Flashcard Exchange | Remembering the Kanji 2 | Deck

The following are links to the flashcards I created for RTK 2. Anyone is free to use them and steal my stories.

Side one: exemplary compound

Side two: pronunciation of compound, meaning of compound, and signal primitive

Side three: 漢字 and ~音読み. (While studying, press the 'h' key to reveal side three)

Under the navigation menu, choose 'study other side first' option to study side two first.

The Kana and Their Kanji

Pure Groups

One-Time Chinese Readings

Characters with No Chinese Readings

Semi-Pure Groups

Readings From Everyday Words

Mixed Groups

Readings from Useful Compounds

A Potpourri of Readings

Supplementary Readings

Flashcard Exchange | Remembering the Kanji 1 | Deck

The following are links to the flashcards I created for RTK 1. Anyone is free to use them and steal my stories.

Side one: keyword

Side two: kanji

Side three: story (While studying, press the 'h' key to reveal side three)

Under the navigation menu, choose 'study other side first' option to study kanji first.

Remembering the Kanji 1 | 1-500

Remembering the Kanji 1 | 501-1000

Remembering the Kanji 1 | 1001-1500

Remembering the Kanji 1 | 1501-2042

Word Bank

I began a word bank. And in the past 24 hours I have typed 638 words. In one column are 漢字 words and in the other their かな counterpart. The point of this list is to have a my finger tips an list of all the sounds I already know so as to make RTK 2 a little bit simpler. I will return to the word bank to add かな only words and also create an additional word bank of proper names.

Characterizer

Yet another spiffy kanji learning tool has cropped up. The Characterizer - Japanese and Chinese Character Reinforcement can be found: here. This add-on only works with Firefox. Once installed, it transforms the first letter of English words to kanji. There is even a way to specifically have the transformations correspond to Heisig. To keep things simple, the add-on must be enable on the via the tools in the menu bar before it will work and when enabled, it will only work in that tab. The creator emphasizes the fact that the add-on is far from perfect. To be honest, it more of a novelty than anything else, but its a small thing that can reinforce what I'm learning everyday.

Rikaichan

Rikaichan is a simple to use Firefox Add-on that acts as an in browser translator. Once installed, just hover over any Japanese word within the Firefox browser and a translation is offered with details on the kanji, its meaning/keyword in English, its on/kun readings, and other information. I only wished the add-on work with my Safari browser, but its not a perfect world.

Tailoring Smart.fm

Big News!

I have discovered a way of actually tailoring Smart.fm to work better for me. As you know, Smart.fm consists of goals made by individual users. They take a ton of time any effort to make, two things I am short on. I've been using the goals created by the user scuda and I will be forever grateful to him for making the goals. My only problem is with the sheer size of them. On average they included 150 or more kanji. And they are organized to break with the Heisig lessons. My study method completely disregards the lessons. By the time I finnish learning a single goal, considering my rate of learning, its time to move on to the next goal. Thus far, I have yet to master any of the goals.

However. And this is a big however. One I had resigned myself to the belief was not possible. Within any goal, one can go in and choose individual items and add them to a tailor made goal of any size. Therefore, I can go in to scuda's goals, pick an choose my 100 kanji for the week and spend that time mastering them. I am ecstatic right now. Here is how it works. Simply visit the page of the goal. Click on the 'more items' link. Click 'more' again at the bottom of the page, until all items with in the goal are visible. Check the boxes of the items you wish to include in your tailor made goal. Select 'bulk actions' and 'add to goal'. Title you goal and create it. To add additional items to that goal, follow the same steps and when prompted, choose to add to the goal you've already created. Smart.fm seems to keep the itemsin the order in which you add them.

Without the aforementioned funk, I probably would have never discover this. See. Funks are good, in their own way.

Reviewing The Kanji

Reviewing the Kanji

This is by far an insanely useful site if you want to follow the Heisig method.

Smart.fm

Ever wondered if there were an easier way to systematically learn information. The people at Smart.fm have figured out a way. The web based software creates a learning schedule that adapts to the individual’s performance and needs. There are tons of user created goal that you can opt to study and then master. The most useful ones for the Heisig Method were created by a user named Scuda and can be found here. He has created massive grouping of Heisig's lessons to study. Personally, I would have preferred smaller groups, however, I do not personally have the resolve or time to create them myself. And that is the beautiful thing about Smart.fm; you can create goal with content concerning any topic. Simply create an account so that it can keep track of the goals you explore and the progress you make.

iKnow offer a long term learning process, which works on its own schedule to teach you the material. The settings can be modified should you choose to study at your own pace.

Drill Beta is a drilling application that adapts to the user to make learning more efficient.

BrainSpeed is a fast pace fun arcade game that can be used as a quick review tool.

A final useful item can be found here. Another user created a goal involving the Kana with the additional syllabary. The BrainSpeed game under this goal is particularly beneficial for review.

Smart.fm was an indispensable tool during my first review week.

My Flashcards

As mentioned in the previous post, I employ flash cards in two different study methods. The Flashcard Exchange, a digital study community, and hand written index flash cards, have both aided in my memorization of the kanji. In the book, Heisig suggests a method for creating the flashcards. But, due the fact that he waited until his readers were a couple of lessons into the book before providing the details, I had already devised my preferred flash card set up. The following is an example of my flash cards:

The Flashcard Exchange

Flashcards are one of the best study methods, however, all those little pieces of paper can become troublesome. A few months into my use of Rosetta Stone, I decided it would be a good idea to go through and make flash cards for all of the vocabulary. As mentioned in a previous post, I made flashcards for the kana. This time, I thought a digital alternative might be a better option for the kanji which I had no clue how to draw correctly. A quick search in cyberspace led me to the Flashcard Exchange. On the site, a user can create an unlimited number of flashcards without installing any software on their end. I made digital flashcards for almost all of the first 2 levels of Rosetta Stone. They are currently available for anyone to access here along with the first 56 lessons of the Heisig Method made by other users. Search through all 4 pages to access all the content. Recently, I have found these specific cards to be an indispensable resource. Reinforcing Heisig's point that I should practice writing rather than recognizing the Kanji, I allow Flashcard Exchange to provide me with 25 or 50 random key words. I write each corresponding kanji out by hand and check it immediately with a single click. In using the Flash Card Exchange, I hope to lessen my chances of diminishing returns as I continuously learn new kanji each day while my ability to effectively review decreases

I will continue to make flashcards by hand for the Heisig Method because I personally learn best by taking the time to write the information out. Also, I often edit the stories Heisig offers to fit my memory. Nevertheless, The Flashcard Exchange represents a valuable study tool.

Lost In Translation

Translation sites seem to have difficulty working with Japanese and English. I'm sure the trouble stems from the profoundly different grammar. Most sites provide an incoherent jumble of words along with corresponding nouns, leaving me frustrated. The only semi-useful translation site, I've found is Google's, but even those are hit or miss.

Twitter - Learn Kanji

The creator of JapanDict has another incredibly useful study tool. Learn Kanji is the only Twitter feed I follow. Its sort of like one of those word of the day calendars. Each day, a new kanji, its kana pronunciation and definition are posted. A link is also provided to the corresponding Japan Dict page. I connected the RSS feed to my Safari tool bar, and therefore receive an alert as soon as a new post is made.

Japan Dict

JapanDict.com is my favorite online Japanese dictionary. It has a simple no nonsense design. Definitions can be found for both words and independent kanji. And the best part about the site, is that each kanji is broken down into its radical elements which may be investigated for further clarification. This feature compliments the Heisig method greatly. In fact, I used it to understand kanji before I even discovered the Heisig method, and this prior knowledge weighed greatly in my decision to pursue the Heisig method.

Denshi Jisho is another useful online Japanese dictionary. However, its lack of simplicity is at times troubling. As a beginner with the the language, the simplest definition for a given kanji is often the best. This site often lists as many corresponding uses for any given kanji it can produce. This may be helpful for someone adept with the language, but to me, its overkill.