Japanese Language Tutoring Software For Lab Environments? 14
It's Freezing in here asks: "I'm involved in a study to set up a multimedia language laboratory for teaching Japanese. The most difficult aspect that I'm finding is actually locating a good software suite to supplement a Japanese language curriculum. The question of my day is: Can anybody recommend an excellent multimedia software package for teaching Japanese to foreign students (mainly Arab) in a language lab setting? It must scalable as well. I'm specifically looking for a package that includes pronunciation practice, placement testing, intro, middle and advanced levels, and tons of audio/video along with practice questions. As a benchmark, I'm using the Ellis Academic Series package. I'm well aware that most people don't gain fluency in a language by sitting in front of a computer, so please don't pound that issue. I appreciate Slashdot readers' advice. Thanks!"
Simlar (Score:5, Informative)
King Kanji (Score:1)
Their Site states...
"KingKanji is an award winning Japanese / kanji flashcard program that emphasizes writing as well as reading. It includes stroke animation and automatic feedback for over 1,200 characters including first through sixth grade Joyo kanji and kana. A flashcard may contain single or multiple kanji and kana along with the English meaning. Over 294 lessons are included and additional kanji lessons can be created using the included Lesson Editor, Microsoft Word XP/2000, or a Japanese word processor. Won 1st place! in the Association of Computing Machinery's Quest for Windows CE contest"
Although it doesn't have Japanese Arabic, it does English rather.
OS English tutors (Score:2)
Here's a good one (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Here's a good one (Score:2)
Actually, I think it's just a normal language program in English. The web page is in Arabic.
The interface is deceiving, though. You'd think, clicking on the word "Arabic" would mean it would filter out programs that were Arabic only.
But if you click on the Word "English" at the top, you see the same product, same product id. Only now all the descriptions and links on the page are in English, not Arabic.
Software specifically designed to teach Japanese to Arabs would be cool, but I'm not sure that many on-English language to non-English language software packages exist.
Like it or not, English now appears to be the lingua franca (pun intended) of the world.
this might work (Score:2)
I haven't used it, but it looks like a decent product, if you search some, you can probably find a better description, but i don't care.
Not to nitpick... (Score:2)
That should be konnichi, not konishi.
Anyway, some friends of mine at Michigan State developed this game [msu.edu], a useful Kanji flashcard game. Something like this with a larger vocabulary and a better-rounded dictionary (some characters only have the on-reading or the kun-reading, but not both) would be an excellent tool to work with in a student lab.
Jim Breen's Japanese page (Score:1)
I doubt that much of this stuff is multimedia, but one site you should definitely look at is Jim Breen's Japanese page [monash.edu.au].
Jim Breen is the guy behind the EDICT Japanese/English dictionary file, which powers a lot of open-source Japanese-learning software (including mine [sourceforge.net]).
His website has a bunch of useful links in a variety of categories, including literature, educational resource, and software - both free and commercial.
Two of the free software projects especially worth mentioning are JGloss [sourceforge.net] and Rikai.com [rikai.com]
The most hugely effective way of learning language (Score:1)
... that I know of is The Pimsleur Tapes [pimsleur.com], though get 'em in CDs...
Pimsleur realized that we don't learn language as children by writing, by rote, by lists, or any of that junk, and realized that sound-forms and meaning-patterns were key ( any mother could have told him half of this, at least, but chauvanism enforces ignorance to protect its 'authority' and 'ass-umption', and yeah, I battle with my ignorance too: I'm criticizing the mechanism-of-ignorance, not some-ones who have it... )
Therefore, he made a language-learning program based on learning language the way we are born to.
Their "travellers" editions are 8 tapes, 16 lessons, and aren't enough for more than "oh, I'm going through the province/prefecture/canton of XYZYZ, and need to be able to get by...", but I gather that their Level 3 course is good-enough to be able to understand basic philosophy-discussion and carry oneself in business negotiation...
Also, it used to be that one could buy individual units ( Tape 1 French, ferinstance ), so one could get a tape to discover how stunningly effective it is, compared with Standard Model language-training, ring 'em up and ask 'em if that's still on...
Damn! I just hit that link, and they've stuck the first lesson of Spanish for speakers-of-American online ( no I don't know if it's Latin American Spanish or European Spanish, and IIRC they had both, years ago ), it's up in Real Audio, so you can get a taste for the effectiveness of it...
Part of the staggering effectiveness of it, is .. it is using the same hear-a-sound-form, do-the-sound-form, hear-more-sound-form, do-more-sound-form, associate-it-with-meaning, syncopate-practice so meaning/sound-form units get imprinted in long-term-memory... that got us our own language ( another part of it is the lesson-length, not insufficient, not over-training )
Yes I know that you said this was for Arabic speakers, but I want you to know about the difference between easily effective language-training and the standard stuff, and I know they used to do commissions ( the language Twi was one commissioned by the Red Cross, I believe ), and I want your results to be good.
I hope you find good means, get good results, and create good luck.
What you want is Power Japanese (Score:2)
It shows up on eBay these days.
There aren't any. (Score:2)
You must understand that the Japanese, despite their reputation, are technophobic, particularly older Japanese. The current crop of teachers are from the pre-computer era and have been notoriously slow to adopt ANY computer tools into the curriculum. Let me give you an example. When Netscape 2 came out with Japanese support for the first time (1993 I think), I arranged a demonstration on how to read the Asahi Shimbun online, in our school's computer lab. When I discussed the plan with the lab manager, she had a fit. How DARE I put such a frivolous application as a web browser on their computers! Everyone knows that web surfing is not a serious academic application of computers! I was only permitted to perform the demo if I agreed to remove Netscape afterwards.
Anyway, the tools situation is better at higher levels. Japan is one of the most wired countries, it has incredible amounts of text and video available online. There is a wealth of native language materials online that are excellent for improving fluency. But nothing out there will translate it for you automatically, the auto-glossing tools like WWWJDIC are intended to supplement your own language skills.
Best Japanese language teaching open-source s/w (Score:1)
The best open-source software I've seen for teaching the basics of Japanese writing are:
Hanzim [freshmeat.net] - Score: Excellent
Kanatest [freshmeat.net] - Score: Very Good
The calligraphy is very good too.