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I think many people will agree that still one of the best ways to study kanji and vocab is by using flashcards. Luckily the people at Loopware have created a very nice flash card application for the mac. I was skeptical at first but must say I’m impressed. It has almost every feature I could ask for. Also, it’s not Japanese specific so you could use it to study virtually anything. Some nice features are:

• card printing
• downloading pre-created card sets (they have all levels of JLPT, bonus!)
• export to iPod (would be nicer if it could export to video instead of text. iPod text file font sizes are still to small to be easily readable).
• shuffling (simple but vital)
• multi-faced cards (not just front and back like a real flash card)

Definitely worth checking out, especially if you are in front of your computer a lot. This particular application does cost $15 though.
If you’re on a budget a great free alternative is Kotoba.

This is the coolest thing I’ve seen today. Somebody has managed to make a Kanji character recognition application written entirely using AJAX.

If your not an Internet/computer nerd like me, that just means that there’s no bulky annoying plug-ins to install and it runs right in your browser.

Very well done.

Well I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the new Mac OSX to come out. Pertaining to Japanese, what is exciting is that the new OS ships with a Japanese-English dictionary and thesaurus.

Straight from the horse’s mouth:

The Dictionary application supports the Japanese language right out of the box, with an industry-leading Japanese dictionary and thesaurus provided by Shogakukan. The dictionary contains over 200,000 words with rich descriptions and examples, and the thesaurus contains 25,000 words covering 6,000 categories.

That combined with built-in Wikipedia support sounds pretty nice. Hopefully it’s as good as the hype, but knowing Apple I’m sure it is. I guess we’ll have to wait until 10/26 to find out.

One of the most popular things in Japan right now is the Nintendo DS. One great thing about the NDS is that there’s no region entcoding (like DVDs). So you can play any game from any country on any DS. That’s great because Japan’s DS games are so unique and differ vastly from American and European releases. They have everything from English TOEFL trainging, to Yoga, to Cookbooks, to Pokemon, to Kanji practice software.

The Japanese kanji characters and their combinations are so vast that even the Japanese need to brush up their skills every once in a while. On the NDS platform there’s no shortage of titles to help do just that. But be fore you run out and buy the first one that you see, be forewarned that ALL of these titles are intended for native Japanese. Most of them are nearly impossible to use unless your Japanese level is extremely high. However there are two games that are useful for students of any level. So if you’re learning Japanese and you have an NDS these are two software titles you should definitely check out.

Tadashii Kanji Kakitorikun

What really sets this game apart from the rest is that it is indented for Japanese children. So it starts from the most basic level. You can practice writing, reading, and compound words of the first 1,000 or so kanji. You can also practice Hiragana and Katakana. Since I picked this one up It’s been a nice fun change of pace from regular studying.

Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten

This next title is basically just an electronic dictionary for the NDS. It’s still not quite a replacement for a standard electronic dictionary, but it’s worth picking up if you already have a NDS. It takes a little while to get used to, but once you get the hang of it it’s pretty useful. The best part is the stylus input for looking up kanji if you don’t know their reading. The stylus based UI is far more advanced than any electronic dictionary on the market, however it lacks a keypad which can be frustrating.

…well, at least not when it comes your Japanese language ability.

From my experience, almost every Japanese person that you meet will say the same thing, “sugoi, nihongo ga jozu desu ne!?” (Wow, your Japanese is really good!). You will blush, and smile, and think to yourself “wow, those Japanese lessons really paid off.” But in reality your Japanese sucks and your still at a 1st grader’s level.

Japanese people will say the same thing to anyone who can simply say “arigatou, onegaishimasu” or can count to ten.

Partly it’s because they’re being polite. Partly it’s because most Japanese people think of their country as a small island, and the only place on earth where Japanese is spoken. If they see/hear a foreigner speaking their language they are really surprised. They’re usually amazed to encounter any gaijin who wants to learn their language.

So if you encounter this reaction, don’t let it get to your head and think “wow, my Japanese is great, I don’t even need to study.” Keep studying and working hard! Mastering the language is a lifetime endeavor. Even if you study everyday for 5 years you will still not be as fluent as a native speaker, but if you stick to it you can get pretty darn close.

Gambatte ne!