These are some scripts I wrote which helped me learn Japanese. Most scripts are intended to be plugins for an IRC bot. Many scripts can also be used standalone, though. For example, I currently have the following aliases in my shell:
alias ja=”$JAPANESE_TOOLS/jmdict/ja.sh” alias rtk=”$JAPANESE_TOOLS/rtk/rtk.sh” alias sen=”$JAPANESE_TOOLS/yahoo_jisho/daijisen.sh” alias rin=”$JAPANESE_TOOLS/yahoo_jisho/daijirin.sh” alias gd=”$JAPANESE_TOOLS/google_dictionary/gd.sh”
I do most of my dictionary lookups with these aliases.
find_audio.sh finds an audio version of a given Japanese word on languagepod101.
$ ./find_audio.sh 星空 Audio for 星空 [ほしぞら]: http://tinyurl.com/32uop8k
Internationalization support. Currently supported languages other than English:
- German
You should call gettext/regenerate_mo_files.sh if you’d like to use any of the translations, or they won’t work.
gd.sh looks up English words in the Google dictionary: http://www.google.com/dictionary
./gd.sh diligent Someone who is diligent works hard in a careful and thorough way.
gt.sh translates words and sentences using Google Translate. The target language is determined by the environment variable LANG, but it can also be specified explicitly.
./gt.sh My hovercraft is full of eels. 私のホバークラフトは鰻がいっぱいです。
./gt.sh it My hovercraft is full of eels. it: Il mio hovercraft è pieno di anguille.
./gt.sh Il mio hovercraft è pieno di anguille. My hovercraft is full of eels.
ja.sh performs a jmdict lookup. Works best for Japanese->English lookups.
To start, you first need to run the script prepare_jmdict.sh. It will download and process the jmdict file.
$ ./ja.sh 村長 村長 [そんちょう] (n), village headman 市長村長選挙 [しちょうそんちょうせんきょ] (n), mayoral election
A simple hiragana and katakana trainer.
<Christoph> !hira help <nihongobot> Start with “!hira <level> [count]”. Known levels are 0 to 10. To learn more about some level please use “!hira help <level>”. <nihongobot> To only see the differences between consecutive levels, please use “!hira helpdiff <level>”. <Christoph> !hira 5 <nihongobot> Please write in romaji: す と に ね へ <Christoph> !hira su to ni ne he <nihongobot> Perfect! 5 of 5. Statistics for Christoph: 44.64% of 280 characters correct. <nihongobot> Please write in romaji: は と ぬ ほ な
Implements a lookup in kanjidic: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/kanjidic.html
$ ./kanjidic.sh 日本語 日: 4 strokes. ニチ, ジツ, ひ, -び, -か. In names: あ, あき, いる, く, くさ, こう, す, たち, に, にっ, につ, へ {day, sun, Japan, counter for days} 本: 5 strokes. ホン, もと. In names: まと {book, present, main, origin, true, real, counter for long cylindrical things} 語: 14 strokes. ゴ, かた.る, かた.らう {word, speech, language}
read.py converts kanji to kana using mecab.
$ ./read.py 鬱蒼たる樹海の中に舞う人の如き影が在った。 鬱蒼[うっそう] たる 樹海[じゅかい] の 中[なか] に 舞[ま]う 人[ひと] の 如[ごと]き 影[かげ] が 在[あ]っ た 。
A quiz asking kanji -> kana questions. Only works as an IRC plugin for now.
<Christoph> !quiz jlpt2 <nihongobot> Please read: 発見 <Christoph> !quiz はっけん <nihongobot> Christoph: Correct! (はっけん: (n,vs) 1. discovery, 2. detection, 3. finding)
romaji.sh converts kanji and kana to romaji using mecab.
$ ./romaji.sh 鬱蒼たる樹海の中に舞う人の如き影が在った。 ussou taru jukai no naka ni mau hito no gotoki kage ga atsu ta 。
rtk.sh does a lookup between keyword - kanji - number. The keywords and numbers refer to Heisig’s amazing book “Remembering the Kanji”.
$ ./rtk.sh 城壁 #362: castle 城 | #1500: wall 壁
$ ./rtk.sh star #1556: star 星, #237: stare 眺, #1476: starve 餓, #2532: star-anise 樒, #2872: start 孟, #2376: mustard 芥
$ ./rtk.sh 1 2 3 #1: one 一 | #2: two 二 | #3: three 三
As the name says, it’s a simple IRC bot. You can start it with: ./bot.py <server[:port]> <channel> <nickname> [NickServ password]
It uses all the other scripts.
Binding to Yahoo!辞書, the Yahoo Japanese dictionary. It prints a small excerpt from the dictionary and a link to the full result.
$ ./daijisen.sh うれしい うれし・い【×嬉しい】 ( http://tinyurl.com/32esm38 ) ［形］［文］うれ・し［シク］ １ 物事が自分の望みどおりになって満足で あり、喜ばしい。自分にとってよいことが起き、愉快で、楽しい。「努力が 報われてとても―・い」「―・いことに明日は晴れるらしい」⇔悲しい。 ２ 相手から受けた行…
$ ./daijirin.sh うれしい うれし・い(3) 【▼嬉しい】 ( http://tinyurl.com/39bwl22 ) (形) [文]シク うれ・し 1 （望ましい事態が実現して）心がうきうきとし て楽しい。心が晴れ晴れとして喜ばしい。 ⇔悲しい 2 満足して、相手に 感謝する気持ちになるさま。ありがたい。かたじけない。 〔派生〕 …