Thanks a lot for all the comments so far! I’m really happy to hear so many people other than myself and Péter are finding the site useful. To give credit where it belongs, I should mention that Speedanki was originally designed by Quinlan Faris and his Japanese wife. I took over from Quinlan last year when he moved to other projects.
Based on the comments, it sounds like there are several themes we should discuss in the blog in the future:
- Content development, especially level 1 content
- Customisation and user-created content
- Comparing Speedanki with other kanji learning sites
- Loading times and site performance
- New features
In this post, I will focus on some of the new feature requests. One of the most requested features seems to be the ability to randomise the order in which cards are displayed. Fortunately, Péter is working on that right now. It’s going to be better than simply picking a random card from the deck – if you do that, you’ll end up seeing some cards several times and missing some others. Péter will explain how the feature works when it’s ready.
Some of the other features that you suggested include the following:
- Ability to print suitably formatted lists
- Audio clips to practice listening and intonation
- Displaying the number of strokes and/or stoke order diagrams for each kanji
- Showing kanji and hiragana simultaneously when the ‘Flip’-button is pressed
To me, these requests reflect the fact that different people have different ways of studying Japanese and using Speedanki. For example, I myself mostly study reading only. For writing, I almost always use a computer or a phone, so I am not practicing to write kanji by hand (except for addresses and other personal information that you sometimes have to write by hand on forms etc.). I am also not studying listening and intonation online, because I learn those by talking to my Japanese wife, friends and colleagues.
But other people obviously have different needs, and in order to know what direction to develop Speedanki, we’d like to have a better idea of what those needs are. So, let’s launch the first Speedanki poll: “What would you ideally like to study with Speedanki?” Select the options that best match your needs in the left sidebar, and/or leave a comment!
p.s. Michèle pointed out that there are a couple of cards out there with typos in the English translation – if you encounter something that looks like a typo or some other bug, please drop us a message at team@speedanki.com, and we’ll fix it.
-
I’m with you on the listening, I don’t really see the point in laving intonation or listening practise for the kanji, it sounds like a lot or hard-work for you with no real point…
If people wanna practise listening, they should be lsitening to full sentences anyway… or get some japanese friends, or watch some films, or use the JLPT CD’s etc.
Really all I wanted you have allready mentioned! Except arrow keys would be good for going through cards too!
Thanks yo!
Jamie.
-
also the pole is on the left btw!
I just noticed it!
-
Hello team,
I definitely like what you are looking at, can’t wait to see the updates!
The writing by hand option – i.e. stroke order – in my mind would only be a ‘nice to have’. For me, Speedanki is all about improving reading, specifically for JLPT.
There are other tools out there for writing. I would strongly favour Speedanki focusing on simply expanding content and functionality based on the current format.
Yoroshiku!
-
I love this website it has increased my knowledge rapidly and I greatly appreciate the developers. One thing I woudl liek to see is a shuffle option, just so we can easily changed it up from the normal order. And more content(Kanji) would be awesome. Thank you all so much!
-
Thanks again for this site, it has helped me tremendously.
I agree with Jamie and Gareth. For me, this is all about reading. However, it would be nice sometimes to jump and get both the onyomi and the kunyomi for a given kanji…
-
Hey everyone,
I am also someone who uses speedanki for the reading and vocabulary.
I also have a new suggestion. I have been studying kanji lately using a book called “The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary”. The editor in chief is Jack Halpern. The reason why the book is so helpful is that it gives the core meaning of different kanji. This may sound simple, but it is tremendously useful. Since studying this way, I find myself looking at words and, even though I’ve never seen them before, deciphering their meaning.In short, my suggestion is why not make flashcards of individual kanji with their core meanings. For the “example” button, instead of sentences you could list different words that the kanji appears in.
Once again, I love the site and keep up the good work!
これからもよろしくお願いします！ -
Thanks a lot for the website! It has helped me a lot coz just
in the span of 2 weeks I have learned a lot of level 4 & 3 kanji.I like this site because of its simplicity. And putting all those
improvements mentioned might changed this is into somewhat
of a complex and mean interface=) I hope this doesnt happen.I have only 2 suggestions:
■Highly customizable content – keeping the new contents added(audio clips, stroke sequence, on-yomi, kun-yomi, etc) at the same optional level
like Example & Meaning.
■Ramdomization – to make it simple, just add a new folder named “Random” like “Unread”, “Read”, “Master”, etc. Lets just
say the when you finished the “Master” folder, you move the cards
to “Random”. And everytime you go the “Random” folder, you are ask
whether to randomize it or not(preserving the sequence you have randomized, say yesterday or so).Cheers!
-
Thanks for your comments everybody!
Michèle: Good point regarding the onyomi/kunyomi. I myself actually use Rikaichan (http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/) together with Speedanki. This allows me to mouseover any kanji to immediatly find out more about it. It’s not impossible to think we could build this feature into Speedanki itself sometime in the future..
Daniel: The Halpern system is indeed interesting. It’s a rather different way of learning kanji, though. You learn meanings of individual kanji (not always accurate), but you don’t directly learn new words or pronunciations. I prefer to learn words, because that way I can immediately use them in conversation -> they stick in my memory better. If we decide to go beyond the JLPT lists and add new lists to Speedanki some time in the future, I guess Halpern is one possibility. こちらこそよろしくお願い致します＾＾
Vincent: I totally agree with you about the simplicity. We will definitely make sure that any new features we may add will not make the site more difficult to use. As you can see, at this point we are brainstorming with you about all kinds of ideas. But actual features that get implemented will be much fewer, due to limited development resources as well.
The random/shuffle feature is definitely coming.
-
Everyone has posted good comments I think!
But for vincent, in two weeks if you can learn most of around 500 kanji then you are some talent! I’m not trying to be an arse or anything, but unless you knew them allready that aint possible! And I think having audio is a complete waste of time!
Having audio on a kanji reading site aint keeping it simple!
Vili: Good shout about Rikaichan, I think it’s great for checking indivual info about the kanji! as it gives you all the info you need, but I think if you had time it would be nice to have example using the single Kanji too! But aye, don’t try to do too much!
J
-
Jamie: You need not to try. really!
20 or 30 could be a lot for me. Who says anything about 500 ?
The last time I checked, level 3 kanjis are only 200+.cant wait for the random feature
-
i personally use speedanki for writing, because i find it hard to create cards or make some sort of system to practice writing, and althought i think that writing in order to pass the 2 kyuu or 1 kyuu for that matter, is something not important , but let me tell you that is really frustating not able to write one kanji of 3 kyuu when asked, when you supposed that you should now the kanji by now. last year i took an exam for a scholarship in japan and the thing that got me was writing, so what i’am trying to say is that don’t try to eat as many kanjis all at once because in a couple of years you will find not be able to write some 4 kyuu level kanjis. nihongo is kanji, and able not only to recognize them but writing them is a great thing to acomplish.
great site and all of the updates are great -
sorry but if 20 or 30 could eb a lot how can you learn most of 300 in 2weeks… it just doesn’t make sense that is all…
-
I like using the list view sometimes now to quickly review as somebody has mentioned. I noticed thought that now when you click on the word it no longer takes you to the kanji/hiragana card but rather back to the list view.
Also, I’d like to request the list view be able to remember if I’ve hidden the kanji or hiragana for when the list view spans over multiple pages. I look quite silly closing an eye and squinting trying not to ‘cheat’ as i try to peak and click on the ‘hide hiragana.’
thanks!
Other people have mentioned stroke order and such. I found that http://japanese.about.com has all that with the on and kun readings. -
Hi everyone,
For what it’s worth, I’m a native Japanese/English Australian. I teach translation/interpreting at university level.I actually find it a bit of a shame to see that so many people are outright against the idea of a pronunciation button. It still shocks me to find out that many of my students (even in the highest levels of Japanese language study) are unaware of the fact that Japanese is a tonal language. Words have tones. It may be written the same way in hiragana but say it one way and it means ‘now’, say it the other way and it means ‘living room’. In practice, tones rarely cause confusion over which word someone is trying to say, but it does sound VERY foreign to native speakers and many people will find it very difficult to understand what you are trying to say.
It’s a good idea to learn how to properly say a word while you’re learning how to write it. Learn them together and you’ll remember both a little easier.
-
I would like to see 3 example sentences for each card. It takes about three examples before a person can get an idea of how the word is actually used. I end up looking up most compounds in my denji jisho for more examples.
Thanks!
-
This site is great as it is. Changing anything coul ruin it’s simplicity. I think, that adding another things will change this dramaticly, now it’s really easy to memorize the ideograms (:*thx to all the Creators I’m climbing now to the 2-nd kyuu) but it is your idea to make big or small changes with this anki…
Btw. If I have questions about Japanese I always ask native speakers. -
Is there anyway to have the definitions on one side and the japanese (kanji and hiragana) on the other side?
-
I enjoy using this site, I think I was able to pass the 2kyuu a while ago thanks to this site. I’m using it for 1kyuu now, but most of the cards don’t have example sentences which helped me understand the meaning of the words better in 2kyuu. If it’s not so much of a problem I’d like to see the rest of the 1kyuu cards finished with example sentences.
-
I am finding this site really useful – it is a great feeling to progress through the levels and know exactly how many kanji you can read/ and also a good motivator, in that you can actually gauge how far you need to go.
I also use Kanji Box on Facebook. I like the “game” aspect of it, competing with yourself and others, and adding a time limit. I am studying for the 2-kyuu JLPT, so the time limit is totally relevant.
No idea how difficult it would be, but I would love to see an iPhone application, so I can take Speedanki with me and study on the train/bus.
Thanks so much – keep up the fantastic work!
-
Vili, Peter,
Thank you so much for all of your hard work.
This site is awesome!
One idea for even better usability would be the ability to navigate using the key-board. For instance, would move cards forward, and would flip the cards. Just a thought!Adam
-
hello,
I think the flashcards are good. I wonder about the lists themselves. Can you put some information up about the contents of the lists themselves (maybe in the About section of the site so you don’t have to be annoyed by people like me in the future). I want to know 1) are the lists mutually exclusive (i.e. does 3kyu include words from 4 kyu?) I want to be able to count how many kanji/combinations I know in total. 2) Do the lists include all the recommended kanji from the current JLPT Test Content Specifications? 3) Have you heard that the Japanese government is probably going to add 191 (approx.) new kanji to the Joyo list in 2010? What are your plans to include those?
Thank you very much and great site!
-
Also, Amie – get KanjiFlip app for the iPhone. I think it’s free or super cheap and it’s great! Maybe not organized by JLPT level, but it’s a good tool and it’s smart enough to know which kanji you need to review (if you are honest in scoring yourself right or wrong). Hope it helps.
-
ryohei – you say Japanese is a tonal language. By tone, do you just mean stress (emphasis/accent)? For example HAshi (bridge) vs. haSHI (chopsticks).
Or do you mean something else. I am aware of the “stress”/cadence for lack of a better word, but if you meant something else, I want to know.
Yoroshikuonegaishimasu.
-
yukito: i’m stoked to try it, thank you so much!
-
I recently took a look at the example sentences on some of the cards I am studying, but much to my chagrin I am having to look up most of the kanji in order to understand the sentence. Am I alone here in this? just curious
-
Just discovered the site a week before the JLPT. Loving the simple interface and working through well over 150 words / day. I don’t know how useful this would be for other people, but living in Japan, I spend a lot of time on the train without a laptop. Of course, I could use my phone to get online, but SpeedAnki doesn’t display correctly. So for the intrepid programmers, I ask: could you make a cell phone resolution interface? I know there are some sites which load separate phone interfaces when accessed by cell phone, so it can’t be impossible.
Just a thought. Thanks for reading. Awesome job regardless.
-
Hi There!
I am a great fan of Speed Anki (standard Anki is way too composite for me), so I love the pure design and simple functions. I think it’s perfect even if you only have three minutes to review some kanji, you don’t need to bother understanding the mechanism and the learn handling of functions as in the case of the big brother.
However, I would also like to propose an idea:
This new font for the Kanji you are currently using, is definitely not Mincho. Although this might also look nice, unfortunately the Kanji strokes do differ to a certain extent, which may tend to confuse those who are not aware enough. Let us have a glance of the example of SONAERU. I was using the kana side to train writing the kanji, but when I flipped it over, it turned out to be rather different from the Mincho type (which is undoubtedly the most commonly used typeface throughout the world). I therefore would like to advise the authors to compare the kanji for SONAERU (in this case) displayed in this new font you are currently using, and an MS Mincho (or other commonly widespread) font. Please notice that the difference may potentially expose foreign students of Japanese to an excessive amount of confusion! Please consider, that not knowing that the two slightly different ways of writing (here sonaeru, but numerous other characters also exhibit this kind of deviation) belong to the same entry may prove to be a deadly source of consistent errors.
I am – of course – most interested in any kind of counterarguments regarding this issue. Please honour me with your kind opinion.
I send my best regards to the developers/authors/owners of speedanki.
Keep up good work; you are saving thousands of students a lot of time in learning kanji. We are utterly thankful to you for this.Feri,
HungaryP.S.:
If Péter happens to be Hungarian, (by the writing of his Name), give him my regards! Even if he’s not. :) -
Any chance of an Android App?
Loading ...
28 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://www.speedanki.com/blog/2009/poll-how-do-you-want-to-use-speedanki/trackback/