Kanpeki Study is an online Japanese kanji and vocabulary study platform. It’s designed to combine the best elements of various approaches to learning Japanese, whilst avoiding many of the shortcomings - in a sentence, it’s designed to be as close to the “perfect” kanji learning resource as possible, which is what inspired its name.
Learning kanji is a challenge and for many it’s the most difficult part about learning Japanese. There are a lot of approaches out there but few if any manage to achieve being efficient, flexible and enjoyable at the same time.
Textbooks for example are fixed in nature and, while they can be comprehensive, they’re not efficient to search or review. Flashcards (especially using spaced repetition) are efficient to review, but require making thousands of cards yourself or trusting a usually unmaintained deck. Both of these approaches can feel like a grind and aren’t optimised for habit formation.
Some online methods combine the benefits of spaced repetition flashcards with gamification and community elements to make the process more enjoyable, but tend to lack flexibility or features required for reaching an advanced level.
For example, available methods might be:
Depending on the learner’s requirements the applicability of these things will vary, but there was space to build a system that combines as much as possible the strengths of each approach whilst minimising the weaknesses.
Kanpeki Study offers kanji reading, kanji writing and vocabulary lessons. After completing a lesson the item will be scheduled for periodic review to keep you from forgetting it.
In each review there will be a prompt, such as a kanji, with the task to recall the answer to the prompt, such as the kanji’s meaning and reading.
After trying to recall the item, press ‘Show answer’ (or the enter key) and the answer will be shown for you to check. You can then grade yourself on how well you were able to remember the item, and based on this the item will be shown to you again more or less frequently.
Spaced repetition is a technique for learning material as efficiently as possible. It’s ideal for learning vocabulary or subjects where a large volume of content can be simplified into question-and-answer style recall.
From Wikipedia,
Spaced repetition is an evidence-based learning technique that is usually performed with flashcards. Newly introduced and more difficult flashcards are shown more frequently, while older and less difficult flashcards are shown less frequently in order to exploit the psychological spacing effect. The use of spaced repetition has been proven to increase rate of learning.
Kanpeki Study uses spaced repetition to adjust the spacing between reviews based on how difficult you’ve historically found each item. If you press ‘Hard’ the spacing is decreased; if you press ‘Easy’ it’s increased. If you press ‘OK’ the spacing stays the same.
When you get an item wrong and select ‘Again’, the spacing will be decreased and the item will be scheduled for immediate review.
Because each item is dynamically adjusted based on how easy or difficult you find it, your studying is being continually optimised to be as efficient as possible. Rather than studying the same material every day, it’s much more efficient to study items just at the point where they become challenging because this optimally strengthens the neural pathways used to recall the item.
Kanpeki Study uses a similar algorithm to the one found in the spaced repetition software Anki.
Kanji reading lessons are designed to introduce kanji and develop basic recognition ability. That is, if you see a kanji in the wild then instead of it looking like a blur, you will be much more likely to recognise it and understand its approximate meaning and a reading for it.
Learning is heavily context-dependent, so at first you may find it difficult to recognise kanji in the wild even after you’ve studied them, but they will become familiar to you. After a few encounters your knowledge will transition from being context-dependent (i.e., only able to recognise kanji while studying) to context-independent (ability to recognise them anywhere).
Kanji are complex shapes, which makes remembering them as a unit very difficult. Additionally, the only unique thing about them is their shape, since meanings and readings can be shared across multiple other kanji. This means that there’s very little to effectively latch on to when trying to remember them.
For this reason, Kanpeki Study associates each kanji with a unique keyword (similar to the approach used in James Heisig’s book Remembering the Kanji). Each kanji is either a new basic shape or a combination of previously studied kanji.
With this approach keywords can be linked together in a mnemonic to remember new kanji. Because keywords are all unique, confusion of mnemonics and which kanji is which is minimised as much as possible.
When seeing a kanji, recognition of the components and recalling of their respective keywords will act as a trigger for the mnemonic linking to the kanji’s meaning. Over time the association between the kanji and its meaning will become more and more automatic.
Kanpeki Study doesn’t provide these mnemonics upfront - this is because doing so encourages learners to rely on those mnemonics, instead of creating their own. The most memorable mnemonics will always be ones created by the individual, and Kanpeki Study’s entire mission is to provide the most effective approach possible. Learning Japanese will take effort, but applying effort in the places where it counts is the key to studying effectively.
Mnemonics and notes about items can be entered directly on their page or when studying them in lesson or review.
Kanpeki Study will also teach the most common onyomi reading for each kanji, or a kunyomi one if no onyomi exist. When studying kanji readings, the goal is only to recall the keyword meaning, but onyomi readings are presented simply in order to encourage familiarity with the onyomi readings of kanji.
Developing a familiarity with onyomi readings is beneficial because:
Having a grasp on what readings are onyomi vs kunyomi is also a useful skill for guessing the readings of unknown words. For this reason onyomi readings in Kanpeki Study are written in katakana, with kunyomi using hiragana, to visually signal what type of reading it is (note that for vocabulary hiragana is always used).
However, as said above, the goal during kanji reading reviews is first and foremost to recall the keyword meaning. When studying flashcards, trying to recall more than one piece of information can reduce the flashcard’s effectiveness.
Kanji typically have several readings and their usage is heavily context-dependent, so kanji readings can only properly be learnt in context. For this reason, the “real” kanji reading practice is actually when studying vocabulary. However, before studying a given word, it’s beneficial to first be able to recognise the kanji in that word, in the same way that learning to read English first requires learning the alphabet.
Kanji are taught in the order used by Japanese schools and JLPT tests, but with the exception that if a kanji includes the shape of another kanji, the contained kanji will be taught first.
For example, 正 (correct) is an elementary school grade 1 kanji, so it’s taught early on. However, 止 (stop) is a grade 2 kanji. Instead of learning 正 outright, first 一 (one) and 止 (stop) are taught, then 正 is taught as 一 (one) + 止 (stop) = 正 (correct). This approach is very helpful for learning more complex characters.
Because kanji sometimes contain advanced or rare kanji as components, these will also be taught to ensure that each new kanji introduced requires as small of a leap of memory as possible. This extends to teaching common non-kanji shapes such as 龰 (foot sole), which may have no meanings of their own but for which a keyword is given relating to how it’s used.
Where possible, kanji keywords are based on the real meanings of each kanji character. Kanpeki Study aims to provide a system that’s fully compatible with studying to a very advanced level, so real meanings are always used where possible. In cases where the meaning is very uncommon and also vague or abstract, a substitute keyword may be used, but the real meaning will always be taught alongside it.
Kanpeki Study lists each kanji’s official kanji radical for reference purposes, but does not rely on it for teaching. This is because official radicals aren’t meant for constructing kanji but for categorising them and looking them up in dictionaries.
When Kanpeki Study provides information about radicals, it’s always in reference to official kanji radicals. This may be helpful for anyone interested in learning about official radicals or those interested in taking the Kanji Kentei test.
Writing kanji is more difficult than recognition. It’s not required for consuming Japanese content, and some study systems decide not to teach writing entirely.
However, learning to write kanji offers several benefits:
Not everyone will want to study writing right away, but a lot of people, even if they don’t want to study it right now, may want to leave the option open to themselves in the future. In that case, a system that is designed from the beginning with teaching writing in mind is useful.
Some study systems that only teach reading may treat the left parts of 神 (god) and 初 (first) the same out of convenience, however they are different. The 礻 in 神 (god) comes from 示 (show) and is often used in religious characters. The 衤 in 初 (first) on the other hand comes from 衣 (robe).
Because they have different strokes, learning them as the same makes it harder later on to remember which is which when writing. Should you add the extra stroke, or not? Beyond teaching kanji components with their real meanings, Kanpeki Study is designed from the beginning with writing in mind, so re-learning will not be necessary at a later point.
When learning to read a kanji, the kanji is shown and the job is to recall its meaning from its components with the aid of a mnemonic. When learning to write, the same mnemonics can be used in reverse.
Kanpeki Study teaches mnemonics using components in the order that they appear in the kanji, so as to minimise confusion later when trying to remember the order to write them. By using the same mnemonics, learning to write is made as convenient as possible.
Kanji on their own aren’t particularly useful. Really they’re a vehicle for building words. Japanese non-natives can struggle to learn vocabulary because in order to learn them you need kanji, and in order to learn kanji it feels like you need vocabulary.
Kanpeki Study approaches this chicken-and-egg-like problem by leveraging knowledge of English for introducing kanji, then teaching vocabulary based on the kanji learnt.
By default, new vocabulary lessons are automatically unlocked by completing kanji reading lessons. Vocabulary lessons naturally build off of kanji already studied, introducing different readings in the context of different words.
This is arguably the most convenient way to learn vocabulary, but there is no single perfect method. The downside of this approach is that it introduces the potential for interference between new vocabulary and still-recently learnt kanji. It’s also not the most efficient method if your goal is purely vocabulary acquisition.
Different users have different goals, so for these reasons Kanpeki Study is built to be flexible. If you’d prefer to study a set number of vocabulary per day (or none at all), you can set this in your settings.
It’s often said that Japanese is a “flat” language because it doesn’t place stress on syllables the same way that English does or use tones like Chinese does. However it’s not flat, it’s a pitch-accent language, meaning that correct pitch is required to properly pronounce words.
Studying pitch is not necessary for consuming Japanese media but it’s necessary for being able to speak the language naturally. For anyone who wishes to learn correct pronunciation, Kanpeki Study includes pitch-accent information for each vocabulary to use as reference.
Kanpeki Study provides a number of charts on your dashboard showing your reviews forecast, study history and growth. You can use this data not only to marvel at your increasing abilities, but also to understand your sticking points.
For example, if you’re only a few kanji away from mastering all elementary school kanji, you can see it. If you’re answering “Again” on 35% of kanji reading cards in the last month, you can see it.
Having insight into your studying can help you make informed decisions about how well your studying is going, set realistic goals or help you to study more effectively.
We recognise that learners each have their own requirements, goals and approaches to learning so Kanpeki Study doesn’t try to provide a one-size-fits-all approach to learning Japanese.
No customisation beyond setting how many lessons to study per day is required, however a number of settings are provided for anyone wishing to customise their study process further.
Settings include:
As you become more familiar with Kanpeki Study and your goals and ability changes over time, feel free to adjust your settings to keep getting the most out of your studies.
Learning Japanese can be a long arduous grind or it can be an enjoyable journey. Studying from textbooks or plain flash cards can be difficult to stay motivated with, but gamification techniques can be used to make studying more appealing. The most sure-fire way to learn Japanese is to have to, but the second-most is for it to be fun.
One of the reasons traditional study methods aren’t always fun is because your progress is not very visible. If you spend time studying, there’s usually no indication that you’ve gotten any better, even though you have. Seeing one’s own progress is a naturally satisfying thing, so Kanpeki Study takes care to visually display it.
When you complete lessons and reviews you gain experience points, and by collecting experience points you can level up. Watching your experience bar and level grow provides simple acknowledgement of the work you’ve put in, as well as incentive to study more.
By studying more than one day in a row you can create a streak. Streaks provide exp bonuses - the longer the streak, the bigger your exp bonus, up to a maximum of 2.5x.
Streaks are an implementation of the “don’t break the chain” method of habit formation. By having a visual indicator of doing something consistently several times in a row, a chain is formed and the idea of breaking the chain becomes psychologically more difficult to do.
By studying every day, even just a little bit, it helps create a strong, consistent habit.
The number of kanji and vocabulary that currently have a review interval of 21 days or more are shown as widgets on your dashboard. These give an indication of how many kanji you can read and write, and how many vocabulary you know. Watching these numbers rise over time is concrete evidence of your Japanese abilities increasing.
There are many achievements available to unlock from studying. The more diligently you study, the more achievements you’ll be able to unlock. Bronze achievements are awarded for small challenges, up to Platinum for achieving something truly remarkable.
Keep studying and share what achievements you were able to unlock in the community. By combining forces will it be possible to unlock them all?
Kanpeki Study is designed to work on desktops, tablets and mobile to make studying as accessible as possible.
Throughout the day there can be many moments of unproductivity - waiting in line, riding the train, eating lunch. Harnessing that time can make a huge difference to the amount of study time you can achieve per day, so being able to study on the go can be a great help.
All study progress is stored on our central servers, meaning that no syncing is necessary when switching between devices - Kanpeki Study is available right where you left off from any device at any time.
If you have any ideas for how we can improve Kanpeki Study to make it even better, please let us know. Kanpeki Study is always growing and we always want to know your thoughts on what can be improved.
