Learning Japanese – It’s 2008: Use technology to help!

I said a while ago that I moved, well, part of that has involved learning a new language. Following the martial arts maxim,

Do not seek to just blindly copy and emulate your teachers, instead seek what they sought.

I set about trying to find the tools and strategy that worked best for me to accomplish the goal of learning a new language quickly and well.

I found that the king of SRS (spaced repetition systems) and Japanese language learning tools is the humble PDA

So, First go to http://www.japaneselanguagetools.com/ and get an Axim loaded to the gills with Japanese – English dictionaries. Then get bazillions of example sentences from ftp://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/jp_examples.fpw.tar.gz and stick that on the PDA’s SD Card (get a big one, the bigger the better)

Once that’s done you have a Japanese-English-Kanji-Stroke order-readings etc Dictionary that easily outperforms any of the commercial J-E ‘Wordtank’ kind of dictionaries,you can add further pimpage too by adding the worlds finest SRS　on it by adding PocketStackz from http://www.stackz.com/Stackz/ppc/ppc.htm
after that’s installed add the vocabulary files from http://www.stackz.com/Stackz/Archive/Archive.php

That’s well on the way to being the King of language learning helpers, but adding Declan’s voice flash cards (Yes: VOICE, they speak the words at you!) and the Kanji software will quite honestly put you over the edge!! get them from here -
http://www.declan-software.com/pocket_pc/japanese/index.htm

The Declans and Stackz site has files for all the JLPT levels and quite frankly, any words you’d ever need!

Free trials are available for all the software listed above (Obviously not the Axim)

Good luck!

NB: I am in no way affiliated with these sites, but I do fully recommend the products.

Latin Quotes from the Oldskool

Nihil aliud scit necessitas quam vincere – Necesssity knows nothing else but victory. (Syrus)

Nemo timendo ad summum pervenit locum – No man by fearing reaches the top. (Syrus)

Mens agitat molem – The mind moves the matter. (Vergil)

Maior risus, acrior ensis: quadragesima octava regula quaesitus – The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife: the 48th rule of acquisition

Facilius per partes in cognitionem totius adducimur – We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole. (Seneca)

Facilius est multa facere quam diu – It is easier to do many things than to do one for a long time. (Quintilianus)

Fas est et ab hoste doceri – It’s proper to learn even from an enemy. (Ovid)

Homines, dum docent, discunt – Men learn while they teach. (Seneca)

Gladiator in arena consilium capit – The gladiator is formulating his plan in the arena (i.e., too late) (Seneca)

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto – I am human, therefore nothing human is strange to me

Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas – Although the power is lacking, the will is commendable. (Ovid)

Veni, vidi, vici – I came, I saw, I conquered. (Julius Caesar)

Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor – I see the better way and approve it, but I follow the worse way

Vis consili expers mole ruit sua – Brute force bereft of wisdom falls to ruin by its own weight. (Discretion is the better part of valor) (Horace)

Vitiis nemo sine nascitur – No-one is born without faults. (Horace)

Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem – Remember when life’s path is steep to keep your mind even. (Horace)

Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero – Seize the day, leave as little as possible to tomorrow.(Horace)

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.(Horace)