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Any tools for practicing by speaking? - Printable Version

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Any tools for practicing by speaking? - Uzeil - 2012-07-29

I hate asking things of you guys on my first post (especially when it's something I feel like I might find if I Google hard enough), but...

Basically, I'm ~1000 characters through RTK1 right now (Started July 12th, trying to finish RTK1 by ~Aug 12th, which I just now realized is 1 month. That's just coincidence, summer school ends Aug 10th and I figured I'd have a final stretch right when I get out). Something I want to do alongside my RTK1 Kanji studies is set myself up for faster kana reading, and I think the root of my slow reading problem is that I'm still converting each kana to roman characters in my mind before I vocalize it (or at least, vocalize it in my mind). Everything I have for testing my kana knowledge (between Anki, making a map and filling in the blanks, realkana.com) are great and all, but they SUPPORT MY PROBLEM!

So the question is: Do you guys know of any applications that can quiz my kana reading by showing me a kana character and me saying it out loud to it? Anything involving roman characters or me pressing a key with the assumption that I was right wouldn't work =S (I definitely have issues with, for example, ソン, シツ, ジヅ)

Thank you Smile

Oh, and random almost-related question: Do you know if native speakers are zoomed in a lot more than we typically are as English speakers for text? At my current zoom, certain kanji are practically a blob, but I don't know if they are typically zoomed in or if they just know the shapes of kanji so well that they can tell which blobs are which.

Any tools for practicing by speaking? - stesani - 2012-07-29

I just skimmed over the kana and did some realkana for a day. They became more and more familiar, i.e. easier to recognize and read, while doing grammar and vocab work. Maybe you'll find something for yourself on e-na.

It might also help if you say the kana aloud as you write it. That's what I do when doing my vocab and it's working out pretty good for me.

Also, about your "zoom" question: It comes with practice and exposure really. Depending on how much you read in a target language speeds up your reading comprehension. Or did I misunderstand your question there? The phrasing was kinda awkward.

EDIT:

Found this site which has katakana audio and this site for hiragana & katakana.

Any tools for practicing by speaking? - Uzeil - 2012-07-29

Ooo I'll definitely look through this site, thanks Big Grin . The question about zoom was basically... take 警 for example. Or better yet, 儀. On my screen, those just look like blobs, and I have to zoom in quite a bit to tell what radicals are actually being used. (Hell, on Facebook, if I type 書 in, the top there is just a blob and the bottom looks like 口, not 日, but I guess that's more of a font issue than zoom). So the question is, any idea if native speakers are typically zoomed in to where you can actually see the details, or if they're just used to the pixels getting all jumbled up and can still recognize the kanji...

Any tools for practicing by speaking? - stesani - 2012-07-29

Oh, I see. Well, yeah, they are difficult to see and I do zoom actually. I've read around here that Japanese people today have difficulties writing kanji on paper because it looks different than on their cellphone or computer (so in a way there is a trade-off). <-But don't quote me on that. Some of the forum vets can probably give you a better idea on this.

Also, I edited my post above with new links that are probably more helpful.

Any tools for practicing by speaking? - Uzeil - 2012-07-29

Ah cool Smile That site for listening to audio and selecting the character (no romanji involved) will be great for getting better at sound -> symbol. I wonder if anyone has the audio recognition software for doing the other way around =S (Rosetta Stone technically does, but the format is all wrong)

Any tools for practicing by speaking? - Oniichan - 2012-07-29

Uzeil Wrote:Ooo I'll definitely look through this site, thanks Big Grin . The question about zoom was basically... take 警 for example. Or better yet, 儀. On my screen, those just look like blobs, and I have to zoom in quite a bit to tell what radicals are actually being used. (Hell, on Facebook, if I type 書 in, the top there is just a blob and the bottom looks like 口, not 日, but I guess that's more of a font issue than zoom). So the question is, any idea if native speakers are typically zoomed in to where you can actually see the details, or if they're just used to the pixels getting all jumbled up and can still recognize the kanji...
The first one required a second or two, the rest I recognized immediately. I'm using a small laptop and vanilla and un-zoomed firefox. Don't worry, with practice, even those blobs will be recognizable.

Heck, even the squiggly, (Jackson-Pollock-like) script style ones on store signs and menu covers will be easy enough to recognize eventually. I think writing the characters once when practicing really helps with that skill.