Ever since discovering Smart.fm (formerly known as iKnow.co.jp - see below), I’ve decided to spend more of my time and energy into the pursuit of learning Japanese. I’ve always been interested in combining technology to help facilitate learning and have taken this approach towards acquiring the Japanese language.
Over the past 6 months, I’ve scoured the internet and completely geeked out on every single aspect of the language and I’ve found a plethora or helpful tools and techniques to share.
Here are some things to forward to in the next few posts:
-The best iPhone/iPod Touch applications for studying vocabulary and Kanji on the go or looking up Kanji simply by writing the character with your fingertip.
-Japanese podcasts to listen to/watch on the go either when you’re waiting in line or driving to and from work or school.
-An amazing manga (Japanese comic) for beginners and I’ve even made vocabulary lists for a bunch of chapters to share on Smart.fm.
-A great book of short stories to introduce you to real contemporary Japanese literature.
-Great Japanese video games on Nintendo DS, Wii, and PS3 that offer a great starting point for reading and listening comprehension.
-New tech developments to look out for like translating Kanji text on the fly by taking a photo of the text using a certain portable gaming console.
I’ve constantly been searching for technology that can facilitate learning and recently stumbled upon one of the best free tools for learning Japanese. iKnow.co.jp is a web site where English speakers can learn Japanese vocabulary and Kanji (there’s also a ton of Japanese users on there that are learning English). You start by creating a log in or use an existing Google or Yahoo account and then enroll in some classes. Beginners are quizzed on Hiragana and Katakana characters while intermediate learners can start out with the first 2000 words, which is split up into 10 lessons. For those that already speak Japanese at home but want to learn Kanji, there is an option to do the lessons with a Kanji focus. For the upper intermediate to advanced folks, there’s the 6000 class, which adds 4000 on top of the basic 2000, where you’ll eventually end up reading Japanese newspapers without batting an eye. In addition to the default 6000 words, there are hundreds of user generated lists like Japanese RPG vocabulary, vocab words from Hiragana Times articles, and even vocab lists from the Minna no Nihongo text book I used in Japan.
A calendar tracks your progress, ala Brain Age or Wii Fit, and suggests that you study at least 30 items a day. It isn’t hard at all to find some time during a commercial break or lunch break since each 10 word quiz can take as little as 5 minutes.
Following the trend of Google apps of storing everything in the data cloud, iKnow! keeps your progress stored with your profile so you can continue where you left off from any computer instead of having to install a program like Rosetta Stone on one computer.
iKnow! offers many Web 2.0 features such as blogging your progress in journal entries, a friends list, and broadcasting your progress like the Facebook newsfeed, which can keep you motivated or even competitive like Trophies on the PSN or Achievements on Xbox Live.
I’ve been using the site for about a week so far and can’t get enough of it. It makes learning Japanese so fun that it feels like it should be illegal for being so addictive. It also feels good to be using the time otherwise wasted on Facebook or online games and putting it into something similar but useful.
I’ve been painstakingly trying to learn how to play piano for the past year anticipating the moment where I’m sitting at some old timey eating establishment minding my own business when an old crooner from the live band suddenly announces that the keyboardist has been injured and they will have to cancel the show unless there’s anyone in the audience who can fill in. Like physicians on airplanes, the 2 keyboardists next to me will suddenly get very quiet and avoid any eye contact and then I will rise up to the occasion, a la Marty McFly, and meticulously plink out the keys to the theme of Dr. Wiley’s Castle stage from Mega Man 2 while the band jams along with me and we ROCK OUT. Until that happens, here’s a guy with actual talent named Ronald Jenkees. There’s no telling if this guy is some Rain Man-esque savant or a classically trained musician fooling the world. Either way, I love how he can play so fluidly and freely and genuinely looks like he’s having the greatest time doing it.
Merry Christmas everyone! It’s not too late to buy me a Christmas present yet! Casio has revamped their Databank DBC32 series watches. I’m partial to the yellow and blue one. These will set you back $59 for the colored ones and $69 for the black model. Order them here.
I’d like to start off the wonderful GORGONZOLA CHEESE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE with something that won’t possibly ship in time for Christmas, which makes it even more desirable. I MUST HAVE these throwing star magnets (or shuriken magnets for you ninja purists). With these magnets, you will look like you were so hard-to-the-ninja-core that you threw ninja stars into your white board or refrigerator to hold up a photo of your dog, who just happens to be next on your ninja assassination list.
So please, dear reader, do the right thing and order me a set (or sets) of ninja star magnets and I will continue to entertain you with wonderful lists of things to buy for me. Thank you. They are currently back ordered until 1/5/09 and will set you back $19 here
It’s the end of the week so I thought I’d do a MEGA POST starting with a trailer for a live action Mega Man fan movie made by Eddie Lebron.
Check out the Proto Man cameo at 2:29. The guy playing Dr. Wiley is spot on. I’m sure the actress playing Roll could be cute without the wig, but it unfortunately makes her look like a dude. This movie looks like a very ambitious project and I can’t wait to see it when it’s finished. Check http://www.megamanfilm.com/ for more details.
To continue this post, here is a really creative fan ad for Mega Man’s most recent appearance in the video game world, Mega Man 9. Mega Man 9 took the series back to its roots and reintroduced the NES-style graphics and gameplay similar to Mega Man 2. It is available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii as a downloadable game. The music for this ad is Concrete Man’s theme.
Mega Man (in his Mega Man Legends helmetless form) will also be appearing in the upcoming Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation Heroes, which is a spiritual successor to the the Marvel vs. Capcom series. It will be released on December 11th for Nintendo Wii but be ready to import it because it looks like the game will not be leaving Japanese shores due to the licensing nightmare that would ensue due to Tatsunoko’s distribution rights being owned by various companies in the US.
I’d like to end it all with an oldie but a goodie. Okkusenman is a song about our childhood memories, which may include Mega Man or Ultraman and it is done to the theme music to Dr. Wiley’s Castle from Mega Man 2. The song became hugely popular a year or two ago and has spawned many covers and even flash animated music videos.
I was reminded of this song the other day and thought I’d share it since it’s a big part of my childhood and probably why I enjoy trippy cartoons, pinball, and have problems counting above 12. The Pinball Number Count made its debut on Sesame Street in 1977 and was recorded by Oakland’s The Pointer Sisters.
This cover of Europe’s The Final Countdown using a kazoo, ukelele, and keyboard hybrid made my day. I’d start my magic tricks illusions with this performance any day.
Japanese owners of the Nintendo DS have been using it for all sorts of uses outside of games, like learning how to cook with Shaberu! Dīesu Oryōri Nabi or using it as a sweet synthesizer with the Korg DS-10. It looks like this trend is finally coming to the U.S. as people begin to discover how versatile the hardware can be for education.
A recent example of this is the new game called My Chinese Coach, published by Ubisoft. This game falls under a whole series of titles that teach language with the Nintendo DS. Previous titles include My French Coach, My Spanish Coach, My Word Coach, and My Japanese Coach is expected to be released in October.
I am ethnically Chinese but I have grown up speaking a dialect of Chinese known as Fukienese or Fujianese, which is so different from Mandarin that it is almost like learning a completely new language. So I went in without much prior knowledge other than the basic fortune-cookie Chinese of Ni hao (Hello) and Xie Xie (Thank you).
I was expecting My Chinese Coach to be a rather shallow program but boy was I wrong. The first lesson introduced me to Pinyin, which is the romanized version of Chinese. It does this by playing a sample of each sound through the speakers and then allows you to record your own voice with the DS’s built-in microphone. You can then play it back and view the waveforms of the recording and compare and retry until you have the correct pronunciation.
The next lesson introduced the 5 different tones and how to read them in Pinyin. A word like ma can be said differently with rising or lowering intonation to mean different things. For example, ma said with a low tone to a higher tone like a question can mean “hemp,” while ma with a high to low tone means “scold.”
These lessons were followed by mini games where you rack up points and “level up” each word. The first minigame is a multiple choice quiz where you have to match the Pinyin or Chinese characters with the English word and vice versa. The next game is a whack-a-mole style game where you are told to only whack the mole that pops up with a specific Chinese character. I found that this greatly forced me to recognize a Chinese character in a short period of time. Another game makes you write the Chinese character with the correct stroke order on top of an example in the background. Each time you write it, the character that you are tracing begins to disappear faster until you are forced to write the character without any guidance. As someone who has had to write Japanese characters over and over in the past, this is an excellent way of learning how to write properly.
As you “level up” each word with each one you get right, you eventually master the word after you get enough right. After you master all the words, it will unlock the new lesson. There is a addictively rewarding satisfaction in unlocking new lessons similar to leveling up your character in World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy. This is also good because it really does require you to master everything and prevents you from skipping through all the lessons. One thing I was worried about was that the game would not be robust enough for people who were experienced with the language. So I asked my Mom, who’s fluent in Chinese, to try it out. She was able to skip through the really basic lessons by taking a proficiency test at the beginning. She really liked how it taught her the proper tones and pronunciation and she told me that she had actually learned a lot of things wrong when she learned it in the Philippines. I was shocked to find that it teaches you over 12,000 words!
Here’s a little vid of the placement test:
My Chinese Coach may not be a complete substitute for a college level language course, but for people who can’t afford classes or don’t have time for them, it’s a great way to get your feet wet and familiarize yourself with a language so you will be primed and ready if you do decide to take some classes. I liken it to having a portable Rosetta Stone with you when you’re waiting in line or taking the bus or train. These games are also great for people who have learned a language in the past and need a refresher. My Chinese Coach is $29.99 and available wherever Nintendo DS games are sold.
As someone who is also studying Japanese, I also can’t wait for My Japanese Coach, which uses the same format to teach Japanese and arrives later this month on October 15. I will be sure to post my impressions.
