Japanese iOS APP
  • Lotharen June 2015
    First off, I am really loving the Japanese course. I purchased the Platinum Edition and so far I'm really happy with it. I've been studying for about a week now (Have attempted learning Japanese over the last few years) and think I have learned more with this course than any others combined.

    The App is a great addition. However, I think it could be so much MORE. I have a few suggestions and I hope you might considering implementing these idea's.

    1. The ability to Randomize the flash cards in a lesson. Keeping them in the same order has helped me learn the material but now that I'm getting good scores I would like to randomize them to really test what I've retained and not just memorizing what comes next in a fixed stack.

    2. Add a Hiragana/Katakana flash cards. Allow the user to select which hiragana/katakana they wish to study either by user grouping, syllable group or entire set. Also have the ability to type the answer with romaji or select the answer in a timed fashion from multiple choice.

    Those are a few of my suggestions that would add value to the app and the course itself. The randomization of flash cards would be the easiest to implement while the Hiragana/Katakana section would require more to get into the app.

    Also, and this is not related to the app. Consider making the forums open to anyone who has purchased the program. Forums are a great way to help and you could have advanced students assisting other and would increase your traffic flow. Its disheartening to pay for a program to find the forums as dead as these when they could be so much more active. Just my opinion.

    Thanks for a great program and I look forward to reaching the end of the course.
  • Lotharen June 2015

    Edit: I see the website version of the flash cards shows them one at a time and also has the ability to randomize the cards. Why can't the app have this feature? It would be very nice if you could add that.

    Also, I find it very disheartening that no one has posted to this thread indicating that its been read and any suggestions are being looked into. Why have forums when  concerns are left unanswered for days?

  • Erin June 2015
    Hi Lotharen,
    First, thanks for your post! I'm sorry for my delayed reply. I was looking into the possibilities that you suggested and wanted to make sure I had a solid answer for you before I posted.  
    We're very glad that you are enjoying the course, and your feedback is also much appreciated.  I'll answer each of your suggestions below: 

    1. Shuffling vocabulary: First some bad news then some good news. The bad news is this functionality is not available in our app and I'm afraid will not be added anytime soon. The app and the online course share content, but they aren't the same in terms of the back end (i.e. the code that makes them work).  That said, there is good news! We are currently working on converting all of the content in our online course to HTML 5, which will make it posssible for you to use the online course on your iPhone (you may have noticed that currently the flashcards do not work on iPhones or iPads because they rely on Flash which is not supported on Apple devices.)  I will post here when this change has been implemented so that you can know when you can start using the flashcards from our online course (which are identical to the ones in the app) on your phone. We hope it will be ready by mid-summer. 

    2) Opening up the forums: We agree wholeheartedly with your suggestion that we open the forums up to all language learners. In fact, that's how the forums used to work, but unfortunately, we experienced a security breach, and so for the moment, we've had to remove this functionality.  BUT, we are working on bringing it back. We just need to make sure we do it securely, which will take a bit of time.  So, in short, we agree and we're working on it!

    3) Hiragana/Katakana: These are also great suggestions. We currently have matching games that test your knowledge of Hiragana/Katakana; however, as you suggested, we'd like to add more game types that test students' knowledge in this area, and we'd also like to add a Hiragana keyboard so that we can test students with our fill-in game. I've passed your feedback on to the editor of the course. 

    Again, sorry for the delay! If you have further questions/suggestions, please post them.  Have you taken a Japanese e-Tutoring session yet? These are an excellent tool that Platinum users have at their disposal. I highly recommend them!

    Best,
    Erin 
    Editor



  • Lotharen June 2015

    Thank you for your reply. I'm sad you can't implement that feature in the app - I've seen other applications use it so thought it was possible.

    I totally understand about security and in this day and age its very important. Ill look forward to that returning in the future.

    Glad some of my suggestions are being looked at and look forward to seeing them implemented. I'm really looking forward to more games for the Hiragana/Katakana that you mentioned.

    I have not scheduled an e-Tutoring session - yet. I am still in lesson one because I don't want to progress until I am 100% sure I know the material - I'm getting close. Then I will advance to lesson 2, shortly after that I will schedule a tutoring session to test my knowledge and get feedback.

    Thank you again for your reply, its greatly appreciated.


    (PS: Internet Explorer says 'Body is Required' when I attempt to post. It works flawlessly with Firefox. Thought you all might want to know that.)

  • Erin June 2015
    Thanks for letting us know, Lotharen.  And good luck with progressing through Lessons 1 and 2. If you have any Japanese questions, please post them here and our e-Tutor Sakura will get back to you with an answer. 
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