Hiragana And Katakana Training

[Eso Rimmer]

I would very appreciate if someone could made something like this for GP2X:

http://www.chipchat.com/NihonGo/protect/HiraganaDrill.html

http://www.chipchat.com/NihonGo/protect/KatakanaDrill.html

 

[hisaki]

Should be possible. I've been meaning to get into programming for the GP2X (or actually C/C++ programming at all) and this might be a nice beginner project. I'm only experienced in web programming though so it might take some time and I can assure you it will have huge memory leaks

 

[hisaki]

An early version. You can switch between hiragana and katakana using the 'select' button. The joystick moves the cursor thingy about and 'b' presses a button. Pressing 'start' exits the program.

Right now all it does is switch to a new random kana when you give the right answer.

Download

Think I should put it on the gp2x archive? I don't know how useful this actually is to anyone. Maybe if I do I should work on it a bit more first. Plans for the future include being able to disable buttons/kana and keeping track of how many you had right and wrong. It should probably give more feedback as well, showing the user if the answer was correct or not.

 

[FuguTabetai]

Well, I live in Tokyo, and studied Japanese for a few years.

Having a Hiragana / Katakana practice program is kind of pointless. If you can't memorize those two character sets within a month with some basic flash cards, you shouldn't be studying Japanese. Once you know them, there is no point to having a quiz program, they are too simple.

Now a Kanji flash-card program for the gp2x would be pretty hot. And there is already one out there, kind of: http://dcooney.com/ViewEntry.aspx?ID=503 I sent him an email, but never heard back from him. It would be nice to have that app available to the community.

Anyway, I don't mean to rain on your parade, I just think if you are serious about Japanese the kana is a very minor battle.

By the way, if anyone is interested, I have an interest in learning Japanese through manga. Well, at least trying to make some resources available. I've translated about 42 volumes of manga, and have a few of them available online in a parallel format. You can move the mouse over a Japanese text bubble and my translation will pop up. See http://mangatranslation.com/images/dogs01/contents.html for an example. If you want more, drop me a line.

 

[Alghazanth]

I've been studying Japanese for about a year and having a Japanese dictionary or a kanji flashcard app (or 2 together) would be awesome.There was one for gp32 ; and always wondered why there wasn't any for gp2x.Glad to see someone interested in this subject.

 

[Eso Rimmer]

To hisaki:
Thanks! I didn't expect such a quick response. I would be nice if you can add other functions like those in the java applet too. Keep up the good work.

Once you know them, there is no point to having a quiz program, they are too simple.

But I don't know them yet, so I can appreciate tool like this.

 

[hisaki]

Things to add:
* Hint button
* # Right
* # Wrong
* # Hint
* Timer? What is the point of this timer though?
* Anything else?

And to the others:
Yeah a program like Anki would be great on GP2X. But I think that's just a bit too much for a first project XD. I might give that a shot later on though. A dictionary would be great as well, doubt you could have JWPce running on GP2X? Maybe it's worth seeing where JWPce got it's dictionary though.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

Nice program, thanks GP2X to kana o benkyôsuru wa totemo benri da

You should add ° and " modifiers and composed kana (for example: chi + "small" ya = cha)

Maybe someone could draw a manga like interface for this program, and adding a background music featuring japanese instruments would be fun A timer is a good idea I think, along with a scoring system, to make your program more like a game.

Bye !

Magic Sam

 

[hisaki]

Hi,

Nice program, thanks GP2X to kana o benkyôsuru wa totemo benri da

You should add ° and " modifiers and composed kana (for example: chi + "small" ya = cha)

Thanks. Ah yeah I've thought about that. But it'd need a lot more buttons then. It would be more complete then I guess but it is pretty basic theory.

QUOTE

Maybe someone could draw a manga like interface for this program, and adding a background music featuring japanese instruments would be fun A timer is a good idea I think, along with a scoring system, to make your program more like a game.



The program could time how long it takes the user to answer and base the amount of points they get on that. And subtract points when a wrong answer is given.

 

[Magic Sam]

You could also add a romaji --> kana mode, for example you display RU on screen and then the player has to select the corresponding kana in a list. You could do the same with words and/or sentences.

For the ° and " problem, you could use the left and right shoulders. For example, holding the left shoulder displays the ° modified kanas list, while holding the right shoulder displays the " modified kanas list.

 

[hisaki]

You could also add a romaji --> kana mode, for example you display RU on screen and then the player has to select the corresponding kana in a list. You could do the same with words and/or sentences.

For the ° and " problem, you could use the left and right shoulders. For example, holding the left shoulder displays the ° modified kanas list, while holding the right shoulder displays the " modified kanas list.

Thanks, those are both good ideas. I'll make a to do list XD.

 

[Burbruee]

I thought about this about a year ago, however I thought it would be kind of pointless without a touchscreen for the GP2X. You just learn so much more so much quicker when you actually write the kana yourself. In fact, I don't know how much you really can learn if you don't. This should be a great project for the f-200 though.

Nice job though hisaki, getting it done so quick, I guess it could be good for some people. I'm just saying it would be a so much better learning-tool if it would use the touch of the f-200.

This site is a much better place to learn online:
http://kanjistep.com/en/online/hiraganasteps/a.html
http://kanjistep.com/en/online/katakanasteps/a.html

Maybe you could make the kana animated like on that site in your "game" hisaki?

 

[hisaki]

I thought about this about a year ago, however I thought it would be kind of pointless without a touchscreen for the GP2X. You just learn so much more so much quicker when you actually write the kana yourself. In fact, I don't know how much you really can learn if you don't. This should be a great project for the f-200 though.

I think it's mostly useful after learning the kana which I agree works best by writing (though so far I've only learnt hiragana myself).

A touchscreen program would be great. But I imagine it being very hard to have it recognize handwritten hiragana/katakana. Maybe you could have it let you draw something and then show both what you drew and what it should have been. And then you have to tell the program how well you did (and based on that the program should calculate when to quiz you that kana/kanji/word (anything that fits on the screen) again, like Anki does).

Either way if I'm gonna do anything for a touchscreen it's gonna be for Craig's omap wonder machine thingy. I've only recently bought my GP2X so I think I'll skip on the f200. Although I have to admit a touchscreen would be neat to experiment with and spring next year is still far away

QUOTE

Nice job though hisagi, getting it done so quick, I guess it could be good for some people. I'm just saying it would be a so much better learning-tool if it would use the touch of the f-200.



Thanks, it was a perfect first GP2X project . Though I did manage to make a slight mess of the code, I'll have to rewrite some bits to be able to implement some suggestions. Dunno when I'll get around to that, I really feel like trying to get a program similar to Anki running on the GP2X now *_*

QUOTE
Maybe you could make the kana animated like on that site in your "game" hisaki?


To keep up the user's knowledge of the stroke orders? Could be useful but I guess you should be able to turn it off as well. I'll add it to the list.