Hello everyone! First time posting here, first time developing something, first time actually being serious about it. So yes, I am a bit nervous! Just wanted to say, let me know your honest opinion about this. I’m a CS student and I really want to improve in any and every aspect, so please reach out to me with any questions/suggestions you can think of!
Summary
I developed a web application that uses Wanikani API to let users review the kanjis they have learned here by drawing it in a canvas. I thought of doing this because I simply found it very helpful for myself, I realized I learn kanjis better if I make myself draw them.
However, I wanted to feel challenged. Not only copying the characters; how can I know if I memorized them if I can only draw them when I’m looking at them?! I needed a software that could ask me to draw kanjis based on their meanings and readings, then check if my drawing was correct. There are some web sites that do this, but they followed their own order, naturally. I would often be asked to draw kanjis that I haven’t learned, and that was very annoying.
So, I decided to develop a system that would do the same but only asking me for the kanjis I have learned in Wanikani so it could exactly match my learning situation. And, here is the result.
WkDraw is my first serious web development project, and is intended to be a kanji drawing practice tool specifically aiming to help Wanikani users. In this post I will try to explain the main features, so I really hope you find it useful!
About WkDraw
Guest Mode
This is what you will first see when you enter the page. I thought that only including a login form would be too boring and waste of space, so I added a canvas and a dictionary function! Using it is pretty easy, just draw any kanji you want to look up in the canvas at the middle, and it will (hopefully) appear in the row below. Click it, and the right column will show you a clear image of the kanji with: stroke order, meanings, readings, and vocabulary!
All of this information is taken form kanjiapi.dev, which uses EDICT and KANJIDIC dictionary files. I tried to sort the vocabulary to only show the most common/relevant ones, so hopefully this will give the users a helpful guide to know how the kanji is used.
Once you Log In
Now, if you decide to put your Wanikani v2API Token, you will se this! If you have an active Wanikani subscription, that is. To respect Wanikani policies, users must have an active subscription to use this application.
In the middle column, you can see it shows you a big word and some kana readings below. Those are, as you probably guessed, the meaning and readings of the kanji you have to remember! You must use the canvas below them to draw it, and once you are confident of your answer, click one of the options that will appear in the white bar. If you got it right, the canvas will glow in green and the kanji image at the top right corner will be revealed!
Additionally, if you really cannot remember the kanji, worry not! To the bottom right corner you have hidden hints. Click on them and they might help you remember how to draw it. Also, if you click on the big black square, a blurred answer will show. Click again, and you will see the full answer!
To your top left, you have the option to choose to review just a certain set of kanjis, options being: all learned, in a range level, recently learned first, or the most failed first.
Lastly, on the bottom left you will have a history log that will save the kanjis you have been reviewing in this application. Click them to open a new tab with the Wanikani page for that kanji, in case you want a quick way to review it there!
Wrapping Up
I have been using this application with my own learning for the past week, and I am pretty satisfied and comfortable with the result. However, I know that’s because I designed it, duh.
Please, please, please let me know what you think. I want to improve it as much as I can so it can help other people learn Japanese too. I am a beginner myself, my level isn’t high, and I can barely grab the meaning of the sentences during the lessons. But I’m truly invested in learning this language and I hope this can help other people with the same conviction as myself.
Remember, you can access it here.
Any enquiries/doubts/suggestions/anything, please send it to my personal email santiago.delgado20342@gmail.com, or to the email I made for the application wkdraw.contact@gmail.com. Or just reply to this post, I will be watching it obsessively from now on.
Credits (Amazing Tools)
The Kanji Canvas recognition algorithm code was made by Dominik Klein and Seth Clydsedale, code can be found here. This software has been modified and used under the terms and conditions of its License.
Application icon taken from flaticon.com. Chinese icons created by Smashicons - Flaticon
Kanji illustrations are provided by the KanjiVG project copyright © 2009 — 2024 by Ulrich Apel, accessible here. Released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Kanji animations are possible thanks to KanjiVGAnimate, copyright © NihongoDera. Used under MIT License.
Kanji meanings, readings, and example words in Guest mode are obtained from Kanjiapi.dev, developed by Iridium Szreter. Github repository can be found here.
