If anyone wants to take it up on themselves to fix the Firefox add-on go ahead.

https://github.com/peraperakun

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

As I mentioned here, I am planning to take N1 this summer. I have always been lazy about the JLPT but I figure that the certification might come in handy someday. One of my friends mentioned that he was using a free app called i-Sokki (limited version) for drilling vocabulary for the exam. I downloaded it last week and I really like it so far.

I-Sokki is easy on the eye. It’s a nicely designed app. It comes with the vocabulary for N5 unlocked already. You have to pay to get access to the other levels, but at $1.99 per JLPT level or $4.99 for all levels, the price is reasonable. I’m mainly working on N1 words but, just in case, I’m brushing up on the N2 vocab too so I bought the whole set.

There are three different quiz modes for testing your vocab knowledge. All of them are multiple choice.

Japanese Mode tests from Japanese to English so it is probably the easiest test as you can intelligently guess a lot of words without truly knowing them.

Kanji mode tests from Japanese to the kana reading. I use this one a lot. One small gripe I have with the Kanji mode is that you can only see the English meaning after you have finished the review session. I would like the option to quickly remind myself of the meaning but anyway, it’s a minor flaw.

Finally, there is Reverse Mode which, as you might expect, tests you going from English to Japanese. I rarely use this one.

The app tests you based on your “familiarity” with the various vocabulary. I think they do a solid job. I’m using I-Sokki during the little moments when I’m sitting on the train or waiting for a friend. I look up new words in my Wisdom Dictionary (reviewed here) and read through the example sentences to help the meaning take root in my mind. This strategy is working well so far, although I passively know most of the vocabulary already. Depending on your Japanese level, your results may differ.

I-Sokki is not a perfect app. Sometimes I find the same vocabulary repeatedly coming up on the tests, so I’m confused how the algorithm works. Also, there is obviously no way that the app can know your starting knowledge so you have to review a bunch of known words in the beginning. The biggest downside for me though, is that the other words in the test are usually very different from the correct answer. The kanji mode, for example, will often show three ridiculous meanings that are obviously incorrect with one reasonable looking answer. This makes things too easy as you can guess the answer without even knowing it. In the JLPT, similar looking answers are displayed to confuse you. I wish this app did the same. One way to get around this is to mentally test yourself before looking at the four choices being displayed.

With the few caveats I mentioned, i-Sokki is a handy tool for studying for the exam. I recommend you pick up the free version and see how you go.

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Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

Often, I find myself talking to friends or colleagues and have a word on the tip of my tongue that I just can’t remember. Other times, I wonder how to say a certain phrase in Japanese that I have never considered before or want to explain a concept to someone but my explanation is faltering from a lack of active vocabulary. Normally, if this was a language exchange or some other event where I would expect to practise Japanese, I would bring my electronic dictionary but it’s not exactly practical (or sociable!) to whip your Seiko out in the middle of a crowded izakaya. iPhone apps are much quicker and more convenient in those situations. That’s where Wisdom 2 comes in handy.

How I am using it

I haven’t really used Wisdom 2 for long study sessions although I’m sure it could be used that way. I’m using it more as an on-the-go kind of dictionary that helps me look up words speedily when I don’t have a PC or dictionary at hand.

I read through the example sentences a lot and also like the fact that you can directly look up any unknown words from the example sentences by simply holding down the word. As this is a dictionary in the classic sense, there aren’t many study tools or review options for learning the new vocabulary. There is a fairly simple bookmarking function though (that incidentally backs up to iCloud) that allows you to save new words for later.

The Wisdom 2 dictionary

Wisdom 2 is based on the “Wisdom English-Japanese Dictionary 3rd edition” and contains more than 100,000 entries, which should be enough to keep you busy. Although it comes recommended for people like us who study Japanese, Wisdom 2 has evidently been made with Japanese learners of English in mind. If you are just starting out in your Japanese studies, you should be aware that the app’s interface is only available in Japanese so you should be at least an intermediate Japanese reading level before considering this.

What’s New in the latest version (Version 1.0.1)

According to the developers, here is of what’s new for the latest release (rough translation):

– Character size settings can now be modified more precisely.
– A clipboard search function has been added. By turning “Clipboard Search” on in the settings menu, you can now search text copied from other apps when you start up Wisdom 2.
– Problem fixed for display of invalid characters in the Japanese-English dictionary contents.
– Problem solved for iPhone/iPod touch when text selected for an extended amount of time remains displayed even after the selection has been cancelled.
– The viewing history is now also updated when a word is chosen from within the viewing history itself.
– The functionality for clearing previous searches has been improved.

All in all, Wisdom 2 is a valuable tool for learning Japanese. If you are serious about learning Japanese, then this app is a good choice. Check it out and tell us what you think!

Cheers

The Perapera Team

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Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.

Pimsleur isn’t perfect by any means. As I wrote before about Pimsleur Japanese in my Japanese books post, the lessons in the third series got ridiculously formal and businessy. I remember being made to learn phrases along the lines of “I am very sorry Mr Tanaka but I will be 45 minutes late for today’s meeting!”. Pretty excessive for a beginner’s course, I think you’ll agree. This was before they had even taught you the informal Japanese that everyone actually uses! Also, some of the Japanese vocabulary you learn seemed a little weird at times and I am assuming the Korean Pimsleur will have similar pitfalls but I find that Pimsleur is a decent way of getting a spoken base in a language. It’s a bit like going to the gym. Put in your 30 minutes a day and you come away with something that you will remember later. That is more than can be said for many language courses.

I am still only one week in, but I am definitely noticing some similarities between Korean and Japanese, like how the sentences are structured. Some of the sounds can be quite tricky to pronounce but I love the intonation! How did I miss out on this language? It is really pleasant to get out of my comfort zone and learn something completely new and exotic. Although you would think learning another language would be a distraction from my Japanese studies, I’m recently feeling more motivated to learn Japanese too. It would seem that the two are feeding off each other.

A great app for learning to read and write Hangul

By night, I have been learning Hangul with a nifty little app called Korean Handwriting. It cost me $3. It is actually geared more towards Korean children than learners of Korean but it has been really useful so far. The lack of English explanations is actually quite helpful as it allows you to just focus on the various sounds and drawing the Hangul out on the screen. To be honest, it feels more like playing a game than studying although the little kid’s high-pitched voice can become a little grating after a while. Overall though, it has been a relief to find that Hangul writing looks a lot more difficult than it actually is.

UPDATE: That app seems to no longer be available, so we recommend this one: Write It! Korean

So, the next step is to find some decent Korean books. I have looked around on Amazon but didn’t see many courses that stood out. Does anyone have any tips? Just my first impression, but it seems like Korean has very few useful resources available.

Looking for a more interactive approach to learning Korean? Read our review of Korean Class 101.

Rohan

Rohan has spent years studying Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and currently lives in Japan. He created the perapera pop-up dictionary plugins to help other learners of Chinese and Japanese.