Learning Japanese
I will be updating Japanese learning resources from time to time. The first software I will review will be Smart.fm Japanese Core 2000
Smart.fm (formerly iKnow!) is a social learning- and community website created by Cerego Japan, Inc. The website uses intelligent software algorithms to assist users retain facts in memory and increase learning speed. Users can create, manage and share lists of facts to memorize; as well as learn a number of languages. Progress can be monitored with tests.The data is used to automatically plan a curriculum and learning strategy for the users
The Good
First off Smart.fm Japanese Core 2000 itself is a completely FREE resource. There is no download required to run it, you can register an account on Smart.fm for free and with that account you can add things you wish to study. There is plenty of things you can study not just Japanese, but the program that I will be talking about is Japanese Core 2000.
Simple overview of how Smart.fm Japanese Core 2000 works:
Smart.fm works by the user setting goals, one of these goals is the Japanese Core 2000, when you set your goal you begin to study it. Japanese Core 2000 looks something like this;
After you have set your goal to learn Japanese Core 2000 you have 3 options, 1st to start Iknow, Dictation or Brainspeed each one offers their own specialty, Iknow is the main focus with it you learn Japanese verbs/phrases hiragana/katakana and Kanji.
When you start Iknow you are given 4 option full mode, Kanji Mode, Kana Mode, Romaji Mode, each mode offer’s different things to which the user may want to study and also gauges the users Japanese abilities. When you begin the you can select 5 or 10 items to learn, you practice the 5-10 items by hearing them ( A Japanese person was voiced recorded saying all the phrases/words) and seeing them written.
After practicing the words the japanese hiragana/katakana or Kanji is displayed and you are asked do you know it. If you click no you go back to studying the word, if you chose yes you are required to pick the correct meaning from a list of 5 possible answers.
If you pick the the wrong item you are prompted to study again, if you get it right you move on to the next word. With Smart.fm you can save your progress on your account and continue again later.
The bad
- Although Japanese Core 2000 is a good software it does have some problems, the website itself can be buggy at times and Iknow can experience glitchs.
- I also find Iknow to be more focused towards speaking and hearing and less focused on reading and kanji.
There is a lot more that could be said about Smart.fm, Japanese Core 2000 and Iknow, but this guide/review is just to give your some interest about it and check it out for yourself which you can at: http://smart.fm/goals/19053
This information was created on February 4th 2010, and may not be up to date in the future.
…this is great!! ,better get started ^^
Good luck the hardest part to learning any language is to keep at it:
Best tip take it slow but keep going no point studying one week four hours a day then giving up better to study 30 minute’s a day for 1 year
No download!? Yes! This is more like it.
^^ thanks Zero ,its difficult but far from impossible… I’ll be doing the 30 minute a day schedule, I just hope to keep up…:)
[...] Iknow Japanese | Dailyotaku [...]
[...] at least it’ll beat grinding away at kanji for hours. For those studying Japanese here is a good program to check out Source number of view: 1 Share and [...]
Sounds really neat… I might try it out.