This announcement is a little later than I had planned, so ]]> Here are the winners to the review and contest I held recently. Philip has supplied me with two copies of his nifty little flash game that helps you learn Japanese to give away, so without further ado, let me announce the lucky people to win!

This announcement is a little later than I had planned, so sorry about the wait! Entries were closed last week Friday as I stated, however. I was really surprised by all the re-tweets and excellent comments posted by eager students of Japanese, and it pains me to only be able to to give two copies away. As well as that, this competition was done by a random draw, so no preference was given to those who perhaps would benefit from the game more than others. Definitely something I hope to change in future competitions though! :)

Well, here we go – the two lucky winners picked by Random.org:

YoyoKirby

Diego Dan

Well done to the both of you! Please contact me via Direct Message on Twitter with your email address and I will have Philip contact you :)

For those of you who didn’t win, I will be holding more competitions in the future for cool stuff from Japan, so stay tuned! ^_^

Philip Seyfi, new ]]> NihongoUp is a neat little game that installs quickly and cleanly and offers great benefits to you learning Japanese. With Kana and Kanji practice and even vocabulary drills for up to the highest level of the JLPT, it’s certainly getting itself noticed in the language-learning arena. You can also win a free copy!

Philip Seyfi, new media designer and developer at Divita is behind the swanky looking program NihongoUp, which also has an iPhone version. He commissioned me to take an in-depth look at the software and review it. So here’s the good and the bad. Video at the bottom of this post for those of you who don’t like to read :). See the end of the post where I’m giving away TWO free copies of the game! Yes, free! Who doesn’t like free!? There is also a 15-day free trial on his website.

Skip down to the bottom of this post for my Overall Impressions if you are in a hurry!

(Note: I have only been able to test NihongoUp on the Mac, so I cannot comment on the Windows, Linux or iPhone versions of the game.)

Aesthetics

While the goal of the software is to help you learn Japanese, the look and feel of the tools we use are also very important. Studying is often hard, repetitive and just plain boring, so anything you can do to liven up the prcoess is a plus. The Japanese stationary market is flooded with colourful pens, finger-huggingly grippable pencils and cute folders to bring excitement to your work, so a good-looking and well-designed program would have a similar effect.

I’m pleased to report that NihongoUp succeeds at all levels on the design front. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a designer like Philip – his website and products reflect the clean, smooth designs of the modern internet and the animations glide between one-another like the airy clouds floating in the background of the game.

It looks lovely to behold and is a pleasure to use for the most part. A simple, pink layout with sharp transitions as you click between the various types of game available reassure you that this is a product that has been lovingly produced. Even the music fits the design and for the first 10 minutes of so, it’s quite nice to listen to.

Unfortunately at this stage, there only appears to be one track in the game and while it does make for good background music, I quickly became tired of it, preferring to turn it off completely in the settings and stick on Fatblueman’s new album to enjoy while studying. It definitely needs more tracks to choose from.

Functionality

The software is very simple to use and requires no learning curve, so you won’t have any trouble using it. I installed it quickly and simply on my computer and was playing within 3 minutes. The menus and layout for the different types of Japanese review are all clearly separated, as you can see above.

There are also some basic options in the Settings panel that allow you to control music, sound effects, the game duration and, importantly for us Japanese language learners, whether you are viewing kana or kanji in the game (which is great for beginners who might fear kanji). I’ll touch more on this later.

My only minor gripe with the game’s functionality is that it has been designed primarily with keyboard input in mind. A mouse works, for sure, but when I attempted to use it to click on the balloons in the game modes, I sometimes missed, resulting in me ‘pausing’ the game. Rather frustrating and, I reckon, easily fixed. Why not put a small menu button in the corner of the window and have that for pausing the game?

Also, the point-scoring system is somewhat basic. You get more points exponentially as you get a series of correct answers, but I would like to see additional points given if you type or click the correct answer more quickly (i.e. when it is higher up the screen).

Gameplay

The game is divided into 4 sections: Kana, Kanji, Vocabulary and Grammar, so I’ll take a look at each one separately.

Kana Mode

Kana mode offers you 3 types of game: Hiragana, Katakana or mixed practice. The concept is simple: score points by typing the correct meaning of the Japanese characters that you see being transported down by balloons.

Sound easy? It is, but the catch comes when you start doing well. The more unbroken strings of correct answers you get, the faster the game becomes and the more points you rack up. It can get quite challenging, even for a person like me who deals with Japanese characters every day.

The big problem with this method is that is really requires you to have good typing skills. I don’t touch type, and I had trouble keeping up reading the characters, looking at my keyboard and knocking out the readings, especially for those odd combinations like ぢゃ (dya). Still, it is challenging and enjoyable enough to keep you trying again and again. Perfect for absolute beginners of Japanese who really need to nail those character readings. And believe me, you *need* to know the readings before you can progress in the language.

Kanji Mode

Kanji mode currently only offers two levels of study: JLPT levels 4 and 3. This is a big shame, because otherwise the game works quite well. On level 4, you are faced with sentences of hiragana or katakana test and 4 balloons float down. It’s your job to pick the kanji character that matches the highlighted reading at the bottom of the screen.

The good thing about this is that Philip appears to have accounted for kanji knowledge in-between levels. I can’t verify that for all kanji, but I did notice that in level 3, basic kanji characters you should have learnt in level 4 are used – so there’s no use cheating yourself! Let’s hope this trend continues when he adds JLPT levels 2 and 1 in the future and it’ll make for a very useable tool to track your reading progression and kanji recognition.

Also, you are able to change from sentences to just words in the settings if you prefer to focus on only one word when looking for the right kanji.

One problem, however, is that you cannot swap the kanj and matching kana around. In other words, you cannot check your kanji reading skills by looking at the character and selecting the correct reading for it. This sort of practice is essential because the JLPT test has a section that requires you to select the correct reading of kanji based on the characters you see in word combinations. In other words, you have to remember the readings for yourself instead of having to match the character to a reading already displayed. I hope to see this in future versions, as it is crucial to learning to read kanji well, in my opinion.

An example from the game. Choose the kanji:

おもさ　　Choose:　重　昼　土　犬

Not in the game – I want an option to be able to choose like this too:

重さ　　Choose:　おもさ　いもさ　じゅうさ　じょうさ

Vocabulary Mode

This is more like it. All the levels of the old JLPT test are here 1-4. You are presented with an English word at the bottom of the screen and can choose to display answers in either kanji or in kana from the settings.

Unlike the kana mode games, this mode doesn’t get any faster, and I found it to be a little too slow at times. It works like many other drill programs I’ve seen whereby you just select the answer that matches the text, resulting in a satisfying ringing sound when you are correct and a bleep when wrong. Points increase exponentially as you get successive answers correct.

The big problem with this mode, as with the Kanji mode, is that there is no apparent way of swapping the recognition modes around. You must always select the relevant kanji based upon the English reading. Again, this is unacceptable for a serious learner, who must be able to understand kanji as seen in context. I think it is much more important to be able to see a kanji compound piece of vocabulary and choose the closest match in English to what it means.

Grammar Mode

Finally, we come to the grammar mode, with its Japanese particles and Japanese counters practice sections. Both items are very important in mastering the language, and even I struggle with counters after many years of study, so they are very welcome additions.

The counters practice in particular is a nicely done mode, utilising sentences complete with kanji and the counter in context. You choose the correct reading. The particles section is also good, but unfortunately only uses kana to keep things simple and at times has sentences to which there are multiple possible answers. A good start and fine for testing basic grammar, but this mode could use further improvement to really help it shine.

Overall Impressions

Alrighty then. No doubt there are some of you who skipped here to read my conclusion first. I don’t blame you – you want to know whether or not this piece of software is worth the $5 asking price, right?

Here’s your answer: Yes!

That’s going to be especially true for those of you who are still beginners learning the language. There’s so much to offer for the beginning learner – complete kana practice, JLPT levels 4 and 3 kanji practice and plenty of sentences in the vocabulary and grammar sections to get you off on a good start. Yes, you could find many of the same things online for free, but you can save yourself the time by just giving NihongoUp a try. I think the excellent kana practice and counters drills are the best I have seen to date and are worth the asking price alone.

For the more advanced learner, the answer is a more reserved yes. I would hope to see more on offer in future updates, such as additions to the kanji mode for JLPT levels 1 and 2. You can practice your advanced vocabulary up to the highest level JLPT1 though, which is great for improving your recognition skills one-way, but it is still limited. The big advantage is that all the words are already ready for you inside NihongoUp. If you use another SRS program like the marvellous Anki, you will need to create or download the databases containing all the vocabulary yourself.

Still not sure? Philip offers a free 15-day trial of the software on his website. Go over and taste it for yourself! NihongoUp Free Trial

Suggested Improvements

As outlined in my breakdown of the program, here is my list of suggestions for improvements:

Competition to win a FREE copy of the game!

I have two copies of the game to give away. There are three ways to win! You only have to do *one* of the below to enter, but do all three if you like :)

1) Re-tweet the following text on Twitter. Make sure to include everything, especially the hashtag at the end!:

Win a FREE copy of NihongoUp and learn Japanese! Simply re-tweet. http://bit.ly/gakgoup #gakUP

2) Make a Youtube video telling me why you want to win a copy of NihongoUp and make sure to post a link to your video in the comments of this post.

3) Leave a comment on this post telling me why you want to win a copy of NihongoUp.

You can also follow me or Philip on Twitter for further Japanese stuff and general cool points :)

Follow @gakuranman on Twitter
Follow @nihongoup on Twitter

Winners will be announced by 22nd January. Good luck!

Free Japanese resources are plentiful on the internet, but have you ever wondered if you are getting the most out of them? While studying Japanese and working as a translator I’ve found a lot of great tools. So here’s Gakuranman’s top 5 picks for the best online dictionaries for Japanese-English translation!

We’ll be working top ]]>

Free Japanese resources are plentiful on the internet, but have you ever wondered if you are getting the most out of them? While studying Japanese and working as a translator I’ve found a lot of great tools. So here’s Gakuranman’s top 5 picks for the best online dictionaries for Japanese-English translation!

We’ll be working top to bottom, best to merely ‘good’ (because there are no bad dictionaries in this list, in my opinion!) And for those of you who prefer to listen rather than read, I will also compile a video to accompany this post in due time :). Bear in mind also that this article is focussing on dictionary-style tools to help you speed up your learning Japanese. If you want all-round study tools like grammar guides and flash-card systems, see the bottom of this post for more great links! Let’s get cracking!

#1 ALC

What can I say about ALC – Eijiro on the Web? As a dictionary it is top-notch, but you’d expect it to be for being at the top of my list! It’s a dictionary service made by translators for translators and as such, it features a fountain full of superb sentences using your unknown word in context. As a one-button search tool and with the page entirely in Japanese it can at first be deceptive, but take the plunge and you will be rewarded with real Japanese example sentences and a dictionary that can even handle some medical and business terms!

Notable features: The one-stop single input field for both English and Japanese and high level of translations provided. Stick any word (or occasionally compound kanji words) into the field and watch a plethora of useful example sentences pour out below, all taken from real life sources such as newspaper articles.

Also highly useful are the furigana and double function. Double-click should be automatically enabled so that you can simply double click on any kanji word you don’t know and ALC will look it up for you to save you time copy and pasting. Also, if you click on the 機能 (functions) button near the top of the page, you can turn on the furigana option (it’s the first option) so that the words you search for in English have the reading written next to them!

Recommended for: Advanced learners of Japanese / Translators

#2 WWWJDIC

The perennial online dictionary for Japanese-English translation. It has been around for what seems like forever and has formed the basis for many other online Jp-Eng dictionaries (such as the popular jisho.org) as well as several pieces of software! The interface is very crude, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it’s ‘just another dictionary’ – search the web and you’ll find Jim Breen praise the world around!

Notable features: The ‘Translate Words’ box. It’s just about the only feature of this dictionary that I use, but there’s a big, big reason for it. It’s also the reason I chose the original Jim Breen website over the more user-friendly Jisho.org. Put simply, it allows you to copy and paste long pages of Japanese text into the field and it spits it out all in order with the translations to each word (and some phrases) listed. If you’ve ever pulled your hair out copying and pasting single words into online translators before, this is this tool for you!

Recommended for: People who want to translate long passages of Japanese text quickly. Jisho.org recommended for everyone else, especially Beginner-learners because of the English interface!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why I didn’t suggest you use one of those online page translators like Babelfish or Google Translate, it’s because they are terrible for everything except getting the gist of a page. My advice for anyone who wants proper translations is to learn Japanese grammar and then piece together the sentences based on the context and individual word translations you get from dictionaries like WWWJDIC. (Incidentally, if you must use an online page translator, use Yahoo’s Japanese translation page – not Babelfish. My boss (a native Japanese speaker) and I tested the major online translators and found Yahoo’s Japanese Honyaku service to be the most accurate).

#3 Yahoo! Dictionary

At number 3 in my list comes Yahoo! Dictionary. I used to use this before discovering ALC and it played a very important role in helping me to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test level 1. It provided me with useful example sentences to add to my SRS program.

I’m sure some of you studying Japanese will be doing so yourselves already, but for those of you who aren’t, SRS means ‘Spaced Repetition System’. Basically, you immerse yourself in the language by creating a database of real Japanese sentences and review them every day. The software you use will keep track of your progress and automatically feed you the words and sentences you get wrong most often, thereby reinforcing your knowledge of them. Through constant exposure, you naturally pick up the words, grammar and sentence in context. (For SRS software, I recommend Anki).

Notable features: So the feature that drew me to Yahoo! Dictionary was the sentences. Specifically, if you use the Japanese-English dictionary (和英), you will often get a nice short list containing the word you were searching for, followed by a few example sentences. The sentences, I found, were usually just right in their difficulty level and good for intermediate-advanced learners of Japanese to use in SRS programs. The Yahoo! dictionary also shines in that it has a very simple interface and allows you to look up synonyms (類語) for Japanese words and also choose the Japanese-only dictionary (国語). Just don’t expect miracles with long compound kanji. Even 地球温暖化 (global warming) was too much for the Japanese-English dictionary.

Recommended for: Intermediate-Advanced learners of Japanese for gathering sentences for SRS.

#4 Rikai-chan

Rikaichan is a wonderful little add-on for Firefox which enables you to view both the reading and English translation of virtually any kanji or kanji compound that you come across on the internet. You won’t be able to use it for extremely long or complicated words, but if you’re struggling to remember the meaning of a kanji, the readings for it or just want to get a general gist of the sentences on the page you are looking at, you’d be hard pressed to find a better solution. Quick note: If you need a detailed view of a kanji, hold down the shift key.

Notable features: The ease of installation and use and the deep power harnessed in such a simple plugin. There are also language add-ons for German, French and Russian! Although I’m not a Rikaichan user much myself (I prefer to copy and paste my translations into WWWJDIC and work from there with ALC), being able to hover over words in your casual surfing is a great help and takes a lot of the pain away that comes with trying to read Japanese online.

Unfortunately, if you aren’t careful you may come to reply on this little plugin a little too much and end up forgetting the readings of words. It is my experience that the more I have a dictionary beside me (whether it be electronic or paperback), the less I think about the readings of words and the more likely I am to become lazy. For that reason, I only recommend Rikaichan to Japanese learners who are just starting out and for situations when you don’t want to study or just wish to browse complicated websites.

Recommended for: Beginner-Intermediate learners of Japanese or casual net surfers.

#5 Ikijibiki

To round up my list, I’ve rather cheekily chosen a very special type of dictionary. That is: Ikijibiki (生き字引). It essentially means a living/walking dictionary referring to none other than – a person! Yes, my final recommendation for a free online Japanese-English dictionary is to ask people themselves.

There are positively dozens of services out there that allow you to connect with other learners and native speakers. The most obvious ones of later that spring to mind are Twitter, Facebook and Mixi. You can often find groups especially created around the topic you are interested in, and if you play ball and help others, people will often be glad to help you when you have language questions. Case-in-point: I asked my Twitter followers which Japanese dictionaries they preferred and I got over 20 replies – thank you all! You will of course have to spend the time building up relationships, but I often find having a native speaker on hand is the ultimate way to get clear and usually correct answers to many tricky problems that cannot be solved with automated dictionaries.

Notable features: For human insight and awareness and understanding of context. You just can’t beat a human dictionary, unless of course you are asking very specific and technical questions of which they have no knowledge. For virtually anything else, the replies of a native speaker are usually going to be more insightful and useful than a dictionary. The downside is that nobody likes to be treated like a walking book for language knowledge, so make sure you only use native speakers sparingly and return the favour in other ways!

Recommended for: Everyone! But especially translators who need help with idiomatic phrases and for learners who want to interact with native speakers more.

Obaachan picture from Utsumi Chiharu

If you’re feeling a little put-out by my last suggestion, take a look at these other dictionaries that didn’t quite make the cut this time. That’s is not to say they aren’t good tools – they most likely are – but that I haven’t yet dug up a compelling reason to use them over other dictionaries. If you think I’m making a grave mistake, please tell me in the comments!

Yamasa – A fantastic little dictionary site that shines for its kanji stroke-order pictures that draw themselves in real time!
Sanseido
Glova
Google Goo Dictionary
Kotobank
POPjisyo
Wikipedia

**********

In addition to all those mouth-watering choices, I have a few more suggestions for expanding your toolkit.

My fishy friend over at Tofugu compiled an excellent list of general Japanese Language learning resources. Check them out for ultimate Japanese ownage.

Maggiesensei is a brand new site with lots of great Japanese titbits and lessons as well as comedic dog-themed pictures. Pioneered by Gimmeabreakman of Youtube fame, Maggie’s lessons are all extensive and completely free!

Finally, if you’re interested in getting more practical experience in Japanese and are itching to improve your listening and spoken Japanese, then you would do well to check out edufire. There’s simply no substitute for learning with a native teacher and many of them at edufire offer classes for free! Check out the learn japanese class listings pages to find out what’s going on. I occasionally teach Japanese classes over there myself!

Alrighty then! To finish up, tell me what your favourite Japanese resource is and why!

The video has been given the spangly treatment to make it into a colourful and ]]> I came across this fantastically hilarious Super Mario World parody today. It’s an original song by Hyadain which I enjoyed so much that I subtitled and turned into a special Gakuranman Japanese lesson for you! Men compete with their heart!

The video has been given the spangly treatment to make it into a colourful and fun creation to watch, complete with great voice-acting and clever lyrics. Some really interesting advanced Japanese expressions make their appearance – I explain them all at the end of the video. Don’t forget to enable English subtitles if they don’t show automatically! ^_^.

Here are a few notes to complement the advanced Japanese expressions:

乾く暇がない

‘Don’t have time to dry up’ – a guy who plays around and sleeps with lots of women (and hence doesn’t even have time to ‘dry up’. (Generally used between guys).

ツンデレなとこも魅力的

‘That cold-yet-cute part of you is attractive’ – A juxtaposition of cold-heartedness and being lovey-dovey in a person. (Many guys in Japan like this type of girl – cold and strict to them in company but cute and affectionate in private)

KY! KY! 空気読めこりゃ！

‘KY! KY! Read the air (grr!)’ – Somebody who doesn’t read the emotional ‘atmosphere’ in a given situation and hence upsets the balance and mood.

バーターのくせに生意気ね

‘For a sidekick, you’re quite conceited’ – The reverse of 束（たば）and elongated refers to a person who isn’t important enough to appear on stage on their own – they always have to come with a group or someone else, hence why I chose ’sidekick’ in this situation. ‘Kuse ni’ means ‘in spite of (being)’.

おおう、盛んだねぇ。今度紹介してよ！

‘Ooh, you’re enthusiastic! Introduce me to her next time!’ – Egging someone on about being ‘out on the prowl’, engagin with lots of women (or men, I guess). ‘Introduce me next time!’ is referring to the girl/guy that said person is slipping off to see.

You can view the original Nico Nico video here: スーパーマリオでウエスタンショーに絵を付けてみた

Did you enjoy the video and learn anything? Any comments on the translation?