Anki for Palm OS – Japanese Flashcards for your PDA
Posted on 25. Oct, 2007 @ 8:00 pm by harvey in Gadgets, Language
I ran across the coolest Palm application for studying languages today! Anki!
And it’s free.
Anki (暗記) means “to memorize by heart” in Japanese, and this is a flash card program for Palm OS that helps you ANKI-suru the vocabulary for whatever language it is you’re studying.
You can create your own flashcards using a Windows based builder, but if you’re too lazy to do that, there are lots of extremely well-done Anki databases created by the community available for download on their website.
They have everything: Jyoyo Kanji lessons, Heisig flashcards, Chinese lessons, Korean lessons, Thai, GRE vocab… and Gaelic. Seriously – “What you want, baby they got it. ♪” Some of the flashcard sets are based on particular textbooks, so if you’re serious it might actually be a good idea to go purchase the textbooks so you can use the program to complement your learning. Of course, you can always create your own flashcard set for whatever textbook you happen to be using. (Unfortunately the builder only runs on Windows… I’ll stay right here on my Mac thank you very much.)
No matter how long I stay in Japan, I’m sure a quick run through of a random set of the joyo Kanji flashcards while commuting to work will always do me some good.
They’ve even got a “Japanese Places” database, that has the Kanji for places in Japan, and it quizes you on the reading, the region it’s in, and also… wait for it… how to say GOUROUSAMA ご苦労様 in the local dialect.
For example, for Hyogo they say that the equivilant of GOKUROUSAMA is えらいですなー。 Hrm… I’ll buy that. Though I’m quite certain no one would ever use that in the office! In Kanagawa they say that ご苦労様 is ごせーができますね。Apparently in Chiba they say おあがんなせー. Huh? Never heard of it, but I guess it’s extremely local. Fun bonus knowledge anyway!
On a slightly unrelated “note”, if you’re memorizing music, the verb is ANPU-suru 暗譜する, the 譜 is the same character in “sheet music”, which is GAKUFU 楽譜… I’ve got a guitar mini-recital on Sunday so it’s kind of on my mind!
Go download Anki, it’s great!
- Harvey
13 Responses to “Anki for Palm OS – Japanese Flashcards for your PDA”
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Alex
Oct 25th, 2007
at 21:16
Wait a minute…I’ve been using a completely different Anki this whole time. One had to have come first, and the one I use is a lot better:
http://repose.cx/anki/index.html
Plus, it runs on Mac and Windows, and there’s an internet interface so you can use it on your cellphone.
Heather Meadows
Oct 25th, 2007
at 21:24
Alex’s Anki certainly has a cleaner-looking website! The cell phone option looks cool too. But I like the idea of having software on the handheld rather than running up internet usage fees on the phone…
harvey
Oct 26th, 2007
at 00:08
Hold on a sec. This doesn’t run on Palm OS.
It’s cool, but I want something for my PDA so I can use it on the trains!
I like my Anki better. But, maybe I’ll give yours a try for my pc as well. Just to be fair… not that I have ANKI envy or anything…
Kitty
Oct 26th, 2007
at 02:14
Took me all of 60 seconds to get it on my Palm after reading this Harvey! Terrific! Also it’s fun so I’m more likely to use it regularly. The Mexico office manager and I just ran through the first series of flashcards. He thinks it’s great too!
Clive
Oct 26th, 2007
at 11:03
What would be really cool is if something like this came out for Nintendo DS.
Harvey
Oct 26th, 2007
at 11:12
Hey Clive have you been watching http://naruhodojapan.blogspot.com/ ?
They do reviews of Japanese language learning games for DS. Great blog! I plan to get a DS soon… soon…
Clive
Oct 26th, 2007
at 13:36
Ooh thanks for the heads up Harvey.
Elvis has left the building…
Clive
Oct 28th, 2007
at 08:50
Harvey,
Kanken DS 2 seems pretty good .. except it’s entirely Japanese which makes it hard to use as a learning tool if you don’t already ahem speak/read Japanese.
Have you by any chance seen any that start off in english?
Clive
Oct 28th, 2007
at 09:14
Update:
“Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten” seems pretty handy as a cheap, accessable electronic Japanese-English, English-Japanese dictionary.
harvey
Oct 28th, 2007
at 22:10
I just bought a DS today! I got Kanji Kentei 2. And… a puzzle game with the US title “Planet Puzzle League (DS)”. Can’t wait to get it open!
The Kanji sonomama rakubiki jiten would be nice if you needed a way to look up words in kanji and didn’t have a dictionary. Real dictionaries can look up words that are not in Kanji, and also have more example sentences than the DS software.
Kanji kentei would not be useful if you weren’t already pretty decent at Japanese… But if you ARE, it’s a great way to keep “leveling up”.
Rolly
Feb 2nd, 2009
at 00:53
I know this is a way old post, but for people looking for DS Anki, you might want to take a look at this site for a program called ndsrs. There still isn`t a direct NDS port for Anki, but this is something like its younger cousin.
Henrique
Dec 11th, 2009
at 06:22
anki.com for palm os has been sold!
anybody have they files? :(
Henrique
Dec 11th, 2009
at 06:22
anki.com for palm os has been sold!
anybody have they files? :(
thanks