WISS2006

A Mobile Kanji Learning System for the Apple iPod Platform
Norman LinKenji Mase∗Native speakers of languages with alphabeti writing systems fa e a large hurdle whenlearning Japanese as a se ond language: learning the written forms and meanings of approximately 2000
daily-use Japanese kanji hara ters. Here we present a mobile system, implemented on the Apple iPodplatform, for assisting a student in memorizing the written forms and meanings of kanji. Our systembuilds on the ideas of our earlier passive-mode PDA-based system [3℄, using hierar hi al omponent-based
analysis of kanji shapes (Heisig, [1℄).
In our new system, we implement two learning modes: a passive audio-only review mode, and anintera tive audio-visual review / quiz mode, with easy swit hing between the two modes. The mobile
implementation platform ombined with passive and intera tive review modes allow our system to be
used ee tively in a variety of mobile learning situations, even when the user's hands and/or eyes may
not be available to operate the devi e.

Summary.

1Introdu tion

are available to look at the system during learn-

Our aim is to use mobile

omputer te hnol-

ogy to help the student of Japanese as a se ond language (JSL) learn kanji in anytime, anywhere mobile learning situations. The basi

kanji

ompeten ies required of a JSL student in lude
learning:
age invisual shape; meaning; readings; us-ompound words.

Heisig's (rst) book[1℄ is unusual in that it deliberately emphasizes
initial learning of only shape and meaning of alarge number of kanji  the approximately 2000
daily-use kanji  initially ignoring readings andompound usage.

We believe this approa h ef-

fe tive and developed a novel mobileomput-ing, and imply that the sense of sight needs to beused at all times when learning kanji. Our previous mobile system [3℄hallenged this idea by im-plementing an audio-only review of kanji shapes.
The system des ribed in this paper implementsa best-of-both-worlds situation, allowing both
non-visual and visual modes depending on theuser's mobile learning situation and preferen e.

3

System Design and Implementation

3.1

Hierar hi al data organizationEa h kanji is des ribed in three ways: (1) aning system to support kanji learning using thisimage of its visual form (2) a single meaning word

method. The novel features of our system are a

des ribing its meaning, and (3) a list of words

ombination of two modes of learning  an audio-

des ribing the names of the more basi

only, passive mode; and and audio-visual, inter-nents

a tive mode  and implementation on a readily-

Be ause of the hierar hi al visual

available, portable

onsumer devi e.

omponent list of a moreomplex kanji.

Related work
Pra ti ally all

omputerized systems for tea h-ing kanji (e.g. [2℄) assume that the student's eyes
Copyright is held by the author(s).
∗onstru tion ofkanji, one kanji's meaning word will often appear
in the2

ompo-omprising the kanji's visual appearan e.

Norman Lin - Nagoya University Graduate S hoolof Information S ien e. Kenji Mase - Nagoya University Information Te hnology Center; Nagoya University
Graduate S hool of Information S ien e; and Advan ed

3.2

System design

See Figure 1. We rst

onstru t a text databasewith 2000 kanji meanings and their part names.
The text data is spoken by a spee h synthesizer,
and the spoken audio saved in 2000 les for kanjimeanings and 2000 for kanji parts.

Finally, wereated 2000 image les, one for ea h kanji. The

Tele ommuni ations Resear h International, Media In-data was uploaded to a 4th generation Appleformation S ien e Labs, Department of Intera tion Me-

iPod (20GB) along with our learning software,dia.

written under iPod Linux.

WISS 2006

"parta, partb""(beep) kanji2""partb, partx""(beep) kanji3""kanji2, partq"
...

...

2000 spoken audio
files of kanji meanings

offlinespeech synthesis

kanji1 = part a, part b
kanji2 = part b, part x
kanji3 = kanji2, part q...

"(beep) kanji1"2000 spoken audio
files of kanji parts

2000 kanji meaning + parts
database (text file)

iPodupload

2000 kanji image files

upload
stone

...
kanji
quiz softwaremodulecliff, mouth

visual display of kanji meaningvisual display of kanji image
and kanji component part names

trigger audio/visualdisplay of kanji parts
and kanji imageiPodLinuxbase system
mark student response as incorrect
mark student response as correct
switch between
spoken audio output of kanji meaning
passive / interactive
spoken audio output of kanji component partsmodes
Figure 1. The parts of our iPod-based kanji learning system.

3.2.1

visual pla ement of those parts in the kanji writ-Interfa e and usage

ten form.
After starting the appli ation, the user

anstudent

After seeing theorre t answer, thean indi ate by button presses if his an-swit h between two modes of operation with aswer was right or wrong.

In passive
audio-only mode , the system an be used withallow for s ore-keeping and student-tailored re-only audio information and with no user inter-yet implemented.

single press of the play button.

a tion. The system

ontinuously and randomly

hooses one kanji from the database, plays audio of a separator beep, then plays audio of thespoken keyword for the kanji meaning. Next, thesystem pauses for four se onds, during whi h thestudent should mentally re all the part namesof the kanji.

Finally the system automati ally

speaks the kanji part names, allowing the user
to mentally

he k if his answer wasorre t.

Inintera tive audio-visual mode , the systemdepends on user intera tion and supplements
the audio information with visual information.
First,

the system speaks a randomly-sele ted

kanji meaning and prints the keyword on theiPod s reen.

Next, the system pauses, and thestudent takes as mu h time as ne essary to reall the kanji's

omponent part names, and -nally presses the middle iPod button.

Finally,

the system then plays spoken audio of theom-

ponent part names, and displays an image of thekanji.

This allows the student to

he k the a -ura y of his memory of the part names and theThis is intended toview of failed kanji, though this feature is not

4

Con lusion and Future Work
Our system is unique in allowing two modesof kanji review; passive audio-only (requiring nouse of user's hands or eyes) and an intera tive
audio-visual mode, allowing anytime, anywhere
review of kanji.

Future work involves student

performan e evaluation, user studies, and providing multi-modal mnemoni

assistan e to help

the initial memorization task.

Referen es[1℄ James Heisig. Remembering the Kanji I: A om-plete ourse on how not to forget the meaning andwriting of Japanese hara ters. Japan Publi a-tions Trading Co., Ltd., 1985. Third edition.
[2℄ KanjiGym Light home page. http://kanjigym.
de.
[3℄ Norman Lin and Kenji Mase. An audio-based approa h to mobile learning of Japanese kanji hara ters. In Pro eedings of the 5th World onferen eon Mobile Learning 2006 (in press), 2006.