Tag Archives: kanji

Kanji “New” Is Starting To Roll Out

(Not sure what that picture on the right means, but felt it was appropriate… somehow).

I’ve always been a big believe of putting things out there as early as possible so that early feedback / fixes can happen. So, that’s pretty much what I’m doing here. I have the first 5-ish new kanji sections done and put up on TextFugu (it’s under “Kanji New” in the menu bar) and will be adding to it as the rest of the sections are complete (some of it only needs audio, some of it needs more). I just wanted for people to get an idea what the new Kanji Section will look like and how it will flow. I really hope you like it! I’m pretty nervous about it, it’s very different from before (and I know that people tend to be naturally resistant to change!).

Anyways, here’s what just went down with Kanji “New” and Kanji “Old.” Continue Reading →

Sorry For The Delay! An Update On Kanji 2.0

So, I’m definitely very late in terms of getting Kanji2.0 up and running (thank you for all the e-mails, too!). I just wanted to make sure I put out a blog-post-update out there so that people could get new estimations on where it’s at.

Here’s the quick and skinny on it: Each kanji narrative is taking a lot longer than I thought to write (good thing and a bad thing, I think. The more time I can put in each one the better they’ll be when they’re finished! … but at the same time they take longer to write, and I know you’re all very patiently waiting!). The more I worked on Kanji2.0, the more ways I found to improve on stuff (which includes both simplifying things down to a prettier core as well as working on some new things too!). I definitely have a good layout now for things, and I should have a preview version of the first 6-7 chapters for members of TextFugu sometime later this week. At that point I’ll probably put the new content up in a separate drop-down so that you can still use “Legacy” Kanji 1.0 as well as the new one, depending on where you’re at. From there, I’ll just add new sections as I have them done, probably catching up to Kanji1.0 a week or two after the preview is up (I’m on a roll, now, I think, partly thanks to my new “office”).

I also wanted to thank everyone for the patience. You guys are all really awesome and patient! I really appreciate it, and it helps me to focus on what’s important (getting good content out to you all!). Thank you very much!

P.S. I just found an awesome t-shirt making company in Portland. That can only mean one thing… hmmm.

Sneak Preview: Kanji 2.0

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. Continue Reading →

Waking Up With The Sun = Kanji Updates

This morning, thanks to one of my favorite sites (Philosopher’s Notes), I decided I was going to wake up with the sun. Now, this is totally different from just waking up early, I’ve found (something that we talk about in one of the TextFugu lessons). Normally, when I try to wake up early it doesn’t go well, but this morning felt a lot different. Instead of waking up at a certain time (making it seem like work), I decided to wake up with the sun (setting my clock to 5:24am). This changed the way I thought about waking up completely. I was waking up because I wanted to see something. I wanted to check on the sun, to make sure it wasn’t up to any funny business. I even wanted to beat it. Continue Reading →

I Think I Hate Kanji More Than You [Updates]

I think I might hate kanji more than all of you, if that’s possible. Yesterday and today were the first days “back to work” since the funeral, but I’ve gotten a good amount done probably thanks to Hawaii being so cold right now. Biggest thing that was done is the next kanji chapter, which consists of 30 new kanji (all three stroke kanji), some blank kanji practice sheets you can use, and a new list on Smart.fm. If you’ve already completed “The Things I Hate” in season 2, you’ll want to circle back and go through the second “real” kanji chapter, found here. If you haven’t gotten to this point yet, then don’t worry about it, because you’ll get to it when you get to it. More updates: Continue Reading →

Will Be Away February 8 – 15

Just a quick update: There was a death in my family, so I will be away during the week of February 8 – 15 (approximation) to attend to this. I’m not sure if I’ll have reliable internet access during this time, so please send any urgent e-mails to hello@textfugu.com, as I will be unable to answer most of my personal e-mail addresses. Rest assured, Erin will be checking this other e-mail address, and all will be well in the world.

Also, because of this situation, although I’ll be working on TextFugu offline (it’ll feel weird, but it’ll have to be done!), there will probably be no updates this week until I can get back home and transfer the offline online. I appreciate ahead of time your understanding!

There have been a few updates in the last couple days, though – here they are in case you’re interested in checking them out:

First “kanji” chapter. My gosh, it was a pain to write this one. Hopefully my pain means you will feel a lot less pain while you’re going through it, though! Many chapters similar to this one are in the pipeline, since you’ll be going through these along with the other chapters.
A few kanji radicals chapters.
Some chapter revisions.
Some more audio in some earlier chapters (was going to finish this up this week, but, of course, circumstances prevent).

Thank you all so much for understanding – I should probably get to packing now, as I have to head out early tomorrow morning. Here’s to hoping there will be internet at whichever relative’s place I end up staying at.

Learning Katakana

Updates

Learning Katakana Lesson: I’ve completed and added the “Learning Katakana” lesson to TextFugu. This will enable you to write foreign words, onomatopoeia, and more!
Hiragana Stroke Order Sheet: Finished a hiragana cheat sheet just for stroke order. You can find it on the hiragana chart page.

Upcoming

“The Things I Hate” Lesson
More vocabulary / kanji lists to study
First chapter on verbs

Continue Reading →

Optimizing Your Kanji Funnel

Today’s Updates:

Made several large changes to the kanji chapter: If you have completed this chapter, it might be a good idea to go back and do a quick re-read. Changes should effect you too much, with the biggest change coming with the “Most Commonly Used Kanji 1-50″ list. This list has been removed from Smart.fm to help you focus on more important things. There was too much confusion in terms of the readings of these kanji (they do have many many readings!) so I thought it easier to just make it go away and have you learn the meaning of these kanji first, and learn the readings, etc., via the vocab that branch out from these common kanji.
Hiragana & Katakana Sheets: You can download new hiragana / katakana cheat sheets. You can find them in the “Cheatsheet” drop down menu up above.
Worked on the Katakana lesson: Yep, that’s right, it’s almost time to learn another alphabet! I’m sure you’ll look forward to that one.

Continue Reading →