{"id":209,"date":"2011-04-01T16:31:12","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T21:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/?p=209"},"modified":"2013-02-18T01:03:18","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T06:03:18","slug":"how-i-joined-the-robot-army-and-learned-to-love-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"Android Apps For Japanese Learners"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re going to go Android for Japanese first you need a keyboard<\/strong>. I like Simeji. It’s ugly, but very useful… and really, the only good choice out there, to be honest:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.adamrocker.android.input.simeji<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, if you like to add Japanese-style emoticons, then Kaomoji List is a great add-on to Simeji. It’s activated through the “mushroom button” on Simeji’s keyboard:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.zeroindex.mushroom.kaomojilist<\/a><\/p>\n

If you want to draw kanji by hand, then I recommend HanWriting IME:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.KwanLye.android.HanWriting<\/a><\/p>\n

For a dictionary, there are a couple of options. My preference is DroidWing. It works great with EPWING dictionaries (just create an EPWING directory on your SDCard) and with web searches, if you know what search strings to use. You can search multiple dictionaries all at once, which is powerful.:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.aokabi.android.droidwingfree<\/a><\/p>\n

If you just want EDICT, then it’s hard to beat Aedict. It’s free:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=sk.baka.aedict<\/a><\/p>\n

Vertical Text Viewer is great for reading \u00e9\u009d\u2019\u00e7\u00a9\u00ba\u00e6\u2013\u2021\u00e5\u00ba\u00ab (aozora bunko) formatted books.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e9\u009d\u2019\u00e7\u00a9\u00ba\u00e6\u2013\u2021\u00e5\u00ba\u00ab is the Japanese version of Project Gutenberg, only the difference here is that the format they use has become an “underground” standard of a sort. You can even buy books, have them sent to a professional to be scanned professionally, and then format them yourself in \u00e9\u009d\u2019\u00e7\u00a9\u00ba\u00e6\u2013\u2021\u00e5\u00ba\u00ab format. (The books get destroyed in the process, though.) Of all of the \u00e9\u009d\u2019\u00e7\u00a9\u00ba\u00e6\u2013\u2021\u00e5\u00ba\u00ab readers out there, I like Vertical Text Viewer the most. It has a Mincho font you can download inside the app for extra legibility, and when you press and hold on a word, you can send the word to DroidWing to look it up! VERY handy.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=org.example.android.npn2SC1815J.VerticalTextViewer<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re learning Japanese, chances are, you’re also struggling with a way to remember everything. I hope you’re using an SRS. My favorite SRS is Anki, and there’s a port of Anki for Android, called Ankidroid.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.ichi2.anki<\/a><\/p>\n

When you’re in Japan, post offices are really useful places for doing 2 things: sending crap home, and getting money for cheap. Finding them, on the other hand, can be tricky. This app claims to do it. (Requires a connection.):<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=jp.co.efficient.pnpostoffice<\/a><\/p>\n

This last app is just cool: the Hyperdia search app– you can use the Hyperdia service to search for ways to get from A\u00e9\u00a7\u2026 to B\u00e9\u00a7\u2026 (A Station to B Station) all over Japan. Of course, these days, that might not work exactly as you think. Also, this requires an online connection to work:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.hyperdia.android.activity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re going to go Android for Japanese first you need a keyboard. I like Simeji. It’s ugly, but very useful… and really, the only good choice out there, to be honest: https:\/\/market.android.com\/details?id=com.adamrocker.android.input.simeji Also, if you like to add Japanese-style emoticons, then Kaomoji List is a great add-on to Simeji. It’s activated through the “mushroom […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,120],"tags":[368,364,16,370,377,374,367,373,372,250,30,12,375,366,365,369,376,371],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan-trip","category-japanese-language-study","category-technology","tag-aedict","tag-android","tag-anki","tag-ankidroid","tag-att","tag-droidwing","tag-edict","tag-epwing","tag-372","tag-hyperdia","tag-japan-post","tag-japanese","tag-kaomoji","tag-nexus-one","tag-phone","tag-simeji","tag-tmobile","tag-vertical-text-viewer","category-3-id","category-4-id","category-120-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stupidamericantourist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}