A few weeks ago I was introduced to iKnow to by Jonas from yonasu.com. After kicking myself for not knowing about this service since it was launched I dived into exploring the service and I have loved it since. iKnow is a free website that not only helps with learning Japanese but also Chinese and English as well.
I have tried tonnes of Japanese learning resources online over the years and iKnow does the best job of keeping me motivated and teaching me while making it fun. The social elements of the site are also interesting as users have the ability to keep a language journal, meet and track the progress of friends, make word lists, check records and the progress of your studies and much more.
My Progress on iKnow at the time of this post
I have only scratched the surface of the features and leasons related to Japanese on iKnow and I hope other persons interested in learning Japanese would register and add me as a friend and lets learn together. I will post a better review of iKnow in the future once I have learned more and experienced using more of it’s features as I know I will be definately be using this a lot.
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Thanks for the link! I really like iKnow as well, the only thing that can be annoying is that it’s a little repetitive sometimes.
I guess they are repeating to help the learning process :D
Well yeah, but sometimes it’s a little too much, especially with sentences. Well it’s nothing big really, but one has to mention the few flaws too ^^
Yup, i’ve only just begun so I will run into that problem soon too
I’ve never heard of it before. I’m going to check it out. Previously I used Mango Languages, which isn’t too bad. I just got bored with it.
Well good thing someone “buss” you on it!
I’ve heard about iKnow for a while myself. It really does as it promises! I haven’t logged on to the site for a couple of months…I should take another shot at it. ^^
@ Vegas dad, I’m sure you won’t get bored with iKnow
@ Stunner, one day mi aguh buss yuh pon some good anime
@ Sanjo-chan, please do and add me as a friend so we can track each others progress
Reading Patois is weird..
Half the time I have to read it aloud. Before it sounds right in my head.
@ CS, lol, thats why it’s primarily a spoken language :D writing it complicates things
This site looks cool. I hope I can keep it up.
thanks for recommending it. i’ll definitely check it out.
Hi jamaipanese: I just came across this article in the NYT and thought immediately of you. Check it out!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/world/asia/16outcasts.html?em
thanks for sharing, very interesting and it was good to learn more about Japanese history
Looks like a fun learning tool.
I’ve never heard of this before….imma check it out…thanks for the link!
p.s. do you use Rosetta Stone?
I admit I used it once or twice, thought it was pretty good for most people but too repetitive and boring for me. Plus, I like adding my own stuff that I want to learn into Anki rather than someone else’s words. I thought, for me, iKnow worked really well at reinforcing words that I was somewhat familiar with, but I didn’t find it very effective for learning new words. But, as I said, I didn’t use it much!
I Know is the best, I’ve been using for quite some time, I’ve learned a lot with it, some times is hard remember all the lessons but is great.
@ Nadya….I tried using it once on a friend’s computer but I have never bought it for myself
@ Carlie…repetition has been a complaint from many users but I don’t mind :D
@ Paulo…add me as a friend on iKnow :D
Great site Jamaipanese! The repetition is not that bad since it is varied making sure that you understand the character, the English meaning, and the reading. Besides that repetition is an essential part of language acquisition so there’s no point in complaining about it. Japanese is one of those languages that requires a lot of repetition due to the sheer number of information units involved (i.e. stroke order, on/kun readings, meaning, etc.) This is a great tool that I will be using often!
Make sure you go into the setting, and check the “export audio to iTunes” button. It’s an awesome feature, but one that hasn’t been spoken of too much yet.
When you finish a lesson, you can put the audio on your ipod. I think that’s wicked excellent. :)