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I think Mark and Mister have been hardest on the Textfugu team but I don’t think their criticism is unfair.
The fact that this topic keeps coming up is evidence enough that it is a serious issue.
A few technical issues have been pointed out and I, like Mark, have noticed several other problems (broken links etc) that I’ve not bothered to bring up mainly because it’s too tedious a task. We are customers after all, not editors. If the site wants to beta test something to search for mistakes, they should do it for free. The fact is the quality of the site, content aside, has gotten shoddier as the look has gotten fancier. New upgrades bring new issues and new delays on content. If the upgrades are done for pedagogical reasons, that’s understandable, but it seems like we’ve seen quite a few purely aesthetic changes that are wholly unnecessary.
The site seems to be pushing towards a business model that favors getting new customers over keeping old customers satisfied. I’m reminded of the Awesome Express episode of Futurama. It seems as though the site is in over it’s head.
However, it is possible that there is some wonderful, massive Christmas-Spectacular update waiting as a surprise.
With that said, there is a new lesson up since I last checked (Let’s) so the updates are still coming. And, Koichi…Yes, I prefer the tango. Also, keep in mind that the site was never intended (or advertised) as being for intermediate to advanced students. If you’ve outgrown the site, so be it. Move on.Third on Japanese Sentence Patters for Effective Communication. Go though one or two patterns a day. Practice making your own sentences out of them. (Lang-8) I don’t think it gives very good explanations though or tons of examples but supplement it with dictionary of basic Japanese Grammar for a bit more clarity and in-depth info and KABLAM progress city.
I did RTK and found it helpful, some don’t. Never heard of this Kanji Damage…..maybe wirth looking into.As far as textbooks, I agree with missing (again) for the most part, unless you are going through them with a tutor or instructor, they’re not worth it. You can get the same stuff online for free.
For vocab, I could not force myself through the core decks for anki. Too boring. I actually really like readthekanji.com (especially after RTK). It presents the vocab by grouping words with the same kanji so you really get a hang of the readings so you are learning kanji readings and vocab at once. It does cost money though….
Then there is reading, I suggest novels over manga because the usage is more common and you get full grammatically correct sentences. Don’t expect to go too fast though.
I have fallen out of studying so bad. I really need to get back into it. Winter is coming and my international driver’s licence expired. I guess I’ll have lots of time. I’m doing a lightning round re-run of RTK with the supplement added in. Also next month I’m going to start meeting with a tutor at the international center in the city. Hopefully that spurs me on to speaking some more.
If you are going to try and compare the creation of this site to that of a traditional text book you also need to look at the fact that you can’t buy a book until it’s written. That is why they cost so much, you are paying for years of work and research, not just a stack of papers. And yes, mistakes are found, methods improved and so on in traditional books as well, but those are made up for by releasing new editions (and this is the key part) of the entire book. Books aren’t released one chapter at a time and constantly having that chapter get released again and again in new editions without having ever gotten to the next chapter.
I don’t think Koichi is slacking. I’m sure he puts tons of time into design, layout and content. He just said so himself for Pete’s sake. (read sah-kay)I don’t think anyone has been volatile. I also don’t think anybody feels cheated or taken advantage of which is why people who share the opinion of Mister and I have not asked for refunds or abandoned the site.
I understand that you want to make the site great from the beginning through to the end but it seems like you are trying to build a house and keep changing the blueprints and altering the shape of the foundation. At this rate it seems like you’ll never get to the roof. Some of us are getting cold. There comes a time where you just have to say that maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s good enough. Let’s drywall already!Mister hit the nail on the head. If I were paying monthly, I’d have given up on this site already. I like the idea and the overall style with which the information is presented but the site goes long periods of time with very little new content and a lot of shifting around and reorganizing of content that is already here. The focus on learning is good but in in terms of what’s available this site compared to something like Tae Kim’s or the forums on RevTK (which are free), the amount of actual material is tiny. I pretty much only log in to check the forums and even they seem to be far less active than before due to (this is only a theory) people running out of things to study on this site and moving on to other resources. I’m curious how long it would take me, starting from scratch, to exhaust the materials on this site. I can only guess, but I would say it would be around four months moving at a moderate pace. Textfugu has a lot of potential to be a great textbook but many of us have been waiting for a long time, through several aesthetic updates, for that potential to materialize.
What is the context of this? When was it written?
The first sentence says – I’ll be in Japan in July. (this year? next year?)
The second sentence is half English, half Japanese. The whole thing is – I think I will be in Japan every summer with the exception of this year, so you are always welcome.Yeah! Asakusa was pretty cool because of the surrounding historical area. You should definitely visit there. I played some choose-a-fortune thing there where you pay 100 yen and poll a stick out of a jar and got the worst prediction ever.
So…nashi are coming back! For those of you who don’t know, food in Japan is very seasonal. Maybe it’s just because I live out in the country though. In America I was used to getting whatever I wanted at any time of year. That’s not the case here, fall is coming, and with it come the 20th Century Pears!
EDIT: I just found this http://www.tottoripears.com/
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This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by
thisiskyle.
My advice; however much time you plan on spending visiting temples and shrines, cut it in half. They’re all pretty much the same.
Maps of many of the train stations (some are huge and confusing). It took me about an hour to find my way around shinjuku.
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/stations/Haha, this bugged me for a while too. Although I only learned the ようにする way to say it. Thanks for the tip missing.
おかげで、日本語がだんだんよくなっている。
How do I say “any more”? or something like it…
I don’t have a car any more.
The shoes aren’t expensive any more.
Bob isn’t here any more.
I’m not a doctor any more.EDIT:
found it…
僕は車がもうありません。
靴はもう高くありません。
ボブはもういません。
私はもう医者ではありません。Please correct me if I’m wrong.
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This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by
Today I learned 競争 and 綱引き
Wow! You are really good for your age!
Seriously though, welcome aboard.Yeah, I’m not saying the Microsoft IME is bad at all, I just think the Google one is better.
And yeah, you can type them that way in Google IME as well as Microsoft IME. I’m just saying that Japanese people will type tu instead of tsu and si instead of shi. Both work fine. They also have a tendency to write that way sometimes too. So if a Japanese person tries to write Hiroshima in romaji, the might write Hirosima. -
This reply was modified 13 years, 2 months ago by
