Lesson 2: Learning a Vocabulary Lesson

Use your PC to Master Japanese and Chinese

Lesson 2: Learning a Vocabulary Lesson

About the Vocabulary Lessons

The practice lessons include beginning lessons which teach the alphabetic Chinese bopomofo and Japanese hiragana, and assume no prior experience. Intermediate lessons consist of Chinese hanzi and Japanese kanji plus unusual words courtesy of MangaJin magazine and the Smart Characters User's Group(D- - 8).

Pronunciation Warning

The beginning bopomofo or hiragana lessons could ruin your Chinese or Japanese speaking career, because they teach pronunciation according to English equivalents, which are not really equivalent!

Traditional Chinese and Bopomofo

Chinese pronunciation must be learned by listening. Chinese contains many sounds not found in English, and the pinyin pronunciation rules are very different from English. To further complicate matters, pronunciations vary enormously according to region.

The Advantage of Bopomofo

We recommend that beginners learn the bopomofo alphabet because it is exact and cannot be confused with English pronunciations. Because bopomofo is used in Taiwan, many Chinese have never learned it, and prefer pinyin. If you wish, you may use Smart Characters with pinyin only and bypass bopomofo. See Chapter 2C Getting Started with Smart Characters in Chinese.

Japanese Pronunciation

The Japanese alphabets, hiragana and katakana, are used along with kanji in written Japanese, and are fundamental to Japanese. All Japanese learn the alphabets. Romaji is the romanized version of hiragana and katakana (no distinction is made), and the European pronunciation of romaji is reasonably close to Japanese. Make sure that you can pronounce the vowel sounds (

, a i u e o roughly ah, ee, oo, aye, and oh), the irregular syllables (

si ti tu wo sound like she, chee, tsu, and oh), and the "r" sounds correctly. Also please practice speaking each syllable for an equally short time, and learn the rules of romaji writing.

Remembering the Kanji

When learning kanji, it will pay off to learn to recognize the various radicals(D- - 6) and other elements that make up the kanji, rather than recognizing the shape of the kanji as a whole. If you don't care to learn the Japanese names for the radicals, use the English names, or make up your own, to the horror of your traditional Japanese teacher. The point here is that memorizing the shapes of the kanji as a whole may work well for the first hundred or so, but later you may find yourself unable to distinguish kanji which differ more subtly. We recommend Remembering the Kanji Volume I by James W. Heisig, as an excellent way to explore these beautiful and mysterious symbols.

Vocabulary Lessons

A vocabulary lesson(D- - 8) is a list of characters, words, or phrases in vocabulary lesson format. Smart Characters can convert any dictionary or word list containing pronunciations and glosses (short translations) into a vocabulary lesson on request. You can use the newly created vocabulary lesson and discard it, or save it to a vocabulary lesson file for later retrieval and practice.

The Vocabulary Command

The Learn | Vocabulary command processes the contents of the currently active and open (not minimized, not an icon) document window, looking for vocabulary entries. Alternatively, if no window is active and open, the command asks you to select an existing lesson.

Start by opening an existing lesson. Although you can open a lesson like a word processing document then apply the Learn | Vocabulary command, for practice, let's start with a clean window:

Select Window | Close All to close all the non-permanent open document windows, then click the Minimize button to minimize each remaining open permanent windows so that no window is active and open.

Retrieving a Vocabulary Lesson

Decide which lesson to practice. The hiragana lesson is in a file named hiragan1.jv0 (the first hiragana lesson), and the MangaJin lesson is called manga103.jv0 (volume 1, lesson 3). To open the lesson:

Select Learn | Vocabulary with no active file to invoke the Open Document dialog. Specify files of Type Vocabulary, and change Directory to c:\sc\jpn. Observe the directory of example vocabulary lessons(D- - 8).

Observe that the File Name specification reads *.?v*, which means all files with file extensions ending in any character followed by a `v' optionally followed by another character. This is the convention for Smart Characters vocabulary files.

File Name Wild Cards

If the asterisks, periods, and question marks look like gibberish to you, welcome to the world of computers! Briefly, a period separates a file name and a file extension (a special part of a file's full name which indicates its type). An asterisk (*) means match any number of characters, and a question mark (?) means match any single character. These two characters are called wild cards.

Narrow the list to files beginning with either an "H" (for the hiragana lesson) or an "M" (for the MangaJin lesson) by inserting an "H" or an "M" in front of the first asterisk:

Select the File Name by clicking with the mouse, or pressing Alt+N, then press Home to position the insertion point(5- 1) to before the first asterisk.
Press h or m to make the file name read "h*.*" or "m*.*" then press Enter to activate the OK button.

Because the file name is ambiguous (contains wild cards), the OK button simply displays a (much smaller) list of matching files in the list box under the file name. Make sure you understand how they match. Open the lesson file:

Double click with the mouse, or press Tab then Down to highlight the desired file name. Notice that the File Name entry tracks the highlight, which is typical behavior for the Windows combination box type of control.
Observe that the OK button has a dark border around it, compared with the Cancel and Help buttons. This means it is the default button, which will be activated if you press Enter. Press Enter. Because the file name is no longer ambiguous, the Open Document dialog will now open the file.

The Vocabulary Window

Observe that the main frame window has been covered by a new window titled Vocabulary Lesson View, that the new window contains its own menu, and that three additional child windows are visible.

The flashcard window displays a word or phrase and its answers. The history window (titled Recent Trials - Worst Scores) shows the four most recent trials on the left, and the words you find the hardest on the right. The status window shows statistical information regarding this drill, including the number of words selected for drill.

Check out the Setup Menu

Observe the vocabulary menu selections: File Drill Setup. Before you jump in, look at Vocabulary | Setup.

Select Setup | Selection to invoke the Setup Vocabulary Lesson dialog, which controls the parameters that shape the lesson plan. For now, just note the From and To Chapter Range (0-999) and the number of words selected. Press Esc to cancel the dialog.

The number of words selected is limited to 34 in demonstration mode. See Registering Your License.

Select Setup | Tutor to invoke the Vocabulary Tutor Preferences dialog, which controls the personality of the tutor. Note that the tutor will try to get you to identify these words in an Expert fashion under 2 seconds, and that as a Dunce, you will run out of time after 15 seconds. Cancel the dialog.

The Vocabulary Menu

Select Drill | Forward. Note the vocabulary drill menu:

Use arrow keys: Next Word Previous Rescore Wrong Direction Quit

The menus are optimized for rapid keyboard and mouse activation. The need for typing skills (pressing the right key) is eliminated from the drill in order to achieve reliable measurement of response times under 1/3 second. We do not want to waste any time searching for the right key. Consequently, the vocabulary menus work differently than you are accustomed to. In particular, you can press a letter key to activate a vocabulary drill menu item without pressing the Alt key. Additionally, any key will activate the menus, not just the ones underlined. The idea is to reduce fatigue by allowing you to use the keys you feel most comfortable with, and to change them during the course of the drill.

The Vocabulary Drill

The vocabulary drill consists of many trials each consisting of three stages. Each time you press a key, the tutor moves to the next stage. See Beginning the Drill. Because quick reflexes are essential(6- 1), we will start by practicing the keyboard.

Practicing the Keyboard

Practice just pressing a key (use the SpaceBar, or any key) in response to the flashcard, without trying to recall or score any words.

Press the x key over and over again to cycle through a series of Incorrect trials, and observe the screen.

Try again. This next time, select Correct instead of Incorrect. What happens to the scores in the vocabulary history and status windows?

Press SpaceBar or the c key to do a Correct trial 50 times, observing the screen.

How fast can you go? How fast will the computer go? Find the limit.

Develop the Rhythm

We want the computer to measure the time we take to remember the vocabulary, but the computer only knows how quickly we can press a key after it displays a new word on the flashcard. This time consists of our recall plus verbalization and visualization times, plus our physical reaction time.

The tutor will become more precise as your physical reaction time improves with practice. To achieve near-zero physical reaction time scores, you should aim to complete about 60 trials of three key presses per minute. Each key press corresponds to a stage of the drill. The first stage (recalling the word) should take approximately two thirds of the time. The answer and scoring stages should be disposed of as quickly as possible, although it does help to study the answers occasionally. Practice the following drill to develop the necessary tempo and rhythm by tapping your finger and repeating the following nonsense phrase:

Repeat Tennessee, Two, Three over and over again in equally stressed syllables, tapping your finger as you say the "T" in each word. If you prefer numbers, say 1 2 3 4 5, and tap your finger as you say 1, 4 and 5.

Take the time to practice this rhythm, and get it right.

Reset the Lesson

All this pressing of keys has destroyed the initial scores in the vocabulary lesson, either by setting them too high, or too low. You may reset the lesson in one of two ways: retrieving the lesson again without saving it, or using the Vocabulary | Setup | Reset and Scramble functions:

Press any key until the select word menu (Next Word Previous Rescore Wrong Direction Quit) is visible. Select Quit. Note the vocabulary menu (File Drill Setup).
Select Setup | Tutor. Note the Vocabulary Tutor Preferences dialog.
Change Expert to four seconds. We are just beginners. Change Scrambling to 0 (zero) to indicate no additional time to add. Select OK to close the dialog.
Select Setup | Scramble and Add Times to reset the time scores. Note that the times of the Worst Scores (2nd column of numbers) start around 799, which is just under 8 seconds. The time score reads in hundredths of seconds.
Select Setup | Reset Trials to reset the trials to zero. Note that the number of trials (first column of numbers) has been set to zero.

Learning the Lesson

Now that you have some familiarity with the tutor, practice the lesson for the next ten to fifteen minutes. The following discusses three possible scenarios: giving up, getting the answer right, and getting it wrong. First, re-enter the select word menu:

Select Drill | Forward to begin the forward vocabulary drill.

Don't Know the Word at All

It happens frequently that you don't know the vocabulary word at all. Rather than wasting time trying to figure it out, you may wish to stop the process early, learn the answer, and go on:

Select Next Word to begin the drill by pressing any key other than those underlined for other selections.
Press any key to stop the clock, show the answers, and display the Score Your Answer menu.
Say the word aloud (or mutter it to yourself). This is important.
Visualize the meaning. Avoid simply memorizing the English translation.
Select Incorrect by pressing any key other than c, z, or SpaceBar (e.g., "x"). You could also use the mouse or the Alt+ arrow keys, but this takes extra time.

You Know the Word

The most frequent occurrence is that you know the vocabulary word, but the tutor is trying to confuse you. Frustrate the tutor by answering quickly and correctly. Minimize the time between stages 1 and 2.

Select Next Word.
Verbalize the word. This is critical.
Visualize the meaning. Then verbalize the English translation.
Press any key to stop the clock, show the answers, and display the Score Your Answer menu.

Note the clock in the lower right hand corner of the window. If the time is under 2.0 seconds, you are on track. Under 0.3 seconds means you have it down cold. Times under this are masked by physical reaction time.

Select Correct by pressing c, z, or SpaceBar, using the Alt+ arrow keys, or the mouse.

You Forgot the Word

Spend the fifteen seconds you have to concentrate and bring up memories (of the word!) as best you can. Try to guess the answer, and don't forget to verbalize your guess to make it "firm."

Select Next word to begin the drill by highlighting Next word then pressing any key.
Try to remember the word for fifteen seconds until you get the answers, and the Score Your Answer menu.
Select Incorrect by pressing any key other than c, z, or SpaceBar.

A Typical Lesson

If you know the material very well, you can complete about 60 trials per minute. With new material consisting of kanji compounds, you should average 10-15 trials per minute. As a rule of thumb, 5 to 10 trials are required to memorize a word or phrase fairly well. This means that a 100 word vocabulary list can be memorized in about 700 trials lasting about an hour.

Keep Going

Keep going. As a beginner, you should be able to complete the sample lesson of about 50 words in about an hour. Keep going over the initial "hump" of resistance to your strict computer tutor, to an alert and painless state of consciousness as the computer, keyboard, and screen disappear from awareness, leaving your mind focused on the goal of learning the vocabulary lesson. You want to know this vocabulary, and you want to be able to recall it quickly, accurately, and without effort, so keep going.

Review Your Lessons

Because the tutor teaches quick recall, the quality of memorization is quite high, but it now resides in short term memory. To fix it more in long term memory will require repeated exposure to it. For this purpose, re-reading the lesson from which the vocabulary was derived is sufficient: there is no need to re-learn the lesson unless you have forgotten a significant number of words. In that case, the vocabulary review drill will be quite rapid.

Don't Forget to Read

Please remember that the purpose of the vocabulary drill is to learn new words and phrases so that you can read them from the page, so don't forget to practice reading from the page. You'll find that remembering the words is a lot easier when they are in the context of a sentence (which is one explanation for why memorizing the words and phrases in the context of one lesson does not adequately train you to recognize them in another).

Listing the Lesson

There are several ways to list and print the vocabulary for further study. One involves the Vocabulary | File | List function, and the other uses the word processor. We will preview a further lesson of making your own vocabulary lessons(D- - 8) by examining the lesson you just studied in the word processor:

If you have a high resolution screen, slide the vocabulary window out of the way to expose the underlying document window. Adjust the size of the vocabulary window, if necessary.
Otherwise, select File | Close (to WP) to close the vocabulary view.

Scroll through the vocabulary words you have just practiced. The numbers on the left are the number of trials and the score in one hundredths of a second followed by the chapter and page of the book the lesson came from. The word or phrase (including the pronunciation) and its meaning finish the line.

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Last Modified: March 23, 1996