uick Tutorial

 I hear and I forget
 I see and I remember
 I do and I understand
  - old Chinese proverb

The following tutorial examples will walk
you through various basic procedures
which illustrate the use of the program. 

We start with finding entries in the dictionary since this skill is fundamental to using the system.

 
You can search for a word by its Kana, Kanji, English definition or word type by entering this information in the Find Word dialog and clicking the Spyglass button. The following examples assume that the 'Cartoon sample', 'Kyôiku Grade 1 sample'  and 'Basic sample' dictionary files are the only ones in the dictionary list (the demo program is shipped with this setup).

As a first example, type 'ichi' in the Kana text box and click the Spyglass button (see figure 1 below). The dictionaries will be scanned and 6 entries should be displayed in the output list. Notice that each word is color-coded and shown in full Japanese script starting from left to right with its Kanji, Kana, English and word type (in square brackets). The operation you've just performed is equivalent to looking up a Japanese word in a printed Kana dictionary, but it's taken only seconds to find matching dictionary entries, and you didn't have to turn a single page.

The names of the dictionaries that the computer searched through (when you pressed the Spyglass button) are shown in the Search list. Each dictionary in this list was scanned in turn, starting from the top entry. You can look at and change the search list by selecting Search list... from the Dictionary menu (retain the current search list settings for the time being). Note: all dictionary files must reside in the Dictionaries folder - this ensures that dictionaries can always be located in a consistent place on your Macintosh.

Clicking a word in the output list gives you full access to the multimedia objects attached to the word (ie. pictures, sounds and notes). The 'Cartoon sample' dictionary contains both pictures and sounds (the Japanese pronunciation of the word), and is a good sample multimedia dictionary to try out. To look at all the words in this dictionary, go back to the Find word dialog, press the Zap button (this clears all information from the Find word dialog) and then press the Spyglass button. The first 10 words on the list are from the 'Cartoon sample' dictionary. Click one of these to look at its picture. Now click the Play sound button to hear its pronunciation. If there was a note attached to this word (ie. describing special usage, humble and polite forms, etc), you could also click the Look at Text button. 

Now press the Zap button to clear all information in the Find Word dialog again, and enter 'adj' in the word Type text box (or select it from the popup menu alongside the box). Click the Spyglass button (or hit return). This search should find 11 words - these are all adjectives. You can verify that 'adj' means 'adjective' by selecting the Word types card in the online help system (press the button with the question mark in it to launch the help system).

As a simple exercise, use what you've just learned to look for pronouns and adverbs.

Press Zap again. Enter 'day' in the English text box and click the Spyglass button. 23 words will be found when this search has completed - notice that you have found words in which 'day' occurs in any part of the English definition. If you click the 'whole words' check box and search again, only whole words which match the English definition will be displayed. Try this now - you should see 17 entries come up. What this demonstrates is that you can now find a Japanese word even if you can only remember a small part of its English definition. How's that for raw power!

As an exercise, look for words which have 'up' and 'flower' in their English definitions.

Now for some more advanced searching. Press Zap to empty out all the information in the Find Word dialog again, and then press the Kanji button (see figure 3 below) - the Select Kanji dialog will appear. Type in 'nichi' (as the Kanji reading), press the Find Kanji button (the button with the Kanji character in it) and click the single Kanji that comes up to select it.

You'll notice the 'nichi' Kanji appear in the Find Word dialog. Also, a '?' will be automatically inserted as the reading of the Kanji.

Important note: Whenever a '?' appears in the Kana area, the Kana will be ignored during a search. To put it another way: if there is no '?' in the Kana area, the Kana will be checked during a search, as usual.

Now press the Spyglass button - 22 words should be found. When you look through these words, you'll find that each word has the 'nichi' Kanji somewhere in it, but not necessarily in the first position. The reason is that it has found all words with this Kanji irrespective of where the Kanji was located in the word. If you compare this to looking up words in a normal Kanji dictionary (such as the Nelson), you will appreciate that you now only need to enter any Kanji in a compound to find it in the dictionary. This provides much greater freedom and control in locating dictionary entries.

If you look back at the Select Kanji dialog, you will see that you can find Kanji by reading, radical, radical number, stroke count, Nelson code, Halpern code, JWM code, English meaning, frequency of use and Grade level. You can now use any method to find the Kanji you need.

Try looking up some other words by their Kanji. You might try the Kanji for 'mizu' (water).

Most students get a page or two of new vocabulary to learn every week during their Japanese language course. Wouldn't it be great if JWM could emulate those weekly pages of vocabulary so you could find any one of them in a flash? Well, you guessed it, you can. That is what the Year, Lesson and Group text boxes allow you to do - group vocabulary into blocks.

You can use the Group number to collect words together so that they can then be located as a block. You might like to allocate the Group number 1 to dialogues, 2 to passages, 3 to vocabulary lists, etc, etc. This allocation is totally up to you. For example, in the 'Basic sample' dictionary provided with this demo, words are collected into lessons to introduce 10 new Kanji at a time for the first 80 Kanji. Their Year number is also set to 1 (to indicate first year level), and their Group number is set to 3.

We have now worked through finding words by their Japanese Kana, Kanji, word type, English definition and Lesson/Year/Group. With JWM, you are free to combine this search information to narrow down which words you find. For example, if you wanted the Japanese verb for 'run', you could enter 'run' in the English text box and 'v' in the word type text box - only entries which matched both these conditions would be found.

To edit a word, you need to first open a dictionary (by selecting Open... from the Dictionaries menu), find the word and then click it in the output list - this will bring up the Edit word dialog. After you have finished your changes, press the OK button to save them (Note: saving is disabled in this demo version).

 When you have a dictionary open, you can also copy, move, delete and export blocks of words (using the Word menu) you have found, manipulate media objects attached to words and add any new words you like. You can thus enter custom word lists from your own course, and set them up exactly as you wish. You can allocate Lesson numbers to correspond with each week of your course, set Group numbers to separate words into groups for dialogues, passages, vocabulary lists, upcoming tests, oral readings, etc. You can even create your own custom Kana or Kanji flashcards by entering only a single Kanji with its English meaning (the 'Kyôiku Grade 1 sample' dictionary is set up in this way). 

For further information, please see the comprehensive illustrated User Manual provided in the commercial version of the JWM software. This User Manual explains JWM's features in detail, including a section on the preparation of various media objects (pictures and sounds).

 
There are two ways to approach setting up exercises: you can either search individually for words you wish to learn, or use the structured vocabulary course provided in the 'Basic sample' dictionary (this dictionary contains 8 lessons [with 10 new Kanji per lesson] which progressively introduce the first 80 Kanji. It also contains a range of Katakana words). 

To use the structured course, first clear the Find word dialog by clicking Zap and then enter  '1' in the Year field, '1' in the Lesson field and '3' in the Group field. Now click the Spyglass - 22 words should be found. Double-click the output list and change the status of the words found to 'Learning'. Now go to section 3 of this tutorial, entitled 'Doing exercises' (after you have mastered the words in lesson 1, use the above method to change the status of words in lesson 2, etc).

To search individually for words you wish to learn, you first need a list of words - this list may be the printed weekly vocabulary list given to you by your teacher, or any other group of words (or explicit Kanji) you wish to memorise. For the sake of this example, we'll only use words which are contained in the sample dictionaries. If you want to use words not contained in the sample dictionaries, you need to add words to a dictionary. Note: this demo version of JWM does not allow you to create new dictionary files or save new dictionary entries.

Let's say your list looks like the one shown in figure 5 below.

If you still have a dictionary open from the last example, close it now. Begin by pressing Zap in the Find Word dialog. Type 'hachi' into the Kana text box and click the Spyglass. The dictionaries will be scanned and this word will be found and displayed in Japanese script in the output list.

The status of a word is shown by the letter on its left side: 'L' for Learning, 'M' for Mastered and blank for Unused (currently there should be a blank on the left side of 'hachi'). To change its status, hold down the shift key and click it - a small 'L' will come up next to it. Words set to Learning status in this way are focussed on during exercises, which is the purpose of setting a word to this status.

Use the above find/shift-click procedure to go through the rest of the sample vocabulary list, setting the status of each word to Learning. Once you have done this, clear the Find Word dialog again and search for words set to Learning status (Hint: select Learning from the status popup menu and then click the Spyglass). You will see a number of words shown in the output list (some had already been set up), including the ones you have just changed (which will appear at the bottom of the list). These are all the words which will be emphasised during exercises.

 
Select Start from the Exercise menu. The dictionaries will be scanned and various data displayed - simply click this information screen to dismiss it and exercises will begin. Press the Help button to find detailed information on what to do during exercises - the green text provides the relevant instructions (please read them carefully). The help system gives a substantial amount of concise information on how to use JWM, and is context sensitive (it will bring up a help card relating to the last action you performed). If you set the 'remember this card' checkbox, the last card you viewed will be displayed whenever you launch the help system.

To obtain detailed information about any of the Kanji shown on the Exercise dialog (see figure 6), simply click a Kanji and an information screen will be displayed. It will show the Kanji's various readings, it's English meaning (in the demo, this feature is disabled), Bushu, etc, etc. Thus, if you are in the middle of exercising and want to get more information, it can be found very easily.

Note that an integral part of the JWM study system is both the reading and writing of Kanji. To gain the most from the system, you should always write down Kanji on a piece of paper during the exercise process - this gives you practice in writing Kanji correctly (since you check your written Kanji against that shown on the screen). The special Kanji font provided in JWM was developed from characters written by a master Japanese calligrapher, so provide a very good example of proper writing style.

Now follow the instructional prompts shown at the bottom left of the screen, using either the mouse to click buttons or the speedkeys (to see which speedkeys are assigned, select Options... from the Exercises menu and look at Button mapping on the bottom left of the dialog). When the prompt message says 'View Word...', clicking anywhere on the screen or pressing any key will bring up both the Japanese and English for a word.

Any pictures or sounds attached to words will be automatically included during the exercise process. This can provide a substantial boost in improving your retention of vocabulary, since both visual and auditory stimulation is provided. If you wish to focus only on the words themselves, the autoplay feature can be disabled (select Options... from the Exercises menu to do this).

User feedback is also provided in the form of an hourly timer and a success bar on the right side of the Exercise dialog. The timer will help you reach your study time goals since it provides an immediate indication of progress - if one hour per day of vocabulary and Kanji study is the goal, then one rotation of the timer is needed to reach it (see figure 6).

The JWM exercise system uses a multisession method to promote long term retention of vocabulary and Kanji. It will usually take at least two exercise sessions for you to properly learn a word - when the Artificial Intelligence Algorithm (AIA) built into JWM thinks you know a word well enough, it will automatically change the status of the word from Learning to Mastered. Thus, after a few sessions, you will see words with Mastered status in the dictionaries (Hint: you can do a search using word status at any time to find out which words these are).

The AIA is fairly sophisticated, and its operation may seem a bit confusing at first, but after some use you should intuitively feel an underlying pattern emerging in the way it selects words. Note that the information on the Information dialog (in respect to word counts) is only valid at the very beginning of a session. This is when words actually have their status changed by the AIA according to your answers in the previous session. If the information in the Information dialog seems a bit confusing at first, don't despair. Simply relax and concentrate on exercising and let the AIA do its job in the background.

You will find Mastered words mixed with Learning words during exercises after a few sessions - this automated study strategy ensures that you are exposed to previous vocabulary and Kanji on an ongoing basis. If you think back to how you used to study vocabulary (ie. from printed pages), you will probably appreciate that (without revision) about 80% of your initial skills diminished after about 3 weeks.

JWM is designed specifically to train your long term memory as well as helping your learn new words and Kanji. Thus, if you use the system regularly, the words (and Kanji) you learned in the first week of your course should be as fresh in your mind as those you learned in the last few weeks. Benefits can be gained by experienced students of Japanese as well (including qualified translators), since with JWM you will be systematically exposed to all Kanji you know rather than having to rely on random (and uncontrolled) exposure through reading passages of Japanese text.

This incredibly effective study strategy is only available with the Japanese WordMaster™ system.

 
The 'Japanese Constitution' text file has been included with this demo, so you can use it with the JWM reader. Select Open... from the Reader menu and open the 'Japanese Constitution' file. A new window will be displayed and you will see the text printed in Japanese (see figure 7 below).

The two buttons on the top of the text window are used to paste selections of text into the Find Word dialog and New Word dialog. The Spyglass button will paste the selected text into Find Word dialog and bring the Find Word dialog to the front, ready for a dictionary search. At this time, you can also enter any other search criteria you like before starting a search.

Note: the Find Word dialog is zapped (cleared) whenever text is pasted into it - this helps speed up the process of looking up words. Also, if the output list is displayed (to show found words), the text dialog is automatically brought to the front again when the output list dialog is closed. This makes looking up words a very streamlined process.

To get information about any Kana or Kanji, hold down the shift key and click a character in the text window. In the case of Kana, you will see the Kana reading, whether it is Hiragana or Katakana, and the stroke order of the character. For Kanji, the full Kanji information screen is displayed including the English meaning, On and Kun readings, Nelson and Halpern codes, stroke count, frequency of use, etc. Click the stroke order button on the Kanji information screen to bring up the Kanji stroke order display.

Note: The text reader can read any normal Macintosh Japanese text files - these are always encoded in a format called Shift-JIS (SJIS). To read files from Unix machines, etc., you will need to convert the text to SJIS format using a conversion utility such as 'JConv' (widely available on the Internet, including our own web site - see the chapter of this document called 'Lava Software on the web').

You can use the JWM text reader to read your Japanese email (ie. if you have pen-friends in Japan), passages of Japanese text prepared by your teacher, the multitude of Japanese text resources available on the Internet and even the various Japanese newspapers and online magazines available on the World Wide Web. Links to many of these resources can be found at our web site.

This text reader feature opens up an incredible array of possibilities to enhance your Japanese studies. You can read the 'Asahi Shimbun' or 'Mainichi Shimbun' on a daily basis and use JWM's powerful translation aid to help you. You can thus keep up with Japanese news from a Japanese perspective, and be on the leading edge in terms of information about what is happening in Japan as well as the rest of the world. With JWM, Japanese study takes on a profound new immediacy and relevance.

Note: In your web browser (such as Netscape), you can save the text displayed on the screen to a file (select Save As... from the File menu from within Netscape). You can also save the source to your hard disk by selecting Document Source from the View menu. Once saved as a Japanese text file, it can then be opened and read using Japanese WordMaster (you can also open any normal English text file using the reader in JWM).

 
To help you prepare dictionaries which compliment passages of Japanese text, you can select words in the text and paste them to the New Word dialog (you need to have opened a dictionary to do this, of course). When you open a dictionary (or create a new one) and then bring up the New Word dialog, you will see the second button on the top of the text dialog become active.

If you are a teacher, this is a great way to prepare Japanese texts for your students and include an accompanying dictionary (vocabulary list) of words from the passage. Your students can then also exercise with this vocabulary list as part of their study program. You can now provide them with a new passage of text on a weekly basis and include their new Kanji and vocabulary in a fast and efficient way.

You can also change and update course content easily since there is much less need to produce printed matter. This vastly simplifies the dissemination of new course materials. Simply release new master files on a designated computer on a weekly basis. Your students can load the files onto their own disk and do their study at their own pace. The MultiUser Edition of Japanese WordMaster™ is designed specifically for this purpose.

The type of Japanese texts you might prepare include descriptive passages, stories, dialogues, plays, grammar lessons, example sentences which demonstrate the use of particular words and grammatical templates - basically any type of course material which you currently supply as printed matter. With accompanying dictionaries, you can include all types of multimedia effects with texts including color pictures, extensive usage notes, pronunciation information and sound effects. Anything you can draw, write or say can be included in JWM in some way.

Japanese WordMaster™ provides one of the most highly integrated and effective all-round study systems available on the market today. Its flexibility to create any type of course content including Kana and Kanji flashcards, vocabulary lists and Japanese texts is unsurpassed. And the system operates completely independent of the Japanese Language Kit, making it an inexpensive tool for school computer labs as well as individual students. It is also a tool that can be used throughout a student's study career from elementary school to university and beyond.

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End notes

This tutorial provides some information on how to use the JWM system - hopefully enough for you to appreciate the depth and power available to the average user, as well as its potential for the classroom environment.

The User Manual supplied with the full package contains detailed information on all aspects of using Japanese WordMaster, including the creation of custom multimedia dictionaries.