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The Kanji Sketch Pad is an intuitive kanji coach that tests your ability to draw Japanese characters. It is integrated into the Cerebware Vocab Trainer but also comes as a standalone application in two flavours - a freeware version with eighty Grade One Kanji and a full Joyo Kanji version for serious students. In essence, it is a drawing pad that converts mouse strokes into kanji strokes, but it also animates new kanji for you to show you the correct shape, sequence and direction of the strokes. It does this by reading copyrighted data made available through the kanjivg project. It also makes use of the Edict dictionary to give you readings and examples of usage for your kanji. It allows you to set learning targets and plots your progress and revision needs, using a dynamic memory model based on a spaced repetition system. |
Index Part One - Overview Part Two - The Main Buttons Part Three - The Mnemonic Buttons Part Four - The Text Editor Part Five - The Pad's Hot Zones Part Six - Learning Targets Part Seven - Usage and Readings
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The standalone version is shown on the right, partway through an animation. (Note that the kanji shown is incomplete. The current downward stroke is only partly traced in blue and the short final stroke needed to complete the kanji is not yet shown. Also, the answer is shown in the window title because this kanji was selected in look-up mode, rather than test mode.). Watch the blue kanji animation a couple of times, and then attempt to copy it: press the left mouse button while moving the mouse or dragging your finger across a touch pad, then release. Your messy mouse stroke will be replaced by a neater copy. (If you make a mistake while drawing a stroke, just keep drawing until your line leaves the white page and the mistaken stroke will be discarded.) When you have finished the kanji, it will turn black, the background will turn green instead of blue, and the red 'Pass' button will change into a blue 'Next' button - press this to move on. After the first couple of viewings, the animation will not be there to help you, so stop to consider the strokes and how they are ordered before clicking 'Next'. If you have completed the kanji without any errors, the 'Claim' button will also become active. Pressing this button informs the memory modelling software that you think you know this kanji quite well and do not need to revise it again for a while. |
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If your kanji-drawing is faulty, your mouse stroke will turn yellow or, if it is more seriously misplaced, red. Yellow strokes are not penalised, and the computer will merely coach you by showing, in grey, where the stroke should have been. Red strokes incur a one-dot error penalty, and as far as the memory modelling software is concerned, it's a case of five strikes and you're out. After the fifth error, the blue kanji coach returns, showing you where each correct stroke should have been. Trace over the blue stroke, committing the shape to memory, before performing the next stroke. At any stage, a double-click on the page will remove the last stroke. To summarise: repeat the stroke if the mouse stroke is still visible and is yellow or red, move on to the next stroke if the mouse stroke has disappeared; repeat the stroke if the coach's stroke is grey or blue, move on to the next stroke if the coach's stroke is green. |
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