Summary

Japanese-Flashcards.com is a fast-loading, useful site for Japanese learners to manage and practice vocabulary lists (words and sentences). There are many existing word and sentence lists created by other users that you can snag and use right away. You can also create your own lists and sentences on-the-fly and test yourself until you know them all. As a result, this resource works for Japanese students of all levels, beginner to advanced. The self-testing is done via built-in flashcard software that you control.

The website has an integrated dictionary that gives explanations of terms and includes examples of how these are used in real sentences. In addition, when you view a sentence, you can scroll over the words and view annotations. NB: You can copy and paste any Japanese text you want into the site's Text Analyzer and it provides you with what you see below (see grey scroll-over pop-up in image for glosses).

Something I have found incredibly useful is the Sentence of the Day email that you can subscribe to on the site. This sends a different sentence every day and is complete with a translation of the sentence, plus a link to hear a native speaker say the sentence.

If you upgrade to a premuim membership (~$5/month) you can also hear audio for the sentence. In fact, the only thing you cannot do without a membership is hear the audio on the site. Other than that, it is full-featured and incredibly quick and helpful for learning Japanese through memorizing words/sentences and their constituents.

Bravo Oliver for this excellent site and keep up the great work!

From Website

Study Japanese from Home

Introduction

Since our first flashcard website started in 2005 a lot of time has been invested to design an efficient system which enables you to learn a new language in the shortest time possible. Make sure to read this introduction carefully so you understand how the system works. Once you know how this website works and you use it regularly it will become an important tool to learn Japanese. Ideally make time each day for 2 or 3 sessions a day, each lasting about 10 - 15 minutes.

Once you have created your own account you can set up your own word list. You can either add words manually or automatically to your own word list.

Automatic Mode

If you choose this mode then the system will choose random words for you to practice. Within the "Automatic Mode" there are two different choices. The first is "completely random words" and the second is "frequent words first". Obviously if you are a beginner you should focus on those frequent words first, if you chose the level "Complete Newbie", "Basic" or "Intermediate" the system will just do that. If you chose the level "Upper Intermediate" or "Advanced" completely random words will be added to your word list.

Manual Mode

If you would like more control over which words you learn switch to the "Manual Mode". In this mode you choose which words you want to learn and not the system. There are a few ways to add words manually. The first is to use the search function in the navigation bar on the left-hand side. You can search for Japanese or English words. On the result page every found word has an "Add Word" link next to it. Click it to add this word to your personal list. After you click it the link text will change to "Remove Word", so you can immediately remove the word from your list if you have added it by mistake.

The second way to add words manually is to click the link "Add new Words" in the navigation. This will show random words for you to add.

Finally you can add words by clicking on "Public Word Lists". These public lists normally have a common theme, like "Animals", "Computer", "Fruits", etc. You can either pick some words of these public lists or copy the whole list.

By default you are in the "Automatic Mode". If you do not want to add words automatically you can change this in the settings. In the "Automatic Mode" you can also add words manually.

The Loop

The main problem of learning new words is that over time word lists grow very big. This means that the learner feels overwhelmed and the time between word repetitions becomes too long. To solve this problem a so-called "Loop" is used.

The Loop consists of a subset of only 30 words out of your word list. This means you can concentrate on a few words only, until you have memorized them properly. To keep a flashcard in the loop click on the "Loop" button.

If you have become familiar with a new word which is in the Loop click on "1 day", "7 days", "30 days" etc. Which means that the word will be shown only after the indicated time has passed. If you know a word very well click on "30 Days" or "3 Months" so the word will be shown only after a long time. After the indicated time has passed the word will be put into the Queue.

Once you remove a word from the Loop another one will be put in the Loop. The system will first check if there are any words in the "Queue". If the Queue is empty and you are in "Automatic Mode" the system will choose a new word for you and add it to your word list and into the Loop. If you are in the "Manual Mode" the system will tell you that you need to add more words in order to continue. It is important not to let the queue grow too big, otherwise the system will become increasingly inefficient. Your every day task is to clear the queue and add 5 to 10 new words to your list.

If you click "Remove" then the word will be removed from your word list. "Block" will do the same except that it will also prevent the word from coming back in the "Automatic Mode" where the system chooses words for you. By default there are 30 words in the loop. You can change the number of words in the loop in the settings.

Word Lists

If the Loop system sounds too complicated to you, then you can also set up simple word lists. To do this click on "[Manage Lists]" in the navigation. Then click on "[Add List]" to create a new list. If you want to share this word list with other users select the box "Public List". If you want to immediately add new words to this list select "Also Activate". You can create as many lists as you want. In the navigation bar you can always see which list is active at the moment. Words will be added to the currently active list.

Visit Japanese-Flashcards.com

Summary

This (lengthy) article brings together a pile of Free Software (GNU GPL'd as Public Domain), freeware and shareware for language learning and reference for Mac OS X.

Software descriptions are taken from Apple Downloads. We will be adding more GPL applications soon.

Summary

Verbix is "an independent non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect linguistic diversity." The tools on their site "contain verb conjugations for hundreds of languages, ranging from national and international languages to regional and even extinct languages."

There are four main things to bring your attention to in this article:

1) WebVerbix, a great free online verb conjugator for over eighty languages.

2) WikiVerb, a wiki site dedicated to languages, verbs, and verb conjugation.

3) FreeVerbix, a freeware version of the Verbix Windows software which bumps the number of available languages to above one hundred.

4) The Verbix website, where all three of the above and more (including the $40 paid version of Verbix 2008 for Windows) are available. Your purchase will support the non-profit group and expand the Verbix non-profit organization and web presence.

Also of import is the list of supported languages for the above-mentioned free and commercial products and online services.

The free Verbix stuff (WebVerbix, FreeVerbix and WikiVerb) provides plenty to work with for language learners and educators alike. The free online version works great for conjugating an enormous amount of verbs instantly.

From Website

UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Verbix is an independent non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect linguistic diversity [UNESCO Observatory: Multilingualism]. This site contains verb conjugations for hundreds of languages, ranging from national and international languages to regional and even extinct languages.

FreeVerbix 7.3 is a universal Verb Conjugator that shows verb inflections in 100+ languages. It is based on Verbix language extension technology, so after installation of Verbix you can easily install any language extension to add more languages in Verbix.

WebVerbix is a free on-line verb conjugator. It contains a subset of Verbix for Windows features.

WikiVerb is a site dedicated to languages, verbs, and verb conjugation. It's not going to be a copy of information available in WikiPedia, but it will focus in verb conjugation. It won't replace www.verbix.com either, but it includes information and languages that are not available there.

Visit Verbix.com

Download Language Freeware

UPDATE: Byki now available for 74 languages! See list below.

Byki is freeware for learning [74] languages, including many less-taught languages for which learning materials are hard to find, such as Georgian, Mongolian and Icelandic. This is a gold mine for folks interested in learning the basics of over [seventy] languages - with no budget!

Along with the freeware, learners have free access to the Byki user community where other users share vocabulary lists for all the languages, instantly providing you with loads of new, free content.

They also offer a commercial upgrade for $49 USD, reasonable, and you get lots of extras with the upgrade.

The free version has been used both by folks at Free Language and friends of those folks. Beginners especially seem to get a lot out of this software.

Have a look!

Current Languages Available

Afrikaans, Albanian, Altai, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Belorussian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Buriat, Chechen, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malay, Mirandese, Mongolian, Norwegian, Pashto, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (European), Romanian, Russian, Scottish, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog (Filipino), Tajiki, Thai, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvan, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese and Zulu.

The folks at Byki are working hard to make more languages available in the near future.

Update from Byki!

As of September 5th, 2008, we’ve launched a whole new version of Byki (the artist formerly known as Before You Know It) with several new languages, and a beautiful new site. Be sure to check out the new ListCentral, with profile avatars). The new Byki has lots of great new stuff including new learning games and the new Byki blog.

Visit www.Byki.com

From Website

The Ultimate Language Tool (web page translation, translated search, auto translation, text translation, language resources, learning languages & more)

Main Features

FoxLingo Web Page Translation - Translates full web pages (over 1,000 different language pairs)
FoxLingo Translated Search - Searches foreign pages using terms written in your language
FoxLingo Auto Translation - Automatically translates websites by recognizing their domain
FoxLingo Text Translation - Translates text entered in the search box or selected on any web page
FoxLingo Language Resources - Over 90 language services (encyclopedias, text-to-speech, etc.)
FoxLingo Ixquick - Metasearch engine with unique features, language search and complete privacy
FoxLingo Learning Languages - Over 100 links to language learning sites for a variety of languages
FoxLingo Freeware - FoxLingo is completely free and contains no adware or spyware
FoxLingo Complete Privacy - FoxLingo does not take any information from its users

Supports 45 languages & over 1,000 different language pairs

Afrikaans, Arabic, Aranese, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese Brazilian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Spanish Latin American, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh

Uses 34 free online web page translator services

Worldlingo.com, Tranexp.com, Google.com, Abacho.co.uk, Altavista.com, Bestiland.thread.ne.jp, Eigo-navi.com, Elmundo.es, Excite.co.jp, Freetranslation.com, Gencat.cat, Gts-translation.com, Ibm.com, Imtranslator.com, Internostrum.com, Interpret.co.za, Linguamatix.com, Lingvo.org, Nazgol.co.il, Nifty.amikai.com Ocn.ne.jp, Oesi.cervantes.es, Online-Translator.com, Opentrad.org, Sli.uvigo.es, Solvingmaze.com, Toggletext.com, Tr.voila.fr, Translatica.pwn.pl, Translendium.es, Vil-net.dyndns.org Yahoo.com, Xixona.dlsi.ua.es, 220.194.61.120

FoxLingo uses Languid for Language Identification.

Comments

An indispensable tool for people working on the web in multiple languages and requiring instant translation on the fly of entire websites.

Visit FoxLingo Developer Website
Visit the FoxLingo Extension page on Mozilla.org

Software License

This software is freeware. View the user policy.