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- I've been working on an idea for a long time which is to break classic public domain books (in the original foreign language) into small chunks for study of the source language.
An example passage is here (from one of the greatest works of Japanese literature, Kokoro by Natsume Soseki).
https://community.public.do/t/kokoro-by-natsume-soseki-parag...
If you click on any passage, you can see all the kanji and the translation of that passage in full.
Each kanji is clickable and displays the proper stroke order and animates it. You can practice writing the kanji and then save that for later.
What's unfinished is I want to allow you to save kanji into Anki and build out flashcards.
If there is a cohort of people reading the same passages, they can help each other with grammar questions, and this is all facilitated because the site is built on the incredible discussion platform "discourse."
I would love to hear any feedback: chris@public.do
- "Kokoro" by Soseki Natsume. (What is inside you matters above all things)
"The Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler. (There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in)
"Dom Casmurro" by Machado de Assis (also his "Epitaph of a Small Winner") (The narrower the life, the more intense the obsessions)
"The Count of Monte Cristo" (get the Robin Buss translation from Penguin) ("Wait and hope")
- I enjoyed The Woman in the Dunes as well. Very well written, though it left me feeling a bit disturbed.
Another great novel (also Japanese) is Kokoro by Natsume Soseki. It's not sci-fi and the plot isn't especially thick, however just like a lot of Japanese novels, the focus is on the character development, and it is done very very well.
- I know the strokes well, or at least I did. I recall being corrected in class when I lived in Japan. I was so proud of my kanji and the strokes were completely out of order and my Japanese classmates made me well aware of that.
I'm actually building a way to practice the correct stroke order while reading Japanese classics.
For example, this passage from Natsume Soseki's Kokoro:
https://community.public.do/t/kokoro-by-natsume-soseki-parag...
If you click on the kanji section, you can click on any of the kanji and then a modal pops up with an animated kanji with correct stroke order and then a free draw canvas on the right.
- If anyone is interested in reading books in foreign languages, and then easily adding notes that are automatically translated, I would be interested in hearing from you.
Here is a demo, one of the most famous Japanese books ever: Kokoro, by Natsume Soseki.
https://public.do/kokoro-by-natsume-soseki/
You can select a word to capture it, it gets translated for you, and then you can build Anki cards to review your notes.
It's still under development, but you can see the concept.
The goal is first and foremost: mobile-first so no browser plugins.
If you have thoughts, I would be happy to hear them: chris@public.do
- Learning Svelte and using it to build a site that allows you to read public domain works, take notes on the words by selecting them, and then automatically make flashcards (Leitner method) to help you remember them.
For example, read the classics in Japanese, take notes on the words you don't know, get them automatically translated, and then automatically generate flashcards to help you remember those words.
I've always wanted to read Kokoro from Natsume Soseki (perhaps the greatest Japanese novelist ever) in the original and this is helping me to get past the words I don't know.
If anyone is interested in playing with it I would love a to share: xrdawson@gmail.com.
