works on the back side of study cards, both sides of collection cards, as well as the card creator. It's as simple as that! Moreover, you can easily send your word and its definitions to the card creator by tapping the orange button.

šŸ†• Card Creation feature

Manually create new cards on-the-go right from the mobile app. You can also generate sentence audio (Google TTS) and translation text (DeepL) for the target sentences as well.

šŸ†• Offline feature on/off toggle

You can now choose to disable/enable media download. When enabled, images and audio will be stored locally on your device for a seamless offline study experience. For those concerned about disk space, you can disable this and reclaim your storage back. You'll be able to see how much MB these files are once they are fully downloaded.

Good to know: media download is ON by default if you are updating the app; it will be OFF however for new app installs/logins.

šŸ’ŖšŸ» Better parsers

We've fine-tuned the parsers to use fewer resources and work even faster than before.