I translate work emails every day in Japanese, still learning, and for a long time I used whatever the first result gave me. The translation got me through the task. It didn't teach me anything. I couldn't tell if I was being too blunt with a supplier or too deferential with a peer. One answer with no register information is just a guessing game.
konid returns three options per query — casual to formal — with the register explained and cultural context comparing them. The part that changed how fast I retained things: it plays the audio through your speakers directly. Hearing the actual vowel length and pitch pattern in Japanese or Mandarin while reading the explanation of why one option fits better than another does something reading a phonetic spelling doesn't. The sound and the meaning land together.
A quick example. If you ask how to tell a coworker you'll be late to a meeting, you get:
konid: how do I tell my coworker I'll be a few minutes late (Japanese)
[Casual] ちょっと遅れます — direct, fine for close colleagues
[Neutral] 少し遅れてしまいます — slight apology built in, safe default
[Formal] お時間をいただき申し訳ございません — strong apology, use with clients or senior staff
Audio plays for each option.
The difference between the second and third options isn't just politeness level — the nuance note tells you when reaching for formal actually signals that you're treating a peer like a stranger, which is its own problem.
It runs as an MCP server, so it lives inside Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Windsurf, Zed, JetBrains, and Claude Cowork. Install with claude mcp add konid-ai -- npx -y konid-ai. Also works as a ChatGPT app via Developer mode pointing at https://konid.fly.dev/mcp. No external API key needed for audio — uses node-edge-tts under the hood.
13+ languages: Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, and more.
MIT licensed. https://github.com/robertnowell/konid-language-learning
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