Language Software

Kantaro - Volume 1 is a complete Kanji Multimedia Learning System for Windows that uses mnemonics, animated graphics, and games to increase students' memory retention and cognitive skills. Kantaro shows how the elements and shape of each Kanji relates to its meaning. The ideal feature of Kantaro is the full flexibility for you to create a personal learning program at your own pace.

Whether you're just beginning Japanese or want to review former lessons, you can create lessons that work best for you. As each level is mastered, you can run games to test, score, and record your results over a period of time. Kantaro includes the Kantaro textbook, Kantaro software, and a Kantaro user's guide.

This is the Kantaro Explorer screen for Chapter 3. If you click on any of the pictures that are enclosed by a dotted-line box, the picture will morph into one of the kanji characters listed in the Kanji Index Window. You can also click on one of the kanji to see it's origin graphic and watch the morph animation. An example of the kanji UMA is listed below morphing from a horse to the kanji. Please download the demo to try this out for yourself.

Although the actual Kantaro program will show a fluid morph animation from picture to kanji, the 3 screen-shots at least give you an idea of what it looks like.

Excerpt from Kantaro Textbook - Introduction

The learning of Kanji is a fascinating part of studying Japanese. It not only reveals the profound meanings of each character, but also unfolds the culture and history which the language contains, leading students to a deeper and wider understanding of Japanese. The acquisition of Kanji has often been regarded as a dry and tedious process. This is largely because traditional Kanji teaching methods have tended to encourage rote learning, which places students from an alphabet-based background at a constant disadvantage.

The purpose of Kantaro is to present a new approach to Kanji learning. Linking western methods with Japanese pattern recognition concepts makes Kanji learning more interesting and effective for both students and teachers.

What is Kantaro?
Kantaro is a complete teaching course package for Kanji acquisition, consisting of a textbook, computer software, a teacher's manual and a user's guide. This package, the first of the Kantaro series, covers two hundred (200) basic Kanji. All the Kanji required for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) are included in this package, which is also suitable for introductory Japanese at tertiary level. The course will also be effective for revision or self-teaching purposes. It is assumed that students know Hiragana and Katakana before studying the Kantaro course.

Special Features of Kantaro
Of the many unique features presented by Kantaro, the most prominent is the extensive use of mnemonics. Every Kanji is introduced with both picture mnemonics and word mnemonics.

The benefit of using mnemonics in Kanji teaching has been experienced by many teachers and has been documented by several leading scholars. The decision to use mnemonics has been reached not only from a theoretical point of view but also from the results of our own collective teaching experience. Sophisticated technologies provided by Fujitsu Australia Limited have played a most significant role in this area, making the visual presentation more animated and lively.

The use of mnemonics is primarily designed to make the learning of Kanji more interesting and less daunting for students. Mnemonics has also enabled us to demonstrate effectively how the elements and shape of each Kanji relate to its meaning. The desired benefit is to ease the students' burden in making the mental transition from an alphabetical, sound-oriented writing system to the system of ideographic symbols, which is Kanji. Our experience tells us that this transition is the first obstacle faced by many learners of Kanji.

All the mnemonics introduced in this course have been created by the members of the Japanese Studies Section Kantaro writing team. Where the actual etymology of a character is helpful in describing the current shape of a Kanji, the information is included in the Kantaro mnemonics. However, in such cases where a particular Kanji has changed so much over the years that the original information has become merely a distracting factor to the learners, the actual physical appearance of the Kanji has been used. Each picture mnemonics is accompanied by word mnemonics to increase the effectiveness.

Kantaro contains many other special features designed to assist teachers and benefit students. It is the wish of all the Kantaro team members of Macquarie University's Japanese Studies Section and Fujitsu Australia Limited that each user will find Kanji learning an enjoyable experience and be encouraged to advance further into the study of Japanese.

Misuzu Hanihara Chow Academic Director Japanese Studies School of Modern Languages Macquarie University