Notes about Japanese Language Learning Systems

Anki….

<Anki> is a free to download piece of flashcard software. Based on the principles of <SRS – link to Wired article> or, <Spaced Recognition Systems>, Anki intelligently scehdules flashcard repetitions based on your rate of success or failure of previous reviews, taking the work out of having to decide what to review, and when. Successfully complete consecutive reviews of a card, and the length of time between reviews will increase exponentially, the idea being that, as a card becomes more reinforced in your mind, you can remember the card for a longer time. Fail a review, and you`ll start at the beginning of the curve again, requiring a review after less than a day. This intelligent method of scheduling means that the data you put into the system will always be display just before, or just as you forget it, maximising learning efficiency. It should be added however that Anki needs to be used daily to really experience its full benefits. Take too many breaks away from it, and it messes with the intelligent scheduling effect.

Anki actually doesn`t care what data you put into it, you can use it to learn anything, school notes, cocktail names, capital cities. Many people use it for different things, though it seems the most popular use of it is for language learning. Within the software, you can download pre-prepared decks, including a large number of Japanese decks. The previously mentioned <Heisig method> is downloadable as a deck, and works especially well with this software.

Anki, (and the other popular SRS reviewers <Supermemo>) are free to download. A web based SRS reviewer <SuruSuru – http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/what-is-surusu> is also available.

“10,000 Sentences”…

<10,000 Sentences> is a method advocated by Khatzumoto of <AJATT> for learning grammar, vocabulary, and everything else all at once, rather than trying to learn it in bits, like most books advocate. The thinking behind this is is that the rules of grammar, all the bits that put a sentence together, are far too difficult to learn in isolation, and the problems contrived to teach the points are usually unrealistic and lead to stilted Japanese. Rather than taking this traditional approach, if you can gather 10,000 sentences of information that you are personally INTERESTED in, and want to understand, and if you bombard yourself with enough of it, eventually, the grammar, the words, everything will start to sink in as a whole, and natural Japanese will result. Being interested in the content is important for motivation; choose boring stuff, and the brain will shut it out.

Again, 10,000 sentences is a technique that has a great marriage with Anki, which takes the effort out of scheduling the reviews yourself, and keeps your learning efficient. Plenty of sentence packs are available through the anki software to start you on your way.

www.readthekanji.com

<www.readthekanji.com> is a website for learning Japanese words. The site provides an incredibly clean and fast interface, as well as organising it`s words in line with the current <JLPT> levels to help with learners attempting to tackle these exams. In this software, a word pops up in kanji, along with an example sentence, and you must then type the word in a box underneath. This software confers a number of benefits to the user:

- Like SRS`s, this software provides some intelligent scheduling in order to both add cards to the current learning pile gradually, and to increase/decrease reviews depending on your success or failure rate.
- Each example sentence provided gives a realistic sample of Japanese, as well as a naturally translated English version to check it against. Being able to see the word in the context of a sentence really helps with cementing the meaning and nuance of the word in your head.
- Can be used to learn kanji of different JLPT levels, and even hirigana and katakana if you are a beginner
- Provides beautiful statistics in order to measure your progress over time, over both the JLPT levels, and across a grid of all <Joyo kanji>

This site really takes a lot of the effort out of learning kanji and is a pleasure to use. Unfortunately, it is no longer free (although accounts created prior to charging will be honoured as free), but it is really worth the $10 signup for a lifetime membership (and additionally, you can get the hirigana, katakana, and JLPT4 decks as part of a free trial).

MSN/Chat/Sharedtalk

Rikaichan

<Rikaichan> is a pop-up dictionary plugin for Firefox, and is quite simply indispensable to the Japanese learner who is yet to have an extensive vocabulary, or even for the experienced learner who doesn`t wish to disturb the flow of his web-based reading with opening up other applications or looking in paper dictionaries. With this plugin, when viewing a web page through firefox, as you hover over any Japanese text with your cursor, rikaichan will select any possible combinations of words it detects on the cursor, and pops up in a blue box possible dictionary definitions of the selection. This allows the user, with a decent understanding of Japanese grammar, to read almost anything put in front of him, even with quite a low level of vocabulary. Forward emails to gmail, or documents to google docs, and you can also read them with rikaichan through firefox.

iPhone/Kotoba/readthekanji

The missing link in the iPhone learning experience is Japanese Handwriting Recognition…

My Japanese Coach (DS)?