It's been about a week and a half since my last massive posting spree, so I guess I owe you guys a post!
Since none of my three posts on the third were reviews of websites, I think it's about time I got back to the reviews!
Today I want to talk about easyjapanese.org, a site I mentioned last post for its kanji flashcards.
It's a very simply set -up website, but some helpful resources. Once you get past the occasional English spelling mistakes and Japanese mistakes.
The thing that appeals to me about this site right off the bat is the fact that the Writing page offers a concise explanation of the development of hiragana and katakana. I don't think any of the other pages I've reviewed so far have had this. From here you can choose to see either a simple explanation/chart of either hiragana or katakana, and from that chart see a "full" chart. I put "full" in quotations as the chart isn't completely full. But before I get into that, let me just say that they set up their chart in an odd manner. Most places set their charts with the vowels aligned, like this chart from Wikipedia:
<- The right-most column has the vowels in order A, I, U, E, O Every column left of that keeps the same vowel order, just shoves on a consonant sound before it, in the order of K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, W. So if you were to read the chart like you read the alphabet, you'd say "A, I, U, E, O, KA, KI, KU, KE, KO, SA, SHI, SU, SE, SO..." Turn it vertical, and still the same. Just gotta make sure the "A" line is to the right and work your way left to "O". easyjapanese.org has theirs running across, left-to-right, AND connects two lines. The vowel line and the "K" line end up running together, the "S" line and the "T" line as well, and so on down the chart. While not necessarily wrong, I find that it could be confusing for learners. The reason hiragana and katakana charts are set up the way they are is so learners (both Japanese children and foreigners) can more easily identify kana that end with the same vowel sound. It's also useful to have charts in this manner when learning to conjugate verbs later on.
Also, this set-up creates a problem when showing kana with diacritical marks. The "G" line, which is created by adding two marks to the upper-right of "K" line kana, appears under the vowel line, not the "K" line for easier identification. It does have all of the diacritical kana, which is a good thing, but I believe it could be set-up in a manner that's easier to understand at first glance.
Now the reason I say the charts aren't completely "full" is the chart is missing two characters. "Chi"(ち) and "Tsu"(つ) can both have diacritical marks added to them to change into "Ji"(ぢ) and "Zu/Dzu"(づ), but have been left out and turned to "S" line characters (じ and ず).
Also, when the charts list character combinations (kana ending in "I" plus a small "Y" line character), it's missing all "Mi" combinations and "Ji" combinations.
Wait, "Ji" combinations? But I see "Ja", "Ju", "Jo" right there!
Those "Ji" combinations are the most commonly seen combinations for "Ji", using "Shi" with diacritical marks. As I mentioned, this chart lacks "Chi" with diacritical marks. This is a major mistake, because despite being rarely used, it found in certain verb conjugations. It's also common for younger women and high school girls to substitute "Chi" for "Shi" when writing "Ji" in their emails and text messages. Messes me up all the time when my friends do it.
Other than those two complaints about their "full" kana charts, easyjapanese.org has one of the easiest-to-understand kana pages yet. They even offer a flash-based kana quizzes where you can test yourself. Further down the left-side navigation bar is a link to flash-based katakana memory game, a kana "Space Invaders"-inspired flash game, and a flash-based hiragana chart that lets you click on individual hiragana and see their particlar stroke orders. For beginners really looking to get a hang of hiragana, this is the site for you! The "Kana Invaders Game" is actually kind of challenging, as it gets faster as you destroy the target kana.
If you need a break from blowing up kana meteroids, there's a small page with basic useful phrases. It has your basic greetings, as well as useful phrases such as "thank you", "please", "I'm sorry", "I don't understand", etc. Under the greetings sections there's even a brief explanation of pronunciation. It's not to the extent of other websites (listing out how each of the vowels are pronounced), but it does bring up the point of the "u" sound on words ending in "su" is usually omitted, and explains elongated vowel sounds.
The one section of this site that I do have a bit of a problem with is the basic grammar page. While it does give a pretty decent basic explanation for several of the more commonly-used particles, the top section on pronouns has some mistakes. Mainly, this paragraph:
Another major mistake with their pronouns is their translation and explanation for "they". "They" can be written four ways in Japanese:
Karetachi 彼たち
Kanojotachi 彼女たち
Karera 彼ら
Kanajora 彼女ら
The two ending in "tachi" are formal, while the last two are informal and casual. "Karetachi" and "Karera" are used if there is at least one male in the "they" group, much like "Ils" is used in French for "they". However, it's not as black and white as French is. If 80% of the group is female, you're still safe using "Kanojotachi" or "Kanojora", despite males being in the group.
This site doesn't mention "Kanojora" at all, and misspells "Kanojotachi" as "Kanojochi".
Moving on to Lesson 01, we're presented with a flash-based interactive lesson.
The girl on the screen talks to you in Japanese (romaji, then kana, then English translation all in the same speech bubble), and you pick the correct response from the three given to you.
First thing I notice?
They have how you introduce yourself wrong.
After submitting your name, the girl greets you with the usual "Hajimemashite", but puts a weird space in the hiragana translation of it. It's all one word! Don't need a space in there! Once you click the right answer, she introduces herself as "Mitsuko". Both the romaji and the English have it correct (except they keep the English in the same word order as Japanese), but the hiragana adds in a "san" to her name. And in the answers, they add a "san" to your name in both the hiragana and English!
You NEVER add "san" onto your own name. Never never never. It makes you seem very full of yourself, and just isn't proper.
Small children will occasionally add "chan" or "kun" onto their own names, but quickly learn that it's not proper and by the time their 5 or 6 years of age, completely drop it off of their names.
The next screen isn't bad, but then Mitsuko tells us she's Japanese, and we have to respond back with "You are Japanese". However, you just don't do this in Japanese. Seriously. I have never heard a conversation go this way. And you most certainly try not to call someone you just met "anata", especially if you just learned their name. That's just rude.
Then the lesson ends. Leaving me with a "WTF?!" feeling. There's nowhere on the site that gives you any of the vocabulary, other than the greetings.
Looking at this "mini lesson" makes my head hurt, and makes me afraid to glance at the Numbers page. However, this isn't as bad as I expected. The numbers are presented quite well, at least up to nine. After nine, they just list out ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, and one hundred million. AFTER that, they finally tell you how to form numbers after ten. Personally, I would have listed numbers 1-20 first, to show how numbers 11-19 just add 1-9 to the end of 10, and how 20 is "two tens". They do it a bit more mathmatically, and actually give equations for numbers above 10.
Underneath the chart of 10 though 100,000,000 they state "It can be noticed that the Japanese counting is not based on the power of thousands (million, billion, trillion), but on the power of hundreds." I'm not sure if I necessarily agree with that. I think in English we tend to count by power of hundreds, which is why we can't have "one thousand millions". In Japanese, they tend to count in the thousands.
For example, let me write out how the different places are. Remember when you'd learn big numbers in elementary school and you're start at the "ones" place and counts "tens, hundreds, thousands, 10 thousands, etc"? Same thing.
Ones->1
Tens->10
Hundreds->100
Thousands->1,000
10 Thousands->10,000
100 Thousands->100,000
Millions->1,000,000
10 Millions->10,000,000
100 Millions->100,000,000
See a pattern? In English we change the counter for every 100. Now let's look at Japanese:
Ichi->1
Juu->10
Hyaku->100
Sen->1,000
Ichi man->10,000
Juu man->100,000
Hyaku man->1,000,000
Sen man->10,000,000
Ichi oku->100,000,000
In Japanese, they tend to change the counter every thousand, not every hundred like English does. 10 thousand has it's own special name, "man", that must be preceeded by "ichi". The words for 100 and 1,000 both do not need "ichi" in front of them. It's just assumed that if you don't add 2-9 in front of "hyaku" or "sen", you're only talking about one "hyaku" or one "sen".
After you reach "ichi man", you start counting 10 "man" (ten ten-thousands), 100 "man"(one hundred ten-thousands), 1000 "man", then switch from "man" to "oku" and repeat the process.
I think because of this, easyjapanese.org's explanation that the Japanese count in powers of 100 is not correct. It's actually the opposite.
All in all, easyjapanese.org offers some really useful resources. The games and quizzes to learn kana can be real useful for anyone trying to pick up the basics. The kanji flashcards I mentioned in my previous post are great for those of a more intermediate level, and need practice with kanji.
Outside of that, the site disappoints. The flash-based mini lesson has several mistakes, explanations for pronouns have mistakes or are wrong, and the number page and kana charts are just confusing.
If I had to score this site on a scale of 1 to 10 (which I should start doing for my reviews), I'd give it a 4. If it fixes the mistakes, I think I'd rate it a solid 6 or 7, but for now, it's subpar.
Since none of my three posts on the third were reviews of websites, I think it's about time I got back to the reviews!
Today I want to talk about easyjapanese.org, a site I mentioned last post for its kanji flashcards.
It's a very simply set -up website, but some helpful resources. Once you get past the occasional English spelling mistakes and Japanese mistakes.
The thing that appeals to me about this site right off the bat is the fact that the Writing page offers a concise explanation of the development of hiragana and katakana. I don't think any of the other pages I've reviewed so far have had this. From here you can choose to see either a simple explanation/chart of either hiragana or katakana, and from that chart see a "full" chart. I put "full" in quotations as the chart isn't completely full. But before I get into that, let me just say that they set up their chart in an odd manner. Most places set their charts with the vowels aligned, like this chart from Wikipedia:
<- The right-most column has the vowels in order A, I, U, E, O Every column left of that keeps the same vowel order, just shoves on a consonant sound before it, in the order of K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, W. So if you were to read the chart like you read the alphabet, you'd say "A, I, U, E, O, KA, KI, KU, KE, KO, SA, SHI, SU, SE, SO..." Turn it vertical, and still the same. Just gotta make sure the "A" line is to the right and work your way left to "O". easyjapanese.org has theirs running across, left-to-right, AND connects two lines. The vowel line and the "K" line end up running together, the "S" line and the "T" line as well, and so on down the chart. While not necessarily wrong, I find that it could be confusing for learners. The reason hiragana and katakana charts are set up the way they are is so learners (both Japanese children and foreigners) can more easily identify kana that end with the same vowel sound. It's also useful to have charts in this manner when learning to conjugate verbs later on.
Also, this set-up creates a problem when showing kana with diacritical marks. The "G" line, which is created by adding two marks to the upper-right of "K" line kana, appears under the vowel line, not the "K" line for easier identification. It does have all of the diacritical kana, which is a good thing, but I believe it could be set-up in a manner that's easier to understand at first glance.
Now the reason I say the charts aren't completely "full" is the chart is missing two characters. "Chi"(ち) and "Tsu"(つ) can both have diacritical marks added to them to change into "Ji"(ぢ) and "Zu/Dzu"(づ), but have been left out and turned to "S" line characters (じ and ず).
Also, when the charts list character combinations (kana ending in "I" plus a small "Y" line character), it's missing all "Mi" combinations and "Ji" combinations.
Wait, "Ji" combinations? But I see "Ja", "Ju", "Jo" right there!
Those "Ji" combinations are the most commonly seen combinations for "Ji", using "Shi" with diacritical marks. As I mentioned, this chart lacks "Chi" with diacritical marks. This is a major mistake, because despite being rarely used, it found in certain verb conjugations. It's also common for younger women and high school girls to substitute "Chi" for "Shi" when writing "Ji" in their emails and text messages. Messes me up all the time when my friends do it.
Other than those two complaints about their "full" kana charts, easyjapanese.org has one of the easiest-to-understand kana pages yet. They even offer a flash-based kana quizzes where you can test yourself. Further down the left-side navigation bar is a link to flash-based katakana memory game, a kana "Space Invaders"-inspired flash game, and a flash-based hiragana chart that lets you click on individual hiragana and see their particlar stroke orders. For beginners really looking to get a hang of hiragana, this is the site for you! The "Kana Invaders Game" is actually kind of challenging, as it gets faster as you destroy the target kana.
If you need a break from blowing up kana meteroids, there's a small page with basic useful phrases. It has your basic greetings, as well as useful phrases such as "thank you", "please", "I'm sorry", "I don't understand", etc. Under the greetings sections there's even a brief explanation of pronunciation. It's not to the extent of other websites (listing out how each of the vowels are pronounced), but it does bring up the point of the "u" sound on words ending in "su" is usually omitted, and explains elongated vowel sounds.
The one section of this site that I do have a bit of a problem with is the basic grammar page. While it does give a pretty decent basic explanation for several of the more commonly-used particles, the top section on pronouns has some mistakes. Mainly, this paragraph:
For "you" males can say "kimi", informally. But "kimi" is not dependent on the gender of the person to whom it relates, but on the gender of the one who talks. Only men can say that! It's a very specific feature of the Japanese language too.While "kimi" is used mainly by men, it is not a male-only pronoun. Maybe in olden times it was, but I hear women left and right using it nowadays. "kimi" is a form of "you" that is used to address children informally, and also to address others rudely. The best rule when dealing with saying "you" in Japanese is, if you know the person's name, use that instead of "anata" or "kimi". It's more polite. The Japanese don't actually like using pronouns, and many women will talk about themselves in third person rather than use a form of "I".
Another major mistake with their pronouns is their translation and explanation for "they". "They" can be written four ways in Japanese:
Karetachi 彼たち
Kanojotachi 彼女たち
Karera 彼ら
Kanajora 彼女ら
The two ending in "tachi" are formal, while the last two are informal and casual. "Karetachi" and "Karera" are used if there is at least one male in the "they" group, much like "Ils" is used in French for "they". However, it's not as black and white as French is. If 80% of the group is female, you're still safe using "Kanojotachi" or "Kanojora", despite males being in the group.
This site doesn't mention "Kanojora" at all, and misspells "Kanojotachi" as "Kanojochi".
Moving on to Lesson 01, we're presented with a flash-based interactive lesson.
The girl on the screen talks to you in Japanese (romaji, then kana, then English translation all in the same speech bubble), and you pick the correct response from the three given to you.
First thing I notice?
They have how you introduce yourself wrong.
After submitting your name, the girl greets you with the usual "Hajimemashite", but puts a weird space in the hiragana translation of it. It's all one word! Don't need a space in there! Once you click the right answer, she introduces herself as "Mitsuko". Both the romaji and the English have it correct (except they keep the English in the same word order as Japanese), but the hiragana adds in a "san" to her name. And in the answers, they add a "san" to your name in both the hiragana and English!
You NEVER add "san" onto your own name. Never never never. It makes you seem very full of yourself, and just isn't proper.
Small children will occasionally add "chan" or "kun" onto their own names, but quickly learn that it's not proper and by the time their 5 or 6 years of age, completely drop it off of their names.
The next screen isn't bad, but then Mitsuko tells us she's Japanese, and we have to respond back with "You are Japanese". However, you just don't do this in Japanese. Seriously. I have never heard a conversation go this way. And you most certainly try not to call someone you just met "anata", especially if you just learned their name. That's just rude.
Then the lesson ends. Leaving me with a "WTF?!" feeling. There's nowhere on the site that gives you any of the vocabulary, other than the greetings.
Looking at this "mini lesson" makes my head hurt, and makes me afraid to glance at the Numbers page. However, this isn't as bad as I expected. The numbers are presented quite well, at least up to nine. After nine, they just list out ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, and one hundred million. AFTER that, they finally tell you how to form numbers after ten. Personally, I would have listed numbers 1-20 first, to show how numbers 11-19 just add 1-9 to the end of 10, and how 20 is "two tens". They do it a bit more mathmatically, and actually give equations for numbers above 10.
Underneath the chart of 10 though 100,000,000 they state "It can be noticed that the Japanese counting is not based on the power of thousands (million, billion, trillion), but on the power of hundreds." I'm not sure if I necessarily agree with that. I think in English we tend to count by power of hundreds, which is why we can't have "one thousand millions". In Japanese, they tend to count in the thousands.
For example, let me write out how the different places are. Remember when you'd learn big numbers in elementary school and you're start at the "ones" place and counts "tens, hundreds, thousands, 10 thousands, etc"? Same thing.
Ones->1
Tens->10
Hundreds->100
Thousands->1,000
10 Thousands->10,000
100 Thousands->100,000
Millions->1,000,000
10 Millions->10,000,000
100 Millions->100,000,000
See a pattern? In English we change the counter for every 100. Now let's look at Japanese:
Ichi->1
Juu->10
Hyaku->100
Sen->1,000
Ichi man->10,000
Juu man->100,000
Hyaku man->1,000,000
Sen man->10,000,000
Ichi oku->100,000,000
In Japanese, they tend to change the counter every thousand, not every hundred like English does. 10 thousand has it's own special name, "man", that must be preceeded by "ichi". The words for 100 and 1,000 both do not need "ichi" in front of them. It's just assumed that if you don't add 2-9 in front of "hyaku" or "sen", you're only talking about one "hyaku" or one "sen".
After you reach "ichi man", you start counting 10 "man" (ten ten-thousands), 100 "man"(one hundred ten-thousands), 1000 "man", then switch from "man" to "oku" and repeat the process.
I think because of this, easyjapanese.org's explanation that the Japanese count in powers of 100 is not correct. It's actually the opposite.
All in all, easyjapanese.org offers some really useful resources. The games and quizzes to learn kana can be real useful for anyone trying to pick up the basics. The kanji flashcards I mentioned in my previous post are great for those of a more intermediate level, and need practice with kanji.
Outside of that, the site disappoints. The flash-based mini lesson has several mistakes, explanations for pronouns have mistakes or are wrong, and the number page and kana charts are just confusing.
If I had to score this site on a scale of 1 to 10 (which I should start doing for my reviews), I'd give it a 4. If it fixes the mistakes, I think I'd rate it a solid 6 or 7, but for now, it's subpar.
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