Obenkyo (for Android)

A multitude of apps facilitate learning Japanese, a fairly difficult language for Westerners. The Android app Obenkyo (free) is a great study and testing aid for learning Japanese writing and reading ? hiragana, katakana (the two basic Japanese alphabets), and kanji (the language's fiendish difficult logographic writing system).

Obenkyo is specifically for studying Japanese?indeed, "obenkyo" means "study" in Japanese. The app's best for those who already have some basic knowledge of the language. If, like me, you have taken one year of college-level Japanese, you'll find the app useful. It would also make a good study companion for currently-enrolled students.

Obenkyo has a friendly and simple design. The menu is composed of sections for alphabets, vocabulary, particles, and so on. Pressing the left side of the desired function brings you to a "Study" section, while the right side goes to "Test." The study section mostly just lists all the things you need to practice Japanese writing, reading, vocabulary, and grammar. A tab for hiragana gives you a complete table of characters, and when viewing an individual character, lets you swipe in any direction to view a different character as though you're traveling on the board.

Brush Up a Little on Everything
Other than the expected hiragana, katakana, numbers, and kanji, Obenkyo also has a useful section that explains Japanese particles and grammar. The particles' explanations could use a little more depth to them because there are multiple ways of using them. In reading a few of them, it seemed like there should be more text; they often end without touching on many of the distinct uses. The tests are very useful, though. You fill in missing particles in complete sentences, which is a great and natural way to learn grammar.

As for grammar itself, that section contains an extensive, organized guide divided into short articles, full of examples. One feature I liked in this section is that when you touch a kanji, the app displays the English translations. You can test your knowledge of kanji through multiple-choice questions, by recognition, and by drawing. Drawing is particularly impressive, because it accurately tests stroke order, direction, and overall shape. The app will show you where you went wrong if you made a mistake. Across all tests, you can pull a tab from the bottom to see corrections for instant feedback. It's too bad you can't "favorite" words or characters to save them into a custom list.

Silent Study Time
Unlike other language apps like Human Japanese ($9.99), Obenkyo doesn't have formal lessons divided into chapters. There isn't a guided path on what to study next, so Obenkyo is much more for self-learners than anyone else. Given how rigorous Japanese learning is, Obenkyo works best for tackling the intimidating number of kanji symbols and practicing them. However, if you're a novice with the language, Obenkyo might not be the best choice; it's recommended for those who know some basics and want to deepen their vocabulary and knowledge of kanji.

There is no voice support at all; you can't speak to Obenkyo, and neither will Obenkyo speak to you. If you're worried about pronunciation, you're out of luck. There are no conversation examples or guided practice. The most you can do is to delve into the grammar section and read some sentences there. If you're looking to quickly grasp some touristy phrases or something to get you by, Obenkyo will fall short there.

Lists are a little unmanageable because they can be very big, and it's a little painstaking to personally select each word to toggle whether they appear on tests. The lists are divided into proficiency levels, but they are still huge. The dots next to words and kanji change color depending on how well you know the word or character, but there isn't a setting to test yourself on the words you generally miss or to take out the learned selections. You're left to jump between levels, keep taking tests in the same pool, or manually edit big lists, which works fine if you have the patience for it.

You can select how many words appear in tests, but it's a choice that affects all tests, so even if you have just 10 kanji or words selected, you'll get 30 of them if you change the setting. It's a one size-fits all option that's just a little annoying because you have tailor it whenever you want to take a new test. The app could use a little more automation, something that tracks your progress or suggests tests for you.

Self-Assessment
Obenkyo contains essentially everything you need to practice writing Japanese. It's not meant for speaking and listening, though. It's a great tool for self-advancement in the Japanese Proficiency tests. If you haven't had any practice yet, you might like Obenkyo as a learning companion for memorizing hiragana and katakana, but otherwise you may need to look at more guided, automated applications.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/EhIEg-cYSXA/0,2817,2418706,00.asp

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