This is the Kanji Crammer application for Mac OS X. I hope you like it.

I wrote this program to prepare for the Japanese proficiency test. It is 
a slide show/flash card program. The basis for each card is to show a 
kanji or set of kanji as it is used. The alternative is to introduce each 
kanji and list all the different pronunciations for that kanji. This is too 
much information for a slide show. 

The pronunciations are given in hiragana. It is assumed that the user 
will be able to read these. The entries make use of the set of 
the almost 2,000 kanji that are called Jouyou Kanji. The biggest hurdle
in learning Kanji is to get the pronunciation right. Without the 
pronunciation, one has to use a kanji dictionary. Even with the kanji 
dictionary, one may not get an entry for the kanji combination which 
is sought. Once the pronunciation is known, one may use a regular 
Japanese/English or Japanese/Japanese dictionary to find the meaning. 

Kanji Crammer will now use Jim Breen's edict file found at:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/edict.html
Simply uncompress it and place the file "edict" in 
"~/Library/Kanji Crammer". That is in the "Kanji Crammer" 
folder in the Library folder of your home directory. 

If you're learning Chinese, you can use the cedict file found at:
http://www.mandarintools.com/cedict.html
Download the utf-8 version, place the file "cedict_ts.u8" in
"~/Library/Kanji Crammer". That is in the "Kanji Crammer" 
folder in the Library folder of your home directory.
Then go into the preferences and for the dictionary file
choose Cedict.

If you're learning English vocabulary, go to the preferences and
and choose "New Oxford" for the dictionary file. Open or create
your English decks. In the documentation, Kanji = the vocab term;
reading = pronunciation. Note: The New Oxford dictionary is only
included in MacOS 10.4.

It is easy to forget to set the dictionary file for the language
you are studying. Just remember that "edict" is for Japanese,
"cedict" is for Chinese and "New Oxford" is for English.

A new feature in the Card menu is "Display Card in dictionary." This 
will give you the same info as what is in the meaning field of the 
program but will also give you the chance to see other 
readings/meanings for the entry. In addition, there is "Find Selected
in dictionary." This will give additional examples of the selected 
character that are located in the dictionary file. You are also given
the opportunity to add the entry to the current deck.

If one wants to look up a kanji in a kanji dictionary, I have given a 
leg up by showing the radical of the selected character in the upper 
right of the window. 

A note about the choices for the vocabulary of the default deck.
Don't be deterred by native speakers who say that some of the entries
are not used in the colloquial language. The entries were chosen to
illustrate each of the readings that a character has. Remember that 
the top level proficiency test is sometimes difficult even for native
speakers.

When starting out with the program, one may want to reduce to 
standard deck by use of the grade filters. Select the filter you want
and then choose "Create from selected filter" in the deck menu. 
This reduces the main deck of 4374 entries and creates a deck of a few 
hundred entries. 

Decks can be loaded with "Open" under the Deck menu or they can be
dragged from the Finder into the deck browser. Kanji Crammer does
not make copies of these files so don't delete decks which you want
to keep. And, as always, if you put a lot of work into a deck, back up
frequently.

Record a native speaker's voice with "Train" in the Sound menu.
After choosing "Train" run the slide show and it will record
for each card. Slide show speed should be 4 or 5 seconds. Check 
occasionally at the disk usage. If you have a sound file for a 
card and it doesn't play, this may be because the duration of the
sound is longer than the slide show speed. Either increase the 
slide show speed or create a shorter duration sound file. Also, 
if the sound you're expecting doesn't play but an older one does, 
this is because you have two or more files with the same name but 
different extension. For example, foo.wav and foo.mp3. Kanji Crammer 
doesn't know which you want to play so just get rid of the one you 
don't want and then reload the sounds.

To save disk space, you can convert the wave files in the Sounds
folder to mp3 or aac. Go to the Sound menu in Kanji Crammer and
choose "Export unconverted sounds." Open up iTunes and create a
playlist called "Kanji Crammer." Drag the exported sound files 
into the new playlist. Select the files in the new playlist and 
go to the File menu and choose "Get Info." In the artist field type 
Kanji Crammer. Select the files in the playlist again and go to the 
"Advanced" menu and select "Convert Selection to MP3" or "Convert 
Selection to AAC." Then, when the conversion in done, in the Finder, 
navigate to the Kanji Crammer folder in your iTunes library and 
option drag the files into Kanji Crammer's Sounds folder. Back in 
Kanji Crammer, go to the Sound menu and choose "Delete waves in 
sounds folder." You have now saved a lot of disk space.

If you get a lot of sound files in the sounds folder and you
want to organize them, you can now export the sounds for a 
particular deck to a folder outside the sounds folder. Do this 
for each of your decks. Then you can swap the files in
and out of the sounds folder and get rid of the files you don't
want. Remember to reload the sounds after you have made
changes to the sounds folder. The sounds folder can now contain
a hierarchy of folders to help you organize the sounds.
The sounds are still flat in memory which means that two sounds
with the same name but in different folders will still both
be attached to the same card.

About speakers:
Lets say you have a deck with sounds attached to each card.
Ideally, these will be the same person's voice. If you want
to compare these with another person's voice do the following:
1) Under the deck menu, choose "Set speaker."
2) Enter the person's name.
3) Record audio for each of the cards or drag the audio onto
   each card.
Now you can compare the pronunciation of two people.
The audio files will be prefixed with the person's name.
To go back to not having speakers just leave the speaker
field blank and click "OK."

By default, when you play the slide show the meanings are not 
shown. You can change this in the Preferences. You can also 
choose to hide the readings by unchecking "Furigana" in the 
Deck menu. Use the command key equivalent "command k" for
speed if you like. Also in the Preferences is the ability to delay
the readings during the show. Also, if you delay the readings
and choose to show meanings during the show, you can choose
to show the meaning before the reading. It's a little complicated
right now; I'm working on a better interface. There are basically
two tests for knowing kanji: reading and writing. If you can 
visualize the kanji, or even write it down, only knowing reading
and the meaning, this will test your writing ability. The way
to do this is discussed below.

New in the preferences is the library domain selection. This is only
for multi-user environments. If you're working on a private
computer, you have no need to change the domain from "User."

So what is the use of domains?
In a multi-user environment, you don't have to copy files to every
machine and every user's directory. Also, if you only have one copy
of each file, you can update the file and expect everyone to get the
right copy. Also, the files in the Network or Local domain will not
get altered or erased by people who don't have permissions. The files
which currently are in the Kanji Crammer Library folder are the 
sound files and the edict file. The deck and filter files can be 
distributed normally.

A note about errors: in any publication, there will be errors. I have
looked up each of the entries in the default deck in a dictionary so
my confidence level is fairly high that there are few errors. I have
found errors in the Edict file. The best recourse for errors is to 
check multiple sources. Kanji Crammer is not a dictionary. It is 
a supplement to other materials for learning Japanese. Within the
program, there are three sources for information: the deck itself,
the edict file, and Apple's Language Analysis Manager. If all three
agree on an entry, this increases your confidence level.

Creating decks: read original materials, lookup the vocabulary terms
in a dictionary, make sure the meaning matches the context, add a
card to the new deck. Use analyze in the Card menu or lookup up the
word in a kanji dictionary to make sure you have the right
pronunciation. Checking with an educated native speaker is good also.

Formants: Ideally, Kanji Crammer would determine the formants for
you. The program hasn't progressed to that yet so you must set
the formants yourself. It takes some practice. The purpose of
the formants, is to develop a vowel chart. The vowel chart shows
the distribution of a person's vowels in a particular language.
These are speaker relative. Different people will have different
formant values and therefore a different vowel chart. However,
the distribution of the vowels within the chart should be similar
for two people who speak the same language. When learning a new
language, some vowels in that language may sound the same or may
sound like diphthongs when, in fact, they are not. The vowel chart
and spectrogram, respectively, will show this. You can find example
vowel charts on the web easily so that you will be able to check
that you're fixing the formants correctly. Later, you can record
your own voice speaking a particular language and see if the
distribution is close to what it should be.

Howto:
basic use: shuffle, show, sit back and watch for an hour or two. :) 
   Use a dictionary!

copy cards from one deck to another by dragging the card to the deck 
   listed on the left.

merge decks by dragging one on top of the other.

next: you can reduce the deck down with the "New from range" in the 
   Deck menu. 

next: check out the preferences; you'll find "Loop", "Shuffle before loop", 
   "delay kana", slide show speed and swap kanji for reading.

next: you can reduce the deck with filters; use the one's included, create 
   your own or get them from the web.

next: check out "Analyze" in the Card menu. It tells you what Apple's 
   language analysis manager says about the card. The numbers indicate
   the offset and length. For example, if the numbers after the reading 
   are "0, 3", this means that the reading applies to the first through 
   the third kanji. If the numbers are "1, 2", the reading is for the 
   second and third kanji. Offset from beginning; length from the offset.

   Analyze is good when you know one pronunciation of a kanji but are 
   not sure of the pronunciation when used in a particular combination.
   Go to "Add" in the Card menu. Type the individual kanjis in the kanji
   field then click analyze. This will even work for place names and names
   of people. Then if you don't want to add the card, just click cancel.
   
next: if you just want to practice the hiragana and you have audio, go to
   the Deck menu, uncheck "Furigana", then go into the preferences and 
   check "swap kanji for reading".

next: go into the preferences, and check the following:
   "swap kanji for reading"
   "delay reading"
   "show meaning during show"
   "show meaning before reading"
   also make sure "Furigana" is checked in the Deck menu.
   as you watch the slide show, try to visualize what the kanji is
   before it appears. Adjust the speed to suit your taste. The
   slowest speed allowed is 10 seconds. So you can also see if you 
   can write within that time. You can now also flash the reading/kanji.
   Watch it flash and after you have seen it, try to write it down.

next: if you get really good and think you know a deck well, set the 
   slide show speed to 1 second, delay the kana, and then play the show.
   Newscasters in Japan have to read difficult kanji fast, so this would 
   be good to get on par with them. : )

   Thanks for giving Kanji Crammer a try and I look forward to hearing
from you.
   Charles Higgins
   http://www.crammersoft.org/kanjicrammer.html

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