Tag Archives: updates

Turning Owls Into Lemonade

It’s been a rough week with Smart.fm shutting down (that’s the main thing we used to use for flashcards and drilling), but it’s finally over. I’m so happy to say that all Smart.fm lists being used on TextFugu are now Anki lists.

I know some of you don’t like Anki as much (and then there are those who already liked Anki better, and have been emailing nonstop trying to get me to switch over since forever), but I hope you give it a fighting chance. First off, it’s a little different in how it tests you. Instead of choosing a correct answer, you have to come up with the right answer in your head, display the answer, and then tell it how well you actually knew it. If you’re honest with yourself, then this method is actually way better for long term retention. If you’re not honest, and you keep telling it you know things you don’t… well… I think you’ll know what will happen (so be honest!). Continue Reading →

Here’s What 2011 Looks Like

Hey Everyone! Wow… it’s pretty much 2011 now. What an awesome year it’s been (and what an awesome year it will be). I hope all of you had an excellent year as well. I’m sure you’ll have a good 2011 as well :)

Anyways, here’s the plan for 2011, TextFugu-wise. I don’t really like super long term goals, but these are some general things I’m hoping to get done in 2011 for you. As always, I’m really excited for everything. Continue Reading →

So How About Those New Lessons?

Hey all. I just wanted to send out a quick thank you for all the patience, as well as the requests for the “new stuff.” Totally understandable, you deserve it. Here’s the answer, which includes what’s been going on in my mind, as well as what’s going on in the next couple weeks. Next few weeks should be good for all of you wanting new things.

Updating The Old Stuff (But Why!??)

So, the reason (as many of you know already) why there haven’t been new things (except new kanji, there was) is because I’ve been going through the old stuff. Not only have I been changing all the old stuff over to the new “little victories” style, but I’ve also been rewriting a lot of things, making better study lists, creating new worksheets, and more with them. This is my own fault, I think, but the more new stuff I write, the better I get at this Japanese textbook writing thing (practice, you know?) so I end up wanting to bring everything up to the new “par” level. It’s dangerous, I know, and I need to fight that urge, for all your sakes :)

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.

Some Look-And-Feel Changes

If everything goes okay over the next 15 minutes, there should be a moderate amount of change. This is going to set the groundwork for a lot of changes over the next week or two in terms of how the content is displayed (two words: “more simple”). A few new things include:

Dashboard (what would you like to see in your dashboard?)
Different menus for logged in people and not logged in people (and its simplified)
New front page (will be doing tests on this, so expect to see small changes over the next few weeks).
A Manifesto (still writing it, Sorry!)

If you notice anything broken in your particular browser, please shoot me an e-mail at koichi@textfugu.com. Looks good in Firefox / Chrome on my end, anyways, but you never know with that sneaky Internet Explorer.

Anyways, like I said, very early version of things, and laying the groundwork for some other changes I’ve wanted to make. Would love to hear your ideas, too, especially since things are in early stages!

And So The Saga Begins…

One of the coolest things about writing your own textbook is the ability to make fun of other people’s textbooks… I’m not sure why more people didn’t take advantage of this. I don’t think my physics text in high school once took a jab at another physics text. Maybe they just didn’t have any sense of humor (or, they were just horribly boring to begin with). Continue Reading →

Season 3 Is Starting To Roll [Updates]

Season 3 is finally starting to roll (after coming back and getting caught up on all the naggy little things). I just posted up the second lesson of Season 3 (which probably means there are a decent number of bounty opportunities available), and the third lesson is being worked on as we speak (as well as the next kanji chapter, which for some reason seem to take ridiculous amounts of time to finish). I’m also pretty excited for this most recent chapter as it’s the first one that integrates homework that involves using Lang-8. Utilizing the social tools available on the web, I think, is going to be one of the really neat things that sets TextFugu apart. Sure, you could go ahead and use Lang-8 on your own, and that’s wonderful, but using it in concert with TextFugu? Now that’s a beautiful (and educational) combination.

Anyways, I’m also putting together a customer survey so I can learn more about the things you find most important (so I can make sure my time is spent wisely for you), so please fill it out when you get it!

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 →