Android Kanji App

Kanji Sketch Pad has changed a lot since this blog was set up. The primary site for all information about the Kanji Sketch Pad is now: http://kanjisketchpad.com/

The main news is that KSP is now available on Android. It is available in the Google Play Store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cerebware.kanjisketchpad.app

A demo of the basic features can be fond on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LueOvqSJLA

New Site

This blog is not maintained - it was only intended as a temporary stop-gap until I set up a proper support forum. I've been giving support via email but I will be phasing that out so that other users can get the explanation, not just the person who asked me the question.

From now on, all support will be at this site:

kanjisketchpad.com

If you are directed here by old versions of the program, please bookmark the new site. The latest version is 2.912, and you should upgrade if you are using any older release.

Cheers,

Craig.

Radicals - Sneak Peek

Hi Beta Testers,

The radical-feature is nearly complete, but has not been tested on a naive computer. It relies on a specific radical-capable font, Code2000, which will need to be installed prior to use. The program should take care of the details, but there are bound to be a couple of problems to sort out when tried on different systems.

If you are prepared to test what might be a rough version, the download link is here. Please report any problems. This is version 2.749, and the debugged version will be 2.75.

If you need the Code2000 font, and cannot get it automatically within the program or manually from the Cerebware site, another link is here.

This version still contains a couple of minor faults that are on my to-do list:
- a couple of kanji need to have their vectors tidied up because of unwanted intersections
- the RTK keyword needs to be added during MCQ testing
- the filename of newly-opened text files in the Text Editor needs to be updated
- the backup of the main vocab file needs to be fine-tuned, which is only a problem if you are changing filenames

One feature, the 'learner profile', has been partially introduced. The GUI features have been created but, in this version, do not yet modify the actual learnng settings. This will be sorted out in version 2.76.

If you find other problems with this version, please report them below.

Cheers,

Craig.

Reviewing/Remembering the Kanji (RTK) Links

Kanji.Koohii.com
Some of you are already using this site for extra information about the kanji you are learning. One of the best features of this site is the shared 'stories' or mnemonics, which are ranked by other users of the site so you can quickly find the popular ones. Registration is free, so you might as well join.

Within the Kanji Sketch Pad, the Internet button offers you a chance to get to the stories for your current kanji with a single mouse click. First you need to add the site to your list of sites within the file KanjiWebsites.txt. (In fact, the address is already there - all you have to do is removed the angled brackets to activate the link. The reason I've added this step is that registration at koohii is necessary before using the site.). Then you can cut and paste your favourite stories straight into the Kanji Sketch Pad.

RTK Reviews
While browsing, I have also come across a couple of reviews of the RTK method. These reviews don't refer to the Kanji Sketch Pad, but do describe many of the ideas behind the KSP approach. If you are just starting out, and find the idea of learning 2000 kanji daunting, these reviews might help you decide on the method that suits you...

Review 1
Review 2

5 Biggest Mistakes
You might find this link interesting, too. Are you making any of these mistakes? Does the Kanji Sketch Pad encourage any of these mistakes? Do you even agree with the list?

Last known stable version - 2.742

So far, reports on Version 2.742 indicate that it is stable, with very few stalls or glitches. No doubt it does have some minor problems, but I am going to leave a link to it here in case future versions cause people trouble.

Known Issues:
- a couple of kanji need to have their vectors tidied up because of unwanted intersections
- the RTK keyword needs to be added during MCQ testing
- the filename of newly-opened text files in the Text Editor needs to be updated
- the backup of the main vocab file needs to be fine-tuned, which is only a problem if you are changing filenames

You can get a copy here.

Radicals

Version 2.75 introduces radicals - when each kanji is introduced, the component radicals will be displayed at the bottom of the mnemonic window. Hovering over those radicals will display their names. Clicking on any of those radicals will cause the browser to open up to this post. If the radicals are also kanji in their own right, then the relevent page from jisho.org will be loaded as well. Clicking on the radical button will open a small window displaying the kanji, its radicals, and the names of the radicals in Japanese and English.

Please coment below this post to report any mistakes you find in the radical list for any kanji, or to request the addition of new radicals.

Later versions will link each radical to a more specific page dedicated to that radical, as well as to a more general tutorial on radicals and how they can be used, so in many ways this post is a temporary placeholder.

Please send me an email if you would like to test the radical feature before I release it.

Version 2.74

This version fixes the known bugs in 2.73 and 2.72, but may still have minor issues.

Download here. (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3155259/KanjiPad%202.742.zip)

Please report any new problems.

Version 2.72 available - now 2.73

Version 2.72 is NO LONGER available from the main Cerebware website, but 2.73 is available via Softpedia, and will soon be available Cerebware as well.

Licences for the full version are FREE if you are prepared to be a beta tester - just send me your user number.

Version 2.72 added a new list view, a new usage-preferences dialog, grid-lines on right-clicking a blank page, undo facilities in the text editor (Ctrl-Z or Shift-Ctrl-Z) and a few other minor enhancements. Details to follow.

Version 2.73 added one round of bug fixes, but not enough! Version 2.74 will be a bug-fix release, hopefully in the next couple of days.The only new feature is a modification of the 'Claim' button so that you can declare a known item to be easy, which has the effect of increasing its review interval.

Version 2.75 will start to add radical/primitive information for each kanji.

List View

Version 2.72 is nearly ready for testing.

It offers a few new features, one of which is an improved List view...

Within this window, it is possible to import individual items to specific locations (above or below the currently selected item, as shown with the horizontal black arrow). Items can be moved up or down the list (curved arrows), or cut and then pasted in a new location (the scissors). Clicking on the left-most button switches to the standard vocab management window where you can import multiple items at once from a .lst file.

The search function (magnifying glass) allows you to find items within your list by typing any part of the item. If the first item found is not the one you want, click it again.

Please report any bugs you find.

Bugs in 2.69 - 2.72

 Please report any bugs or feature-requests in versions 2.69 to 2.72 as comments here. You could email me if you prefer, but it could be worth getting the views of other users.

Please note that licences for the full version are still free for beta testers so, if you are prepared to give feedback, just send me your user number for a free licence.

MCQ Window

There is a feature of the MCQ window that is worth knowing, but is poorly documented, and until I put some context-sensitive tips within the program, I thought I'd spell it out here...

The MCQ window pauses after showing you the answer, so you can study the answer an commit it to memory. It goes away eventually, but it is quite slow.

If you want to get rid of it immediately, just click the answer again.

Version 2.68

Version 2.68 is available for testing, but might be a bit rough. When it is stable and bug-free, I will release it to the public but I would prefer it if a few users tested it out first, if anyone is willing.

Please email me for a download link.

Amongst other improvements, it has two new graphing modes to show you your progress and the state of your memory model. Just click on the main graph to cycle through the other graphs.

If you find any bugs, please just post them here as a comment.

Progress Report

Hi everyone,

There has not been a new release in a little while but that merely reflects the fact that I'm currently going through the Henshall list of 1,945 kanji, making sure that the kanji are in the correct sequence and checking the definitions for duplicates. This work should be finished in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, I have kanji lists for 'Reviewing the Kanji' (RTK) and also the KanjiDamage website, which will be made available for people studying from those sources.

A new feature of the upcoming version is that the RTK keyword will be displayed alongside the current Henshall-supplied or user-supplied definitions, to help disambiguating duplicates. Another new feature is a duplicate-cleanup tool that will flag (and remove if necessary) duplicated kanji and allow modification of duplicate keywords. This is very helpful for cases where the original Henshall definitions have more than one kanji for, say, 'child' or 'village'. One great advantage of learning the RTK keywords is that they are guaranteed to be unique, with exactly one kanji per keyword and vice versa.

Finally, I have added another new feature that makes life a bit easier when you are attempting complex kanji. If you get five strokes in a row correct, then you get an error credit, which shows up as a blue square below the drawing page. Your first error cancels out one credit, and so on. This means you won't be penalised if, in a 19-stroke kanji, your hand slips and you draw one line too short. It does mean that an occasional kanji is marked as known where you didn't quite know all the strokes, but you do still have to redraw wrong strokes so your knowledge will move forward. Your time is better spent learning new kanji than getting every stroke 100% perfect.

I found this last feature very useful when I was trying to catch up from a position that was 80+ kanji behind my target of 50 kanji per week. I'm now at 350+ kanji, ten ahead of target, despite taking a couple of weeks of to program.

There are also some improvements to the beginner-friendly IME, which will be the subject of another post.

Please continue to report any bugs, preferably here but by private email if you prefer.

Kanji Vectors That Need Fixing

The following kanji have issues with unwanted or awkward intersections:


聞 : hear
原 : plain ; field ; origin
弟 : younger brother

They can still be drawn but the second stroke of the 'ear' radical and the second stroke of 'field' have to be started right on the line before; you'll almost certainly pick up an error dot or two. The last stroke of younger brother starts on the line.

These will be fixed in the next version.

Please report any other oddities in the vector data.

PS.原 : plain ; field ; origin  and 弟 : younger brother are actually okay - they were affected by a rounding error, rather than a faulty vector set. The problem with 聞 is that the second last stroke must cross the vertical, not just start near it. This will be fixed in the new vector data set.

Bug Reports 2.6x

Please add a comment here if you find a bug.

Text Editor

The Kanji Sketch Pad now has a built in Text Editor and although it still needs a couple of refinements it is a handy way to write kanji before you know how they are pronounced.


Version 2.62 allows you to specify the font for kanji, kana and English - this is accessible through the Usage Preferences, because it primarily affects the appearance of the Usage pop-ups. The same fonts are used in the Text Editor. The kanji are coloured to make them easier to find when scanning though a long list.

Gotta agree with this

Stumbled across this page, and agree with the sentiment. You should own Japanese books before you can read them. Even though the Sketch Pad is built around memorising kanji in isolation, it should be followed up as soon as possible with actual attempts to decode Japanese text.

Version 2.6 ready

Beta version 2.6 is ready for testing. It works well on my system but it has not been extensively tested so I am not releasing it for general use just yet. Please contact me if you are prepared to put it through its paces looking for problems.

A sneak preview of new features:

• Comes with a built in text editor for writing your own lists or writing a short note in Japanese using Cerebware's beginner-friendly input method. Type [water] for 水, for instance, as explained here.
• Allows you to add mnemonic pictures for any kanji, not just when preparing the initial list but at any later time.
• New start-up screen with the ability to modify your target, resort your vocabulary, or import a number of differently arranged kanji lists.

Note that it is recommended that you make a backup copy of your vocab file (KanjiPad.voc) and put it in a safe place prior to testing any new release.

P.S. After some useful feedback, a few changes have been made. They are incorporated into Version beta 2.61.

Changes to the Joyo Kanji

Many kanji lists in cyberspace still only show the 1,945 kanji that were on the official list for many years. Recently, several new kanji were added and 5 kanji were removed.

The new kanji are listed here. (http://www.kanjiclinic.com/listshinjoyocompounds.htm)

 They will be offered as a separate importable list for those who already have their preferred list of the original 1945 and just want to make it complete.

Obento Sequence

A popular Japanese textbook series in Australia is the Obento series. A kanji list can be found in Part D of the following Word Document (Obento Course Summary ) and is reproduced below:

One virtue of this sequence is that it offers a graded increase in number of strokes, and hence difficulty. Version 2.6 will offer this list as a start-up option but if anyone wants this list now, please let me know.

1    一
2    七
3    九
4    二
5    人
6    入
7    八
8    十
9    万
10    三
11    上
12    下
13    千
14    口
15    土
16    夕
17    大
18    女
19    子
20    小
21    山
22    川
23    才
24    々
25    中
26    五
27    今
28    元
29    公
30    六
31    内
32    円
33    分
34    化
35    区
36    午
37    友
38    天
39    少
40    心
41    手
42    文
43    方
44    日
45    月
46    木
47    止
48    水
49    火
50    父
51    牛
52    犬
53    仕
54    兄
55    冬
56    出
57    北
58    半
59    去
60    古
61    右
62    四
63    外
64    左
65    市
66    広
67    本
68    正
69    母
70    生
71    田
72    白
73    目
74    立
75    休
76    会
77    先
78    全
79    同
80    名
81    地
82    多
83    好
84    字
85    安
86    寺
87    州
88    年
89    早
90    有
91    次
92    毎
93    気
94    百
95    耳
96    肉
97    自
98    色
99    行
100    西
101    近
102    住
103    体
104    何
105    作
106    売
107    弟
108    来
109    男
110    町
111    社
112    私
113    花
114    見
115    言
116    赤
117    足
118    車
119    近
120    事
121    京
122    使
123    和
124    国
125    夜
126    妹
127    姉
128    始
129    学
130    店
131    所
132    明
133    東
134    林
135    歩
136    泊
137    物
138    知
139    空
140    英
141    金
142    長
143    雨
144    青
145    乗
146    前
147    南
148    室
149    屋
150    待
151    後
152    思
153    急
154    持
155    春
156    昼
157    洋
158    洗
159    活
160    海
161    発
162    県
163    神
164    秋
165    科
166    茶
167    通
168    食
169    勉
170    員
171    夏
172    家
173    島
174    帰
175    旅
176    時
177    書
178    校
179    病
180    紙
181    通
182    週
183    都
184    院
185    馬
186    高
187    動
188    強
189    教
190    族
191    理
192    終
193    週
194    道
195    達
196    都
197    雪
198    魚
199    黒
200    場
201    晩
202    朝
203    森
204    番
205    着
206    買
207    道
208    達
209    間
210    飯
211    飲
212    働
213    園
214    新
215    楽
216    漢
217    話
218    電
219    様
220    聞
221    語
222    読
223    銀
224    駅
225    曜