JEdutainment.com

 As you may remember I recently wrote about how I found an interesting site AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com. At first I wasn’t sure exactly what to think of the author’s methods. So I did a bit of digging. Now I’m convinced that the Spaced Repetition philosophy he writes about actually makes a lot of sense. I didn’t even realize it but I was already using elements of spaced repetition in my own study methods (although my ways were a bit more painful at times).

The idea is that you keep exposing yourself to the material you want to remember over spaced intervals of time. These intervals are spaced according to how well you can recall the information and whether or not you make mistakes.

For example once you remember a new word today, that new word will be showed to you again tomorrow, if remembered then again in 3 days… 7 days… 1 month… 2 months etc.

The basic premise is that humans, as we are designed, remember things for a short while (yup, short-term memory). Then as time passes the memories fade if they are not reinforced. This has been a major problem of mine in studying kanji. I’ll learn an amazing amount of kanji before an exam, but then 2 weeks later I’ve forgotten almost half of them. Why? Because none of them were committed to my long-term memory. None of them were reinforced after the exam. This can ONLY be acheived by repeated exposure to the words/characters.

So now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Yes, repetition=memorization. duh!?”

But how do we intelligently space the repetition? How do we organize all this data? How do we ensure that the words we already know aren’t reviewed unnecessarily? How do we remember to remember the words that we forgot?

One answer is The JEdutainment Podcast
but unfortunately podcast episodes can’t change vocabulary dynamically.

Another great solution is called Spaced Repetition Software. There are a variety of SRS applications out there, but the one that I chose and which works best for me is called Anki. I like it because it runs on a Mac (but it also runs on Windows and Linux). I like it because it’s free. I like it because I can sync to a webserver for free which allows me to study from any other computer, or from my cellphone. I like that it gives me lots of options as to how it will display information to me. Overall it’s a great piece of software that does everything that the Spaced Repetition philosophy is about. You just input the vocabulary and the software algorithm handles the rest.

I like it so much that I have completely changed my studying methods. I now input all of my new material into Anki and use it for studying everyday. No longer do I spend hours writing up my own flash cards, or carrying around big bulky cards everywhere I go. I always have my cellphone anyway, so I can study anywhere anytime.

If you have problems forgetting words/kanji I highly recommend you give it a look. If not Anki than maybe search around for another SRS program. I welcome any comments or experiences with SRS in your studying.

Gambatte!

Do you find it annoying reading webpages and emails when there’s TONZ of kanji and Japanese that you don’t know? Do you find yourself banging your head against your monitor as you tediously copy and paste word after word into a dictionary website? Well fear not. JEdutainment has got you covered! We’d like to to introduce to you a really amazing tool that you can download for free. It’s a plugin for Firefox that allows you to simply mouse over a Japanese word/character and it will popup the definition/translation. Once you start using it you’ll wonder how you ever computed in Japanese without it.  

The plugin is called Rikaichan. But first you’ll need to download the Firefox web browser. Once you get Firefox installed head on over to the Rikaichan website. There you can download the Rikaichan plugin and dictionary file of your choice. Restart Firefox and you’re ready to roll. To activate the plugin simply click on the “Tools” menu, and then “Toggle Rikaichan.” 

I wrote a little while back about how I was excited about the new Japanese/English dictionary featured in Mac’s new OSX Leopard. Now that the OS has been released and I got my grubby little hands on a copy, here’s my full review. 

First of all this is hands down the fastest dictionary I’ve ever used. That’s because it’s running on a powerful computer and it doesn’t have to go across the internet to fetch the results. So the results to your queries come back instantly. Pretty nice. Also it comes with a good amount of dictionaries built-in.   

• English-English dictionary
• English-English Thesaurus
• Japanese-Japanese Dictionary
• Japanese-Japanese Thesaurus
• Japanese-English dictionary
• Apple dictionary (for any technical Apple computing terms)
• Wikipedia (a desktop interface for the website)

Another great feature is that all words and kanji are clickable and will link to any cross references. Many electronic dictionaries have this feature, but point and click with the mouse is much faster and easier. Another nicety is that there are tons of example sentences and phrases, all of which are very good.

Conclusion: For a free dictionary that comes with an OS you really can’t beat it. I think this feature alone is worth the upgrade to Leopard. On the downside, it’s no more portable than your computer**, has fewer dictionaries than most portables, there’s no good way to lookup kanji for which you don’t know the readings**, and there’s no instruction on how to write the Kanji**. I wouldn’t rush out and sell my electronic dictionary just yet, but this is a handy supplement. 

**I highly doubt this will ever happen BUT… Apple if you’re reading please please please incorporate the The Kodansha Learner’s Dictionary, and figure out a way to put this app on the iphone and/or ipod touch!!!