Rikaichamp

Rikaichamp is similar to other rikai-tachi but aims to be simple, reliable, fast, and up-to-date. It includes simple installation, an always up-to-date dictionary, pitch accent information, definitions in multiple languages, and many many bug fixes over its predecessors. Twitter: @rikaichamp. Apr 19, 2021 Rikaichamp is similar to other rikai-tachi but aims to be simple, reliable, fast, and up-to-date. It includes simple installation, an always up-to-date dictionary, pitch accent information, definitions in multiple languages, and many many bug fixes over its predecessors. Twitter: @rikaichamp.

One of the nicest tools for the beginning Japanese learner is the Rikaichan family of addons available forMozilla Firefoxand Google Chrome.

The original Rikaichan to which I'm eternally grateful has alas not survivedthe Quantum upgrade to Firefox, but you can find new replacements if yousearch Firefox addons for 'Rikaichan'.I currently use the somewhat minimalisticRikaichamp,that happened to suit me almost perfectly. (My only gripe is that I can't turnALT/TITLE attribute interpretation off.)Your mileage will most certainly vary, so read the descriptions carefully.

For Chrome the choice isRikaikun.Maybe there are more, but Chrome not being my regular browser I haven't lookedfurther.

Why is Rikaichan so cool? Let me show you why.Suppose you want to know what this sentence says:

私の車のかぎはどこにありますか。

So you start Firefox or Chrome, load the web page you found this text on,and turn your Rikaichan tool on. Now simply move your cursor over the text:

'I'

'My'

'My car' + の
'My car's'

Rikaichan

'My car's key'

Nintendo switch box.
'My car's key [←topic]'

'My car's key [←topic] where'

Rikaikun

'My car's key [←topic] where [←locative]'

'My car's key [←topic] where [←locative] to be'

'My car's key [←topic] where [←locative] to be [question]'

In proper English: 'Where are my car keys?'

Looks simple, doesn't it? Well not really, without knowing grammar,all you get is a loose mumble of words. But if you're like me and havetrouble remembering words then this is a great help. It allows me tofocus on grammar so I can at least parse a sentence.

One word of warning though. Rikaichan is a crutch. It'll help you stand,but you'll never walk properly unless you force yourself to do without.It won't help you learn kanji. Only months (some horrible people) oryears (that'll be me) of dedicated training will do that.

Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji are the three scripts used in Japanese.

Katakana is easy to identify mostly since the strokes tend to be more jagged, and abrupt, while Hiragana are more curved. Katagana is used for loan words from other languages. In video games it is used commonly for fantastical objects such are monsters, weapons, items, etc. If you are not sure what word the Katakana means, try saying it aloud in a couple different ways. The Japanese do not have a lot of sounds that English/French/German/Russians have and sometimes the Katakana for the word is a REALLY bad bastardization of the foreign word. The worst cases I have seen are some French words. In some hard cases continue with the story until you can see it used more and get more context for it.

Depending on the game's target audience, you can expect to see more or less Kanji. In games aimed towards younger children you may see next to no Kanji. Words that are usually written in Kanji will be written in Hiragana.

Romanization is the result of methods linguists created over the years to write Japanese letters into Roman alphabet (English characters). The most common method is Hepburn. Linguists use Revised Hepburn and while it seems superior, I have no idea how I would write out some of these characters on an English keyboard like a 'o' with a line on top of it. Probably why the standard Hepburn is used more widely. Use the Hepburn version for romanization.

Nice resource that parses the sentence and separates out the parts.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese#Hepburn

Below are several resources to vocabulary. I am going to try and create a resource for common words in video games as part of an ongoing list that will be linked below. Also another section below on how to find Japanese words in video games.

One of the nicest tools for the beginning Japanese learner is the Rikaichan family of addons available forMozilla Firefoxand Google Chrome.

The original Rikaichan to which I'm eternally grateful has alas not survivedthe Quantum upgrade to Firefox, but you can find new replacements if yousearch Firefox addons for 'Rikaichan'.I currently use the somewhat minimalisticRikaichamp,that happened to suit me almost perfectly. (My only gripe is that I can't turnALT/TITLE attribute interpretation off.)Your mileage will most certainly vary, so read the descriptions carefully.

For Chrome the choice isRikaikun.Maybe there are more, but Chrome not being my regular browser I haven't lookedfurther.

Why is Rikaichan so cool? Let me show you why.Suppose you want to know what this sentence says:

私の車のかぎはどこにありますか。

So you start Firefox or Chrome, load the web page you found this text on,and turn your Rikaichan tool on. Now simply move your cursor over the text:

'I'

'My'

'My car' + の
'My car's'

Rikaichan

'My car's key'

Nintendo switch box.
'My car's key [←topic]'

'My car's key [←topic] where'

Rikaikun

'My car's key [←topic] where [←locative]'

'My car's key [←topic] where [←locative] to be'

'My car's key [←topic] where [←locative] to be [question]'

In proper English: 'Where are my car keys?'

Looks simple, doesn't it? Well not really, without knowing grammar,all you get is a loose mumble of words. But if you're like me and havetrouble remembering words then this is a great help. It allows me tofocus on grammar so I can at least parse a sentence.

One word of warning though. Rikaichan is a crutch. It'll help you stand,but you'll never walk properly unless you force yourself to do without.It won't help you learn kanji. Only months (some horrible people) oryears (that'll be me) of dedicated training will do that.

Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji are the three scripts used in Japanese.

Katakana is easy to identify mostly since the strokes tend to be more jagged, and abrupt, while Hiragana are more curved. Katagana is used for loan words from other languages. In video games it is used commonly for fantastical objects such are monsters, weapons, items, etc. If you are not sure what word the Katakana means, try saying it aloud in a couple different ways. The Japanese do not have a lot of sounds that English/French/German/Russians have and sometimes the Katakana for the word is a REALLY bad bastardization of the foreign word. The worst cases I have seen are some French words. In some hard cases continue with the story until you can see it used more and get more context for it.

Depending on the game's target audience, you can expect to see more or less Kanji. In games aimed towards younger children you may see next to no Kanji. Words that are usually written in Kanji will be written in Hiragana.

Romanization is the result of methods linguists created over the years to write Japanese letters into Roman alphabet (English characters). The most common method is Hepburn. Linguists use Revised Hepburn and while it seems superior, I have no idea how I would write out some of these characters on an English keyboard like a 'o' with a line on top of it. Probably why the standard Hepburn is used more widely. Use the Hepburn version for romanization.

Nice resource that parses the sentence and separates out the parts.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese#Hepburn

Below are several resources to vocabulary. I am going to try and create a resource for common words in video games as part of an ongoing list that will be linked below. Also another section below on how to find Japanese words in video games.

Japanese sentence parser. These types of tools are extremely useful. Web scraping using requests.