KanaQuiz is a program that I wrote as I was learning . Kana are the phonetic Japanese characters. Kana are very similar to alphabets in that they represent sounds, and can be used to describe any sound in the language.

KanaQuiz is a labour of love, and as such, it's free. However, if you would like to help support the writing of more great software titles I would greatly appreciate any donations.

All sounds used in KanaQuiz were graciously provided Brent Buckalew and Reiko Sakaguchi of Reiko-chan's Japanese For Anime Lovers, and KanaQuiz, in it's current form, would not have been possible without their help.

In the above figure, the main KanaQuiz window is displayed in study mode. Clicking on any button in the table at the bottom of the window will change the characters displayed in the three boxes across the top of the window. For example, clicking the “Ko” will change the three boxes to read ‘こ’, ‘Ko’ and ‘コ’ respectively.

Clicking “Pronounce” will pronounce the displayed character out loud.

Unchecking any checkbox will disable all of the buttons in the corresponding column.

When in test mode, the role of the computer is reversed. KanaQuiz will display a character in the and/or boxes, and you can test your ability by clicking on the corresponding button at the bottom of the window.

KanaQuiz will only test you on characters that are enabled via the row of checkboxes. Using this, you can focus on a specific subset of the kana with which you are having trouble.

Each time you guess at a character, the score in the middle of the window is updated. You will be told whether or not you were correct, and, if not, what the correct answer was.

The score section also contains a running total, showing the number of characters that you successfully guessed, the total number of characters displayed so far, and your score as a percentage.

The items in this menu perform the following functions:

• Save Test Results… — This menu item saves the results of the current test out to disk as a text file so that you can review it to determine where you need the most work.
• Clear Score — This menu item resets your score to zero, giving you a fresh start.
• Show Both — When this menu item is checked, both the and are visible.
• Show Only Hiragana — When this menu item is checked, only the are visible.
• Show Only Katakana — When this menu item is checked, only the are visible.
• Study Mode — When this menu item is checked, KanaQuiz is in Study Mode.
• Test Mode — When this menu item is checked, KanaQuiz is in Test Mode.
• Hepburn — When this menu item is checked, KanaQuiz uses the Hepburn romanization scheme.
• Kunrei — When this menu item is checked, KanaQuiz uses the Kunrei romanization scheme.
• Nihon-shiki — When this menu item is checked, KanaQuiz uses the Nihon-shiki romanization scheme.
• Enable/Disable Uncommon Kana — Certain kana are not commonly used (mostly because they have the same sound as other, more common kana). This menu item is used to enable and disable the corresponding buttons in KanaQuiz.

is one of the three common . Of the three , is the most logical to the western mind. It’s mapping most closely matches the pronounciation as heard by the western ear. It differs from in the following ways:

• ‘し/シ’ - Is romanized as ‘shi’ (instead of ‘si’)
• ‘じ/ジ’ - Is romanized as ‘ji’ (instead of ‘zi’)
• ‘ち/チ’ - Is romanized as ‘chi’ (instead of ‘ti’)
• ‘つ/チ’ - Is romanized as ‘tsu’ (instead of ‘tu’)
• ‘ぢ/ヂ’ - Is romanized as ‘ji’ (instead of ‘di’)
• ‘づ/ヅ’ - Is romanized as ‘zu’ (instead of ‘du’)
• ‘ふ/フ’ - Is romanized as ‘fu’ (instead of ‘hu’)

are one of the two types of . is much more rounded and cursive-like than , and are the more common of the two. Because it is so common, learning is absolutely essential to learning Japanese.

Kana are Japanese characters that represent sounds instead of ideas. They are roughly analogous to letters in western alphabets in that they have no inherent meanings, but can be placed together to build words. There are two types of kana: and .

are one of the two types of . are much more angular than , and are typically used when spelling non-Japanese words or to add emphasis (similar to the use of boldface or italics in western languages).

is one of the three common . lies somewhere in between and . It differs from in the following ways:

• ‘ぢ/ヂ’ - Is romanized as ‘zi’ (instead of ‘di’)
• ‘づ/ヅ’ - Is romanized as ‘zu’ (instead of ‘du’)

(lit. “Japanese Style”). is one of the three common . This is the scheme officially supported by the Japanese government, and makes the most logical sense to the Japanese mind; unfortunately, it is also the least logical to the western mind. It is a very regular and ordered system, whereby the romaji is derrived directly from the row and column in the table of characters. For example: ‘し’ is romanized to ‘si’, even though to the western ear, it is pronounced more like ‘shi’.

(lit. “Roman Character”). When Japanese is expressed in roman characters, it is usually referred to as . Converting between and requires the use of a .

See

Since there exists no true one-to-one mapping between and , a mapping must be devised. Such a mapping is called a . There are three commonly used romanization schemes: