Umi - Language Learning

I have been using the Umi app for learning Japanese for quite some time, and I must admit that it was once a fantastic tool. The app offered an engaging and effective approach to language learning, providing a variety of useful features and content. However, my recent experience with the app has been marred by an overwhelming influx of intrusive advertisements. When I initially downloaded Umi, it was a breath of fresh air in the realm of language learning apps. The interface was clean and intuitive, and the lessons were well-structured and comprehensive. The app had an impressive selection of vocabulary and grammar exercises, along with audio pronunciations and interactive quizzes that made learning Japanese enjoyable. Unfortunately, with its latest updates, Umi has succumbed to the temptation of excessive advertising. Every time I launch the app or attempt to access a lesson, I am bombarded with intrusive video and banner ads. These ads disrupt the flow of my learning process, making it difficult to concentrate and diminishing the overall user experience. While I understand that developers need to monetize their apps, the frequency and intrusiveness of the ads have reached an unacceptable level. It feels as though the primary focus has shifted from providing a valuable language learning experience to maximizing ad revenue. This shift has severely impacted the app's usability and has ultimately made me reconsider whether Umi is worth keeping on my device. I sincerely hope that the developers behind Umi take user feedback into account and address this issue promptly. If the app can strike a better balance between monetization and user experience, I would gladly restore my faith in it. Until then, I cannot recommend Umi to fellow Japanese language learners who value an uninterrupted learning experience.

The idea behind it is good. But the delivery is not. First of all, some of the clips they have don’t even play in completion, so you don’t even hear the actual word you’re learning being used. It cuts off right before the actor can even begin their sentence. Secondly, some of the definitions they provide don’t even coincide with the clips they use. For example, they say the definition of “날“ is day, day time and weather. Which should mean that the example for the dialogue they give would be “날씨” - which means weather in Korean. Instead, the example they give is “나“ which means “I” in Korean. What?? How does that even make sense. If you’re going to show that words have multiple meanings, they have all the meanings in the definition you provide. Don’t leave it out. Otherwise it just makes the app look super messy. I can’t believe I subscribed for this. You’re better learning on your own. Cancelling immediately.

I love this App. My volume was low and I reported it. The developers fixed the problem quickly.

You can tell the people who created this app really care and understand language learning. I love that they pulled from a wide variety of media to help with hearing different tones and voices which really helps you pick up the sounds intonations of languages. I would definitely recommend adding this to your language learning repertoire. I look forward to benefiting from Umi for a long time!

I always felt that the best way to learn a language was with sentences of real life examples I found this app and I didn't doubt about buying lifetime subscription

Great app. I like this style of learning better than Duolingo. The vids stopped working for about a week and there was no communication from the devs. I just kept checking twitter(X) and my app everyday to see if it was fixed. I’d also like to see a more improved UI in the future!

Language learning features actually quite impressive. Used to be able to use it for free with ads. The ads were completely reasonable considering it was free, and they offered premium plan if you wanted no ads, which is fair. Then it became only one free lesson a day unless you had premium. Now it seems I can’t do any lessons at all unless I buy premium. And they are asking too much for the premium plan. Not a bad app if you can afford it, but I honestly don’t think it’s worth the money when there are so many free and cheaper options out there.

I really like the clips. Really contextualize the words.

i would love to use this app as i think i’d be great for helping me learn japanese (especially for listening) but it literally only lets you do two lessons them forces you to buy premium or you can’t continue. i wish they actually had a free course instead of misleading people into thinking it’s free then hitting you with a paywall

Umi makes the process of language learning so simple that you won’t even feel accomplished when you’re done.😅