Phil Gyford

makes me want to learn japanese

Neat page, I can see it being really helpful as a replacement for the flash cards that I use to keep me sharp in katakana. I might even show it to Kawamura-sensee next time I see him. I do have one suggestion though:

I do not know PHP at all, but I wonder if it would be difficult for you to also allow use of other romazi systems such as Shin-kunrei-shiki which provides a romanization that bears a much more direct relation to Japanese structure than Hepburn which is based on Western languages. If you ever decide to add Shin-kunrei-shiki to your program, I would be more than happy to help you.

E-mail: uf_nihongo84@gawab.com

Yes, it would be possible, and I'd like to do this when I can find the time - it's currently just a quick thing I built for me and hope others find useful.

However, I don't know much about the different systems, so if you can point me at any resources that show the alternatives I'd be very grateful!

Sorry to be a pedant, but katakana and hiragana are *not* "alphabets", they're syllabaries. Calling them "alphabets" may actually make it harder to learn them, since the word may help to set up an unconscious block against the practice (unfamiliar to westerners and many other non-Japanese) of writing and reading syllable by syllable, instead of letter by letter.
But that's trivial, really: more importantly, congratulations on, and thanks for, this practice page, and, by the way, the Pepys Diary site too.
Happy New Year!

Thanks for the great practice page! I'm at my second year of study (part time) and I was stuck in a pattern, wondering what I could do to add a little challenge and not get too rusty. Your practice page came in handy.

I'll be sure to show this to my colleagues & my sensei.

Arigatou!

Just found the random character test page and had to thank you for creating it. I've recentely taught myself Hiragana and taking this test daily will help keep them fresh in my mind as I start on Katakana next.

Phil San - great stuff - just what I need - see you at class!

Love the practice page! Had some free time so i learnt the hiragana syllabery yesterday. I was testing myself today when the character "wo" appeared. I typed in "wo" but i was told i was wrong several times. I was just wondering whether there is a mistake in the software, if not, then i'm very sorry sorry, was probably just my internet going wrong.

Hi. I just realised that "wo" can also be the symbol for "o". It was my fault, so i apologise. The site makes for really good practice though. thanks

I noticed on Hu/Fu you only allow for Fu to be the correct romaji. I'm still a first year student (three weeks into the class), but aren't hu and fu both exceptable?

I think there are different ways of interpreting the characters. It's a pretty simply page, so it only accepts one of the options.

Hey, Patrick Heenan. Katakana and hiragana *are* alphabets. An alphabet is just a set of written characters that represent spoken sounds. The fact that hiragana and katakana characters represent entire syllables instead of a single sound doesn’t change that.

Great job. Very useful.

Perhaps this is unreasonable, but it would be great if you could also do this for Greek and Cyrillic.

Extremely helpful in all aspects. I support the request of adding other romanji systems, but of course that could be asking too much XD.

The system displays the incorrect hiragana for "cho".

Thanks Martin - I must have introduced that error last week when I moved servers and had to re-do all the characters due to some file corruption. It's fixed now.

Phil,
Was using your fantastic Kana practice utility and ran into a problem when the katakana "shu" came up. Entered "shu" and was told that it was wrong. Hmmm....but it must be right! Tried "syu" on the odd chance, but that was wrong too. Now I'm stuck, and cannot skip the question...a nice feature to have. Just for kicks I entered "ju", in case the (") was missing.....and that was it! The "correct" answer according to the program was "ju"....but that is incorrect....it should be "shu". Perhaps the same problem as Martin had with the hiragana "cho"?

At any rate, thanks for this fantastic tool! As it is not multiple choice, it really tests your knowledge of the kana! And agree wholeheartedly about studying "lists".....

Looking forward to introductory kanji someday?!?!

Bill

Phil,
Sorry...seems to be the same with the katakana "sho" (ショ). Must enter "jo" to get the "correct" answer. I imagine that "sha" (シャ) will need to be answered with "ja", as I'm not sure if I've come across it yet.

Thanks,
Bill

I had "sho" displayed twice in the katakana test.
Once it took "sho" and the other time it wanted "jo", even though the same katakana symbol was displayed both times (ショ).
Where it wants "jo", change the シ to ジ and it'll be fine.
Same little mix-up with "shu".
I believe "sha" is fine though.

Bill, Martin - sorry about the mix up. I was obviously using too small text when I re-entered the characters recently! I've corrected those now, so it should all be fine. Hopefully! Thanks for pointing these things out.

One last observation I made while taking the kana test.
If you get the first 101 symbols right, the system stops there and fails to display the 102nd symbol. As you know there are 102 syllables in the japanese language.
It seems the system "forgets" one of them if you get to 101 without making a mistake. I wonder if it's the same symbol each time or a random one.
This little quirk applies to both the hiragana and the katakana test.

sorry, I am new here, this practice is just great!!! But I got really stuck on　じよ.

thank you !!!

I have not memorized all of the hiragana yet and the block feature is frustrating to say the least. Can't we just choose to get it wrong? Nice concept though, but it just doesnt work for everyone.

Fantastic practise page! Thank you so much for making it. There are many online flash card games to help you memorizes the Hiragana and Katakana but all seem to suck. This is simple and clear. I use it everyday!!!

However have you considered including some of the modern katakana combinations such as va, vi, vu, ve, vo? There are also 12 more combination characters (tsa, di, du, tso etc) that could also be included.

James -- we didn't cover those combinations when I was learning Japanese, so I never thought to include them. I'm no longer learning so I'm afraid I probably won't get round to including them. I'm glad you like it all the same.