Yasashii Sensei : AI-Powered Japanese Learning

やさしい先生 (Yasashii Sensei) — Your Gentle Japanese Teacher THE PROBLEM Japanese is one of the world's most nuanced languages. A phrase like 月が綺麗ですね literally means "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" — but culturally, it's how novelist Natsume Sōseki expressed "I love you." That depth is invisible to most learners. Dictionaries don't teach culture. Textbooks don't teach context. THE SOLUTION Yasashii Sensei turns any Japanese text into a complete, interactive lesson powered by IBM watsonx.ai. Users paste any Japanese text — from news articles, manga, emails, signs, or social media — and instantly receive: - Vocabulary breakdown with readings and JLPT levels - Grammar pattern explanations with examples - Natural English translation - Cultural and literary context - Native Japanese pronunciation via IBM Watson Text-to-Speech - JLPT difficulty assessment (N5 to N1) TWO INTERFACES 1. Web Application — A beautifully designed dark-theme web app with the "Midnight Tokyo" aesthetic. Features ink-reveal animations, furigana display, and curated NHK-style articles graded by difficulty. 2. Telegram Bot — A fully-featured bot with inline keyboard navigation. Users can browse articles, read Japanese content first before analysis, receive lessons with navigation buttons, and hear pronunciation as voice messages — all from mobile. IBM BOB AS CORE DEVELOPMENT PARTNER IBM Bob IDE was used throughout the entire software development lifecycle — not just for writing code, but for planning the architecture, scaffolding the project, debugging services, building the frontend skill, creating the Telegram bot, and integrating Text-to-Speech. Eight Bob task session reports are included in the repository as evidence of meaningful Bob involvement across every phase.