Back to Basics, Haiku 4

Yesterday, I opened my Anki app for the first time in about…3 months!!! Strangely enough, this is the same amount of time since I took my new job (which is very different from my new-new job!) so it’s no surprise that I let it fall to the way side.  Now I’m about 3 weeks into a job I actually enjoy and have been finding more time to spend on my favorite hobbies.  So I fired up Anki and you know what the first thing I did was?

I deleted EVERYTHING.

Yep.  Over the last week as I’ve slowly gotten back into trying to read and write and understand Japanese, and I’ve realized that my reading is far slower than it ever has been. So I went and downloaded a new Anki deck to refresh my Hiragana and Katakana fluency.  And part of that means I should start writing it more as well, so without further ado, I present a photo from this weekends hike to Kennesaw Mountain, and a hiragana only haiku!

さむいです。
でもかれはでは
さむくない。

Kennesaw Mountain Leaves, Nov 2013

Studying on the Go

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to purchase the Anki mobile application.  If you’re not familiar with Anki, it’s a memorization software that allows you to study flash cards containing plain text, audio, video, and even HTML code.  It is really versatile and even syncs between many devices and has a slew of pre-made  or ‘shared’ decks for you to start studying right away.

Anyway, the desktop apps and web versions are completely free and I’ve been using them for a few weeks now (I’ve even verified that you can use the web version on your iPad).  But the iPad/iPhone version cost a whopping $24 USD!  Now considering that you get so much for free, this isn’t that bad, but still, I’ve never paid that much for an iPhone app!  (Thus the reason for so much time to decide on the purchase) Well, this past payday I decided to pony up the cash.  And I have to say I am not disappointed!

After buying on my iPhone, I immediately checked to see if it included on the iPad app as well and luckily it did.  So the $24 includes both the iPhone and iPad versions.

As for use, I’ve been using it almost exclusively.  Several times I find myself wanting to study, but not in the mood to go fire up the laptop, and realize that I just have to grab my phone.  So far though, I’ve only studied plain text and audio flash cards, but they work great.  I’ve yet to test the video feature, but that’s because I don’t have any video flash cards.

The only issue/bug I’ve found thus far is that sometimes the audio won’t replay if you wait too long to listen to it again.  So if you hear a word, then get distracted for a few minutes, coming back and replaying may or may not work.  But that has happened only a few times at this point.

While it was a hefty price, I am very, very satisfied with the result.  No internet connection is required (except for syncing results), so I get to practice in the elevator, walking around at lunch, or just before going to bed.  If you’re thinking about buying it, but you’re on the fence, I would first make sure that you’re going to keep up with studying by using the free desktop (Mac and PC) apps.  After you’re sure you won’t give up tomorrow, get it.  And study everywhere!