I’m still working on getting the next big post up. In the meantime, enjoy this music video by Capsule. Their style used to be very Shibuya-kei (think Pizzicato 5 and early Fantastic Plastic Machine). But like Fantastic Plastic Machine, they have evolved into more electro-house in recent years. The song is called “Retro Memory” and available on their 2004 album, Sound Furniture.
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.
Here is a video of what iKnow! looks like:
