日本語 Japanese Ask Questions Thread 7

If you have a question about the language, ask it and fellow 4channers might see it and answer it for you.
日本の方からのご協力も大歓迎です。


■USEFUL TOOLS

Rikaichan
http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan/
A pop-up dictionary for Firefox that shows readings and definitions when you hover over words.

Rikaikun
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jipdnfibhldikgcjhfnomkfpcebammhp
Same as above, but for Chrome.

Anki
http://ankisrs.net/
Flash card program mainly useful for vocab and kanji repetition. Can sync decks between computers and your phone.


■WEB-BASED DICTIONARIES

ALC
http://www.alc.co.jp/
Offers a web interface to the Eijirou dictionary, made for use in translation work.

kotobank
http://kotobank.jp/
Pretty good for J-J lookups. J-E/E-J definitions from Progressive.

Tangorin
http://tangorin.com/
The best interface to Jimu Buuriinu-sama's EDICT, which is a mess, so don't use this unless you have to.

weblio 類語辞典
http://thesaurus.weblio.jp/
It's an extensive thesaurus.

(If you want the best J-E/E-J dictionary, get an EPWING copy of Kenkyusha.)


■MEDIA

D-Addicts
http://d-addicts.com/forum/torrents.php
It's a horrible community, but it's THE go-to for drama series. Many variety shows turn up there as well.

JPopsuki
http://jpopsuki.eu/
It's a private music tracker with an extensive selection of just about everything.

KeyHoleTV
http://www.v2p.jp/video/english/
An application that lets you stream live TV in shit quality.

Tokyo Toshokan
https://www.tokyotosho.info/
anime anime anime anime anime


■PREVIOUS THREADS

See >>2 for links.

>>40
Have you heard of Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" series? In the first volume, he teaches the character without giving the reading/ phonetics in kana, so you only know the character through the word it's associated with in English (I think). In the foreword he talks about how rote memorization of kanji is extremely difficult because it's so far removed from anything we do in English, which makes the kanji harder to retain.

http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Characters/dp/0824835921/ref=la_B000APGVBC_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1349128760&sr=1-1

If you can preview and you can see the second page of the introduction, he talks about it in the 3rd paragraph down. I haven't bought the book yet but I'm really psyched about picking up the series. From what I know about it it seems like a really practical way to get into kanji seriously.