First of all i like your videos. They are funny, creative, and surely fun to follow. They are of little to no value to me since i know all the kana inside out. But you have been asking what other members here are thinking and how you can improve them. So, here comes some input, i hope it will help you.

Video 1
Hiragana Lesson 1 - You have written it Hiragan

Video 3
You introduce new fields to the Anki deck.
- Make a series of separate Videos for that where you explain all the Anki related stuff.
- Explain how to set-up cards, how to add fields, which fields to add, in such a way as if your viewers are total newbies.
 
About the Videos in general
Even though it is not what you are aiming for start to introduce real words. Something of value for the viewers in that way that they can say: "Hey, i have learned an actual Japanese word already! Simple things like りんご, かさ, or as you have done 今朝. Give your viewers the chance to feel that sense of accomplishment, having something learned, without much effort on their side! Something they could really use at some point.

I'm really looking forward to your kanji videos. If they are half as funny to watch as your kana ones, you can be sure i will watch them, however long that might take. I don't think that there is anything else to say to that at the moment. No, that's not correct, keep up the good work.

Last edited by Nagareboshi (2011 January 03, 4:16 am)

Nukemarine wrote:

Nagareboshi wrote:

Video 3
You introduce new fields to the Anki deck.
- Make a series of separate Videos for that where you explain all the Anki related stuff.
- Explain how to set-up cards, how to add fields, which fields to add, in such a way as if your viewers are total newbies.

Good idea, I'll try to keep Anki info to minimum. However, I thought I was explaining the info at a fairly low level. I have to assume that the person watched previous videos in the series, such as the Anki video I listed as number three in the series.

ああ！すみません！I was watching your Anki video but only in parts. That led me to think that, what you are explaining in Video 3, was fairly advanced stuff. Even though well explained, I was assuming that those following your videos don't have a well set-up deck, not knowing that you are offering your own for download.

I still think you should move all the information concerning Anki and the deck to a separate video. It's both easier for you, as well as the viewer, when everything is all done. The deck will be set-up properly and you can spend all your time teaching the kana.
 

Nukemarine wrote:

Nagareboshi wrote:

About the Videos in general
Even though it is not what you are aiming for start to introduce real words. Something of value for the viewers in that way that they can say: "Hey, i have learned an actual Japanese word already! Simple things like りんご, かさ, or as you have done 今朝. Give your viewers the chance to feel that sense of accomplishment, having something learned, without much effort on their side! Something they could really use at some point.

It's tempting, but then you run the risk of the student worrying about not knowing a word's meaning when she can worry just about being able to write and recognize the kana. Plus, some of the words are fairly rare, or even fake to help train kana taught up to that point.

Besides, most students doing this will roll right into doing vocabulary.

You are probably right, i haven't thought of that. The focus of the videos is teaching the kana and not vocabulary or sentences. I was just thinking of how i started out learning those characters. Have a look at the material i have been using if you like: http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/DownloadF/ … kSheet.pdf With these papers i was able to quiz myself, to acquire the ability to write basic sentences, and vocabulary all in one go. Something like this would be overkill for a video lesson of course. All the more considering that you are teaching it the Heisig way. But you might find something in these papers to use for one of your new videos.

In one of your videos you choose yolk. Was it just because it was a good fit for よ? Because when i heard you saying yolk i was remembering an old video game character Dizzy The Prince of the Yolkfolk all of a sudden. *click* Those good old days. *sigh*

It's been over two months since I returned to this series. Part of reason for the long stretch has been laziness, but part of it has legitimately been a real busy schedule that leaves no desire for the one to two hours it takes to make one lesson.

Anyway, I finished recording lessons 5 and 6 so they should be posted soon. Hopefully this'll spur me into finishing the katakana lessons quickly and move into kanji lessons. On top of that, I was interviewed for my base's newspaper, but I'm not sure if it's going to be published. However, the reporter/public affairs rep seemed interested in creating a video series for the base's public channel. That would be cool for people new to base in Yokosuka.

Thanks for all the positive comments and advice.

Ok, sorry for the long delay. Finally got around to finishing up the Katakana and Hiragana videos. Again, it's more a laziness on my part for being so slow even though it's easy enough to blame work and other real life things.

At this rate, it'd take 5 years to even cover 500 kanji on video. Still interested in trying though (using cartoon characters as primitives if I can).