Ringotan - Free app for learning how to WRITE kanji

Hmm, I would agree with you fully if we were talking about people who are learning Japanese with methods like Genki, where you learn how to read and write kanji.

In my (short) experience here in WaniKani I only learn how to read a kanji - yesterday for instance I had in my lessons both 左 and 右 but I took at least a couple of trials until I nailed how to write them.

So yeah, they might not be “new” regarding their meaning only.

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Yep that’s fair. In the next release (0.14) I will also make it more clear that the kanji chosen in the startup wizard are the kanji you know how to write, not just read.

If you’d like to restart at 0, you can do so from Options → Reset Data. Several level 60 users above said they did that in Ringotan because their writing was so rusty, so it’s not uncommon at all.

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This app is great and was exaclty, what I was looking for.

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Thanks for the app, I was looking for something like this.

Others have said that it’s too strict, but I’m actually finding it too lenient. It’s relatively easy to cheat by making a small vague gesture towards the right direction and letting the app do the rest. Especially for kanji like 石 and 右, where you begin your stroke is important. Maybe it could be strict at least in this kind of cases, checking whether a stroke intersects or touches?

I generally like all the ways you’ve chosen to hint at the strokes needed, but the one where all starting and end points are visible at once just doesn’t work, especially for more complicated kanji. It’s just a mess of colorful dots, so much so that I try to ignore them so that they don’t confuse me, instead of using them as a guide.

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I like the app, but I’m slightly confused as how it is supposed to work with the lessons ans reviews…
sometimes I open the app and I have 9 lessons and 22 review. then i do the reviews and the app asks me if I want to finish the session after i went through them and I again have 18 reviews but 0 lessons…
why would the app asks me (and recommend) to finish the session and then tell me i still (or again?) have reviews.
what time interval is between a successful review and it coming back again? :thinking:

and btw. the shi and chi are killing me :neutral_face: never start the line at the right spot…
the also sometimes go red even though i definately did the shi right :slightly_frowning_face:

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I think this is it as well. The apps that have worked well for me show the curves drawn by the user and transition them into the underlying curves when the pen/finger is lifted. This one doesn’t show anything drawn by the user. It’s kind of like guessing where precisely the hidden curve is and just tracing over it, rather than trying to approximate the strokes and then getting the underlying curves as guides the following strokes.

Sums it up pretty well. The current implementation is very “jerky”.

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Would you mind turning on debug info (Options → Show Debug Info) and taking a screenshot or video of what you see during a Custom Review for し?

Part of what led to developing this app is that I tried those apps and didn’t like that method of drawing. It’s difficult to articulate why I prefer this method, though, so I think it just comes down to personal preference ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t understand this. Are you saying there is literal lag when drawing a stroke, like you’ll move your finger and it’ll take a moment for the drawing to catch up? If so, what brand/model phone are you using?

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I’m using a Galaxy Note 9. It’s not literally lagging. It’s that it doesn’t show what I am writing. It highlights the predefined path. And the illusion that I’m drawing on my screen only works if I follow the predefined path very closely.

I don’t know how to show it to you. If I do a screen recording you can’t see what my finger path is.

But if I turn on the debug mode I have a temptation to follow the highlighted path, so it’s not representative of how I’m actually using the app for reviews.

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No doubt that it’s personal preference :slight_smile:.

No, there is no actual lag. It’s just that it doesn’t match at all what I am drawing. It kinda feel like if someone write on a notepad and tore off the first page and I took a pencil and started covering the sheet with the graphite to try and reveal what was written on the page above, I guess? Like the strokes are not mine, but I can reveal them if I just “do it right”, where “right” does not mean that I’m actually drawing the character, but that I go in vaguely the right direction. It feels more like “try and reveal the character below” as opposed to “practice writing”.

I can relate to how difficult it is to explain what the experience is like…

@BlueRaja, I’m sure there are people who like it as is and will find it useful, I hope we aren’t discouraging you :sweat_smile:

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Exactly how I feel.

I would rather you let me write like I was writing on paper and tell me if thr character I wrote is correct or not.

Note, I know how to write Japanese, I just don’t know many characters. But if I need to input a new character that I saw e.g. in a book I have no trouble writing on Gboard.

That’s why I don’t like the method used in the app which is basically to follow a stencil.

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The reviews must’ve come up while you were doing the lesson. I have plans to change that “recommended” button after the lesson in this case. Link to ticket.

As for why it included new kanji with 22 reviews but not 18 - the app tries to make each lesson approximately the same “size”, but considers kanji you recently learned to be “bigger” than kanji you already know well, to account for the fact that they will be more likely to get wrong, and more mentally draining.

This would be a good app if you could imitate Kanji Study stroke detection. I found that I abandon Kanji Study because of the lack of SRS

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Looks pretty cool! I signed up for the iOS version. I’m not sure I’ll actually use it because I’ve been using an Anki deck for about half a year already but it looks promising!

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the app looks neat! the only thing that doesn’t seem to work for me is that when i look at costume reviews it’ll load fine at first, but the more i scroll down the more the app will struggle and struggle to load things, as if having all the possible lessons visible is messing with something? By the time i get to around lessons 40 if i try to go lower the app will crash for me. My phone isn’t “super” new but it runs every other app i have just fine along with games, so i’m not sure what’s happening there. thanks!

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I’m able to repro this and have created a ticket here. Thanks for the report!

In the meanwhile, as a workaround you can view specific chapters/lessons using the filter-button

This looks very neat! I can’t wait to use it on my iPad :star_struck:

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Installed! Thank you so much for sharing!

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I’ll download this app now and see how it goes! I struggle with kanji hopefully this can help me out.

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I’m enjoying this app, thank you! I personally like (compared to what people have said above) that it doesn’t show my actual strokes. I’m clumsy with writing on the screen with my finger, and I don’t find that practicing that translates to writing better with a pencil or pen. Starting with a blank screen and having to come up with the kanji still feels like it tests me, and if I write the wrong thing and it’s marked correct because of this mechanism, I just manually mark it wrong. :+1:

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I only gave it a quick test since I’m at work, but this looks like a great app, thanks! Wanikani has been great for reading, so I’m hoping this app will be great for writing, because remembering how to write kanji… :cry:

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