10 Great Asian Flickr Pictures (part 1)
August 31st, 2008
Archive
Archive for August, 2008
Little programs to help you with Japanese
August 31st, 2008
I myself am studying Japanese., but I am not very proficient with it yet. I do realise that it is a difficult task, yet my ever-growing infatuation with Japan has driven me to make a significant effort and force my grey cells to memorise convoluted structures, forms and writing of Nihon-go.
Having said that, it is not easy. Especially writing is something that is overwhelming at first. In the beginning katakana, hiragana and kanji seem to be impossible to ever memorise, especially the latter. I already know kana, but I still am struggling with kanji. I think that to master more than a couple hundreds one has to spend some time living in Japan, otherwise it is too hard - but maybe I am just looking for excuses to my own inability to properly memorise kanji.
Being a computer geek (to some extent at least), I couldn’t overlook the occasion of boosting my learning process with any digital crutch I could use. The following programs and utilities are the result of my searches - I have found them to be useful and thought I would share the compilation, so that you don’t have to look for them yourself.
DreamKana is one of the simplest programs to study kana. But its simplicity is its main advantage, right next to being free of charge (don’t we all love free software?). Basically it just displays kana characters and asks user to type in their romaji reading. Simple and effective, I know quite a lot of students that used this while preparing for JLPT Level 4. Also, it doesn’t require installation, which together with its small size makes it a perfect candidate for portable tool on your USB pendrive.
This program is very similar to DreamKana, but it is more configurable. Its main advantage is the possibility to choose a specific group of kana that user would like to practice. It also shows the hit/miss ratio (good answers vs bad answers), which gives some idea about how well user has already mastered the material. Nice and simple utility. Apparently there are some new versions that have appeared, but I didn’t really have the time to check them.
I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t put some PSP homebrew in here. Essentially, PSPKanji (which I have already described here) allows user to work with kanji flashcards. It also has kana tables available at the press of the button and quiz options for revising purposes. Recent version has some slight graphical glitches, but nevertheless it is a very useful little program (plus it has very nice visual style). Kudos to Sammy who created it!
This is a very powerful tool - basically a kanji dictionary with lots of configuration options and customised searches, such as based on radicals. Essential program for everybody seriously studying Japanese (or Chinese, too), especially for JLPT, since Wakan has lists of JLPT kanji for each level. Works well under Linux through Wine - tested it under Ubuntu.
This excellent plugin shows pop-up window with the dictionary definition of given kanji that has been highlighted in the browser window. This greatly simplifies finding the meaning of that kanji, which would otherwise take significantly longer. The description is short, but this is a very powerful tool. Its main problem is that it is dependent on the quality of dictionaries used and Japanese-French dictionary seems to be more accurate than Japanese-English one.
Despite its name, this widget only displays hiragana with their romaji readings (well, actually it does English-Portugese/German/French pairs too), and I haven’t found a way to force it to display katakana (if you know how to, let me know through comments). User can select refresh intervals, thus being able to have his memory tickled all the time by changing hiragana characters. Personally, I found it very useful while learning kana.
This little widget displays random Japanese words and expressions, many of them taken from common everyday situations. It is not very helpful when revising some particular material, but nevertheless by constant bombarding with kanji allows user to retain some of them. For consideration.
This widget presents the correct stroke order for katakana characters. There also exists a very similar widget for hiragana stroke order. Useful when beginning learning kana, but also when user needs to refresh the correct stroke order later on. A very nice little tool.
Discover Kokoro Amano
August 30th, 2008
Kokoro Amano is an AV Idol who starred in pornographic movies between 2001 and 2004 . She worked mainly for Soft On Demand and Moodyz. Noted for her “pure beauty” and “sexy eyes” she became a “popular top idol” in the Japanese AV field.
56 hot pictures are waiting for you !!!
Happy Birthday Kokoro Amano ! Enjoy !
Miwa Oshiro
August 26th, 2008
Date of Birth: 8/26/1983
Birth Place: Hokkaido, Japan
Ethnicity: Japanese
Blood Type: O
Height: 154cm
Bust: 88cm
Waist: 58cm
Hip: 84cm
Hobbies: Shopping, personal computer
Miwa Oshiro is one of Japan’s newest and most popular idols. She has incredible beauty that is sought after by numerous men around the world. She has become more and more popular amongst the Japanese, and has appeared on several TV shows. She releases non-nude gravure videos and photobooks.
Mitsui Yuri
August 25th, 2008
Yuri Mitsui (Japanese: 三井ゆり, Mitsui Yuri) (August 25, 1968), is a Japanese actress and model. She is also a race car driver. She was born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
Who is Marsha Wattanapanich ?
August 24th, 2008
Marion Ursula Marsha Vadhanapanich born 24 August 1970, is a Thai pop singer and actress. Her mother is German and her father is Thai and she is a staunch Buddhist. She has one son with her first husband, Thai singer Umphol Lumpoon.
15 pictures and 4 videos are waiting for you !!!
For the time being, only Thais know about her but her beauty and her voice will make her famous all over Asia.
Megumi Yasu
August 22nd, 2008
- Name: 安めぐみ
- Name (romaji): Yasu Megumi
- Profession: Actress and gravure idol
- Birthdate: 1981-Aug-22
- Birthplace: Fuchu, Tokyo
- Height: 158cm
- Star sign: Leo
- Blood type: A
- Talent agency: Harmony Promotion
Umemiya Anna
August 20th, 2008
Anna Umemiya (梅宮 アンナ Umemiya An’na, born August 20, 1972) is a Japanese television celebrity and model. Born in Tokyo, she is the daughter of a Japanese father and an American mother, herself a former model. Her father Tatsuo Umemiya is an actor.
50 pictures are waiting for you !
My opinion about umemiya anna : She is absolutly gorgeous. Since her mother was american and his father japanese, she is extremely HOT !
Enjoy !
Sammi Cheng
August 18th, 2008
Sammi Cheng was recognized for her talent as early as age sixteen, when she won the second runner-up at the Seventh New Talent Singing Contest in 1988. On her triumph, she obtained valuable opportunities to demonstrate her versatility as an all-round performer in numerous TV soap-opera, movies and also music programs.
Sammi is a natural born artist, she changes her look and image for every album, which enables her to gain extensive attention and appreciation from the music professional and the public. Sammi is a trendsetter of hair-coloring and has been chosen to be one of the Top Ten fashionable celebrities in Hong Kong. Also, she has successfully achieved a considerable prestige in the Hong Kong pop music scene, and built a loyal fan base.
In late 1995, Sammi left Capital Artist (previous record company) and signed with Warner Music Hong Kong and her status has grown to be the future Queen of Pop. Sammi was selected as the prominent celebrity endorsement for one of the largest household appliance’s company -Panasonic. Her song “Can’t let you go” was selected as the theme song for the Panasonic commercials. Riding on the success of this commercial, another hit song of Sammi Cheng “Never Want to Let you Go” has also been chosen for the new series of Panasonic commercials.
Several hit songs have been the most popular songs within the karaoke chains in Hong Kong. “Can’t Let You Go” has been Number One karaoke chart for 16 weeks, and the other song “Owe Nothing” has been on the chart top position for 8 weeks.
Her first Mandarin album “Worth It” has attained a huge success in Taiwan. The album was number one on the Taiwan IFPI chart for six consecutive weeks.
Sammi held her first solo concert “X Party” in Hong Kong Coliseum in 1996 for 8 consecutive nights. Owing to the overwhelmed responses, Sammi held 16 nights for her second concert “Sammi Star Show” in the following year, breaking her own record. In 1999, Sammi held another 8 nights ” I - concert ” and received great response.
In 2000, Sammi held another concerts in Taipei and Taichung, and was very successful. In the same year, Sammi also starred in the movies “Needing You” and “Summer Holiday”. The films were hits at the box office hit in all South East Asia Regions, and Hong Kong has cumulated nearly sixty millions box offices. The “Needing You” VCD has received a sold out record of more than Two Hundred Thousand. For her performance in “Needing You”, she was nominated for “Best Actress” in the Hong Kong Film Award. In 2001, she was also nominatated for Best Actress for three of her movies, Fighting For Love, Love on a Diet and Wu Yen.
In 2001, she also held 12 nights of Sammi Shocking Color concerts in Hong Kong. In 2001 and 2002, she received the IFPI Best Selling Female Artist. She has also done several commercials over the years especially for Pepsi, Veeko and SK-II.
Recently in July 2004, she held 7 nights of Sammi Vs Sammi concerts in Hong Kong. She also broken the record as being the youngest female singer to hold more than 50 concerts nights (accumulated) in Hong Kong.
29 pictures are waiting for you !!!
Happy Birthday Sammi Cheng !!!
Enjoy !