Forms 型 KATA
Solo drills against a fixed set: one kana row, one rule, one pattern, repeated until it comes out clean. Sessions run a few minutes and every one is scored, because this is the part people skip.
Learn Japanese by typing it.
You type ni, に appears. You type ho, ほ appears. That mapping from sound to script is the skill, and TypeWondo drills it until your fingers stop thinking about it.
Still being built. Nothing to sign up for yet, and the roadmap below says where it actually stands.
Yellow belt
KANA DRILL
にほんご
nihongo
98.4%ACCURACY
212KEYSTROKES
64CHARS / MIN
Design preview. The game is not playable yet.
かなをうつ kanawoutsu
ka
The input map nobody teaches you
Japanese is typed by spelling the sound. Most of it is guessable. The rest is a short list of rules that trip up every self-taught learner, and this is the list.
| You type | You get | Why it catches people |
|---|---|---|
| shi or si | し | Two spellings, one character. Both are correct. |
| chi or ti | ち | The ti spelling looks wrong and is faster. |
| tsu or tu | つ | Three keys or two, for the same sound. |
| nn | ん | A single n waits to see what follows it. |
| kitte | きって | Doubling the consonant makes the small pause. |
| xtu | っ | An x prefix forces a small kana on its own. |
| ha | は | Read wa as a particle. Typed ha, always. |
| wo | を | Read o. Typed wo, always. |
Those last two are the reason typists stop confusing particles years before readers do. A keyboard corrects you on every single repetition, because the wrong key produces a visibly wrong character.
かなをうつ kanawoutsu
107
That is the whole alphabet
46 basic hiragana, 25 more once the dakuten and handakuten marks are added, and 36 built from a base kana plus a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ. Katakana repeats the same structure, so the second script costs a fraction of the first.
A set that size moves out of memory and into your hands inside a few weeks of short sessions. Kanji comes later, at brown belt and above, and by then you are reading the kana without noticing you are doing it.
WhiteHiragana あ through の, romaji shown on screen.
YellowAll 46 hiragana, no chart to lean on.
OrangeKatakana, dakuten, small kana, long vowels.
GreenWhole words and short sentences, kana only.
BlueParticles under time pressure. は, を and へ stop being a decision.
BrownKanji conversion enters: choosing the right candidate.
BlackMixed script at conversational speed.
Third danLong passages, no support, accuracy held above 98%.
かなをうつ kanawoutsu
wo
Four ways to train
The same material approached from four directions, borrowed without apology from the way a dōjō structures a session. Accuracy gates every promotion: reps below the floor do not count, however fast they were.
Sparring 組手 KUMITE
Head-to-head races. Two players, the same passage, both positions visible. Accuracy counts for more here than anywhere else, since one mistyped を hands over the round.
Free practice 乱取り RANDORI
A continuous randomised stream that tracks what you miss and puts it back in front of you. If ツ and シ blur together, randori will return them within the minute.
Tournament 試合 SHIAI
Seasonal ranked events with leaderboards split by belt, so a green belt is never measured against third dans. Entry is optional, and grading never depends on it.
かなをうつ kanawoutsu
u
Japanese first, Korean next
A note on the name, since people ask. TypeWondo takes its shape from taekwondo, which is Korean, and that is deliberate rather than careless.
The character the Korean, Japanese and Chinese traditions share is the last one: 道, do or dō, a practice you keep walking rather than a subject you finish. Japanese names its own arts the same way. Ours is 打鍵道, dakendō, from 打鍵, an ordinary word for a keystroke.
Japanese ships first because an input method plus three scripts is the harder engineering problem, and solving it makes Hangul straightforward. If a Korean speaker reads the name as careless borrowing, we would rather hear it than not.
日本語
Japanese. Romaji input, kana fluency, then kanji conversion. Native IME and kana layouts supported too.
IN DEVELOPMENT
한국어
Korean. 24 letters the keyboard assembles into syllable blocks as you type, on the standard 2-set layout.
COMING SOON
中文
Mandarin. Pinyin input with tone-marked candidate selection. Under consideration.
UNDER REVIEW
かなをうつ kanawoutsu done
tsu
Where the build stands
Updated when things ship rather than when they are planned.
NOW
The input engine
Romaji to kana conversion: nn, shi and si, doubled consonants, small kana and long vowels resolving exactly as a native IME resolves them.
NEXT
The kana halls
Drills for hiragana and katakana, grading from white to orange belt, progress saved in your own browser with no account.
AFTER
Words and particles
Full sentences in kana, particle drills under time pressure, and head-to-head races.
THEN
Kanji, then Korean
Candidate selection with fading furigana, and after that the Hangul dōjō on the same grading spine.
Questions people ask
If yours is not here, the contact page reaches the people building it.
What is TypeWondo?
A browser typing game that teaches you to type Japanese. You learn the romaji input map, build kana fluency until it is automatic, and earn belt ranks as your accuracy and speed improve.
Do I need to know Japanese before I start?
No. The first belt assumes you have never seen a kana chart. You begin with a handful of characters, the romaji you need appears on screen, and that support is withdrawn character by character as your accuracy on each one rises.
Do I need a Japanese keyboard or an IME installed?
No. TypeWondo converts romaji to kana in the browser on an ordinary QWERTY keyboard, the way a Japanese IME does. Native IME and kana layouts will also be supported, because the drill scores the characters you produce rather than the route you took.
Is this a kanji trainer?
Not primarily. The core skill is romaji input and kana fluency, which is the part almost nothing else teaches. Kanji conversion arrives at brown belt, once typing kana no longer takes any thought.
Is TypeWondo free?
The core is free to play and needs no account: kana drills, particle drills and belt grading. If paid extras are ever added, the price appears on this site before they launch, and the free tier stays playable.
When does it launch?
Still being built. The kana halls open first, then words and particles. The roadmap on this page is updated as things ship, and you can ask to be told when the doors open from the contact page.
Will there be a Korean version?
Yes. Korean follows Japanese, using the same grading structure. The name nods to taekwondo, so a Hangul dōjō was always part of the plan. Japanese comes first because it is the harder input problem to get right.
Doors open soon.
Send a note and you will hear from us once the first belt is playable. One message, and no mailing list sitting behind it.