Table of contents:

• Turning Anki into a japanese learning suite
  • Anki structure
  • Add-ons
    • Japanese Support
    • AwesomeTTS
    • Japanese Pronunciation / Pitch Accent
    • Yomichan
    • Nihongo Companion
  • Honorable mentions
    • Review Heatmap
    • Anki Simulator
    • Low key anki

Turning Anki into a japanese learning suite

First of all, language learning consists mostly of trying to remember things, such as grammar structures, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc., and it is no different when learning japanese.

Anki is a free program which makes remembering things easy. I have already discussed about the basic concepts of Anki on Studying: Tackling the forgetting curve, so please check it out if you are interested.

So, what is the intent of this article? Propose structures and tools to automate some things in Anki. Since you will be spending a lot of time using it, it makes sense to try to cut off unnecessary manual operations that could be automated.

Anki structure

In order to follow along this article, I will be assuming that you have Anki 2.1 or above.

The first thing you should do when trying to learn japanese using Anki, is to create or download the necessary decks. The most important decks are:

• Kana deck: A deck that contains katakana and hiragana, the most basic japanese writing systems. I recommend this one.
• Kanji deck: A deck containing japanese kanji. I have already talked about this on Kanji: Origins and how to learn them.
• Vocab deck: A deck containing vocabulary words, and their meaning. This meaning can be in japanese, if you are advanced, or in a language you’re already fluent in, if you are a beginner.
• Sentence deck: A deck containing sentences, preferably with audio and/or images.

Using these basic decks and mantaining an immersion schedule, it is 100% possible to become fluent in japanese with self-study.

On your first days of learning japanese, you should preferably focus on growing accustomed to kana, and knowing at least the most used kanjis. After that, vocabulary deck will provide you with the vocab you come across on your daily usage of the language, and the sentence deck will be useful to learn new grammar constructs, without having to cram over traditional textbooks.

Below is a photo of the deck structure I personally use:

Note: I don’t recommend using “Core decks” since the japanese suite I will present today is very easy to use, and will yield decks tailored to your use of the language. No more waiting 2 years to rememeber the lyrics of your favorite song, you can add it immediately.

Add-ons

Anki add-ons are applications built to be used along with anki, providing some functionality that Anki doesn’t implement by default. This can range from add-ons that help you create new cards, add-ons that change how you review cards, to add-ons that simply add something to the interface.

In order to install add-ons, First you need to head over to Tools -> Add-ons, on Anki’s main window.

Then, click on Get Add-ons… and paste in the code found on the add-on pages:

On the following subsections, I will be discussing add-ons that make your life easier when using Anki to learn japanese.

Japanese Support

Japanese Support adds the note type Japanese (recognition) which is simply awesome, since it will automatically generate furigana for you when you type a sentence in it’s Expression field.

I have tweaked the note a little bit, in order to fit the rest of the suite (After installing the addon, obviously):

You can add the following fields by going to Tools -> Manage Note Types -> Select “Japanese (recognition)” -> Fields… -> Add:

• Pronunciation
• Sound
• Examples

You can change yours to match this template by going to Tools -> Manage Note Types -> Select “Japanese (recognition)” -> Cards… -> Back Template.

{{FrontSide}}

<hr id=answer>

{{Meaning}}

<hr>
{{Sound}}
<div class=jp> {{furigana:Reading}}</div><br>

{{Pronunciation}}

{{#Examples}}
<hr>Example(s)<br>

{{Examples}}
{{/Examples}}

AwesomeTTS

AwesomeTTS is an addon that adds speech to Anki card decks. This is specially useful when learning sentences.

My configuration is as follows:

The two voice generators I recommend (on the left) are:

• Naver Papago (Japanese)
• Youdao Dictionary (Japanese, alternative)

Japanese Pronunciation / Pitch Accent

Japanese Pronunciation / Pitch Accent allows you to look up the Japanese pitch accent of a particular expression.

Every time you add a new sentence, the Expression field will be looked up to add the pitch accent.

This is an example sentence, generated using Japanese Support, Japanese Pronunciation / Pitch Accent and AwesomeTTS:

Yomichan

While Yomichan isn’t technically an add-on, it serves the purpose of adding flashcards to Anki while you’re browsing the internet. The way it works is, every time you hold Shift while hovering your mouse over a japanese word/sentence, Yomichan will show you the meaning of the word, and let you add it to anki with a single click.

The installation should be very simple, but I recommend some things:

Get the following dictionaries:

• jmdict_english.zip
• jmnedict.zip
• kireicake.zip
• kanjidic_english.zip
• innocent_corpus.zip
• kanjium_pitch_accents.zip

It may take some time to load them all into Yomichan the first time you install it, but they are awesome dictionaries.

Use the following audio playback sources:

• JapanesePod101
• JapanesePod101 (Alternate)
• Jisho.org
• Text-to-speech

Install AnkiConnect and use the following config on Configure Anki card format:

Nihongo Companion

Nihongo Companion is an addon that I developed myself, filling a gap that I was filling in the suite. Nihongo Companion lets you add example sentences to your vocabulary decks, and as such, helps you while learning new vocab.

Below is an example of a card generated using Yomichan and Nihongo Companion

Please check out Nihongo Companion’s page on GitHub.

Honorable mentions

The following tools may not be tailored for japanese or language learning by itself, but they help a lot on your quality of life.

Review Heatmap

Review Heatmap is currently on beta for Anki 2.1, and it serves the purpose of adding heatmaps to anki and review streaks. Below is a picture of my own heatmap (yes, I know, I have been lazy).

Anki Simulator

Anki Simulator is an add-on for Anki that lets you simulate Anki progress over time using your cards, deck options and statistics. This is incredibly useful if you want to get an insight of how much cards you will be reviewing every day for a set amount of new daily cards. It’s worth mentioning that it is incredibly accurate.

Below is an example taken from the addon’s page:

Low key anki

Refold’s (MIA) guide on anki setup talks about low key anki, I recommend the read, and specially at the beginning where your brain is not used to SRS, it is really useful.