A dojo, not a marketplace

I grew up in the Philippines, in a house where Japanese, Tagalog, and English lived side by side. Languages were never school subjects to me — they were how dinner happened, how friendships happened. I watched people switch languages mid-sentence just so nobody at the table felt left out, and I never forgot what that felt like.

Years later — university in Akita, then seven years as a software engineer — I kept meeting the same two products: apps that count your streak but forget what you struggled with, and marketplaces that sell you a stranger by star rating. Neither remembers you. I did judo growing up, and a dojo works on the opposite principle: you show up, you practice, and someone who has watched your practice corrects you. Progress isn't a review score — it's what you can actually do today that you couldn't do last month.

So I built the dojo I couldn't find — alone, end to end. I wrote the curriculum, built the app, and I teach the lessons myself: the app you practice in and the teacher you meet are the same person. I'm told I'm a patient, quiet sort of teacher who mostly listens. I think that's exactly what a beginner deserves.

Where it's headed: more languages, each pair led by someone who actually lives it, honest numbers always — real progress you can see, lessons that keep the price they were booked at, and nothing on this site pretending to be more finished than it is.