I Built the Language App I Wanted When I Was Learning Portuguese

When I was learning languages, I never understood why I was supposed to learn so much before I was allowed to say anything.

People arrive in a country without knowing the language and start collecting useful words within days. Their grammar is bad. The phrases come out crooked. Still, they can order food, find an address and explain what they need. The words stay because the words have work to do.

Children do something similar. They listen, repeat, get it wrong, see that the adult understands and then get corrected. The sentence becomes cleaner after it has already been useful.

That became my way of learning Portuguese. I wanted enough language to explain what I needed and understand the answer. If I caught half the sentence, context usually gave me the rest.

So I recently vibe-coded a free web app around that idea. English speakers can learn Brazilian Portuguese, and Portuguese speakers can learn American English. Version 0.91 has 2,774 learning items, 5,954 audio clips and 1,110 visual vocabulary cards. No account or API key is required.

Open the application

Read the full note on my site

Use it if it helps. If something is awkward or broken, tell me. I will improve it when I can.

Start speaking. Clean it up later.

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