A Case for Polinu

April 1, 2026

It was a dark and stormy night.

Just kidding. It was a cool 75 degrees on the beach in Tel Aviv where the smell of ocean salt lingered in the air and beach volleyball was played using anything but your hands (brazilian style, look it up!)

I, as per usual, was hunched over my phone in a semi comfortable spot trying to translate some words from my Russian ebook which I was desperately trying to finish for a month now. I would open Google Translate, translate the word, then copy the word and put it into my flash card app, go back and grab the definition then paste that into the flashcard app and rinse and repeat.

If I had to look up the context of a word other than where it was found in the book, then I’d have to go to another website to get that information and copy and bring it over to the flashcard app as well. Then if I needed conjugations for verbs or declensions for nouns I would have to go to a different website

Long story short, a simple chapter would take me 2 hours to get through and … yea. My neck still hurts thinking about it

That’s where my idea for Polinu came along. Why not have everything in one app: flashcards with a spaced repetition system that I’m used to, instant translate words, conjugations, declensions, and even detailed analytics and goals to track progress

It was a long road alright. But 354 words later and I have finally finished my goddam Russian book. Onto my Spanish one!