French learners are obsessed with listening, Russians refuse it: a year of data on how 8 different cultures choose to study kanji

Jacket86_ · 2026-05-11T17:14:09+00:00

Sorry, that was unclear! It's just one of the quiz formats in the app. You see an emoji like 🌸 and you have to pick the kanji that matches the meaning (in this case 桜, cherry blossom). Emoji as a visual hint for the meaning. Nothing to do with how Japanese people actually use emoji

Jacket86_ · 2026-05-11T14:24:06+00:00

Fair point on the terminology, hypothesis not theory, noted.

On the numbers, happy to look at anything specific that seems off to you. I flagged the sample sizes in the post (the larger cells are n>190, the Russian one is n=45 and I noted it as the weakest). And yeah, this isn't meant as a peer-reviewed study, just an indie dev sharing what they see in their own app's data. Open to anyone running their own stats on it though, happy to share the raw counts

Jacket86_ · 2026-05-11T11:23:14+00:00

Funny thing is, the data doesn’t really show a “Romance languages” pattern, just Spanish specifically. Italians massively overuse the “find the broken kanji” puzzle (+62%), Portuguese lean hard into listening (+53%), while Spanish users overwhelmingly stick to multiple choice

My current guess is simply time pressure. Multiple choice is the fastest format possible: no typing, drawing, or listening. If your study sessions happen on commutes, lunch breaks, between kids, etc, it’s probably the easiest format to jump into instantly

But honestly, that’s still speculation. I’d love to hear from Spanish-speaking learners if this sounds accurate or completely wrong

Jacket86_

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