Many people understand English and still stay silent
An iPhone app for Russian speakers. Short, free conversations with a patient voice partner, tied to flashcards.
App in development · web demo by invitation
Prototype screenshots. The interface is in Russian. Words and numbers are demo data, not real progress.
The problem
Flashcards build passive vocabulary. What makes speaking easier is a lot of low-stakes practice saying your own thoughts. For many adults the barrier is anxiety, not grammar, so most never start.
Built on how people learn to speak
Ideas from second-language research. We build on them and do not promise results.
You learn by producing, not only by listening
Trying to say what you mean shows you what you are missing (Swain). So the main screen is a conversation, not a quiz.
A nudge works better than a ready answer
When you are stuck, the partner asks you to rephrase instead of giving the Russian word (Lyster and Saito).
Fix one or two things at a time
Correcting everything makes people freeze. Kumisha keeps at most three habits in focus.
Phrases, not isolated rules
Fluency leans on ready-made chunks (Lewis, Wray). Cards show words in real sentences.
A safe place to talk
Anxiety is the main obstacle for adults (Horwitz). No grades, no red marks. Tap the orb and it waits for you.
Two loops that feed each other
Memory
Spaced-repetition flashcards (FSRS-6). One card per meaning, shown in a sentence.
Speech
A voice partner that adapts to your level. A word you say on your own pushes its next review further out.
Honest metrics for speaking
Pace, pauses and utterance length, compared with your own two-week range, not a native speaker. Every number is explained in plain words and marked as approximate. No made-up pronunciation scores.
Under the hood
Native iPhone app
Swift and SwiftUI, system components, local storage for cards.
Real-time voice
A real-time voice model for the conversation. A server layer keeps progress and builds the post-call summary.
Where we are
English for Russian speakers. A web demo is running trial calls with a small invited group, and the iPhone app is being built. Not launched publicly, no usage numbers yet. Write to aleksandr@kumisha.com.