Facebook: Kanji Box (Japanese Study Aid)

So lately I've been all about Facebook. Games, social network integration, applications, and more. It's awesome.

Of course, I did a search for "Japanese" in their applications section. Most of what came up was not useful to me. Low level words-a-day and such.

One app stood out. Kanji Box, by Dave du Verle.

This little app doesn't encourage passive learning by slapping a random kanji on your profile page. Oh no. You actually have to do the drills and the quizzes to get anything out of it.

The drills, I haven't used much. But I will soon, once I've finished proving to Kanji Box all I really know of the kanji and vocab it's quizzing me on.

The quizzes are kind of fun. Multiple choice. Choose from the four kanji or 単語 the one that matches the English (if it's a kanji quiz, you're also given the multiple readings of the kanji). The quizzes go up in difficulty in 9 "waves." Within each wave, you must keep a score of 60% or higher, or the quiz will stop. This is good; it can be exasperating when you just don't know any of the options and have no clues.

After you take a bunch of quizzes, there are a couple of ways to figure out which ones you don't know. First off, you can just do the Drills. They're supposed to skew towards the kanji/vocab you did poorly on. Or you can Export the ones you didn't get right. I haven't used either of these features.

What I did my last session was go down to the JLPT4 level, just to prove to myself I really had all of that. And to prove it to Kanji Box.

The mysterious thing, though, was that the JLPT4 quiz had a few waves of completely unfamiliar vocabulary. Was this some bizarre trick on Dave's part? Or were they really JLPT4 level?

So curious was I that I copied all of the ones I didn't know. Some of them I got right (but just on hunches based on the radicals I knew), but a lot of them I just did not know. Are these JLPT4?

論議 [ろんぎ] - discussion, argument

開発 [かいはつ] - development, exploitation

輸出 [ゆしゅつ] - export

削減 [さくげん] - cut, reduction, curtailment

記録 [きろく] - record, minutes, document, a record (e.g., in sports), results, score, to record, to document, to set a record (e.g., in sports), to show a result, to reach a value

攻撃 [こうげき] - attack, strike, offensive, criticism, censure

監督 [かんとく] - supervision, control, superintendence, director, superintendent, supervisor, coach, foreman, manager, overseer, controller, boss

原則 [げんそく] - principle, general rule

方向 [ほうこう] - course

対応 [たいおう] - interaction, correspondence, coping with, dealing with, support

調査 [ちょうさ] - enquiry

降る [くだる] - to get down, to descend

降りる [おりる] - to alight (e.g., from bus)

連合 [れんごう] - union, alliance, combination

当時 [とうじ] - at that time, in those days

見通し [みとおし] - perspective, unobstructed view, outlook, forecast, prospect, insight, foresight

全体 [ぜんたい] - whole, entirety, whatever (is the matter)

革命 [かくめい] - revolution

国境 [こっきょう] - national or state border

制裁 [せいさい] - restraint, sanctions, punishment

要求 [ようきゅう] - demand

希望 [きぼう] - hope, wish, aspiration

公演 [こうえん] - public performance

発展 [はってん] - development, growth

結論 [けつろん] - conclusion

財源 [ざいげん] - source of funds, resources, finances

協調 [きょうちょう] - cooperation, conciliation, harmony, firm (market) tone

逆転 [ぎゃくてん] - (sudden) change

俳優 [はいゆう] - actor, actress, player, performer

疑問 [ぎもん] - doubt

権限 [けんげん] - power, authority, jurisdiction

生命 [せいめい] - existence