u/stefmanRS

Before reading: don't say it's too good to be true because I'm offering money

I’ve been building a Serbian learning app, and I want to put it to a real test.

Start from zero (or close to zero), use the app for 10 days, follow the rules below, and if at the end you still can’t read the Cyrilic it teaches you + 120 words, I’ll pay you.

The rules

For all 10 days, you must:

Use the app every day.
Complete your reviews whenever reviews become available. You will be notified when they are.

Not skip anything. Complete every lesson, exercise, and review the app gives you.
Complete the entire first 2 levels.
Actually attempt the exercises, randomly clicking through obviously doesn’t count.

What the app teaches
The course teaches:
Whole Cyrilic alphabet (7 letters are exact same as latin)
A lot of vocabulary, but in the 10 days its just enough to put your reading into practice.

After 10 days
If you followed all the rules and completed everything but the app failed to teach you what it claims to teach, I’ll pay you 20€.

I’m looking especially for people who currently cannot read Cyrilic or those who can but want to learn vocab, because that makes the test much more interesting.
If you want to try the challenge, comment or DM me.
And please be critical. If something is confusing or badly taught, I genuinely want to know

I’ve been building a Thai learning app, and I want to put it to a real test.

Start from zero (or close to zero), use the app for 10 days, follow the rules below, and if at the end you still can’t read the Thai it teaches you or understand how the tone system works, I’ll pay you.

The rules

For all 10 days, you must:

Use the app every day.
Complete your reviews whenever reviews become available. You will be notified when they are.

Not skip anything. Complete every lesson, exercise, and review the app gives you.
Complete the entire Thai script and tones course.
Complete Level 1 of the vocabulary course as well.
Actually attempt the exercises, randomly clicking through obviously doesn’t count.

What the app teaches
The course teaches:
25 of the 42 Thai consonants used in the course, it intentionally leaves out 17 rare consonants at this stage.

All Thai vowels covered by the reading system.

All Thai tone rules, including how consonant class, syllable type, vowel length, and tone marks affect the tone.

Enough vocabulary to put your reading into practice.
So to be clear: I’m not claiming you’ll know every Thai character after 10 days. The 17 rare consonants are deliberately excluded. The challenge is whether you can learn the core Thai writing system, all the vowels, understand the tone rules, and actually start reading Thai.

After 10 days
If you followed all the rules and completed everything but the app failed to teach you what it claims to teach, I’ll pay you 20€.

I’m looking especially for people who currently cannot read Thai, because that makes the test much more interesting.
If you want to try the challenge, comment or DM me.
And please be critical. If something is confusing or badly taught, I genuinely want to know

Im trying to settle a debate, which english words contain these sounds?

https://preview.redd.it/whrzei01pjhh1.png?width=1786&format=png&auto=webp&s=75ec4552914ac4102f220e2f3f61678a1042f050

I shared my app here almost 2 months ago and I wanted to share how it has been growing since then.

In the image you can see the amount of activity on the left (vocab answered correctly) and number of users that have signed up on each day.

The feedback has been amazing so far and i just wanted to share these number with you since some of the users are from this subreddit.

Not sharing link in the post since this isn't meant to be a promotional post.

Thank you

Pre nekoliko meseci počeo sam da pravim aplikaciju za učenje srpskog jezika, prvenstveno namenjenu strancima.

Ideja je nastala jer sam primetio da za srpski nema mnogo kvalitetnih i modernih aplikacija, posebno onih koje imaju snimke izgovora stvarnih govornika, umesto generisanog glasa. Aplikacija se zove Ćirilio i fokusirana je na učenje reči kroz kratke lekcije, ponavljanje, primere i audio-snimke.

Tehnički, aplikacija je napravljena koristeći Express.js, Vue.js sa typscriptom, Supabase, Vercel i Stripe. Sve sam radio sam od baze i interfejsa, preko sadržaja, do marketinga i korisničke podrške.

Do sad sam zaradio ukupno $300, 6 mesecnih pretplata, 1 godisnja, jedna dozivotna.

Najviše sam se do sada mučio sa pronalaženjem korisnika. Sam razvoj mi je bio poznatiji deo, dok su marketing, oglasi, sadržaj za društvene mreže i razgovori sa korisnicima potpuno druga vrsta posla.

Trenutno pokušavam da poboljšam zadržavanje korisnika i da shvatim zbog čega neki ljudi završe nekoliko lekcija, a zatim prestanu da koriste aplikaciju.

For over 15 months, I worked on Lawcrative, a fairly ambitious practice-management platform for Balkan law firms. Case management, calendars, invoicing, client communication, AI features… the whole package.

It was technically challenging, looked like a “real SaaS,” and solved real problems. But selling it was another story. Law firms have established workflows, multiple decision-makers, sensitive data, and little desire to migrate to software built by someone they don’t already trust.

Then I built Cirilio, a much simpler app for learning Serbian vocabulary and Cyrillic.

It has fewer features, a smaller scope, and nowhere near the technical complexity of Lawcrative. Yet it has already made more money.

The obvious lesson would be “simple products win,” but I don’t think that’s entirely true. The bigger difference is friction.

Someone can discover Cirilio, understand it immediately, sign up, and start learning within minutes. They don’t need approval from a partner, a sales call, data migration, or a long explanation of why they should change their workflow. The person using it is also the person deciding whether to pay.

Lawcrative taught me how to build complex software. Cirilio is teaching me how to build something people can actually buy.

I’m still proud of Lawcrative, and I don’t consider those 15 months wasted. But I definitely confused product complexity with business value. Building more features felt like progress because it was measurable. Talking to customers, finding distribution, and creating a low-friction purchase were harder,and ultimately mattered much more.

I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for a while, but honestly, I just couldn’t get into Duolingo.

Nothing against it, I know it works for a lot of people, but for me it felt too slow, too repetitive in the wrong way, and I didn’t feel like I was actually building useful vocabulary fast enough.

So I decided to build my own Spanish vocabulary learning app.

The idea is pretty simple: 100 levels, 50 words per level, so around 5,000 words total. Each word has example sentences, translations, and a structure that helps me actually review and remember things properly.

And honestly, it’s been amazing.

In the last month I’ve learned over 400 Spanish words, and it feels way more motivating because I built the system around how I personally like to learn. I can see my progress clearly, move through levels, review words, and actually feel like I’m building a real base in the language.

It also made me realize how much difference the learning method makes. Before, I thought I was just “bad at languages,” but I think I just didn’t like the tools I was using.

Has anyone else built their own system/app/Anki deck/etc. because normal language apps didn’t work for them?

I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for a while, but honestly, I just couldn’t get into Duolingo.

Nothing against it, I know it works for a lot of people, but for me it felt too slow, too repetitive in the wrong way, and I didn’t feel like I was actually building useful vocabulary fast enough.

So I decided to build my own Spanish vocabulary learning app.

The idea is pretty simple: 100 levels, 50 words per level, so around 5,000 words total. Each word has example sentences, translations, and a structure that helps me actually review and remember things properly.

And honestly, it’s been amazing.

In the last month I’ve learned over 400 Spanish words, and it feels way more motivating because I built the system around how I personally like to learn. I can see my progress clearly, move through levels, review words, and actually feel like I’m building a real base in the language.

It also made me realize how much difference the learning method makes. Before, I thought I was just “bad at languages,” but I think I just didn’t like the tools I was using.

Has anyone else built their own system/app/Anki deck/etc. because normal language apps didn’t work for them?

I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for a while, but honestly, I just couldn’t get into Duolingo.

Nothing against it, I know it works for a lot of people, but for me it felt too slow, too repetitive in the wrong way, and I didn’t feel like I was actually building useful vocabulary fast enough.

So I decided to build my own Spanish vocabulary learning app.

The idea is pretty simple: 100 levels, 50 words per level, so around 5,000 words total. Each word has example sentences, translations, and a structure that helps me actually review and remember things properly.

And honestly, it’s been amazing.

In the last month I’ve learned over 400 Spanish words, and it feels way more motivating because I built the system around how I personally like to learn. I can see my progress clearly, move through levels, review words, and actually feel like I’m building a real base in the language.

It also made me realize how much difference the learning method makes. Before, I thought I was just “bad at languages,” but I think I just didn’t like the tools I was using.

Has anyone else built their own system/app/Anki deck/etc. because normal language apps didn’t work for them?