Help Center

Ka’aKatu builds vocabulary from real content you choose, such as YouTube videos and AI-written stories, instead of textbook word lists. Watch, hover over any word for a translation, then plant the phrases you want to remember in your Knowledge Garden.

Every planted phrase comes up for review on a schedule. Review it a little each day and it stays with you.

• About Ka’aKatu

Create your account on the onboarding page with an email and password, or with Google. Your username is your public identity, for example kaakatu.com/@username.

Next, pick the language you are learning. Ka’aKatu supports 10 languages, from Mandarin to Swahili. Your garden starts with a few starter islands, and you can plant 5 benchmark seeds right away or skip and start empty.

• Start onboarding

A Knowledge Island is a themed folder inside your garden, like “Daily Vlog” or “Restaurant Phrases”. Each holds related seeds, so review stays on one topic instead of one long random list.

You can create, rename, and delete islands, and a seed can live in several islands at once. On public gardens, islands make your collection browsable by other learners.

While watching a video or story, tapping a line’s + Seed adds that phrase to your Germinating Bed, a temporary holding area for phrases you are considering.

Plant the ones you want to remember. Choose an island, or several, and confirm. Planted seeds become part of your garden and start their SRS review schedule. Unplanted bed items are not reviewed.

Watering is Ka’aKatu’s review session. Each day you see the seeds that are due, one flashcard at a time. Visibility toggles let you test yourself harder.

Grade each card: Again, Hard, Good, or Easy. The interval adapts. A “Good” card comes back later, an “Again” card sooner. Seeds move through growth stages (Seedling, Sprouting, Bloom) as intervals stretch from days to weeks to months.

Each garden tracks a daily review streak. Water at least one due seed to keep it growing. Milestones earn a 5-badge ladder, shown discreetly once per tier.

Your stats page shows rolling recall and lapse rates, so you can see how well the material is sticking.

Open the Transcript Studio from the landing page, paste a YouTube URL, and the video loads with a synchronized, interactive transcript. Hover or tap any word for a translation, and loop any phrase for shadowing practice.

Every line has a + Seed action, so you can harvest phrases into your Germinating Bed as you watch. No account is needed to try it. Sign in to plant.

Describe a topic, and Build a Story generates a story of up to 500 words in your garden’s language, constrained to your exam band (HSK/JLPT/TOPIK where they exist, CEFR otherwise). It includes line-by-line translations, tap-to-translate, and pronunciation guides.

Free gardeners get 10 stories per day and 10 saved. Pro gets a silent 100/day cap and unlimited saved stories. Saved stories keep their phrases in your seed bank for planting.

Not sure where you stand? Take the free placement test at /test-your-<language>-level for Mandarin (HSK), Japanese (JLPT), Korean (TOPIK), or Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Hindi and Swahili (CEFR).

The test is adaptive: 5 questions per band, need 3 of 5 to advance. Enter your email to reveal your level and get a short guide to leveling up with spaced repetition. No account required.

• Take the level test

Publish your garden from the garden page, and visitors will see your profile, islands, and seeds at /p/<username>/garden/<slug>. Two clicks, and you can undo it anytime.

The community feed lets you discover other gardeners by language, follow them, and visit their public gardens. Pro gardeners with multiple gardens get a profile index at /p/<username>.

• Browse the community

Pro gardeners can export any garden as an Anki-ready TSV or a templated Markdown file. You choose the scope (islands), fields, deck prefix, and a custom Markdown template with a live preview.

Files are named <language>_garden_kaakatu<date>.<ext>, and your last 2 exports are kept with re-download links. .apkg export is on the roadmap.

• See Pro pricing

After signing up you get a verification email. Click the link to activate your account, or request a new one from the login page if it expires.

Log in with your email address and password, or with Google. Usernames identify you publicly; they are not login identifiers.

Ka’aKatu Pro adds multiple gardens, unlimited saved stories, a silent 100/day story cap, and Export Garden. Plans: $8/month or $60/year (save $36). Checkout is hosted by Stripe, and your card never touches our servers.

Subscribe from /pricing or the paywall. Already on Pro? Manage or cancel from Settings, Pro Subscription, which opens the Stripe billing portal.

• View pricing
• Manage in Settings