Satori Reader ~ A new project by the team that brought us Human Japanese (°◡°♡)
Morning fam! Because I am a huge throbbing nerd for the Human Japanese series and use it every other day for routine study, their latest project - Satori Reader - was brought to my immediate attention.
Screenshots have been taken of the website’s free content to give you a peek into what is on offer. I’m giving it a trial run for the moment, but my fingers are itching to subscribe - something I can do at any point with relative ease.
For anyone who is floundering in the grey waters of intermediate study, and especially for those whose study is self perpetuated, there’s a good chance you’re looking for some sort of landmark in that churning mess to orient yourself by. A metaphorical island, with sparkling shoreline, verdant forest, and plentiful resources to help you grow and flourish.
I’m talking content. As many bloggers have mentioned, there is a plethora of material out there to help us learn the framework and mechanics of 日本語. It’s not at all difficult to source grammar lessons, vocabulary lists, kanji writing schematics, charts and even entire textbooks - and for that we are eternally thankful. However, the intermediate learner sitting at their own dining room table with an open laptop, a cup of tea, the latest anime OST on repeat and a Japanese novel in their quivering hands is leafing through the pages and quietly mouthing how in the everliving f**k…
This is where SR gently takes your hand and says, here’s how, you foulmouthed otaku.
This is an excerpt from a level 3 difficulty article about Kona the cat (可愛いね）
Like every other article available on the website, it is voiced over by a native speaker, clearly and naturally - with all the intonation you would expect to hear in conversation *heavy breathing* Not only that, but as the audio plays, the corresponding Japanese text is underlined in blue to show where in the text they are reading from. This means that if you are proficient enough, you can follow along at pace.
Too slow? They got you fam! Individual lines of text are divided into sound bytes, meaning you can take this task one sentence at a time.
Individual kanji, jukugo (several kanji that make up one word) and particles within the text can also be clicked to reveal a Human Japanese style dictionary entry. Words you’d like to revisit can be added to your studylist.
The symbol marking the end of each sentence, when clicked, offers you an english transliteration, which I advise you utilise with a degree of self control. Try to hold off clicking it until you’ve really given the sentence a go - clicking on kanji you don’t recognise and piecing all the information together in order to get an idea of what’s being said. Then, when you finally check the translation, your hard work might be rewarded with a confirmation that you indeed read correctly. Which, by psychology standards, is a healthy and affirming process. We are hardwired for rewards my dudes!
I could go into detail about the many little features that make this web project so well thought out and considerate of our individual study methods and goals, but I’ll leave that to you to explore and find out. For me at least, the true worth of SR lies mainly in the reading content and the empathetic format it’s presented in.
The way it Aladdin style reaches out, offering us a whole new world.
Give the free subscription a whirl! If you like it, consider a paid subscription. This directly funds future content which directly benefits you!
~ Thanks Human Japanese team ~
After giving SR a good go and fully testing its arsenal of functions, I realised my initial review bordered on plain lazy. This update is going to give you warm prickles because it turns out that one of the features included in the Review section of SR is an integrated flash card program with full Anki support *prayer hands emoji*
This means that whatever vocabulary you add to your studylist automatically generates a flashcard that you can either review within the SR website, or via your Anki software. Here’s an example:
Straight away, SR gives you an edge in your revision by implementing context. In fact, as well as offering you the sentence you saved the word from, it offers you a link to the entire article it was taken from (see: REVEAL IN FULL ORIGINAL CONTEXT)
This is incredibly helpful, as dictionary entries for any word or phrase you select often include a specific explanation about how that word is being used within the context of the sentence or how it is being used by the narrator to portray his or her story.
I hope that this extra glimpse into the Review section of Satori Reader gives you an idea of how incredible a resource this is.
Go ahead and enjoy the unique pleasurable pain that is reading and comprehending 日本語!!
