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.”

Kanji “New” & Kanji “Old”

Since Kanji “New” isn’t completed yet, I’ve put all the old (soon to be replaced) kanji chapters in one menu item. This means that if you were using / working on anything from the “old” kanji section, you can still access it for a while longer before it gets phased out. Although the “old” and “new” should go fairly well together (despite being a lot different) I’m hoping this will ease the transition pretty nicely. One last quick note – if you want to access “Kanji Old” you’ll need to be logged in to see it.

Adding Anki

I’m going to also take this opportunity to add Anki decks to the kanji section. In fact, that’s the only option (right now) for the new kanji chapters up there (because, as many of you knew, Smart.fm didn’t play nice with the Radicals images), though I’ll be porting them over to Smart.fm too so you can use whichever one you like best. I know a lot of you are Anki fans, and I’ve been getting into Anki a bit too lately.

Each Kanji Has Its Own Page

One of the really big differences is that each kanji has its own page and “narrative.” I’ll let you go in and read some of it to see how the “narrative” works (basically, the idea is that if you just go through and read everything on the page, you’ll be able to learn a lot without trying too hard), but I did want to say something really quickly about the 1-page-1-kanji idea.

One of the really important things about staying self-motivated is achieving a lot of small victories. The more small victories you can achieve, the more they’ll snowball and the more you’ll want to study Japanese. By putting one kanji on one page, I think I’m giving you more opportunities to have these little victories, which means you’ll stay more motivated to study kanji. When I had them all on one page, I think that was a bit daunting (plus, I couldn’t add all the information I wanted to each kanji). I’m hoping this change will actually help you learn more effectively whether you realize it or not! :)

Radicals Then Kanji, Then Radicals, Then Kanji…

Another big change is the ordering of the kanji and radicals chapters. You’ll notice that there is a radicals chapter before every kanji chapter instead of the “learn all the radicals before you learn any kanji” approach I was previously taking. This new approach makes a lot more sense, I think, and will get you learning kanji a lot sooner.

And A Bunch Of Other Small Changes…

A whole bunch of other things changed as well, but whatever they are they’re so small I’ve forgotten what they are. Things like the addition of audio right on the page (I wanted to make it easier to practice with audio… i.e. I didn’t want you to have to jump to Smart.fm to practice the audio on a word, plus some of those recordings they used were kinda… weird), more quotes, modified introductions, more images, and more videos (you know, to help you rest your brain between things) are just some of the many little changes that happened and are still happening.

So, as I mentioned before, this still feels like a slightly early version to me, so feedback is especially awesome right now, while things are a little more malleable. I do need to catch up on a lot of bounties, as well, but feel free to submit any small errors, etc., you find via the bounty system and I’ll try to be on these ones more quickly especially if they have to do with the kanji section!

Thank you all for all the feedback leading up to this point, too! A lot of the changes were made based off of your comments, e-mails, and forum posts in various places :) It really helps a lot!

Cheers!

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.

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!).

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.

And, for the first time in a long time, I was able to get up really early. No problemo.

For those of you who are trying to get up early to study your Japanese (and I know for a fact there are quite a few of you out there), give this trick a try. It may make waking up a little easier, and because the time you wake up varies every day by just a little bit, it’s kind of fun as well.

Oh, and it’s incredibly productive.

This morning I finished up the rest of the 4-stroke kanji, and, since it was still really early, I got the 5-stroke kanji going as well, finishing the first level of it and starting the second. It may not seem like a lot, but kanji takes a lot more time to write about than it takes to learn it, so I’m pretty happy. This definitely wouldn’t have happened had I woken up later, as I usually do.

Maybe it’s time to start a secret waking-up-early pact on the secret forums (you know, the ones that require you to be a member to get into).

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:

Two more biggish updates as well:

1. “Have You Reached The Dip Yet?” is a chapter all about “The Dip” and how you’ll probably experience it (so you know what to expect). This has been put in Season 2 in a spot that I consider to be particularly “dippy.”
2. “Season 2 Review” was added as well. Should have been added earlier, but better late than never.

Season 3 content will start coming in the next few days – with the funeral, the family things, etc., there have been plenty of delays, though I’m starting to get back into my writing stride here. Anyways, if you need to go back and study the kanji, do so now. If not, then look forward to it.

Oh, and the reason I think I hate kanji more than you is because dang… it’s tough to input all the information for the kanji chapters. Very tedious. So, hopefully you enjoy it more than I enjoy inputing the “data.” Just know, that no matter how crummy kanji study gets, it can always be worse. Hopefully, though, you end up enjoying it.

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 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

Author Notes

Today wasn’t a bad day, all said and done. Lots prepared for tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to a productive day. I’m liking some of the small changes made to Season 1, and the feedback has been good on those. Every single day TextFugu is getting a little more efficient, which means you can learn more effectively without distraction. I’m looking forward to the feedback on Season 2 as people get to that point in the textbook.

• 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.

Coming Soon:

• “Katakana Chapter” Lesson
• Hiragana Stroke Order Chart
• “The Things You Hate” Lesson

Additional Notes:

Welcome to the new TextFugu updates page. I’ll be posting updates and news up here a few times a week so you can know what’s going on and coming up.