Version: 1.0
Platform: macOS 13.0+
Developer: Codeform
About Hakase
Hakase is a Japanese vocabulary trainer that lives in your menu bar. A word sits there while you work and rotates every few minutes; click it whenever you feel like practising, and a small panel asks what it means. It is built for understanding what you hear and read, not for writing kanji.
Features
- A word always visible in the menu bar, rotating for passive exposure
- Spaced repetition that brings back what is slipping
- Deck ordered by real-world frequency, so common words come first
- Forgiving answers: typos, synonyms, articles and parentheticals
- Wrong answers are reverse-translated — "you wrote father, that's chichi"
- Mix-ups between two words are detected and untangled
- Multiple choice for words you keep missing, or for every word in mouse-only mode
- Listening rounds — hear the word and answer without seeing it
- Example sentences in romaji and English
- JLPT targets from N5 to N1, with per-level progress
- Add words from any app through the Services menu
- Shortcuts actions and a Notification Center widget
- Optional reminders you can answer from the notification
- Import your review progress from Anki
- Optional deck of anime, game and movie titles
- English and Spanish, deck and interface
System Requirements
- macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
- The Notification Center widget requires macOS 14.0 or later
- About 20 MB of disk space
- No internet connection required, at any point
Getting Started
1. Find the word
- After launching, a Japanese word in romaji appears in your menu bar
- It changes every few minutes while you work
2. Answer it
- Click the word to open the quiz panel
- Type what it means in English (or Spanish) and press Enter
- Press Enter on an empty field to see the answer without guessing
- Press Esc to close the panel — nothing is counted against you
3. Make it yours
- Open Options from the gear button in the panel
- Set a JLPT target, answer language, audio and display preferences
- Everything is optional; the defaults are meant to work untouched
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an account?
No. Hakase has no sign-up, no login and no cloud service. It never connects to the internet.
Why is there no daily goal or streak?
Both exist, and both are off by default — Hakase is meant for practising when you feel like it. Turn either on in Options → General → Goals. Your daily history is recorded either way, so switching a streak on later shows the streak you already have rather than starting at zero.
How does it choose which word to ask?
Words you have seen come back on a spaced repetition schedule that stretches from minutes to a week as you get them right. When nothing is due, the next unseen word is introduced in frequency order — the words that actually turn up in subtitles, conversations and everyday text.
My answer was right but it was marked wrong. What now?
On the reveal screen, press ⌘↩. Hakase accepts your answer as a valid meaning for that word permanently, and rewinds the mistake.
How do I add a word I saw somewhere else?
Select the Japanese text in any app, then choose Services → Add to Hakase from that app's menu. The word is looked up and goes to the front of your queue. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut to it in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services.
What if I select a whole phrase instead of one word?
Japanese does not use spaces, so this is expected. Hakase splits the selection into words and asks which one to add — press 1-9 to pick one, A to add them all, or Esc to cancel.
Can I bring my progress from Anki?
Yes. Open Options → Deck → Import and choose your .apkg or .colpkg export. Notes are matched against the dictionary and each card's review interval becomes a Hakase level. Progress you already have here is never downgraded.
My Anki import says the file uses the newest format.
Anki's newest export format uses a compression method macOS cannot read. In Anki, export again with "Support older Anki versions" ticked, then import that file.
Can I use it without the keyboard?
Yes. Options → Quiz → Mouse-only mode turns every round into multiple choice, with don't-know and next as buttons.
Will my quiz show up when I share my screen?
The quiz panel is hidden from screenshots, recordings and shared screens by default (Options → Privacy). The menu bar word is drawn by macOS itself and stays visible.
Is Spanish supported?
Yes — both the interface and the deck. Hakase picks your language from your Mac's locale on first launch and you can change it in Options → General. Progress is stored per word, so switching languages does not reset it.
Where is my data stored?
Inside the app's own sandbox container in your user Library, on your Mac only. Nothing is ever uploaded.
Troubleshooting
The menu bar word disappeared
- Check whether the menu bar is simply full — try quitting another menu bar app
- Hakase relaunches itself automatically if it stops unexpectedly
- If it is not running, open it again from Applications
Reminders are not appearing
- Confirm reminders are on in Options → Reminders
- Check System Settings → Notifications → Hakase and allow notifications
- Reminders are rate limited, and never appear while the quiz panel is open
A word I added is not showing up
- Added words go to the front of the queue — it should be the next word asked
- Words you add are never hidden by your JLPT target
- If the selection matched nothing in the dictionary, it is saved for review instead
Shortcuts actions or the widget are missing
- Launch Hakase at least once after installing
- The widget requires macOS 14.0 or later
- Look for "Hakase" in the Shortcuts app action list
I want to start over
- Quit Hakase
- Remove the app's container folder in your user Library
- Launch again for a clean deck
Contact & Support
Email: hello@luissantanderart.com
Website: https://codeform.cl
For bug reports or feature requests, please include:
- macOS version
- Hakase version
- Description of the issue
- Screenshots if applicable
Privacy
Hakase does not collect any personal data. See our Privacy Policy for details.
Credits
Dictionary data from JMdict (EDRDG), CC BY-SA. Example sentences from the Tanaka Corpus via the Tatoeba project, CC BY. Word frequency data from wordfreq, CC BY-SA. JLPT level lists from Jonathan Waller's JLPT Resources, CC BY.