From Idea to Execution: Mantaphrase's Japanese Heritage

This is very cute. So simple it's almost a waste of effort (if a phrasebook already exists), but yet it's much better than a phrasebook!<p>I can imagine this working quite well in Japan, where people are not afraid of technology, but struggle to communicate in foreign languages. I'm not so sure how well this can be accepted in, say, Romania (just an example, I've never been there).<p>...and shouldn't you swap the first example on the homepage from "Do I have to be hospitalized?" to something slightly more cheerful?

This is awesome. I love how you addressed a problem that seemed "already solved" (ie. there's tonnes of foreign language phrase books in the app store) and designed a better solution for it. I can't wait to try it out on a trip.<p>btw, does the app also provide an option to read the phrase, so that you can learn it over time?

This is a neat idea. I just rented an apartment in Tokyo. My Japanese is not that great, so when going through the lease, the realtor and I sat down with Google Translate* to go through all the legalese. We had the exact same sort of "wtf?" moments that the author describes -- I can deal with regular conversation, but legal terms oftentimes have odd meanings compared to how regular people talk...<p>(*actually, it was something else, I don't remember the brand, but exactly the same concept as Google Translate)

I'm curious to see how smooth the interaction is with this product. It seems it could be awkward to ask a stranger who doesn't speak your language to look at your iPhone and click buttons to communicate with you.<p>On the other hand, if they can make it feel "magical", it will be an impressive achievement.

This is amazing. It's exactly what I wanted to build when I was living in Japan, but I never got around to it. Congrats! I'll definitely be taking this with me the next time I go to Japan.