The new iPadOS15 update has brought support for Japanese language when using the Scribble feature (which allows you to write using the Apple Pencil and have it magically transformed into typed text).
I just tried it while doing my WaniKani reviews and it worked great! You don’t have to press a button to switch between English and Japanese like you do when typing with the keyboard, it automatically detects whether you are writing Latin or Japanese characters.
Of course, you can’t use browser scripts on the iPad and writing by hand generally takes longer than typing, but I feel like my study time is twice as efficient now that I’m practising writing kana by hand every time WaniKani asks me to type out a reading!
If you have an iPad and an Apple Pencil, give it a try!
I have an Android tablet with a pen, and I am doing the same. On google keyboard you can choose handwritten input. The disadvantage is that you don’t have the kanji suggestions for your hiragana input. Apparently the keyboard makers suppose that you’ll be able to write the kanji by hand as well - you can if you are fast enough! I manage for simple kanji like 月 but not for more complicated ones (as my favorite 鬱.
I don’t really spend time learning how to write every complicated kanji ever, but if there’s a kanji you like it’s always fun to set aside 10 minutes to learn the stroke order and practice writing it. I did this with the kanji 麗 so that I could write a name, and now I can write it easily whenever I want.
I should have known you Android guys would have been able to do this already, you get all the cool stuff first It’s awesome that more people are able to use WaniKani in this way!
Yeah, you don’t get the kanji suggestions on iPad either, but I figure I’ll never be writing super complicated kanji by hand anyway, so I think I’ll use the handwriting feature exclusively for practising my Japanese handwriting, and use the keyboard when I actually need to type something ‘proper’, using lots of kanji and stuff.
That’s the point. If you want to write a Japanese word or sentence with kanji, you have to switch to another input method like the 7-key keyboard which provides kanji suggestion for the hiragana input. It’s not a big problem since the other keyboards are just a click (or rather a tap) away.
I upgraded my ipad today to try this out. I tried it out and I still need to get the hang of it. I have trouble writing hiragana since what I write turns into alphabet.
I am using Tsurukame by the way. Are you using the wanikani in Safari?
Ah sorry, what I meant is that I’ll never be writing super-complicated kanji by hand on paper, so I don’t mind not having the kanji auto-suggestions as it kinda prepares me for this scenario where I don’t have the luxury of my kana automatically being converted into kanji for me.
You’re absolutely right though, typing is still the best way to write ‘grown-up’ Japanese
Yes, I was using WK in Safari. I haven’t tried using Tsurukame yet as I only have that installed on my phone, but it works in other apps so I don’t see why it shouldn’t work in Tsurukame.
If it’s not turning any of your writing into Japanese at all, you need to make sure you have Japanese set up as one of your keyboards for typing (go into Settings>General>Keyboards>Add keyboard or something like that).
Then, in Settings>Apple Pencil, above the “Scribble” toggle button, it should say “(your other language/s) and Japanese”. Then, you should be good to go!
Sounds amazing! I’ll go update it now!! Can’t wait to try it out
Edit: just updated! Haven’t tried the Scribble feature yet, but there’s a new app that’s been added called ‘Translate’, and I’m having so much fun talking to it and seeing if it recognises my Japanese
Thanks so much for the tip! I just tried it and it was so much fun that I didn’t want my reviews to end!
It’s eerily good at interpreting bad handwriting (at least in English), but in Japanese there were a few instances where it kept misunderstanding me (my handwriting is probably not the most natural). The most trouble I had with the つ - it insisted typing it out as っ. I had to draw an outrageously oversized one to finally make myself understood.
I just wanted to let you know that you can actually use user scripts on Safari. iPadOS 15 made it finally possible to have safari extensions. If you download Hyperweb from the Appstore you can install usercripts with it.
Here is an example of me running the breeze dark theme on my iPad
If you have any questions on how to get this to work feel free to let me know.
I would love to know how you got the scripts to work. I got Hyperweb, and thought I put the scripts correctly, but nothing seems to change. Maybe the user scripts I was hoping to use are not supported. Either way, nice find!
Hm. I couldn’t get Hyperweb to work either. Tried it with WKOF and WaniKani Heatmap.
One theory is that the order in which the scripts load is important (WKOF must load first). So possibly the issue is related to that since Hyperweb didn’t explicitly specify the script load order.
It’s awesome that more people are able to use WaniKani in this way!
