The Open University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
The trends in Japanese culture are of interest to people in Hong Kong. However, not many peoples in Hong Kong know how to speak Japanese. Learning Japanese is time-consuming and costly. Even though there are some existing applications in the market, they recursively practise the same content with no actual interaction. Also, some applications provide voice recognition function, but there is a problem with their overall accuracy. This paper introduces an online application for beginners to learn Japanese in an interactive and cost-effective way. The application contains grammar teaching and checking, and there is a voice recognition system to clarify and correct the pronunciation of Japanese sentences.
In trying to build an application that is compatible with most browsers, HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap with JavaScript were applied to perform the operations for all the functions. Also, a proofreading API was used to perform proof-reading in grammar and suggestions for corrections, if needed. A voice recognition API was applied to verify the correctness of the pronunciation of sentences.
The online application contains several pages for beginners to learn Japanese. In the theory page, there is a list showing the “Hiragana” and “Katakana”, which are the Japanese syllables. Also, there is a page on the basic grammar and tenses of Japanese verbs, which allows the learners to study the basic knowledge of Japanese. A page is used for practising sentences, which gives learners a chance to try to build up sentences, and then the system determine errors and suggests solutions for them. The reading practice page provides a recording function to let learners record their voices and a voice recognition system compares the learners’ responses with the correct pronunciation.
Japanese culture is attractive to Hong Kong people. However, language should not be a barrier to letting people learn more about the culture. This online application provides more fun and is an interactive way to learn Japanese. Instant feedback in learning the Japanese language can allow learners to get a deep image and enhance their language skills.