Why traditional language apps failed me (and why Im building my own)

So ive learned some langauges but most of them i learned when i was younger by just... being

In short I live in norway, went to french school and have french parents, played games and watched youtube in english , and went to live and study in spain.  So i feel like a got these pretty naturally... My level is well enough to have conversations about all topics  in French, Norwegian and English , but sadly ive lost some of my spanish although i usualy get alot back when i travel there :)

The catch is that my writing and reading skills are quite low. BUT ive found out that i don't care about that. I care about talking with people, getting to know them and their culture.

recently i decided to learn Italian without being in Italy, it was the first time i really tried and was motivated to learn a language without being naturally immersed in it.

but i found that most traditional langauge learning apps and platforms are not for me.  i dont want  grammar exercices, i dont want to watch boring innatural content. and i dont want someting easy and overly gamified.

I like using my brain, and i want to work and focus towars speaking and understanding the langauge, not reading and writing!

So i found something that worked for me (in terms of short term motivation and progress):  a combination of using ANKI to memorize sentences +immersing myself in native content such as watching youtube, listening to podcast and to music.

But langauge learning is very much about having motivation and having goals in the long term ( for me atleast). If youre going to spend hundred of hours doing something , i believe your brain needs to know that its useful. So you need to track your progress.

  when i did anki + immersion i realized that something was missing. i wanted to see my progress and how much a needed to do to reach my goals. and i felt that many anki decks where boring with robotic voices and lack of visualization and contained thousands of cards (which is not very motivating).

Thats why i created my own tool. its quite simple. there are just two parts:

Memorization (where you build your vocabulary by memorizating cards(spaced repetition) with audio and simple visuals, and learn to pronounce by speaking the cards outloud) and

Immersion(where you track your time that you have immersed and can find inspiration for what to watch and how to immerse).

ive  also split a langauge up into more managable pieces, a beginner "course" with 500 cards/sentences and an intermediate course with 1500 cards so there is have a very concrete goal and "simple" way to reach that goal.

So in short ive creating a tool for those who want to efficently learn to speak a language(not fluently but being able to understand and speak a minimum), and dont care about exact grammar and spelling. To be honest, im not sure how effective it is (because of the lack of long term testers) but my instinct is that it might be useful for some types of learners...

Now, ive made a first version which im using and my gf is using (shes learning french, cause my grandparent dont speak english...) but i was wondering if anyone was interested in helping out with testing and feedback by using it in their own langauge learning. currenyly i have added french, spanish and italian. so just send me a dm if you are interested. or if you have any questions or feedback around the method, tell me what you think?

thanks for your time and happy langauge learning :)

- Emil