Tool Pack – Part 2

This post was due ages ago, but it's finally time to introduce some more tools for keeping your Japanese studies going smoothly.

kanji.koohii.com (Reviewing the Kanji) – This website is king when it comes to learning the kanji with Heisig. As such, I have already mentioned it in the post about learning the kanji, but it's such an amazing tool it deserves mentioning again. This site consists of a study section, where you can write your own mnemonic stories for each kanji or pick from the ranked stories that other users have posted. Using the stories other people have made can make the Heisig learning experience so much faster. The site also tracks your reviews and new cards, just like an SRS, so you'll always know what to review!

Tatoeba – This website is another sentence collecting resource. When adding new words to your SRS, it's best to have them in a sentence so that you can see how the word is used and not just be cramming definitions. Tatoeba will help you out with finding good sentences because, well, it's a massive collection of sentences! If you're looking for another source of sentences, give this site a try.

Lang-8 – I've also mentioned Lang-8 before, but to keep resources close together it's getting posted again. Lang.8 is a website for language exchange, but in a more open form. You write journal entries in the language you are learning, then native speakers of that language see it and correct your errors. You can then return the favor and correct journal entries written in your own native language. It's a great opportunity to get some practice writing Japanese without having to hunt down a good language partner. Some members are also open to using video chat for speaking practice, so you can make some friends and get in a lot of practice.

Sound Effect Translation – While I am a major believer in learning a language through monolingual methods, when it comes to sound effects that can be a bit tough. While words are abstract, sound effects often take it to another level entirely. Thus, this website can make it a bit easier to figure out just what all of those sound effects mean.

And thus the second tool pack post is completed! I'll most likely be making another at some point, as there are always new fancy tools to be found!

Missed the first of this series? Jump over to the first tool pack!

Related Articles:

• Tool Pack Part 1
• A Chance for Output  
• Anki Deck - JLPT Vocabulary
• Learn the Kana with Anki
• Building Vocabulary with an SRS
• The Ultimate Portable Dictionary