Hiragana Trainer Review

I was very impressed by this handy app. Not only did it have a memory game for learning the hiragana but also a place to practice the strokes from memory.
A nice feature it has is that you check the hiragana that it draws out against your own and say if it's  right or wrong. This skips the hassle of those poorly performing recognition programs. Also you can replay the hiragana being drawn out animation and scribbled on top and trace. It's  definitely worth trying, it requires you to download an Adobe app to help it but its worth it!

I'd give it an 8 out of 10 simply because it takes a bit of set up and I would  like to see a kanji or katakana version too

Reviewing hello talk

This amazing app is great. The translation is a bit spotty but it is a pretty safe way to do language exchanges. You can search for online partners to talk to and speak or text or take pictures . it's like a language learning lab crossed with Facebook messenger. I was really impressed with this app and think it will be one that falls into regular use for me. I found it's the perfect supplement to the pimsleur course I'm doing (the review of which is on this blog).

It's definitely worth checking out if only to see if it's your cup of tea. You can talk to people of different languages and see what time it is inn their part of the world. It is automatically set not to disturb you between 11pm-7am.

I've put a link below but you can find it on the google play apps market.

This is my #HelloTalk# screen. HelloTalk – Social Network for Language Learning & Exchange with native speakers. http://hellotalk.com/iOS.html

Reviewing Lingua.ly Android App for Japanese

While lingua.ly is an excellent app for learning French or other European languages it performs poorly for Japanese. 5/10

Lingua.ly

What is Lingua.ly

Lingua.ly is a free language learning app available on the google play store

Features

Dictionary: the app has a Japanese-English basic dictionary. You use this to add words to your learning list.

Read: This feature currently isn't supported for Japanese (thus the low rating) but in future hopes to provide reading materials in the target language for learners. You can browse foreign news papers by topic and add words to your learning list but like I say this has not made it to Japanese yet.

Practice: a test where the Japanese word is shown and you are asked 'Do you know this word?' assuming you say yes you are given a multiple choice answer for the English meaning.

Scoreboard: keep track on progress including your score from the past seven days, how many words you've added, how many times you've practiced and articles read.

Positive Aspects

• It has an easy to use and interact with interface.
• Appealing colour scheme
• You choose the words you want to learn
• Everything is stored in the cloud leaving space on your device
• It allows multiple languages to be learnt at once (with a little configuration).

Where it Needs to Improve

• Everything is kept on the cloud meaning internet is required to use.
• It doesn't say the words in the dictionary or give you the hiragana/katakana/romanji for you to learn pronunciation.
• No support for reading Japanese articles

After notes

This app is good for French and other European languages but has yet to impress me with Japanese

Reviewing Pimsleur

I've just finished my first week of 'Pimsleur's Japanese' a very expensive Japanese course that people speak highly of and here is my review.

Positive

Confidence Boost

It does give you an immediate confidence boost as you quickly learn words and at the end of each half hour lesson are able to understand the conversation from the start. Each lesson makes you use words you learnt in a previous lesson which helps cement them in your memory.

Listening Comprehension

It really helps understanding actual conversation at normal talking speed, they don't slow it for you so you are forced to focus.

Fun Repetition

It's very much all about repetition. However, it is delivered ina manner that makes it fun.

Quick

You progress very quickly.

Negative

Not Quite Portable

It advertises itself as something you can take anywhere and do while doing anything but I say no absolutely not. Every lesson has you speaking allowed which isn't something you can do unless you're alone without looking like you've gone cookoo. Secondly, each lesson requires focus. I couldn't even draw and do the course at the same time because it divided my attention and made words harder to learn. I made a habit of going to bed half an hour early and doing the lesson there.

No Written Work

With a language like Japanese that has three alphabets, I'm sure you can understand why not having any lessons on writing hurts.

Limited

It doesn't really cover every situation and I know it can't but I really wish I'd learnt how to ask where the bathroom is in the first lesson. Also, I'm not American but it is assumed you are in the course.

Verdict?

It would be entirely possible to rig this up yourself using smiletalk but for the sake of ease having it all preplanned is nice. I recommend practicing this in bed as part of a learning japanese diet. Crunch a few kanji before, learn your alphabets and experiment writing the sentences you learnt in pimsleur.

Narendra Modi Calls For Japanese to be Taught Online

English: Image of Narendra Modi at the World Economic Forum in India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prime minister Narendra Modi (the 15th Prime minister of India) wants Japan to take the time to create Japanese language courses online so that more people can learn the language. He said that Indian languages could also be introduced to Japan, but what prompted this?

In India they had introduced Japanese as a language to be learnt in schools. However, there was a shortage of Japanese teachers to teach the subject. If Japanese was more readily available to learn this could be prevented. Narendra Modi believes that mutual language learning support would help their countries.

Modi arrived in Kyoto on Saturday and was received by Shinzo Abe and is scheduled to hold a talk with him.

I certainly would not object to more Japanese language learning material becoming available, especially if it was free and open source and hopefully all in one place!

What support do you think the Japanese government should add?

Related articles

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• Narendra Modi visits Toji Temple with Shinzo Abe in Japan
• PM Narendra Modi reaches Japan to hold bilateral talks with Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe
• Modi for emulating Japan's education system

Get 'Write' In!

Writing down notes help your brain to remember information. You will remember note longer if you handwrite them rather than type or download the notes to read through.

The psychology of memory

The brain is divided up into different areas that deal with various tasks and problems. These may be visual or auditory stimuli or emotion or problem solving etc. These areas do communicate with eachother (for example if you hear a scream you might feel fear or if you see dog poo you might feel disgusted) but specialize in their own niche skill.

When we activate multiple areas in our learning process we are far more likely to remember the content. This is where writing comes into play, writing provides visual, kinetic and if you read out loud while you write; verbal and auditory. By activating multiple areas of the brain at once you create connections more easily which helps you remember it clearly. Listeing to your own voice is especially good for memory.

So what are you waiting for? Go write up a storm!

Brain Connections

Many people have a false belief that your brain is a library that you can keep shoving books in and expect to remember. It is not, your brain is an amazing piece of tech that remembers things by their relevance to you. That's why if I say 9/11 you think of the twin towers and not what you were wearing. The brain sorts information and creates connections and things are more easily remembered when they have multiple connections.

When I started studying physics and biology I also took some time to learn some latin roots and it has been invaluable to me for remembering terms. In my head if I hear a word that has 'photo' in it I know that photo means light so when I see photosynthesis I see the two words photo=light synthesis=unification/construction/making something and then it is easier to remember that photosynthesis is how plants make their food from light.

That is just a simple example but their are much more crazy things, for example memorizing some of the periodic table. Harry Had Little Brilliant Bananas Coming Out From Near Nanna's Mouth And She Put Some Containers And Ketchup Sideways To Virtually Corrode My Feet Cos No-one Called Zoey.

And so on, the sillier the better because now I don't need to the silly phrase to remember but it certainly helped.

Even better than that Memrise lets you create flashcards that have silly pictures to help you remember as well as phrases. I remember the one for remembering the kanji for noisy and it had three women shouting (because the kanji for noisy contains three kanji for women). Very simple but still very easy to remember.

So remember brain connections are the way to learn!

Related articles

• (Re)learning Kanji Using "Kanji in Context"
• The Different Ways To Learn Kanji, As I See It
• Resources for learning languages and culture