{"id":1607,"date":"2010-08-14T02:44:12","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T17:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-08-14\/1607"},"modified":"2010-08-14T02:44:12","modified_gmt":"2010-08-13T17:44:12","slug":"arent-there-any-ipad-apps-to-help-japanese-kids-study-kanji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2010-08-14\/1607","title":{"rendered":"Aren&#8217;t There Any iPad Apps to Help Japanese Kids Study Kanji?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<div class='resize_warning' id='arw1607'>\n<b>NOTE<\/b>: Images with an <img class='raw' width='19' height='18' src='\/i\/s\/red_zoomup.gif'\/> icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>I think I'm going to have to get into iPad app development... <span class='nobr'>I just can<\/span>'t find the flashcard-type app <span class='nobr'>I know<\/span> should exist: to help Japanese\nkids study kanji (&#8220;Chinese characters&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n<p>There are about 2,000 <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kanji\">kanji<\/a> that an <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanji\">educated Japanese\nuses<\/a> on <span class='nobr'>a daily<\/span> basis, and Japanese kids start learning in first grade. <span class='nobr'>The Japanese<\/span> Ministry of Education sets out exactly <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ky%C5%8Diku_kanji\">which characters are\nlearned<\/a> in each of the first six years of grade school (currently 80\ncharacters in first grade, 160 in second grade, and so on).<\/p>\n\n<p>By the time kids start learning kanji in the middle of first grade, they\nalready know how to write the entire language in the simple, purely-phonetic <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kana\">kana<\/a> scripts, so learning kanji\nis an exercise in replacing the appropriate phonetic parts with kanji, as they\nget to them throughout the school years.<\/p>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n  span.o1607, span.c1607 { color:#555 }\n<\/style>\n\n<p>For example &#8220;summer vacation&#8221; is <i>natsuyasumi<\/i>, and any mid-year first grader\nwould be able to read or write it phonetically as\n\n\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u306a\u3064\u3084\u3059\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span>.<\/span>\n\nThe character for the &#8220;vacation&#8221; part is a\n<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ky%C5%8Diku_kanji#First_grade_.2880_kanji.29\">first-grader kanji<\/a>, so some time\nduring first grade they'll learn to write the vacation part like\n\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u4f11\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span><\/span>\ninstead of\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u3084\u3059\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span>,<\/span>\n\nso &#8220;summer vacation&#8221; becomes read\/written as\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u306a\u3064\u4f11\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span><\/span>,\nat least until they learn the character for &#8220;summer&#8221; as well.<\/p>\n\n<p>The character for &#8220;summer&#8221;,\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u590f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span>,<\/span>\nis a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ky%C5%8Diku_kanji#Second_grade_.28160_kanji.29\">second-grader kanji<\/a>,\nso once they learn that, &#8220;summer vacation&#8221; finally becomes read and written as the\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span><span class='nobr'>\u590f\u4f11<\/span>\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span><\/span>\nthat adults use.<\/p>\n\n<p>So, anything that helps Japanese kids study kanji must take into account\nnot only what grade they're in, but how far along in the year they are....\nif <span class='nobr'>a second<\/span>-grade class hasn't yet gotten to the character for &#8220;summer&#8221; in\ntheir curriculum, you would quiz with\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u306a\u3064\u4f11\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span>,<\/span>\nbut starting on the day\nthey study the character for &#8220;summer&#8221;, you need to quiz on\n<span class='nobr'><span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span><span class='nobr'>\u590f\u4f11<\/span>\u307f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span>.<\/span>\nSimply breaking up the\nquiz into grades (&#8220;first-grader quiz&#8221;, &#8220;second-grader quiz&#8221;) is helpful\nonly after they've completed the year. (Anthony loves the <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/app.gadget-app.com\/article\/31772744.html\">Mojipa game<\/a>, but can't\nplay the second-grader version because he's still <b>in<\/b> second grade and so far has studied\nonly some of the characters that pop up.)<\/p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, each kanji can have multiple meanings and readings\n(&#8220;sounds&#8221;), and they're not all necessarily learned at the same time,\nso while Anthony has already learned that &#8220;summer&#8221;\n<span class='nobr'>,<span class='o1607'>\u300c<\/span>\u590f<span class='c1607'>\u300d<\/span>,<\/span>\nfills in for <i>natsu<\/i>, he hasn't yet learned that it can also fill in as\n<i>ga<\/i> in some words. So, anything that helps Japanese kids study kanji\nneeds to take this into account as well.<\/p>\n\n<p>A good study app would quiz the kid on words that use kanji in <span class='nobr'>a ways<\/span>\nappropriate to their specific location in the school year, using <span class='nobr'>a large<\/span>\nlist of common words and phrases, quizzing both kanji&rarr;kana,\nkana&rarr;kanji, with standard flashcard stuff like repeating new or\noft-missed items more often than others. <span class='nobr'>It would<\/span> quiz reading and writing,\nkanji production and recognition. <span class='nobr'>And be fun<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n<p>There are about seven million Japanese elementary kids, every single one\nof which could benefit from something like this, and many with parents more\nthan willing to spend whatever is required to help educate their kids.\nPersonally, if it were well done, <span class='nobr'>I'd easily<\/span> pay $100 for an app like this.\nGetting the parents of just 1 in 1,000 to buy it at that price would net\n$700,000, as would getting 1 in 100 to buy at $10.<\/p>\n\n<p>I'm way to busy with Lightroom to think about climbing the learning\ncurve of Apple App development.... is there no one up to the challenge that\n<span class='nobr'>I can<\/span> give my money to?<\/p>\n\n<p>(I know it's probably not effective ranting in English on my blog, but that's all I've got.)<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think I'm going to have to get into iPad app development... I just can't find the flashcard-type app I know should exist: to help Japanese kids study kanji (\"Chinese characters\").<\/p> <p>There are about 2,000 kanji that an educated Japanese uses on a daily basis, and Japanese kids start learning in first grade. The Japanese Ministry of Education sets out exactly which characters are learned in each of the first six years of grade school (currently 80 characters in first grade, 160 in second grade, and so on).<\/p> <p>By the time kids start learning kanji in the middle of first [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}