We all, when learning Japanese, have used various apps to support our learning activities. There is a wide range of such apps, each of them focusing on a specific aspect of acquiring Japanese language skills, being it kanji, vocabulary or grammar.
I was wondering, what was your experience with using these apps, especially what are the functionalities which were important for you or you were even missing.
Let me also share my experience with you. I have used two main types of apps:
· dictionaries – to look up words and kanji information
· apps for spaced repetition – to train on vocabulary and kanji
Both types of apps did great job in improving my language skills. However, there were always some functionalities I was missing, for example:
· I wanted to learn the most frequent kanji or the most frequent vocabularies first – in order to do that, I had to manage several sets (decks) of kanji and vocabulary divided by frequency of words/kanji. Ideally, I would have only one set (deck) and I at the beginning of each learning session I could define the subset of words of kanji to learn
· functionality to support networked learning – for example, when I use anki to learn a specific word composed of two kanji, I might want to see additional info about these two kanji and then also what are the most frequent words for these kanji and as I have reviewed the info for these kanji then also rate them (how well I have remembered them) or add my note and then maybe also quickly review what are the other kanji with the same reading as one of the kanji in my word. Only then I would move to the next word in the anki deck. This intermezzo would help me to connect various pieces of information and learn in context. However, this approach would require a single integrated and personalized data set including kanji and vocabulary info (and maybe even sentences) were I could seamlessly switch from one learning session on vocabulary to a short intermezzo session on kanji (and maybe also sentences) and then continue with my vocabulary learning session. Or the other way around
· functionality to add my own note to a particular word/kanji in a user friendly manner during learning
· indicator showing my overall progress on kanji learning and word learning
What was your experience so far? What functionalities were you missing in the available apps?
2 comments
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Usually you either get Kanji OR Kana.
I wish apps would have correct furigana when learning Kanji vocabulary.
On the rare occasion there is furigana, it’s usually incorrect.