The app I use to learn something is a language-learning app that I've been using to study Japanese for about eighteen months. I'm a twenty-eight-year-old hotel receptionist in Da Nang, in Vietnam, and a lot of our guests are Japanese, so it's both useful for my job and something I enjoy.
The app teaches through short lessons that take about five to ten minutes each. You learn a few words, then answer quick questions, like matching pictures to words, putting sentences in order, or repeating phrases out loud into the microphone. It also has a section for the Japanese writing systems, which is honestly the hardest part.
I use it every day, usually twice. In the morning on the bus, I do a new lesson, and then before bed I review the words I got wrong earlier. The app keeps track of my streak, which is the number of days in a row I've studied, and I'm quite competitive, so I hate breaking it. My longest streak was over two hundred days.
It's helped me in a couple of ways. Most obviously, I can now greet Japanese guests, explain where things are, and handle simple requests like booking taxis. The guests are always delighted, and my manager has noticed. More than that, it's given me a routine for studying, which I never had at school. But I'd say the app alone isn't enough. It's great for vocabulary and basic grammar, but it can't teach you to have a real conversation. So last month I also joined an online class with a teacher once a week, and I use the app to support what I learn there.