KanaQuiz カナクイス Do you have a spare minute? Put that minute to good use and learn some Japanese Kana! The Japanese language has 3 alphabets namely Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana.

With KanaQuiz you'll learn both Katakana and Hiragana (the syllabic alphabets called "kana"), each containing a little over 100 characters (46 basic), making it a total of just over 200 characters. Kanji is "the big one" containing over 8000 characters ( you can learn that one later ;) ).

You should play with KanaQuiz as often as you can, even if you only have 60 seconds of free time, that's great, do a couple of clicks. Don't be frustrated if it's hard at first, start by studying the overview page. In the beginning you should have a go with only the "Basic Unvoiced" characters, the rest are based on the Basic Unvoiced ones anyway. Pay attention to you scores and see your skills rise with time!

Notice that you wont actually learn japanese with this program, you simply learn to read and write using the (kana) alphabet. Getting to know the alphabet is one step in the process of learning Japanese, that's where KanaQuiz comes in.

Installation There is no installation for this tool, just keep it where you want and double click it to run it.

If you haven't got the required fonts KanaQuiz will only display squares where the characters are supposed to be. In this case download the fonts from the "Download" page, extract and copy them to your systems Fonts directory, this is usually C:\Windows\fonts

Tips

• Click on the kana character to change the font. Be sure to try out both fonts so that you improve your ability to recognize the characters.
• The timer on the left bottom can be reset by clicking on it.
• Hover your mouse over the "(Hint)" label, you'll see part of the answer. In the beginning you'll probably be checking out the hint quite often.
• Click on the arrow button to see where you answered incorrectly.
• Right click and choose "Clear" on the "Incorrect answers" page to clear the log.
• Click on the characters in the overview page to have a closer look.
• Should I start with Katakana or Hiragana? - That's up to you, personally I chose to start with Katakana because it looks easier. It's good to start with easy :)

KanaQuiz uses the Hepburn system to transcript the kana to romaji (roman characters).

Download KanaQuiz is freeware.

KanaQuiz requires unicode enabled windows (e.g. WinXP) and the Japanese fonts ("MS Mincho" and "MS Gothic"). KanaQuiz was developed with MS Visual Basic 6.

• KanaQuiz.zip 31 KB - Latest version of KanaQuiz
• KanaQuiz95.zip 31 KB - KanaQuiz for Windows95/98
• japanesefonts.zip 5 MB - Required fonts (optional d/l)
• ie_ja.exe 2.5 MB - Japanese support for Windows XP (optional d/l)
• jamondo.exe 5.3 MB - Japanese support for Windows 95/98/ME (optional d/l)

These files are ZIP archives, you can open them using 7-Zip (freeware)

History Version 1.41 16 Aug 2005

• Added logging of incorrect answers, you'll be able to see which characters are giving you a challenge.
• Fixed Font handling, doesn't crash when a font is missing.
• Minor GUI fixes.

Version 1.40 9 Aug 2005

• First public release.

Contact If you find bugs in KanaQuiz or if you have questions or suggestions you can email me at: kanaquiz@redcellcorp.com

Links

• The Kanji SITE - More info on katakana, hiragana and kanji.
• Jim Breen's Japanese Page - Many links to Japanese material.
• Jim Breen's Name converter - One use for the Katanaka is to write foreign names, see what your name looks like.
• Language Express Kana Game - Free online Flash game from Language Express.
• Lingo24 - Offers a range of language resources including Japanese-English translation and English-Japanese translation.
• TalkSushi - Learn Japanese Online for free with streaming audio and video.