I've been learning Japanese for a while now, and needed a better way to learn the characters that I don't yet know. Repeatedly going through a list means you learn the sequences, rather than the individual letters. So I've made a page that displays characters randomly. It lets you choose to practice Hiragana, Katakana or both at once and gives you a score. Maybe one day I'll move onto Kanji…
Writing a page with foreign scripts in was interesting. Once I'd worked out how to actually enter the characters, the most peculiar problem was a PHP oddity: The Katakana character for “so” seems to cause a PHP syntax error if it's used within PHP (eg, if you try and assign it to a variable, or use it in an array). All the other characters were fine.
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anno at 2 Oct 2003, 2:27pm. Permalink
makes me want to learn japanese
セオドアブラウン at 9 Dec 2003, 10:29pm. Permalink
Neat page, I can see it being really helpful as a replacement for the flash cards that I use to keep me sharp in katakana. I might even show it to Kawamura-sensee next time I see him. I do have one suggestion though:
I do not know PHP at all, but I wonder if it would be difficult for you to also allow use of other romazi systems such as Shin-kunrei-shiki which provides a romanization that bears a much more direct relation to Japanese structure than Hepburn which is based on Western languages. If you ever decide to add Shin-kunrei-shiki to your program, I would be more than happy to help you.
E-mail: uf_nihongo84@gawab.com
Phil at 10 Dec 2003, 12:20am. Permalink
Yes, it would be possible, and I'd like to do this when I can find the time - it's currently just a quick thing I built for me and hope others find useful.
However, I don't know much about the different systems, so if you can point me at any resources that show the alternatives I'd be very grateful!
Patrick Heenan at 5 Jan 2004, 6:15pm. Permalink
Sorry to be a pedant, but katakana and hiragana are *not* “alphabets”, they're syllabaries. Calling them “alphabets” may actually make it harder to learn them, since the word may help to set up an unconscious block against the practice (unfamiliar to westerners and many other non-Japanese) of writing and reading syllable by syllable, instead of letter by letter.
But that's trivial, really: more importantly, congratulations on, and thanks for, this practice page, and, by the way, the Pepys Diary site too.
Happy New Year!
Julie at 6 Jan 2004, 5:19pm. Permalink
Thanks for the great practice page! I'm at my second year of study (part time) and I was stuck in a pattern, wondering what I could do to add a little challenge and not get too rusty. Your practice page came in handy.
I'll be sure to show this to my colleagues & my sensei.
Arigatou!
Jeff at 30 Jan 2004, 11:21pm. Permalink
Just found the random character test page and had to thank you for creating it. I've recentely taught myself Hiragana and taking this test daily will help keep them fresh in my mind as I start on Katakana next.
Nick San at 12 Feb 2004, 1:41pm. Permalink
Phil San - great stuff - just what I need - see you at class!
Daniel at 8 Feb 2005, 1:25pm. Permalink
Love the practice page! Had some free time so i learnt the hiragana syllabery yesterday. I was testing myself today when the character “wo” appeared. I typed in “wo” but i was told i was wrong several times. I was just wondering whether there is a mistake in the software, if not, then i'm very sorry sorry, was probably just my internet going wrong.
Daniel at 8 Feb 2005, 1:48pm. Permalink
Hi. I just realised that “wo” can also be the symbol for “o”. It was my fault, so i apologise. The site makes for really good practice though. thanks
Justin Pedigo at 13 Sep 2005, 5:24am. Permalink
I noticed on Hu/Fu you only allow for Fu to be the correct romaji. I'm still a first year student (three weeks into the class), but aren't hu and fu both exceptable?
Phil at 13 Sep 2005, 8:19am. Permalink
I think there are different ways of interpreting the characters. It's a pretty simply page, so it only accepts one of the options.
Adam at 1 Feb 2006, 4:15pm. Permalink
Hey, Patrick Heenan. Katakana and hiragana *are* alphabets. An alphabet is just a set of written characters that represent spoken sounds. The fact that hiragana and katakana characters represent entire syllables instead of a single sound doesn’t change that.
Stuart Locke at 5 Mar 2006, 2:05am. Permalink
Great job. Very useful.
Perhaps this is unreasonable, but it would be great if you could also do this for Greek and Cyrillic.
Carl at 21 Jun 2006, 4:53am. Permalink
Extremely helpful in all aspects. I support the request of adding other romanji systems, but of course that could be asking too much XD.
Martin at 24 Aug 2006, 2:19pm. Permalink
The system displays the incorrect hiragana for “cho”.
Phil Gyford at 24 Aug 2006, 2:28pm. Permalink
Thanks Martin - I must have introduced that error last week when I moved servers and had to re-do all the characters due to some file corruption. It's fixed now.
Bill Ash at 27 Aug 2006, 8:28pm. Permalink
Phil,
Was using your fantastic Kana practice utility and ran into a problem when the katakana “shu” came up. Entered “shu” and was told that it was wrong. Hmmm….but it must be right! Tried “syu” on the odd chance, but that was wrong too. Now I'm stuck, and cannot skip the question…a nice feature to have. Just for kicks I entered “ju”, in case the (“) was missing…..and that was it! The “correct” answer according to the program was “ju”….but that is incorrect….it should be “shu”. Perhaps the same problem as Martin had with the hiragana “cho”?
At any rate, thanks for this fantastic tool! As it is not multiple choice, it really tests your knowledge of the kana! And agree wholeheartedly about studying “lists”…..
Looking forward to introductory kanji someday?!?!
Bill
Bill Ash at 27 Aug 2006, 8:40pm. Permalink
Phil,
Sorry…seems to be the same with the katakana “sho” (ショ). Must enter “jo” to get the “correct” answer. I imagine that “sha” (シャ) will need to be answered with “ja”, as I'm not sure if I've come across it yet.
Thanks,
Bill
Martin at 28 Aug 2006, 4:18pm. Permalink
I had “sho” displayed twice in the katakana test.
Once it took “sho” and the other time it wanted “jo”, even though the same katakana symbol was displayed both times (ショ).
Where it wants “jo”, change the シ to ジ and it'll be fine.
Same little mix-up with “shu”.
I believe “sha” is fine though.
Phil Gyford at 29 Aug 2006, 8:25am. Permalink
Bill, Martin - sorry about the mix up. I was obviously using too small text when I re-entered the characters recently! I've corrected those now, so it should all be fine. Hopefully! Thanks for pointing these things out.
Martin at 3 Sep 2006, 11:43am. Permalink
One last observation I made while taking the kana test.
If you get the first 101 symbols right, the system stops there and fails to display the 102nd symbol. As you know there are 102 syllables in the japanese language.
It seems the system “forgets” one of them if you get to 101 without making a mistake. I wonder if it's the same symbol each time or a random one.
This little quirk applies to both the hiragana and the katakana test.
Mila at 19 Sep 2006, 7:51am. Permalink
sorry, I am new here, this practice is just great!!! But I got really stuck on じよ.
thank you !!!
Shirubi at 13 Nov 2006, 5:14pm. Permalink
I have not memorized all of the hiragana yet and the block feature is frustrating to say the least. Can't we just choose to get it wrong? Nice concept though, but it just doesnt work for everyone.
James at 5 Dec 2006, 8:57pm. Permalink
Fantastic practise page! Thank you so much for making it. There are many online flash card games to help you memorizes the Hiragana and Katakana but all seem to suck. This is simple and clear. I use it everyday!!!
However have you considered including some of the modern katakana combinations such as va, vi, vu, ve, vo? There are also 12 more combination characters (tsa, di, du, tso etc) that could also be included.
Phil Gyford at 7 Dec 2006, 3:48pm. Permalink
James — we didn't cover those combinations when I was learning Japanese, so I never thought to include them. I'm no longer learning so I'm afraid I probably won't get round to including them. I'm glad you like it all the same.