The Power of Technology!

[Tirroth]

I recently joined this community and just three days ago upgraded to a premium account. I've been loving the pod casts, specially the feeling you get when something finally clicks.

I'm going for the full immersion here. Learning how to speak, read and write Japanese. Its been a difficult journey so far, mainly when I feel I'm just not getting it. Of course I'm sure everyone feels that way at some point in there journey.

Anyway, the same day I upgraded my account I also got an ipod touch. It was honestly my deciding factor for getting the Preimum subscription. This little piece of electronics has really changed my learning style.

The fact that Japanese programs exist for this thing amazed me. Further more the amount listed in the itoons store was staggering. I went with two after much searching. I'm all about quality and reviews really will sell a product for me. So after a full days worth of investigating I purchased these two apps.

Kana Flip - This little program is like a set of flash cards that cover all Hiragana and Katakana.

iKanji Touch - A set of over 2k of Kanji organised by grade and JLPT level.

Now Ill admit I don't use ikanji yet but once I master the kana Ill move over into that. There is also a small game called 'Kana' I think I will get as well. Looks like it would be fun!

These two Ipod touch applications used with Jpod101 and you have a really great system for learning Japanese. I can't wait to learn more.

Looks like I've been a little to long winded yet again. Sorry for that. Had to share my excitement with other like minded individuals.

Happy Learning,
Tirr

[untmdsprt]

These things are great aren't they? I bought an iPhone mainly because I hated carrying around my phone AND my iPod together. I'd usually forget the phone because I rarely get calls and only use it when I have to.

May I recommend you to get Japanese flip, Air sharing, and Kotoba! If your iTouch has a wireless feature, sorry I'm not up to date with them, air sharing is a great way to read all of Jpod101's PDFs on the go. The app basically will turn the iTouch/iPhone into a wireless drive which you can access through your network. You can then copy the PDFs onto the drive, and when you're on the go, you can read them like you would on your computer.

Kotoba! is a free dictionary, but you will have to know at least the kana to read the entries.

Japanese flip is like Kana flip, but you are learning the words. It's separated by JLPT level, and you can either do English to Japanese or Japanese to English.

Good luck!

[Tirroth]

Thanks a lot! I will look into those apps. I had heard about Kotoba but had heard mixed reviews, so I wasn't sure about it.
I wanted Japanese flip but ran out of itoons money (I use prepaid cards) lol. Perhaps that will be my next purchase, since I know building a vocabulary will help.

Just as a side note, I've DLed every lesson from Newbie-Advance, with Onomatopoeia and Yojijukugo. This includes the Lesson notes and Kanji PDF's and I'm up to 7.5 gigs. Pretty impressive count there if I do say so myself!

[ggenglish]

i agree. the itouch has been an amazing tool for language study. i have a corporate blackberry that i hate as it's on a blackberry enterprise server <rage>. web filtering and application install blocking aside, one of the best things that the iphone/itouch have over the bb is the asian input. It was hard enough to get it so that i could read japanese characters on the blackberry but input is just impossible. make sure you turn on both japanese input as well as chinese because chinese input allows you to 'try' and draw the kanji. Good for trying to look up kanji where there is no furigana or you can't copy it into something to look up.

I downloaded the kobota but i didn't really like it (tried it for 20s so not a fair eval). The 'Japanese' app is the best i've seen but it's crazy expensive. 24.99$ at one point but i see it's now 19.99$. If you are serious i think its worth it because i find it faster to use than a computer and WWWJDIC is just too messy and hard to use. The 'Japanese' app gives you full verb conjugations as well as adj/adv conjugations. I usually have my touch siting there with me while i watch a show so i can look up stuff.

I also would like to recommend gflashpro. I like anki but it doesn't integrate to mobile like i'd like. creating your own deck in anki is too difficult and it is incredibly important that you create your own deck and not just import someone elses. gflashpro integrates to a google doc that you maintain making it incredibly easy to keep a running list to flash yourself. gflashpro also is available on bb if you are able to bribe your IT staff to let you install it.

I found it easy to learn hiragana because of furigana. katakana i found very difficult though and tried to just ignore it <lol>. however, whenever i look at something in the real world it seems like everything is katakana. there is an app game called kana that i'd recommend for that. cute little game that takes you from the easy to the hard ones. after playing around with that and a big list of katakana only words in gflashpro i've gotten a lot better.

best of luck, thanks for listing your apps. there are so many out there its easy to miss some.

[Tirroth]

I've seen the 'Japanese' app out there, wasn't sure if I could get it at this level or not. I did by the 'Kana' app and I must say its fun to work with.

Is gflashpro for the ipod to? If it is I'll have a look at it. Sound interesting.

[mark456]

May I recommend you to get Japanese flip, Air sharing, and Kotoba! If your iTouch has a wireless feature, sorry I'm not up to date with them, air sharing is a great way to read all of Jpod101's PDFs on the go. The app basically will turn the iTouch/iPhone into a wireless drive which you can access through your network. You can then copy the PDFs onto the drive, and when you're on the go, you can read them like you would on your computer.

I also would like to recommend gflashpro. I like anki but it doesn't integrate to mobile like i'd like. creating your own deck in anki is too difficult and it is incredibly important that you create your own deck and not just import someone elses. gflashpro integrates to a google doc that you maintain making it incredibly easy to keep a running list to flash yourself. gflashpro also is available on bb if you are able to bribe your IT staff to let you install it.
mark456

interview questions

[Tirroth]

Okay, I purchased several more apps and thought I would share.

I got the 'Japanese' app, which is a Japanese dictonary where you can input romanji, the Kana or even draw in the Kanji. You can even look up words using radicals and it shows common compounds in a list under the word. Well worth the discounted price of $12.99 .

Picked up 'Japanese Flip' which covers a lot of words covered in the JLPT levels in a anki style way of keeping things in your memory. I'm not of level to use this yet becuase I can't read Hiragana or Katagana proficiently......Yet!

One of the best Kana programs I have yet to purchase (I now have 3) is iKana touch. This little program helps with memorizing all the kana. The feature that stands out with this application is the ability to mark the kana you have trouble with and focus on those alone. It also has a timed review where you have around 10 seconds to choose the correct sound for the card shown. Makes it a little more interesting and fun.

With these apps I have learning much easier and fun. I even was able to translate a page of the 'Peach Girl' Manga just for fun. It lead to more questions that I will probably end up asking here lol.

I hope someone finds the review of the applications useful, and good luck with all your learning!

Tirr