Abstract:

"Saijiki; Hyper-Reading Japanese" is a HyperCard application for the Macintosh DE, and is for students at the intermediate to advanced levels learning to read somewhat sophisticated Japanese essays by themselves. Saijiki means notes about yearly events and the nature of the seasons. The six essays in this program were selected from a collection of essays titled "Kotoba No Saijiki" (Saijiki of words) by Haruhiko Kindaichi (1973), an eminent linguist. The essays introduce Japanese culture, literature and nature as well as language. The computer program includes such features as kanji (Chinese characters) reading practice, multiple choice questions on comprehension and a pop-up dictionary with links to the essays. The program also has cultural illustrations and kanji stroke-order animations to make the study more interesting. The HyperCard system is interfaced with Kanji-Talk1, so that three types of Japanese characters (kanji, hiragana, and katakana2) are used. English is also used when necessary.

Author: Kayoko Hirata