24. Jun, 2010 
The last few days I’ve gotten started working on the second iteration of the entire “kanji” section on TextFugu. The reason I decided it needed an overhaul was via lots of feedback from users (thank you!) as well as what I’ve been reading about TextFugu all around the web (I get alerts every time someone mentions TextFugu, and often go see what is written when I do). Time and time again, it seems like TextFugu’s biggest weakness is the kanji section. I’m not saying TextFugu’s kanji section isn’t good… I am saying that it’s not hands down one of the best, so I want to try and fix that.
Upcoming Kanji Changes
Unfortunately, the changes are so big that I have to finish changing all of the pages before I can put it live, which means you won’t see anything for a little while. There’s a lot of work to do (you’ll see why in the upcoming changes bullet points below), but I’m really enjoying it, so every free moment right now is spent writing the new kanji section. It will, however, probably mean a temporary slow-down with new lesson content going up, but I think it’s going to be worth it. I’m really excited about the new kanji section and what it will mean for anyone learning kanji. The end goal, I think is to make the kanji section so good that it could be its own section (and people on TextFugu could choose to pay just for the kanji section, if they wanted… don’t worry, regular members still get both). It’s funny – at first, kanji was an afterthought on TextFugu, integrated with lessons… then, it became its own section (what you see now), and now it’s becoming its own monster, and I think it’s going to be incredible.
Here’s what’s changing.
- Radicals will no longer be something you learn “all at once.” For example, you will only start with 1-2 stroke radicals before you move on to 1-2 stroke kanji, meaning radicals and kanji will be broken up more (which also means you don’t have to sit through all those radicals before you can get to the kanji sections).
- Radicals sections are also getting their own rewrites. I think there were some weaknesses with some of the radical mnemonics, and a second time through has really proven to strengthen those up a lot. Some time away from the radicals and coming back has helped.
- Each individual kanji will get its own page and “kanji narrative.” The idea is that you’ll have a list of kanji to learn on a kanji page, and you’ll click through to a particular kanji. On that kanji page, there will be a narrative, taking you through all you need to learn. The key part, here, is the word “narrative.” The idea is to help you avoid as much direct memorization as possible, and by taking you through a narrative on the kanji page, it should, in effect, allow you to read the text and come out on the other end knowing quite a bit about that kanji. After doing that, the memorization portions will be minimized a lot more. By putting a little extra work in on my end, I’m hoping it helps you so you don’t have to put as much work in on yours. There’s still going to be some work, sure, but hopefully you’ll be surprised at how much you retain by going through a narrative (rather than a list of things you need to know).
- Better integration of emotion / senses. I kind of started doing this in later kanji chapters, but I want to make sure the opportunity to utilize your senses / emotions (which help you learn things more effectively) with all the kanji. Making this consistent from the beginning will be a big help. The only reason it wasn’t there before is because I didn’t start doing this until later, which is why I’m happy to have the opportunity to go back.
- Opportunities to practice each kanji within the narrative (I’m asking questions and adding reminders about certain things as you go through). There’s also going to be questions at the end to make sure you know what you need to know about the kanji before moving on (sort of like the lessons).
- More audio. I’ve (finally) figured out how to do audio the way I want to do it. With the kanji sections (and soon, all the other sections), all you’ll have to do is mouse over (or click on) the ♬ symbol, and you’ll hear the audio play. I want to have audio for all the common words right in the lesson. This audio, in theory, is also compliant with non-Flash-loving devices (like the iPhone and iPad), so after the kanji section is done I’ll be replacing all the flash audio in the regular lessons with this so you can enjoy TextFugu on your iPad as well.
- Breaking up kanji groups into smaller sections. Even though we’ve broken things up into 1-stroke, 2-stroke, 3-stroke, etc., those kanji can be broken up further by grade. Right now, the kanji you go through starts you at grade 1 kanji and moves up to S-level kanji (all within one stroke group). I feel like it’ll be easier to break the kanji you learn up into these groups as well. Lists seemed a bit too long for my taste, and doing this (along with the tables) will help make things more bite sized and manageable.
- Things will be easier to edit and revise for later. Man, revising kanji things in TextFugu right now is pretty bad and difficult to do. Now that I have the chance to go from the ground up, I’m making it so it’ll be a lot easier to edit later on. That means improvements in the future will be easier and faster to do. Thank goodness.
I would normally go ahead and put out an estimation as to when all this will be done, but those estimations are never right. These changes are time consuming, but I’m putting lots of time into it too, so hopefully 1-2 weeks to catch up to where we are now with kanji? That’s just a guess.
And, I will still be working on new content and lessons along side of this, so even though it’ll slow down a little, I’ll still keep posting new content up, just at a slightly slower pace. After Kanji2.0 has to come Lessons2.0, though. Since kanji was added in later to TextFugu, lessons just don’t integrate as nicely as I’d like. I have a whole whiteboard of improvements and integration ideas to make the lessons so much more fluid with the rest of the content, worksheets, and so on that will make things work even better. Kanji2.0 is the first step to that, and I’m incredibly excited to make the kanji section way, way, way better (and then the rest of TextFugu as well!).
Sounds like some good stuff, looking forward to it!
That sounds great! I must admit I kind of died inside, though- what will this be like for those of us who already have the current system going good? It sounds like it'll be a big shock….
It _shouldn't_ be too much of a shock for those who are enjoying the current system. It's more of an evolution from the current method, except now things are going to be a lot more fluid and consistent. The farther you get along in the kanji sections right now, the better they seem to get, just because I've learned a lot as I've written things. So, I'm bringing the older stuff up to date and giving everything a bit of an update.
I think you'll end up loving it (though old pages will still be available to use for a while even after the update, so you can transition slowly if you want!:)
Koichi-sensei, thanks for all of your hard work! I am really enjoying using this site to learn Japanese. I feel like I'm actually making progress, always a good thing. :)
I am just now finishing up the radicals (having a problem with the colors, though, for some reason). Should I wait to start Kanji until after you've implemented the changes or go ahead and use the current lessons?
This is great motivation for me! It makes me want to go back and try the new system. It won't hurt to go back and review from the beginning to where I left off, which is the 3-stroke kanji.
NEAT-O!
I really think this will be an awesome update! I like the kanji section as it is right now too, but I like reading something, and then being able to listen to a spoken explanation as well – and that's what this is going to be, right? :)
Integrating the radicals and the kanji more also seems to be something really, really good.
Thanks for doing all the hard work, so we don't have too!
Cheers, Leo
This sounds great! The one thing I wished for in the radicals section was a more clear idea as to whether or not the mnemonic was the actual meaning of the radical.
Other than that, I've been using the kanji radicals app on smart.fm in conjunction with this and it seems to be going well.
This is good timing, I guess I will wait awhile before going further. I was just taking my first steps with the kanji radicals and finding them rather difficult, because no matter which browser I try -safari, chrome, or firefox- or which OS -Macintosh or Windows- iDrill in smart.fm will not work for me. Are you planning on recommending an alternative, Koichi-san?
Radicals will probably not even use Smart.fm anymore, so that'll work out
for everyone! :)
Kanji and vocab, though, still will, but that part wasn't broken like
radicals are :( Smart.fm just doesn't like those images :( :(
Oh! Hooray! Thank you very much. I enjoyed learning the hiragana with smart.fm, but with the radicals, it's been driving me batty. @.@ I'll be looking forward to your new system, and thank you for your hard work.
Hi Koichi,
Just stopping by to see if you have an update on the new kanji section?
I've been holding off moving on with it in anticipation of what's to come
Cheers
It's… taking longer than I thought it would, to say the least :(
I should probably post up an update. I am hoping to get “beta” versions up
for the first few sections in about a week, and just share direct links to
members who are waiting it out (so they can get a look and also offer
feedback), and then pump out the last couple sections fairly soon after
that. So, one hand, it's taking longer, but other hand the taking longer
part just means each kanji narrative is getting more attention. I really
wish I could clone myself.
P.S. @Chris – e-mail me when you hit 5-6 payments on TextFugu. I know you're
close, and you get a special thank-you present for subscribing so long :)
Ooh, I'll let you know!
I'm sure what will come will be something awesome. No need to rush anything, just keep at it and I'm sure it'll be worth the wait :)
Cheers
Thanks Koichi! I'm sure it will be great system! Keep up the hard work!
Thank you SO MUCH Koichi this will be great for everyone I'm sure and I'm so happy you are working so hard to help others and myself overcome Kanji. Thank you.