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- INTRODUCTION
-
- KANJI READER is a multiple volume set of programs which provides you with an
- opportunity to successfully read thousands of Japanese words and phrases while
- learning the kanjis, one kanji at a time.
-
- KANJI READER tracks your progress and creates lessons which are tailored to your
- specific achievement level. That is, each lesson teaches you just one kanji and the
- quiz items for the lesson contain only
- -- the kanji you are currently learning (by itself)
- and/or
- -- the kanji you are learning in combination with kanjis you have already studied.
-
- KANJI READER has many different types of activities to help you learn the kanjis.
- Please read about them in the remaining sections of this manual.
-
-
-
- KANJI READER can operate in one of two study modes:
-
- QUICK STUDY MODE
-
- This mode teaches you how to read the kanjis for meaning and optionally shows you the
- stroke order for writing each of the kanjis, but it does not teach you how to pronounce
- the Japanese characters and words.
-
- (It is possible to read the kanjis for meaning without ever learning to speak a word of
- Japanese. Learning the kanjis in this mode proceeds quite rapidly since there is less
- to learn. This mode is useful for many travelers and gives beginning students a quick
- boost in the number of kanjis they recognize.)
-
-
- INTENSIVE STUDY MODE
- This mode teaches reading, writing, and pronunciation.
-
- You choose your study mode when you first begin to use Kanji Reader.
-
-
- Some students may want to begin with the QUICK STUDY MODE and later change
- to the INTENSIVE STUDY MODE. To change to the INTENSIVE STUDY MODE,
- use a new name when you start the program so that you will learn pronunciation
- for all the kanjis.
-
-
-
-
- KANJI READER ACTIVITIES
-
- KANJI READER contains eight different activities to help you learn the kanjis.
- On the main screen display of the program, there are eight activity buttons with captions
- underneath. The ninth button (at the lower right) is an EXIT button which you click
- when you want to stop the program.
-
- To start an activity, point to it and tap the left mouse button. (Pointing the
- mouse and tapping the left button is called Clicking.)
-
- Each of the activities is described later in this manual. When you are running the
- Kanji Reader program, use the Help command to obtain additional information.
-
-
-
-
- STUDY THE KANJIS
-
- Study The Kanjis is the heart of the KANJI READER set of activities.
- Utilizing the list of kanjis you have already studied, Study The Kanjis introduces new
- kanjis to you one at a time in a manner designed to guarantee your success. Every
- quiz item includes only one kanji which is new for you. All other kanjis in the quiz
- item will be those which you have already studied.
-
- The lessons are given as multiple choice drills. This enables you to breeze through
- the lessons quickly. To assure that you really have absorbed the information,
- challenging review programs are provided by other KANJI READER activities.
-
-
- Please notice that there is a Repeat the quiz command in the menu bar of this activity.
- If you click the mouse on that command, the program will repeat the entire quiz for the
- current kanji immediately after you have completed it.
-
- Further, you can request a review drill of the kanji at any time by using the Review
- command in the Dictionary window for the kanji. In many cases, the size of the quiz will
- increase if you have learned more kanjis since you took the quiz the first time. This
- happens when your new kanjis form words with the kanji you are reviewing.
-
-
-
- REVIEW PRONUNCIATION
-
- This activity reviews the pronunciation of a large number of kanji compounds
- using a multiple choice drill format. Many of the answer sets are carefully designed to
- challenge (trick) you with look-alike or sound-alike answers. You can review the
- pronunciation of any kanji in a quiz item by pointing to it and clicking the mouse. While
- the Kanji Dictionary is open, you may request a review of the kanji if it is particularly
- troublesome. (The review will be given by the Study The Kanjis activity.)
- Review Pronunciation is also a speed-reading program. At the beginning of each group
- of ten review items, you may optionally set a goal for your speed of reading. When you
- complete the group of items, the program tells you how well you met your goal.
-
- To give you practice in reading both kana syllabaries, the program takes turns using
- hiragana and katakana. The answers for the first quiz item are written in hiragana,
- the answers for the next quiz item are written in katakana, and so on.
-
- As a side note, the compounds chosen for the Review Pronunciation list are all
- proper names. That is, they are names given to people, places, books, institutions, etc.
- Proper names are used because they provide hundreds of new quiz items not in the
- Study The Kanjis quiz list. All of the readings used in the proper names appear in the
- Kanji Dictionary (which is displayed when the kanji is first taught and when you request
- it.) Some kanjis have additional readings which are used only in pronouncing proper
- names, but those additional readings are not used in this review.
-
-
-
-
- TEST YOURSELF
-
- This activity reviews some of the kanji compounds from the Study The Kanjis quiz list.
- Test Yourself is very challenging because you must select your answers from a
- "kanji keyboard" which is displayed on the screen. If you are learning pronunciation,
- a "kana keyboard" is also displayed and you select the kanas to spell the words.
- You must use katakana for ON YOMI readings and hiragana for KUN YOMI readings.
-
- To help you succeed, instant kanji lookup is available and you may flag any kanji
- which you find troublesome for review and re-drill. (The review will be given by the
- Study the Kanjis activity.)
-
- There may be many correct ways to write an answer because many Japanese words have
- synonyms. The vocabulary list used in KANJI READER often covers multiple ways
- to say the same thing. Therefore, this activity gives you an opportunity to identify which
- answer is expected without being penalized. At the top of the screen, there is a series
- of yellow dots. These dots indicate the number of "mistakes" the program will tolerate
- before it counts your answer as incorrect. Each time you make a selection which isn't part
- of the expected answer, one of the yellow dots is filled in. After all the yellow dots are
- filled in, the program assumes you do not know the answer and a HINT button appears.
- Use it to help you complete the answer. This quiz item will be repeated later in the
- quiz until you have answered it correctly more times than you answered in incorrectly.
-
-
-
-
- KANJI CONCENTRATION
-
- This activity is the familiar game of uncovering matching pairs which are hidden in a
- game board. In this version of the game, you look for identical pairs of kanjis. This
- helps you become familiar with the similarities and differences between the kanjis.
-
- The game is easy to play, even for people who aren't studying the Japanese language.
- However, when using a large game board, the game is absorbing and challenging --
- for advanced students too!
-
-
- If you aren't familiar with the game of Concentration, please click the mouse on Help
- in the menu bar of the Concentration window.
-
-
-
-
- REFERENCE SELECTED KANJIS
-
- This activity provides you with two ways to review the kanjis:
- by definition of the kanji
- and
- by appearance of the kanji
-
-
- When you select a kanji, its Dictionary window appears on the right side of the
- screen. For kanjis which have been giving you difficulty in quizzes, tap the Review
- command in the Dictionary menu bar, and Study the Kanjis will review the kanji for you
- when you return to that activity.
-
-
-
-
- HELPFUL INFORMATION
-
- Helpful Information contains an introductory description of the kanjis and
- a description of the major features of Kanji Reader. It is reading material only.
- (There is no pop quiz at the end.)
-
-
-
-
- KANJI WRITING RULES-OF-THUMB
-
- Learning to write the kanjis involves a lot of memorization. To make the task easier,
- some rules-of-thumb are described in this activity. Demos of the rules are provided
- by animated kanjis which you can watch as often as you like.
-
-
- Read through the material from time-to-time until you have the rules-of-thumb
- firmly in mind.
-
-
-
-
- PRACTICE WRITING THE KANJIS
-
- This activity will probably be the most useful in helping you learn to write the kanjis.
- To practice writing, select a kanji and draw it in the large black box on the left. Then
- request that the kanji be animated by tapping the Animate command in the menu bar of
- the Dictionary window. Compare how you drew the kanji with the way it should be drawn.
-
- Did you draw all the strokes?
- Did you draw each stroke in the correct direction?
- Did you draw the strokes in the correct order?
-
- If you are not pleased with the way you drew the kanji, tap the Clear command in the
- Dictionary and the Clear command above the box on the left. Then write it again.
-
- Please do not be too hard on yourself about straightness of lines and other artistic
- details of the kanjis you draw. It is difficult to draw using the mouse. The important
- lesson here is testing yourself to see if you have learned the correct stroke order and
- stroke direction.
-
- Return to this activity frequently if learning to write the kanjis is important to you.
-
-
- EXITING THE PROGRAM
-
- When you tap the EXIT button, Kanji Reader will stop. Your progress is recorded
- in a file. The name of the file is the name you have chosen plus the suffix .SCR
-
- Therefore, if you enter your name as MIKE, the list of kanjis you know and your
- selection regarding romaji and pronunciation are saved in a file called
-
- MIKE.SCR
-
- When you start KANJI READER again and use the name MIKE, the file MIKE.SCR
- will be read so that you can begin again exactly where you ended.
-
-
- (This is the last page of the manual.)
-