East Asian Language Learning Programs

**trippinnik** · June 4th, 2007

Does anyone have a list of the Kanji needed for the Japanese proficiency test? I like that TangoBlaster can read in txt files with that stuff and I want to focus on the most necessary ones.

**trippinnik** · June 4th, 2007

Oh, nevermind it's already in there isn't it?

**thestig_992** · January 30th, 2008

Originally Posted by anoir

Hi,

I found a program, langdrill, by quick search with synaptics. I'm not sure you like it or not, but it looks quite nice at least.

lagdrill website

A screenshot in flickr

I went to the site that you gave, but you had to be a paying member to download. Is it possible to get this game for free or must you pay.

**ricoris** · March 30th, 2008

Hi!
I'm practically an absolute beginner in Ubuntu. I study Japanese and I intend to start Chinese next year. I need to know how can I write Kanji and Kana in my computer. I have been trying to fix it following the HOWTO in http://www.linux.ryukent.co.uk/show.php?id=25 but I have trouble understanding what "So copy your downloaded ttf files and paste them into a folder under the fonts tree. I recommend:

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefont" exactly means. I also don't understand how it works once installed.
By the way, I will be happy to offer what I can to any people developing programs for learning Japanese if you just explain to me what I should do. I have a Furigana dictionary and a quite good spanish kanji dictionary which includes different equivalent to the kanji in spanish (which I could translate into English easily) and examples of how the kanji is used in words that include the word written in Japanese, its pronunciation in romanji and different spanish equivalents (which I could translate too) for the word. If anyone is interested in this or other kind of linguistic feedback, just e-mail me at gabi_at88@hotmail.com and I'll see what I can give you.

**FrankVdb** · April 1st, 2008

Use SCIM on GNOME and SKIM on KDE to input Chinese and Japanese characters.

I use SCIM and I'm quite satisfied with it. I don't study Japanese

By the way, a good freeware dictionary is Wakan, offering both Japanese and Chinese. Unfortunately, it's Windows stuff. I'm using it on a virtualized XP machine but in the past I got it to work under Wine without much hassle.

**TokyoYank** · May 31st, 2008

Originally Posted by ryukent

I think for the time being, I'm gonna release JLPT 4, 3, 2 Vocab and then batches of other stuff in the order I learned them as there was a loose connection (e.g. revolved around an article).

First of all, a huge THANKS for TangoBlaster! Very handy, useful program.

Second, in Hardy Heron, I could get the program to a useable state without having installed Java packages directly from Sun.
System > Administration > Synaptic > Search > java
The relevant packages I have are openjdk-6-jre (and related programs) and perhaps also ubuntu-restricted-extras (It took me a while to realize that "Java 6" and Java 1.6 were the same, so having a Synaptic way to do this might be useful to others too)

Note, however, this method is not 100% perfect, because there's some jarbled text in the CSV import dialog (the field that shows the file location) and the character next to the kanji (perhaps 字 ?). But during the test, all kanji display correctly. In addition, I've seen clipped text, no tool-tip or wrapping, when the English definition is too long.

If anyone reading knows different packages in Synaptic (for example sun-java6-jre?) to avoid these issues, please post up.

Third question, are there JLPT csv files available? The J501 files I got in the zip file seem more like personal study files, and they don't include the terms I found in lists online. The files should be a piece of cake to reformat, which I can do if you like.
http://www.thbz.org/kanjimots/jlpt.php3

**ryukent** · June 10th, 2008

Thanks for the interest everyone. I know this project hasn't been updated for a long time. I have addressed a number of issues raised here and will try to upload a new release as soon as I get time.

For those using the openJDK version of Java (based on IcedTea) as opposed to the sun version, there is a problem displaying Japanese characters where the font hasn't been explicitly set. TangoBlaster was designed for Sun Java though and will experience best results (and buttons that are the correct size) using the official Sun version.

I've posted a solution in the following thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=824375