blog/content/posts/fun-spaced-repetition.md

---
title: "Fun Spaced Repetition"
date: 2023-07-25T16:23:26+02:00
---

## Introduction

In this post I wanted to share some ideas about language learning gamification
with my fellow internet readers. Why? because I think they are worth a thought
or two. I believe they have the potential to improve the language learning
field and make it more fun to learn languages (if done right). But honestly,
not just the language learning field.. any field that can be studied through
spaced repetition in an efficient manner. 

My ideas revolve around an imaginary game that would implement spaced
repetition in a fun and engaging/competitive way. The whole chain of thoughts
about this started a year ago, when I wanted to build a fork of osu!lazer that
would help you study japanese. I did not think of integrating any spaced
repetition at that time though. I merely tried to replace numbers of each
circle with random japanese characters before giving up.

But 1-2 months ago it struck me: "Why is not there still a game for studying
kanji/words?". Think about it, there is [all sorts of games for the two japanese
alphabets](https://www.google.com/search?q=hiragana+katakana+game+&source=hp&ei=Bua_ZP_3Ec_kxc8P9JmWEA&iflsig=AD69kcEAAAAAZL_0Fhj46CgfzQMiCdzipSQwqpw1DRol&ved=0ahUKEwj_kpadkqqAAxVPcvEDHfSMBQIQ4dUDCAk&uact=5&oq=hiragana+katakana+game+&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IhdoaXJhZ2FuYSBrYXRha2FuYSBnYW1lIDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yCBAAGIoFGIYDMggQABiKBRiGAzIIEAAYigUYhgMyCBAAGIoFGIYDSNQYUABYnBhwAXgAkAEAmAHjAaABhRSqAQY4LjEzLjG4AQPIAQD4AQHCAgsQLhiABBjHARjRA8ICBRAuGIAEwgIIEC4YgAQY1ALCAg4QLhiABBjHARivARiYBcICBxAAGIAEGAo&sclient=gws-wiz)
(katakana and hiragana). Both of them can be learned in a relatively short
period of time. After you learn them you usually move to kanji or vocabulary
building - the step that takes the longest (usually 3-6 years from what I have
heard).

So why is every developer focusing on those two alphabets, that represent a
mere 2-3% of the whole learning material (excluding grammar, language
immersion, etc.)?

I say there should be more focus on the other 98% of the language - which is
where the main problem lies. 

## Ideas

This is where the fun begins. It is time that we, as people, stand up and build
something that will be fun and engaging. 

It does not have to be osu! level addiction. It just has to be fun and keep the
user coming back. Allow me to (finally) share some examples: 
 - Game similar to Space Invaders where vocabulary words are falling from the
   top of the player's screen. The player has to guess their meaning by typing
   the correct translation of the word, or picking a choice. If the correct
   choice is made, points are awarded. Else the player looses points.
 - Multiplayer website where a group of friends can challenge each other by
   doing reviews of spaced repetition cards. When a player selects a choice
   correctly, they have the freedom to select the question card for the next
   person. Whoever fails gets disqualified. Essentially creating a fireball
   game.
 - 2D multiplayer open world game where players get rewarded by doing small
   routines like arraging foreign vocabulary with translations, rephrasing
   sentences, etc.
 - Uno (website) alternative where each card has a (spaced repetition) word
   attached to it. Essentially allowing players to match cards together by
   vocabulary as well.
 - Chess (website) alternative that allows players to combine attacks from
   points that they earn by selecting correct translations of foreign words
   that popup during gameplay.
 - (Feeling inspired yet? [Hit me up!](mailto:jerebicakevin@gmail.com))

At this point, the only limit is truly the imagination. 

## Development

I am honestly surprised at the fact that nobody has built something like this so
far. There is of course
[KanaInvaders](https://learnjapanesepod.com/kana-invaders/), which is where a
good part of my inspiration comes from.. but as I have said earlier, we have to
focus on the other 98%.

I would be super glad to see more people open up to those ideas, team up, and
create amazing open-source projects that will make learning so much more fun! 

--- 

At the time of writing this post, I have started working on
[MonR](https://github.com/0xdeadbeer/monr) (spaced repetition backend for
games/apps), [MonW](https://github.com/0xdeadbeer/monw) (the first Unity
example game that implements MonR), and some other projects that are yet to
come on Github. 

At this point, any help is indispensable - because I am afraid I will not be
able to keep it up alone. Therefore, if you want to contribute, and you know
you have some will power within you, I say do not hesitate to spread the word,
[hit me up](mailto:jerebicakevin@gmail.com), or do some passive contributions
directly on the mentioned repositories.

Thank you. Cheers