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1991-11-10
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KANA SENSEI
("Syllabary Teacher")
PROGRAM INFORMATION
Kana Sensei (KS) is a computer program which was designed and developed
as an aid for learning Japanese. It is useful for all students of Japanese.
Beginning students can quiz themselves on the hiragana and katakana "alphabet"
symbols while intermediate and advanced students can quiz themselves on
Japanese vocabulary and Japanese grammar. I have also been told by a nihon-
jin (Japanese person) that this program would also be useful for Japanese
students who are learning English.
As far as I have been able to determine, nothing like Kana Sensei exists.
General quiz programs can be used for quizzing from english to romaji or vice
versa but this does not aid in retention of the kana symbols. Kana Sensei
utilizes katakana and hiragana fonts in addition to the romaji and english,
hence, providing further reinforcement of the kana, romaji, and english. I
am currently in the process of adding kanji so that the Japanese writing
system will be completely contained. If you register the use of this program,
you will receive information concerning my progress in this regard.
Note: If you are unfamiliar with the words "hiragana," "katakana," or "kanji"
the menu option "What is Kana?" will display a short essay describing the
Japanese writing system (see directions below).
Kana Sensei should run on any IBM PC compatible system. Minimum system
memory requirements haven't been totally determined but 512K should be plenty.
Kana quizzes must be executed on EGA or VGA compatible systems for proper
performance but all other functions should run properly on any PC system.
Users of monochrome systems (with graphics) will probably want to experiment
with the color configuration (see below) for the best display.
DIRECTIONS
To execute Kana Sensei simply type "ks" at the system prompt:
A>ks (for example)
Note, however, that the current disk must be contain Kana Sensei and
its files. For example, if Kana Sensei were on disk A and the current system
drive was disk C then typing ks at the C> prompt would not
work. Instead one should change to the proper drive first, for example:
C>A:
A>ks
Following this step, KS will begin execution and a title screen (in
hiragana) will come up on the display. If the animation mode is on, it can be
short-circuited by pressing ESC. After the title screen is fully displayed,
simply press any key. A message concerning shareware and program registration
will be displayed, if the file containing this message is missing or altered
then program execution will be aborted. Use the cursor and page-up/page-down
keys to move within this file. Pressing ESC will take you to the main menu.
THE MAIN MENU
The main menu displays a list of 6 choices which looks something like
this:
Program Information
What Is Kana?
Quiz on Kana
Create/Edit Kana Quiz
Set Configuration/Options
Exit
To select one of these choices (detailed below) move the bar cursor with
the cursor keys until the option selected is highlighted, then press ENTER.
As the cursor is moved, a help line is displayed at the bottom of the screen
which gives a one sentence summary of the highlighted option. An alternative
method for selecting a menu choice is to press the first (highlighted) letter
of the option that is to be selected.
Menu Option 1 -- Program Information
This option displays this document. Simply use the cursor keys or the
page-up and page-down keys to move within this file. When done, just press
ESC to return to the main menu.
Menu Option 2 -- What is Kana?
This option displays a document I have created which tells a little bit
about the history of the Japanese writing system (kanji, hiragana and
katakana). In addition, it gives simple pronunciation guidelines for Japanese
phonemes. As in Option 1, use the cursor and paging keys to move within the
file and press ESC to exit.
Menu Option 3 -- Quiz on Kana
Note: this program option will only execute properly on VGA or EGA systems.
Select this option to execute a quiz. The quiz files that are found in
the current directory are displayed alphabetically. Each file is numbered and
the quiz title for each may be displayed (depending on the setting of the
display option below). Use the cursor keys and/or page keys to scroll through
the entries then enter the number of the file that you wish to execute (or
press ESC to return to the main menu). After selecting a quiz, KS will load
the quiz and display the quiz screen.
The Quiz Mode setting, displayed near the top of the screen, determines
how the quiz is executed. There are four quiz modes from which to choose:
1) Kana to Romaji;
2) Kana to English;
3) Kana to Both Romaji and English;
4) English to Romaji.
In quiz modes 1, 2, & 3, the kana is displayed and the user is asked to
enter either the romaji equivalent, english translation, or both. In quiz
mode 4, the english is displayed and the user must enter the Japanese
translation in romaji. I usually write the kanji (or kana) on a piece of
scrap paper. Of course, KS can't check my kana so I deliberately enter the
wrong romaji answer if I have any doubts about the accuracy of my characters.
For example, if KS displayed "university," one may know the appropriate
romaji is is "daigaku" but may not remember how to correctly write the
kanji (or hiragana).
In all modes, after the student's answer is entered, KS displays the
correct answer(s). The student's score and total number of quiz entries are
also displayed at the top of the screen.
To change the quiz mode while within a quiz, press F1. Note, however,
that changing the quiz mode while within a quiz may affect KS's scorekeeping.
The default quiz mode (the mode that KS is initially set to) may also be changed
(see option 5 below). After a quiz is completed, the option of repeating
missed questions is given. The entire quiz may also be repeated. To exit out
of the quiz before completion, just press ESC.
Menu Option 4 -- Create/Edit Kana Quiz
Select this option to create or edit Kana Sensei quizzes. A quiz
directory will appear as in Option 3. To edit a quiz, enter its directory
number; to create a new quiz enter 0. If you are creating a new quiz, you
will be prompted for a new quiz name which should be entered without a file
extension. If a quiz with the entered name already exists, then you will have
the option of aborting or overwriting the old quiz. In addition, the option
of saving the old quiz as a backup file (with a .kbk extension) will be given.
To restore a backup quiz, just rename it from DOS (consult your DOS manual on
the rename command, if necessary).
Each entry for a quiz consists of three items:
1) Kana Sensei Romaji String;
2) Romaji String;
3) Translation String.
1) The KS Romaji String is a line of text which instructs Kana
Sensei how to display an entry using the Japanese fonts. This string is
normally regular (Hepburn-style) romaji with a few exceptions for the
following ambiguous cases:
n=n' ; Example: onna --> on'na (female)
o=o' ; Example: mizu o nomu --> mizu o' nomu (I drink water)
zu=tzu ; (this phoneme is rarely used)
ji=tji ; (this one is rare, too)
If n is used instead of n' in a non-ambiguous manner, KS usually figures
it out. (For example, the word "hana" is ambiguous but "ondan" is not).
To change fonts enter :K: (for katakana) or :H: (for hiragana). The
default font is hiragana, hence, if the entry consists entirely of hiragana
neither :K: or :H: should be inserted. The special cases are displayed on
the entry screen for easy reference.
Some examples of correct KS Romaji Strings are:
han'a -- prints the hiragana characters for "flower"
gakkou -- prints out the hiragana characters for "student"
:K:naifu -- prints out the katakana characters for "knife"
kuruma -- prints out the hiragana characters for "car"
2) The Romaji String is simply the normal romaji representation(s) of the
KS Romaji String. If there is more than one correct possibility, separate
them with one of these symbols: | ; : \ or /. The correct Romaji Strings for
the above examples would be:
hana
gakkoo|gakkou
naifu|naihu
kuruma
3) The Translation String is the translated representation(s) of the
Japanese word or phrase. As above, more than one correct answer may be
entered. The following translation strings would be appropriate for the
above examples:
flower;flowers
student
knife
car|automobile|vehicle
The function keys for editing are displayed on the screen. Using these,
one can change a quiz title, change a quiz name, edit or add or delete quiz
entries, and save the completed quiz.
When first creating your own quizzes, you may want to look at the quizzes
that were included with Kana Sensei for reference on proper quiz syntax. The
quiz files (.ksq files) can easily be printed through a word processor or
directly from DOS. The command "COPY filename.KSQ PRN" should print out the
quiz file on most systems.
Since Kana Sensei quiz files are simple text files, they may also be
created with a word processor. If created this way, they should be created in
the following form:
line 1: Quiz Title
line 2: Kana Sensei Romaji String for Entry #1
line 3: Romaji String(s) for Entry #1
line 4: English Translation(s) for Entry #1
.
<repeat lines 2-4 for all quiz entries>
.
line n: Last line contains string "***"
No lines from 2 to n should be left blank.
Note that the quiz file must be saved with the file extension ".ksq" for Kana
Sensei to recognize it as a quiz.
Menu Option 5 -- Set Configuration/Options
This option allows users to customize Kana Sensei options for one's own
taste and requirements. The following options may be changed:
Automatic Video Selection - if off, the user is prompted to specify the
video mode that is used when first running KS.
Fast Title - if on, the beginning title screen is not
animated
Display File Titles - if on, the title for each quiz will be
displayed when selecting a quiz to execute
or edit; when off, the display is less
informative but quicker on slower systems
Omit Spaces - if on, spaces will be omitted when displaying
the Japanese screen fonts.
Sound - if on, a "beep" will sound when a wrong
answer is entered.
Background Color - These last options allow the user to
Text Color change the default colors
Frame Color
Font Color
Highlight Color
Cursor Color
If one wishes to save the option settings, just press F1. To revert to
the default values, press 0; to revert to the last saved values, press 1.
(These commands are displayed on a menu bar at the bottom of the window).
Menu Option 6 -- Exit
Select this option to exit Kana Sensei and return to DOS.
DESCRIPTION OF FILES
The Kana Sensei disk contains several files as elaborated below:
KS.EXE - Kana Sensei executable program
KS.DOC - Kana Sensei Program Information (this text)
KS_SHARE.DOC - Text File Containing Shareware/Registration Info
KSHIST.DOC - Text File Containing the History of Kana
KS.CFG - KS Configuration Information (need not be present)
*.@ - All files with a .@ extension are font files
*.KSQ - All files with a .ksq extension are KS Quiz Files
*.KBK - Files with .kbk extensions are backup quiz files and
may be restored by using the DOS rename commmand
(example: A>ren quiz1.kbk quiz1.ksq)
NOTE: KS.DOC, KSHIST.DOC, and KS_SHARE.DOC can be printed out from
DOS by typing the command "COPY filename PRN" at the DOS prompt
Comments, suggestions or
problems may be sent to: Mike Chachich (KS)
P.O. Box 290-232
Waterford, MI 48329
<EOF>