• Shi
• Nagara
• De mo
• To ka
• Wa

We have reached 45 particles, and over 130 usages explained and accompanied by an example. Much more stuff is under development. Expect much content in 2012.

The Japanese particle section is progressing very quickly, and soon I may well be available for the next projects. 8 new particles are introduced today :

• Hodo
• Tokoro ga
• Ne
• Yo
• Kana
• Kashira
• Na
• Koto

I go on integrating Japanese particle articles. Here are the particles that have been added:

• KUSE NI
• NO NI
• KEREDOMO / KEDO
• MONO DE / NODE
• KIRI
• NOMI
• SHIKA

All those particles are also free and contain an example to show how to use them.

You can see them and many other particles by clicking Lessons > Particles on the menu on your left.

If you come across any mistake, leave a short message here!

The idea is to give you different ways to get a Samurai account, but also to convince you to be more active on the site. You can ask questions, help others, etc.

For the time being, the number of points you get varies between 0 and 3 depending on the quality of your comment. Let me know what you think about this so that I can know if you are interested by such features. It's a first good opportunity for you to get some contribution points

Even after studying Japanese for a few years, foreigners may still not master them, because their usage is sometimes subtle. Therefore, I thought it was important to help you by adding much information on Japanese particles on the site so that you can always have a comprehensive reference.

And on top of that, all the information is completely free even if you don't have a Samurai account !

Some important particles are still missing (NE, YO for instance), but this project is far from over, they'll be added along with many others

And you, what do you think of Japanese particles? Which one are the hardest ones for you? How do you learn them ?

The oher big new feature is the Personal Lists management. You can create, modify, delete as many lists as you want. This concerns the Kanji and Vocabulary modules. Your lists are saved even if you upgrade JA Sensei.

At last, the new Counters module. Counting objects in Japanese is not an easy task because the Japanese language uses counters. 15 counters have been integrated currently, but much more will be added.

A few errors have been fixed. Thank to those who let me know about them.

Download the latest version directly from the Android Market.

VOCABULARY & PHRASEBOOK Modules

• Hand-free mode added with English Text-to-speech system. Now drive or take the bus, and let JA Sensei ask you questions. JA Sensei can ask you vocabulary/phrases questions from English to Japanese or Japanese to English. You have a few seconds before JA Sensei gives you the answer orally. Great for people who are on the go and don't like wasting their time.  To find the feature, go to the Learning mode, and then press the student icon reading a book on the top-right corner of the screen.

KANJI Module

• Romaji has been added to the Kanji reading info (On and Kun). Beginners should appreciate
• Radical search has been fixed. It appeared in French only and might generate bugs when using the English version.

GENERAL

• Quiz stats are now saved and can be restored. When you update JA Sensei, Android deletes all data, even your stats... This problem is gone now!
• Fixed sluggish and freezing activity at the end of quizzes that some people could experience. Now the stats at the end of quizzes are calculated much faster and the process have been modified to respect the state of art.

The new version is available on the Android Market.

What is good about year-end holidays is that you can eat cake again without feeling guilty or having to justify yourself because this only happens once a year. So, you say to yourself that you can let yourself go for once…Personally, I am often the last one at the table…

These jokes aside though, here is a quick summary of things accomplished this year:

• The biggest work, the creation of an application for Android phones named JA Sensei!
• Creation of a Facebook page for the site (with almost 1000 fans, thank you to all!)
• Addition of 2 lessons: the lessons dragged on this year due to the other works
• Addition of a section on Japanese counters with excerpts and audio games
• Addition of a “phrasebook” section with excerpts and audio games
• Creation of several new vocabulary topics
• Recording of audio files for all vocabulary topics (80% completed)
• New stroke order system for more than 6000 Kanji!!
• New Kanji tool for printing index and flash cards
• Creation of a culture section with many original writings (all of the writings have not been added yet and a big thank you to the members who created some of the writings.
• Addition of JA Kana, a new smart tool for learning Kanji with an audio quiz

That is overall the work that has been done this year. When I look back, I realize that there is a lot that has been accomplished. But the important thing will be what will be achieve in 2012. I already have many projects in mind but since the activity is changeable, I don't know what will be or may be accomplished. Certain things I wanted to get done in 2011 eventually couldn't be done because things changed and one has sometimes to adapt quickly. Therefore, I prefer not to speak to 2012. In any case, I will make an effort on the lessons; I had some unpleasant but sometimes truthful comments on this matter. There are also other tools much like JA Kana for renewing the exercises (the other tools will remain online).

Anyway, I wish you all and your relatives excellent New Year’s holidays. There have been many of you, once again this year, who followed the progress of Japan-Activator and encouraged its growth. And for that, I am very grateful to you. Let us meet again in 2012!

From now until Xmas you can buy contribution points to have a Samurai access and get the double! For example if you buy 230 points for 10 EUR, you actually receive 460 points, that is a 4-month Samurai account activation instead of 2 months, or in other words only 2.50EUR a month (or even less if you take more points).

JA Kana

Interactive tools on the site are changing, and much will still change in 2012. JA Kana is a new tool to learn Kana, and in the long term it will replace the Flash tool already online.

JA Kana is a smart tool based on language learning scientific research. Each day JA Kana selects a few new Kana to learn (you can choose how many new Kana depending on how much time you have to learn Japanese).

JA Kana is able to detect and remember your strengths and weaknesses from your answers and answering speed. The goal is to optimize your learning time by spending more time on what you don't know well, instead of repeating ten times elements that you already master.

After a few days, it's normal that you have partially forgotten what you learned. JA Kana knows it, and offers a cyclic learning approach by making you repeat Kana that you are about to forget, not earlier, not later. If you make a mistake, or if you spend much time to answer, the problematic Kana will appear again soon in your repeating sessions.
Several Quiz options are available:

• FROM Hiragana/Katakana TO Romaji
• FROM Romaji TO Hiragana/Katakana
• FROM Hiragana TO Katakana
• FROM Katakana TO Hiragana
• FROM Audio TO Katakana
• FROM Audio TO Hiragana

It's also possible to manage your personal Kana list  to group the hardest ones for example.

JA Kana is the first "new generation" tool, others will be released in 2012. These tools will also be improved continuously with stats integration and even a writing module for Kana/Kanji thanks to new Web technologies.

Note 1: you are highly advised to use Chrome or Firefox because Internet Explorer doesn't manage some new technologies weel enough yet.

Note 2: JA Kana is for Samurai members only. Its conception required much research time, and its personal tracking system needs to much resources for me to leave an open access for all members. If you are serious about learning Japanese, get a Samurai account, you can get contribution points X2 for the same price, and you'll help for the creation of the other tools.

• Shinkansen
• Tempura
• Ramen noodles
• Earthquakes

These ORIGINAL articles will give you relevant information to feel how Japanese people live and understand how they think.