Introducing Lingjini

June 19, 2025

Today I am pleased to announce the launch of Lingini, a tool designed to make language learning take less time. Well designed flashcards that mimic an immersive environment are the most efficient way to learn new vocabulary. Unfortunately building and scheduling flashcard decks that create these conditions can double or triple the time it takes to use them. Because language learners need to know around 10,000 words to understand native-level content, this overhead adds up to 100 or more hours of lost study time — Until now!

Lingjini builds and manages flashcards for you. Simply provide a word or phrase, and the app will handle the rest, from creating to scheduling high quality flashcards. Each flashcard displays your target word in a novel and natural context, building a deeper understanding of a word's meaning with each review. In addition, Lingjini's scheduling algorithm only shows you cards when you need to see them, so you don't waste time on inefficient studying. It's like having your very own dedicated tutor.

Why can't we just study definitions?

Oftentimes, the simplest words have the most varied uses. Consider how the English word just has different meanings in the following phrases:
- the sun just (recently) came out
- the arrow just (barely) missed the mark
- a just (fair) penalty Learning words by memorizing their various definitions is almost impossible and limits your real-time comprehension speed.

Instead, vocabulary acquisition is best accomplished through exposure to simple sentences that reveal how words are used in relation to other words, and how these relationships change meaning. The process of finding and memorizing illustrative sentences is referred to as "sentence mining," but Lingjini does this for users automatically.

Memorize meaning, not flashcards.

Although flashcards are the best way to learn vocabulary, they have one significant flaw. People regularly learn to memorize the flashcard rather than the word. This means that someone can have perfect recall studying their flashcards at home, but they can't recognize the word when it matters most: outside in the real world.

Lingjini addresses this problem by continuously changing the context around a target word or phrase. This captures the benefits of immersion by exposing learners to a variety of different contexts, oftentimes with their own shades of meaning.

Get started today!

If you're interested in giving this tool a try, you can sign up for a free 7-day trial (as of June 19, 2025). I hope it can help you on your language learning journey like it has helped me.