Re: New Flashcard Program

On Dec 13, 1:04 pm, trap_for_junk_m...@xxxxxxxxx (Louise Bremner)
wrote:
Renli <usagi.mei...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But why are you asking about romaji when you say the program requires a
Japanese input system?

Because you can use romanji interchangably...

^
no "n"... this is Japanese, not English.

Lol thanks, another reason why your input is invaluable.

But I say again---if it requires typing in the answers, I'm not
interested. That takes too long for drilling large lists.
Nor in multiple-choice answers because it's too easy to deduce the
correct answer without actually knowing it.

Heh - I don't mind if you're not interested. I am just trying to make
my program better, not solicit a sale :p Anyways, I already told you
it doesn't require typing in the answers, although it is an option. I
can see where you're coming from with the beginners comment though
such a thing (typing out) is mainly useful only to beginners. Yet part
of me feels it's a bit of a paradigm shift. Anki and stackz-style
quizzes are not trying to teach you anything. They just want to find
out if you know or not. In that respect, for chinese at least, having
to type out the answers reinforces the memory. That's been my
experience.

Not to sound finicky though, but the anki/stackz style does help you
"think in japanese" which is the end goal anyways, right? So maybe
typing out "is" just for beginners :)

Re multiple choice.
I, too, was thinking about how easy it was to guess answers in
multiple choice. My experience with kongze (randy shank, 1992) told me
that wasn't strictly true. The key is in how the multiple choice
answers are selected. If the answers are taken from the same strata of
known-unknown characters by known% or by lesson number (same as the
one you're quizzing for instance), then in practice it masks well.
IOW, while it is possible to say "I've only seen defenition #3 before
so it must be the answer", that only works when you have a small
number of known characters or the majority of answers are unknowns. So
you're right but in my experience it isn't a valid concern once you
get more than a few hundred kanji under your belt. Also when testing a
phrase, you may be led to the right answer by the number of words,
components of the phrase, etc. As far as I can recall, Kongze (randy's
program) dealt with this by drilling characters by blanking out one of
the characters in a phrase, and by (for example) only selecting other
bigrams to quiz alongside a bigram.

That being said, to accomodate personal preference I think a stackz-
style option would be useful. I did rather enjoy the way Stackz had
things set up. But I don't think it is particularly faster or better
than a multiple choice method.

One quiz option i'm thinking of, is keyword quiz. What do you think.
You're presented with a phrase with a missing character, and a list of
5-10 characters to choose from. Everything would be done in japanese/
chinese. I've seen this method used in a lot of the english textbooks
i'm using here to teach, too.

The only real concern I have with choosing if you know or not, is that
while it may be what you're used to, no real-world test allows you to
do that. So while you are an adult and can be expected to take
responsibility for your actions, your personal discipline doesn't hold
the same weight that a real world test grade does. For people aiming
to pass a proficiency test, some hard, independant data might be a
good thing.

Final question: What's a good typing shortcut for macron characters?
"o-" as mentioned? How about "oo"? thanks again!

ou is how it's "spelled" in Japanese.

Thx again.

-
.

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