try it now〜

master japanese numbers through random listening and reading drills

japanese numbers can be confusing. sure, it takes a few minutes to learn to count from 1 to 10, in sequence. but try backwards! or randomly! or with numbers over 100 or 1,000. or with counters! you get the idea.

i built ラム to practice listening and reading japanese numbers in different formats (42 vs 四十二), of various magnitudes (from 0 or 零 to over 100,000,000 or 一億), and with common counters (つ、本、人…).

the name reflects its purpose: achieving RAM (random access memory) to numbers, as opposed to sequential memory (1, 2, 3…). ラム means ram 🐏, thus the logo.

i wrote about the motivation for building ラム and roadblocks i encountered in this blog post.

demo

enable sound!

_demo.mov

try it now〜

features

• improve your listening and reading skills
• practice with both arabic (123…) and japanese (一二三…) numerals
• configurable number ranges
• counter word practice (個、本、匹…)
• works offline as a progressive web app
• accessible: sematic html, aria roles, keyboard controls, and screen reader friendly for arabic numbers practice
• keyboard shortcuts:
  • space or →: next/reveal
  • esc: stop
  • p: pause/resume

requirements

ラム uses your device's text-to-speech engine to read the numbers out loud. make sure you have a japanese voice installed:

• windows: press windows + ctrl + n → narrator settings → add voices → manage voices → add voices
• macos: system settings → accessibility → spoken content → manage voices
• ios: settings → accessibility → spoken content → voices
• android: settings → accessibility → text-to-speech
• gnu+linux: install speech-speech-dispatcher-espeak-ng or similar

need help?

something not working? have an idea? let me know!

• questions or ideas → start a discussion
• found a bug? → report it here
• feature request? → let me know

contributing

please do! i'd appreciate bug reports, improvements (however minor), suggestions…

ラム uses good ol' vanilla html, css, and javascript. to run locally:

1. clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/welpo/ramu.git
2. navigate to the app directory: cd ramu/app
3. start a local server: python3 -m http.server
4. visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser

the important files are:

• index.html: basic structure
• style.css: styles
• app.js: main logic
• test.js: tests, mainly covering the number to kanji conversion. to run them visit the page with ?test in the url. the results are printed to the console

license

ラム is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU general public license as published by the free software foundation, either version 3 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.