Hi, everyone!

Long time no see... It has also been a long time since I studied Japanese, too, but I want to start studying again next year. Since the N900 has been my faithful companion for more than a year (R.I.P., Palm TX), I'd like to ask you what softwares do you recommend for this device. If you know of any Qt or Linux opensource software too, please let me know (I might port something over if I think it's worth the trouble).

Here's what I'm looking for:

- Spaced Repetition System (SRS) / Flashcards
- Word and kanji dictionaries (with kanji lookup, SOD, etc.)
- Input Method Engines (IME)
- Handwriting recognition (kana and kanji)
- Text viewer / editor (integrated with word / kanji dictionaries)
- Other useful tools

After a quick search in the repositories I found these available:

- ankimaemi: Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS).
- ankiqt: Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS).
- freshmemory: Fresh Memory is a program for studying foreign words.
- fullrecall: Advanced flashcard-like software.
- granule: flashcard program for learning new words.
- ktmobile: A learning framework for Japanese characters (kanji).
- Mnemosyne: Learning tool based on spaced repetition technique.
- Qteachme: Learn anything with Qteachme.
- Querymee: a word trainer with more than 150 ready made vocabularies.
- tomotko: Flashcard application to learn vocabulary.
- WordByWord Vocabulary Trainer: WordByWord is a simple vocabulary trainer.

- Gjiten: Japanese dictionary for GNOME.
- kanatest: beginner's drill game to learn Japanese characters.

- maemocjk-him-scim-anthy: This is a meta package for the Japanese Input using SCIM and Anthy.
- qimsys-core: Japanese Input Method written in Qt.
- tegaki-zinnia-japanese: Japanese handwriting model for Zinnia.

It seems most of them are still in Extras-devel (i.e., not ready for prime time), but I tested a few for a while and they are working fine. Here is a very short review of some of them:

Gjiten (v2.6)
[+] Must-have! Fast, many useful features (word/kanji dict, kanji lookup, kanji handwriting recognition (via KanjiPad), etc.)
[-] Missing icons on my device (maybe local problem), requires external IME for Japanese input

kanatest (v0.4.8maemo2)
[+] Fast, has kana charts, kana tests, good customization, statistics

ktmobile (Kanji-Teacher Mobile v0.5)
[+] Fast, 2501 kanjis to study (on/kun readings, meaning, SDO, compounds, personal compounds database)
[-] Large (20MB), very few useful features, no SDO for all kanjis, can only work with datasets of 100 pre-determined kanjis at a time, can't add or edit anything (kanjis, translations, notes - can't even search or remove entries from personal database)

freshmemory (Fresh Memory v0.4)
[+] Import / export CSV, flashcards with question, answer & example, can create / edit databases and cards on the device, word drill (random browsing of flashcards), SRS
[-] Clunky UI, no multimedia or even rich text support, no help inside the application

Mnemosyne (v.2.0.0~beta13~rc1)
[+] Imports Mnemosyne 1.x .mem files, Mnemosyne XML files, tab-separated value files; supports text-to-speech (via eSpeak); supports 4 types of cards: front-to-back only, front-to-back and back-to-front, foreign word with pronunciation, cloze deletion; cards of type "F2B only" can contain (rich) text, sound or image questions (only one type); help / user guided included in the app; "tags" can be used to organize and study cards (seems better than keeping them in different databases); detect and avoid entering duplicated cards; clear and streamlined UI
[-] Sync not yet available; can't search for a card; can only edit a card when reviewing it; cards with sound in MP3 format give a "Unable to play sound file!", but WAV files work fine; can not create a card with text + image + sound (like in Smart.fm)



On Windows, I tried zkanji and liked its features (it's like a swiss army knife, all-in-one, all-you-can-eat software ), and since it's opensource I thought about making a port... but it would be a lot of work (basically a complete rewrite), and I think I would rather help someone already porting something similar.

So, are you using (or have you tested) any of the above? Have any particular recommendation? Your comments and tips are appreciated. Thank you!

Edit: similar threads / links:
- Android apps thread
- Android applications (wiki)

Hello Ricardo, nice to hear you want to start again studying! i have a Nokia N8 smartphone here and I must say i'm rather.. disappointed about the languages available (no Japanese [keyboard]), same with the apps (no Anki for Symbian^3) ;(

Is there any chance to get my anki decks (SRS) onto Nokia N8? Thanks for the help \o

Sorry, Tori-kun... even though I also have an N8, I barely use it for anything but taking pictures. Have you tried the Ovi Store or Google?

But after a quick search I found the Mnemojojo, a J2ME client for Mnemosyne. Have you tried this one?

Hey, another fellower! N8 seems to be rather good in technical stuff etc., but lacks in apps -.- Mnemojojo looks interesting, although i do not know how to install "japanese" (keyboard/recognition and not '???' fancy stuff instead of Kanji/kana) or any app.. Sometimes when i switch it off, it would not start if i want to switch it on o.o

How to export the Anki Deck to be opened in Mnemosyne?

Good question! But I won't be able to help you there, I never used any of those programs. My suggestion is to write in the forums / mailing lists about both softwares, then you'll have a good chance to get your answer.

Seems like it's quite hanging on the N8 -.- Damien (Anki developer) says somebody needs to rewrite/port the Anki code to symbian code, which is not much work but "he has no time doing it".. please, anybody?

Hey all! My company recently released an app called Kanji Dictionary for N900, which uses the WWWJDIC as the dictionary database, and it also has a flash card viewer, animated stroke order diagrams and JLPT kanji lookup, as well as a beautiful UI. Take a look at it if it fulfills your needs, you can see some screenshots and detailed description from here:
http://store.ovi.com/content/72039
http://nosturitarkastus.fi/software

As for N8 version, we will release Kanji Dictionary for newer Symbian phones in January or February. Any feedback on the app is welcome :-)

I'd love to test it, but the software is not available in the Ovi store for me (since I live in Brazil).

I just contacted Ovi Store and they confirmed that payments with international credit cards are actually available in Ovi Store Brazil, but other payment methods are not. If you're still interested, please try it out! :-)

True, I can access the Ovi page now! Thanks for letting me know!

I'd love to give it a try, but since it doesn't have an evaluation version (at least I could not find one), it seems I need to buy it. Even though it's pretty cheap, I already have most of the same functionality on freeware programs, so I think I'll wait for an evaluation version or a good, in-depth review. Of course, I'll write my impressions of the software when I try it...

Hey Ricardo, don't know if you're still following this thread, but my company finally released Kanji Dictionary for N8, E7, C6 and C7 (and other new Nokia phones) just a couple of days ago. We also put up a video of the app on youtube, so if you wish to see the dictionary in action, head here: http://nosturitarkastus.fi/software

This might also be of interest to other Nokia users in this forum so I thought to post it here.

Thanks for the update... but since Nokia is abandoning Symbian, Maemo & MeeGo, and even their newest handsets (the N9 and N950), even <i>before<i> being launched, I'm replacing my N900 with an Android phone. It feels like a downgrade (I miss the incredible multitasking power of Maemo), but what can I do - keep standing on a burning platform?

palvajarvi Wrote:Hey Ricardo, don't know if you're still following this thread, but my company finally released Kanji Dictionary for N8, E7, C6 and C7 (and other new Nokia phones) just a couple of days ago.

How do you search for a word or kanji that you don't know how to read? It would be nice to use my N900 as an electric dictionary, but it's the words I can't read that I want to look up.

Pauline Wrote:How do you search for a word or kanji that you don't know how to read? It would be nice to use my N900 as an electric dictionary, but it's the words I can't read that I want to look up.

Gjiten comes with KanjiPad (where you can draw a Kanji) and KanjiDic (that allows you to search a kanji by stroke number and/or radicals), give it a try.