02. Feb, 2010 
January has come and gone (which was kind of the early-adopter month of TextFugu), and I’ve learned so much (at least as much as you) thanks to your feedback, as well as my own mistakes. Lots has changed in this short period, and here’s a kind of January round-up.
- Season 1 has gotten most of it’s revisions. The only thing left to do is to add more audio (did this with the first half of season 1). The rest of the audio will probably be coming this week, along with a few extra worksheets if I can wrangle the extra time.
- A Kanji section has popped up! This was unexpected. I was planning on spending the last week working on revisions of previous lessons, and all of a sudden I have an epiphany about kanji, and focus half of my time on that. A lot of Season 1′s vocabulary learning has changed (and gotten way way better, in my opinion), so hopefully it doesn’t get confusing for anyone. I’d recommend going back and doing a quick run through to see what changed. And, no matter who you are, you’ll want to get through all the kanji radicals by the end of Season 1 (so, if you are on Season 2, you should go through the radical chapters on your own).
- Season 2 Revisions didn’t get done. Thanks to the kanji section, my focus got moved a bit. I’ll be working on Season 2 revisions while working on the first couple chapters of Season 3, and hope to get that, along with 5-6 more kanji chapters, wrapped up in the next one to two weeks. Many apologies for not getting these done earlier.
- Hired someone to help with customer service… bounties. For the sake of being able to focus, I hired someone to help me with these things. You can still always e-mail me directly though. That info is on the contact page.
- Changed the Pricing Model: That happened just today, actually. I’m excited to see how it goes, and excited for all of you who got in while things were less expensive! Lucky ducks.
Goals For February
It’s a new month, and that means I can start anew! Lots has been learned, and based off that, here are some of the things I’d like to accomplish with TextFugu over the next month:
- Finish revisions of Season 2: This one is a no brainer.
- Get really deep into the kanji section: I’m hoping to get 500 kanji up and done for you to study.
- Create a “community” portal: About a week ago I realized that, damn, TextFugu could be an awesome community – people could help each other learn… I could learn a lot about how you use TextFugu (so I could make it better)… etc! I want to get a community portal up as soon as possible, but haven’t set my heart on anything yet. Anyone have any recommendations / experience integrating a forum with WordPress? It would be members only, so it would have to be able to use your login information for TextFugu.
- Finish Season 3: This is another no-brainer.
- Integrate more “passion-list” studying: One thing I’ve realized that I’ve gotten away from is using your interests. I want to go back and integrate that better with lessons.
- LiveStreaming TextFugu Work: Haven’t decided on this one yet… but I thought it would be neat to Livestream whenever I was working on TextFugu. Not sure if I like the idea personally, but really seems like an interesting way to keep the focus up. If I think people are watching (of if people actually are watching… how boring would that be?) then I’m more likely to get a lot more done. Could be a tricky way to get yourself to practice Japanese more effectively, too. hmm.
Anyways, I like blog posts, because I can just ramble on and on and on (and procrastinate!). Thanks for an awesome January, and looking forward to February. I really feel like things are coming together nicely, and I’m excited that there’s a ton to improve on. See ya’all around!
Testing Disqus Comments
Thanks for the awesome textbook, koichi! I have to say, TextFugu is the best online Japanese learning experience I've had to date.
I'm really grateful for your revised kanji sections. Kanji has always seemed like a huge looming monster in my mind, but you've broken it down in such a way that I feel that it can actually tackle it. I've made more progress in learning kanji than I ever have before.
Also, it's funny you should mention a community portal because I was just thinking the other day I'd like to chat with the other people using TextFugu. I hope you do eventually get to that some day.
Anyhoo, keep up the good work!
I completely agree! This website has been quite beneficial for me. Even though I haven't made it “really far” yet, I'd have to say already.. just learning the *concepts* to learn things in a more well defined manner and efficient, makes the price already worth it! ^_^
By the way, the portal would be a great idea.
What about also considering the implementation of our own chat room? The reason I suggest a chat room(in addition to the forum), is that students could also practice speaking with other students. For instance, tons of people use IRC rooms to chat with others who speak Japanese, but having a Textfugu chat might be quite interesting.
It would provide a real life one-to-one ability to converse(at least, in written form) with others.
Before textfugu, I was already self studying from a book, and have noticed the radicals in the complicated kanjis, and how they kept coming up in different ways (only I had no idea what they were called). But as a learner/beginner I could have never known how to take advantage of that. Thank you so much for that .. its working GREAT ^.^
n the community idea is deffinitly awsome!! cant wait.
Great work, really excited about the community stuff and what else you cook up. Also, all the kanji radicals before season 2? I've gotta get to work! :P
I'm happy to be a Lucky Duck.
I don't know what you mean by LiveStream exactly, but it sounds like video, and video is good, right?
I love the added kanji section! I have a book (Kanji ABC) that teaches kanji in the same basic way, and I love it (though… it's a bit boring..) so it's nice to take that same idea and make it more fun!
I love the forum idea and a chatroom would be awesome too. :)
SO excited I found this site. Saw you, Koichi, on youtube and edufire.com. Too bad I wasn't one if the “lucky ducks” before you changed the prices but I'll be joining you all here anyway since I am planning to sit for the JLPT 4 (new 2010 level 4) in Dec 2010.
I think this site has success written all over it :)