Getting Started
Migaku is a comprehensive language learning platform that helps you achieve fluency by combining structured courses with tools that help you to consume content in another language.
We believe that there is a fundamental problem with how textbooks work, and Migaku is our answer to that problem. We believe that languages are learned by being interacted with—that if you consume media in another language, and you understand some of the sentences and messages within that media, you will make progress. This is called "immersion," and it is an essential part of the learning loop. Everybody who is fluent in another language inevitably spent a lot of time with and in it.
As such, our courses provide the foundation beginners need to begin consuming media in another language—about 1,500 high-frequency words and a couple hundred grammar points. The bulk of learning on Migaku, however, will come as a byproduct of consuming media you personally enjoy. You'll watch YouTube or Netflix, read books, browse social media, or do whatever it is that makes you excited... and we'll turn those things into learning opportunities.
So, in a nutshell, Migaku helps you do that: to move on from material for learners and begin enjoying media intended for native speakers of another language—even if you aren't yet very proficient.
More specifically, Migaku enables you to:
- Click on words in subtitles, webpages, and (coming soon!) ebooks to see what they mean
- Create flashcards directly from this media—including images and audio—with just one click
- Go from "zero" to "able to begin exploring native media" in about 6 months (at a pace of ~10 flashcards per day)
- Track your progress and get personalized feedback on how difficult a video or webpage will be for you, given what you currently know
We aren’t just another language app. We are a community of learners trying to change the way people learn languages, and tens of thousands of users have taken the dive with us.
How you get started with Migaku depends on your current level of ability in the language you're learning.
If you are not yet able to understand media in your language
You should begin with our courses:
- Migaku Fundamentals → This course teaches you your language's writing system and how to pronounce each of its sounds. By the time you finish, you'll be ready to start our Academy course. At 10 cards per day, it will take about a month to complete.
- Migaku Academy → This course teaches you the ~1,500 vocabulary words and ~200 grammar points you need to have an 80% chance of recognizing any word selected at random from any show on Netflix. At 10 cards per day, it will take about 6 months to complete.
- Migaku Kanji (Hanzi coming soon!) → If you're learning Japanese or Mandarin, you'll want to do this course alongside the Academy. This course introduces a system to learn the characters and then uses it to teach you all of the characters that appear in our Academy course. Start it 2 weeks before you start the Academy course.
For more information about any of these courses, see our Courses FAQ page.
If you can at least slightly follow media in your language
Use Migaku to consume media you enjoy. You can choose from:
- Any show on YouTube, on your phone or on the computer (we'll generate subtitles if they aren't available!)
- Any show on Netflix and a few other streaming platforms
- Any show you happen to have the video file for
- Any web page on the internet
- Soon, any ebooks you may have!
When you load this media with Migaku, we will enhance the text within it, enabling you to click on words to see dictionary definitions of what they mean, AI breakdowns of the sentence they appear in, and more. When you stumble into sentences that contain only one unknown word, make flashcards out of those sentences.
As you consume more media, you will gradually learn the vocabulary words and grammar points you need to more efficiently consume the specific genres and mediums that you enjoy. Eventually, consuming media in the language you're learning will feel (nearly) as effortless as it does in your native language.
As our slogan goes: Immerse, enjoy, and improve!
In particular, you may find the following videos helpful:
The Migaku Browser Extension currently supports Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, RakutenViki and Animelon. The Migaku Apps (iOS and Android) currently support YouTube.
It's a complex process, but we aim to support many more sites in the future.
Our plans differ in two main ways: duration and access to beta features.
- Migaku Standard → Receive access to all of Migaku's stable features on a monthly or yearly basis.
- Migaku EA → Receive access to our new features as soon as they reach a usable state, again on a monthly or yearly basis.
- Migaku Lifetime → Migaku EA as a one-time payment: receive access to all of our features, as soon as they become available, forever.
Put differently, you can access all of our features via Migaku Standard. You'll just have to wait a few months for us to work the kinks out of our newest features before getting access to them.
You can explore our subscription plans in more detail here, but we recommend:
- Start with Migaku Standard to see if we're right for you
- Upgrade to Migaku EA if a specific upcoming feature or course catches your eye
- Our prices will periodically increase as Migaku improves, so upgrade to Lifetime once you've joined us in the belief that immersion is the best way to learn a language 💪
Yes, your Migaku subscription lets you study every language we support simultaneously. You don't need a separate subscription to study, say, Japanese and French. If you wanted, you could study all of the languages we offer at the same time.
Having said that, we generally recommend focusing on one language at a time, especially if you're not a highly-experienced language learner. The more languages you study, the more time it will take you to graduate from the "learner" stage (in which you are studying and learning takes effort) to the "immersion" stage (in which you are consuming media and learning is fun).
This is covered in more detail in this blog post, but if you're determined to tackle multiple languages, we recommend:
- Start with one language → Focus on it until you reach a more intermediate level and you feel like you're ready and able to begin consuming media in this language.
- Study one language, immerse in another → Once you graduate from the "learner" stage in one language, (a) give your study time to a third language and (b) replace some media time in your native language with media time in your second language. While we only recommend studying one language at a time, it's totally fine to be maintaining multiple languages.
- Choose distant languages → "Student" is "estudiante" in Spanish and "estudante" in Portuguese. If you don't have a very solid level of Spanish before beginning to study Portuguese, you'll end up mixing them. That's no bueno. To avoid this, try to pick a third language that is dissimilar to your second language. For example, learn Spanish → Japanese → Portuguese, not Spanish → Portuguese → Japanese.
- Interact with each language daily → The only limit to how many languages you can learn is how well you can manage your time so as to fit them into your regular life. If you're struggling to chase two rabbits, you'll only make things harder on yourself by starting to chase three.
Learning any language (even an "easy" one) is a significant undertaking. You'll be learning for your entire life, but if you make a habit of consuming media in your languages, they will also be a lifelong search of joy.
Good luck, friend 🚀
The Migaku Browser Extension is what enables Migaku to work on your computer. It allows you to look up words, create flashcards, track your progress as you watch videos or read online, and more. Please note that while we may extend support to other browsers in the future, Migaku has been specifically designed to work with Google Chrome.
We above referred to Migaku as a language learning "platform", and this was an intentional word choice: it is not an app, but rather a collection of apps: Browser (iOS/Android), Clipboard, Dashboard, Dictionary, Local Player, Migaku Memory, Settings, and more to come!
We have detailed videos on each of these tools, explaining what they offer and how they work. You can find videos here.