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Japanese vocabulary suggestion

jutendoji   December 25th, 2011 11:38a.m.

Would it be possible to add some vocabulary tests and learnings based on the already learned kanji? It could help to remember all the pronounciations, deal better with all the meanings of every kanji and of course learning vocabulary in an easier way. I add myself new words for each learned kanji but it takes time and knowing this program has books and dictionnaries included, that's why I thought about this.
Merry christmas everyone and happy japanese/chinese learning.

valymer   December 25th, 2011 11:23p.m.

The kanji quizzes at renshuu.org have really helped me with the onyomi/kunyomi readings. It would be an extra step in your study routine if you don't already do it, but it might be worth it for you.

Of course, if Skritter quizzed us on them too, I certainly wouldn't complain!

atdlouis   December 26th, 2011 5:34a.m.

In order to do a vocabulary test, you would need to have at least one question for each word or character.

Skritter has I think 10,000 characters (traditional and simplified) in its database. Who knows how many tens of thousands of words.

I agree that this would be helpful. But I think a textbook would be a far more efficient way of providing that sort of learning.

scott   December 28th, 2011 5:29p.m.

What exactly do you mean by vocabulary 'tests' and 'learnings'? I'm not sure how they'd be different than the reviews we have now, except that the tests are organized based on the SRS scheduling, rather than order in a list, and the results of the tests determine when you're next tested. Would the tests be to better understand what you need to work on for a given section? The system already tracks in detail what you do and don't know. How would these tests be different and how would they be beneficial in their own way, exactly?

jutendoji   December 30th, 2011 7:47a.m.

What I meant was that, for me in my personal way of learning (and I know we all have different ways in learning), I saw that if I learned a word composed by several kanji, I will be able to read it and recognize it with no problem, but if I see each of the kanji in another context, I don't know how to read them or what they mean. But learning the kanji one by one rises another problem: it's hard to remember all the meanings and readings and know which one to use when it comes inside a word. I already added some words composed by kanji I already knew or found difficult to remember, and doing this helped me a lot to remember the kanji themselves, new vocabulary words, several meanings and readings. What I suggested wasn't a new list to learn, but a separate section where we could try, with all the material we already know and based on skritter's dictionnaries, to guess new words and their readings like in a riddle game (well this is just an image), and then only if we want add some of them in our lists if we consider we need to really learn them. I'm not sure I'm making myself clear, it's just hard to explain but I think an ideogram is more like a whole thing (expressing different ideas and sounds) and can't be learned by heart like our vocabulary were you just need to put meaningless letters together.
By the way, I thought about this more for japanese, as there is less caracters to learn than for chinese. I work on a textbook too as I know it is necessary.
And thanks a lot for the renshuu.org tip, I didn't know they had a free section. Have a nice day all of you.

scott   January 2nd, 2012 11:46a.m.

That's an interesting idea, but it seems like a very specific form of study that would be useful only to particular people (as you said, we all learn differently). Also, it would be a major project, whereas now things like the iOS app and example sentences for Japanese would be much more useful to more people, I think.

At the very least, you can look through words and characters you are studying, as you study them or in 'my words' or in lists, and get their details in their popups and see related words from there. That's not exactly what you were looking for, as you won't be able to be tested on if you can come up with the reading, but it should still help you find words to give you more context. Sounds like you're already doing that though, correct?

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