Tori
Learn a language by listening to stories. Read and hear novels and short stories in your target language, with tap-to-translate and read-along narration.
Why we built it
Most language apps turn study into a task to be completed: streaks, quizzes, a daily number to protect. Tori was built on the opposite assumption — that people learn a language because they want to read something in it. So the library is made of stories, and every feature exists to keep you inside one: a tap translates without leaving the sentence, narration follows the passage, and the translation sits beside the original rather than replacing it. Progress is measured by the books you finish.
How it works
Reading happens in one view: the passage you are on, with narration that follows it and a tap translating a word in place. The library is arranged by level and by story rather than by lesson, so the thing you return to is the book — and a signed-in reader resumes where they stopped rather than at the start.
Progress is counted in books finished, not days in a streak. Saved words collect for review, and the review screen is deliberately separate from the reading view: translation stays inside the sentence, and repetition happens afterwards.
What it does
Stories, not flashcards
Every book is a story you chose to read. Progress comes from finishing it, not from a streak.
Tap any word
One tap translates the word in place, so the sentence you were reading stays whole.
Read along
Narration follows the passage as you scroll, so the sound and the text stay together.
Both languages at once
The passage and its translation sit side by side — glance across rather than leave the page.
Inside the app
Captured from the running product — no mock-ups.
On a phone
What it does not do
A limit named before you open the app is worth more than a feature list that never mentions one.
- There is no speaking practice or conversation partner. Tori teaches reading and listening; pronunciation is not assessed.
- Narration is available where a story has an audio track, so the library is smaller than a general-purpose language course.
- Progress and saved words belong to an account. Without one the reader works, but it will not remember where you stopped.
From the build log
First-hand notes from building Tori — what broke, and what changed because of it.