We have been working on a little quality-of-life thing that is secretly huge: typing Japanese inside Kumi, right where you are learning.

So if you are brand new, you can still explore kana and kanji, try words, and do certain interactions without the whole “wait, I have to set up an IME first?” detour.

It is not live yet. But the goal is simple: the first steps should feel welcoming across all levels of language learners, not like tech support.

We are also cooking up something that is hard to describe without ruining the fun.

The name we are using internally is Kumi Lattice.

The vibe: it is us trying to push what language learning can feel like when it is built from the ground up.

We cannot say too much yet. But we’ll elaborate in coming weeks.

Big one: lessons have made huge headway.

Soon, Kumi will be much more than a dictionary. You will be able to learn through actual content, not just looking things up.

We are going to start looking for beta testers soon.

If you are in our Discord and you want early access, keep an eye out. We would love more people kicking the tires and telling us what feels confusing, what feels magical, and what needs one more fold.

One thing we have been thinking about a lot lately is community.

Learning Japanese is way easier when you have other people around you who get it.

We want our Discord to feel like that kind of space. Friendly. Beginner-safe. The place you can ask the “is this a dumb question?” question.

So we are going to put more love into it. More prompts, more sharing, more moments where it feels like we are all learning together.

What would make a dictionary feel magical to you? One tiny feature, one tiny change, anything.

— The Kumi Team