Nihongojouzu

Remembering the Kanji, Vol 3 (ebook)

Remembering the Kanji, Vol 3: Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for Upper-Level Proficiency is the 3rd volume in James Heisig's popular and controversial series. Co-written with Tanya Sienko, Volume 3 covers an additional 1000 advanced level kanji, bringing the total kanji covered by the series to 3000. This ebook version is good value - I found it on the White Rabbit Press website for $US12.98 (delivered on CD) and considering the paperback is presently unavailable on Amazon it may be your only chance to get your hands on Vol 3 if you don't live near a major bookstore. The blurb on White Rabbit Press says:

This 491 page ebook covers just over 3,000 advance level kanji. Also included are the indexes of both Remembering the Kanji, Volumes 1 and 2 for a total of 639 pages.

but Volume 3 only covers the additional kanji from 2000~3000, NOT the whole 3000. Even so, good stuff.

Space ALC

E-J/J-E dictionaries are wonderful beasts but not all of them provide examples of words in context - and we all know that based on the principle of "a little knowledge...." if you only know the literal definition of a word you are almost guaranteed to screw up the first time you attempt to use that word in conversation.  Enter the Space ALC website which has a nifty 和英・英和　dictionary bar at the top of its home page. The dictionary is powered by Eijiro, which means that searches return not only a definition but (usually) a slew of sentences using the word in question. Now all you have to do is remember the new sentence...

Learning Japanese with Kumon

Kumon is a method of learning established by high school maths teachers Toru Kumon back in 1954. These days you can't walk down the street without tripping over a Kumon franchise. The Kumon method is normally associated with children who need to work on their Japanese or maths skills, but as JET Programme ALT Natalie Cumming explains, even adults can do it!

I live in the inaka, so I don't have access to a bit Japanese language school. So I recently signed up with the local Kumon school to study Japanese. I tried doing the CLAIR book but I didn't like the structure of the textbooks. You may know that the Kumon method is usually aimed at primary school kids, and is a special method where you learn at your own pace. It's famous for the maths course but a lot of the kids at my school study English, and some even French. You listen to a CD, then fill out worksheets. I find the worksheets really great because each new grammatical topic or kanji is laid out really clearly, and you basically work through the sheets, filling in the blanks, for about half an hour a day. As you progress through the levels, the work gets harder, so you're not slowed down by other people in a class, or rushed ahead when you're not ready. You have to get 100% on each worksheet before you can move on, and you correct any mistakes you've made yourself. The downside is there's not really a spoken component - you sometimes to read aloud to an instructor, but you don't have to really converse. Still, if you want to get your grammar up and learn vocab, it's really useful. After only one month I'm understanding heaps more of what goes on around me!

It's also fun because I get to go to class with a bunch of 5-12 year olds, and I'm actually at the same level as them for, say, kanji. It's a thrill for them because they get to come up and use the English they've just learned on me. It's about 8000 yen a month, and you go twice a week. If you decide you want to do the JLPT, or try your hand at a Japanese primary school kanji competition, they help you out with practice materials. I'm going for the ninensei kanji level test next week - ganbarunakucha!

How many words do you know in Japanese?

How many words do you know in Japanese? Take the 語彙数推定テスト (Vocabulary Assessment Test) and find out. You will be presented with a list of 50 words - just tick the boxes next to the ones you know (be honest!) and based on how many of these representative words you know the page will spit out an assessment of your vocabulary. Compare your score with the vocabulary of an average Japanese student:

小学生レベル： ５千〜２万語
中学生レベル： ２万〜４万語
高校生レベル： ４万〜４万５千語
大学生レベル： ４万５千〜５万語

Warning: it can be very humbling......:-)

rikaichan

Another reason to migrate to Firefox - rikaichan, from Polarcloud.com , is a Firefox extension that displays a popup showing the English definition of Japanese words as your cursor passes over them.　Enabled/disabled with a simple right mouse-click rikaichan is the perfect companion when you browse the 新聞、朝日新聞　or 日経新聞　online.   But there's more. Installing rikaichan puts a Lookup a Word item in the Tool menu - click it and a dictionary search box appears in your browser navbar. Sweet.  rikaichan was based on Todd Rudick's excellent RikaiXUL, but is faster and easier to use. It uses the EDICT and KANJIDICT dictionaries. Download it today.

Speedanki.com

Speedanki is a Japanese Language Proficiency Test focused kanji flashcard website. Select your level of test and you can drill away at kanji compounds until the cows come home (or register your name and have your progress recorded). Easy to use but the number of compounds is not exhaustive - 4級 (110), 3級 (230), 2級(1092) and 1級(1220).