speak by your own mouth

Communication on your trip

When you go abroad for your holiday trip, do you tend to learn foreign language a little bit with some easy language book?

For that purpose, I launched the iPhone Travel Language Study APP Catch Questions. But, for future, does the necessity still continues? Will this kind of APP be still as hot as today?

To tell the truth, the things are very convenient these days. With iPhone Siri for example, your English can easily translated into Japanese. What you have to do is just to speak to the iPhone device and wait the translated voice from it. It would not be exaggerated that there could be no need to remember foreign language.

However, think about this situation carefully. For what purpose, do you go abroad for your trip? You could say this is for sight seeing, enjoying exotic dinner or gorgeous shopping. That is why I want to tell you one thing! Your foreign trip would definitely be more memorable with your own words you learned, not the words spoken by the robot in your device.

I believe the human curiosity to speak by your own mouth would be eternity. 

Which news is famous in Japan?

When you start to learn foreign language, the local news can be a convenience tool for your study. There are a lot of news services in Japan so let me introduce the famous one.

The most famous one would be “NHK” which is like a government news. They are not private news so it is said to be fair news. If you buy a TV in Japan, you automatically have to have the obligation to pay for NHK. So, someone from NHK will visit your house and collect the fee. Instead of this paying system, NHK don’t adopt any TV commercial. That is why it is said to be fair.

When it comes to newspaper, I would say Asahi, Yomiuri and Nikkey could be one of the most famous journal. These three journal have their individual feature and concept for their contents. At first, Asahi deals with daily common event and its point of view is always general. In this aspect, it’s like NHK. They are recommended to be read by students for educational purpose. Second, Yomiuri more focus on Sports event than any other newspaper. Yumiuri is also famous for baseball team as well as soccer. It also arranges famous new year marathon called “Ekiden” every year. Third, Nikkey is economic news. It was said to be necessary information for stock market trader. You can see Japanese market trend with it. Compared with previous president, it seems Nikkey supports the market plan of Abe president because he more focus on economic condition.

For iPhone APP or web news, I would recommend Yahoo news in Japan, which would be more famous than Google news. One of the reasons why it became so famous in Japan is that most of PC sold in Japan typically showed Yahoo Japan web site at the first access to the internet with explorer. Yahoo mail and Yahoo auction is also popular in Japan. So, I think Yahoo service may be more widely known than Google service.


News Memo Note Recorder with iPhone APP: Catch Questions!

Preposition or Postposition?

Today, I would like to introduce the unique positioning of Japanese word.

Compared with English, Japanese does not have any preposition. On the other hand, there are things like postposition that I would tell. They are called “Joshi”.

However, their functions are absolutely different from prepositions in English. They are added to the end of some particular Japanese words and sometimes show their special functions.

In English, the sequence of sentence is so important that we can determine if the sentence is question or not with the position of verb for example. In Japanese, you only add the word of “か” at the end of sentence to show question. And, this kind of word can also express humanity of the user’s identity or relation ship with the person to talk with.

As for this word of “か”, there are several alternative words like “ですか” (polite), “かい” (friendly), “け” (countryside) or “ござるか” (old style). On the other hand, you don’t have to change the word if it is used by third person singular.

Japanese word focus on the feeling of person to talk to rather than the objective information such as the difference between single or multiple.

So, please be careful about the last word of Japanese if you talk to someone in Japanese.

Speaking Training APP: Catch Questions

Different letter in languages

What is the difference between English and Japanese?

This may be the issue between Asian and American (or European) languages but I would say the difference could come from the origin of letters used by the languages.

From several kinds of Japanese letters, “Kanji” is very unique in its shape. It represents the image of subject and some of the parts called “Bush” also play a role of telling the meaning visually. So, when we see “Kanji”, it feels like seeing a painting.

On the other hand, I would say alphabet is very useful for understanding some scientific information. The objectivity of reading alphabet lead us to reach the general and natural conclusion.

I don’t want to say which one is better because it depends on the situation. However, why I mention this is that to learn the other language enables us to review our first language and understand the precious concept about why the language exists.

Anyway, from that reason, I would like to introduce the feature of language. When I learned English at first, I was so surprised it only has 26 letters from “A” to “X”. How about Japanese letters? When it comes to the “Kanji” letters, even Japanese like me don’t know how many letters actually exist. It is common sense that we always find some Japanese letter we don’t know how to write, pronounce or read even in daily newspaper.

In case of English, you may also find some difficult word while reading something but it is impossible to find difficult letter if you are adult. If you find it, I think you had better learn alphabet before reading.

But, for Japanese, it is acceptable to start reading before we learn all of “Kanji” letters. Then, why can we read newspaper?

The reason of this is the shape of letter give us some hint to understand the meaning. For example, “鰯”(sardine), “鰹”(bonito) and “鮪”(tuna) has the “Bush“ of “魚”(fish) in its shape. Most of us including me cannot write them correctly but can easily assume it is the species of fish.

So, if you are beginner of learning Japanese, please don’t worry about the variety of “Kanji”. Only the key letter like “魚” would work well for understanding the meaning.


Kanji or difficult language study with Catch Questions

Famous Japanese Dictionary

Hello, this is Shin who produced iPhone Speaking APP named Catch Questions. 

As a developer of Catch Questions, I would like to introduce my favorite APPs which were very useful in my life. 

For the first introduction, I would like to show you the most famous Japanese dictionally which is actually and generally used by Japanese.  

The dictionally is named “Daijirin”or “大辞林” in Japanese. One of the features about this dictionally is big, heavy and thick. As the volume of information looks too much, It actually covers the usage of not only old traditional words but also brand new dialect words such as radical one which is recently used by Japanese girl in high school. 

It occupies our book shelf of ordinary family but has few chance to be read because it was difficult to lift up and hard to find the word we want from the massive information. Then, why did I buy it? It may sounds strange to the people in the other country. Why we bought it was that everybody bought it.  It’s like a tradition to have it like a bible. It relieves us with its existence in our house. 

In addition, the necessity of the dictionally always comes while we are out or at office, not at our home.

So, at first, it was so surprising that iPhone can have the tough dictionally in the device without any weight and enabled us to bring it everywhere with iPhone. 

The other useful feature as iPhone APP was you can search words with handwriting or Kanji shape. As you may know, Kanji words consist of several common shape called “Bushu”. So, it was very useful tool to search the difficult kanji with its partial shape by handwriting.  

If you are now studying Japanese, I would definitely recommend you to have it! 

iPhone world dictionary with Catch Questions

IT development by using Catch Questions

I am still a novice in programing or IT knowledge. So, if you discover any error about Catch Questions, I hope you to let me know with your kind and generous heart. Anyway, even I think I have to tell IT is necessary for our world and the future. So, I hope Catch Questions could be helpful for programers.

I have studied Swift and PHP for while and the more I know about scripts for my program, the greater I see the wisdom of our ancestors are. It may be a simple operation expression if you see only one part. However, the potential could go beyond our imagination if you use it with others in a good combination. It may be the origin of creation and I appreciate I am on the stage which was arranged by our ancestor’s efforts.

Often, I encounter the script which works well and wisely but I cannot understand why or how it works. I am a little bit ashamed of saying this. But, for example from basic, why can the variables hold the value? The deeper of the basic I search, the more I come to realize I have to learn the world of zero and one. Whenever I do so, it reminds me it is impossible for only one person to see everything. That is why I think we have to borrow the great wisdom from our ancestors especially for IT works. If you forget it, you may lose your way in scripts-maze.

This may be my personal opinion but as the beginner of programer, I could tell it is the nearest way to consider your way from your goal. And, that is Catch Word, which could be the goal of your IT works. Once you catch it, don’t miss it with Catch Questions.

Now, let me show you how to use Catch Questions.

First, set your goal of the program you work on and add Questions of scripts to it. Pictures of those you discovered on textbook or internet should be took and you can chain them to your questions. On the other hand, I would not recommend you to type the full script you like even though Catch Questions can save letters as well. The key word of script which can be searched on internet later should be saved on Catch Questions. Catch Questions is intended to be used to help your memory on the brain. And, your brain prefere the key word to the full sentence. How the script works would be fine to be saved on Catch Questions with simple words.

Here is the example of how to save them.

Catch1. Display Data

-     Question1. UIAlertController

memo: useful to show various messages in several situations

-     Question2. ViewWillAppear

memo: works whenever called instead of ViewDidload

-     Question3. UItoolBar

memo: a lot of buttons can be displayed easily on line

-     Question4. NSUserDefault

memo: the variable can hold the value

Catch2. Record Function

-     Question1. UIPickerView

memo: can be used as File Manager

-     Question2. PathForDirectoriesInDomains

memo: record file is located on the path

-     Question3. AVAudioRecorder+Player

memo: necessary for record and play

Catch3. Picture Control

-     Question1. PickerController Camera

memo: catch pictures from Camera

-     Question2. PickerController PhotoLibrary

memo: catch pictures from Library

In this way, it is the time when you stock enough of your questions, that the function of voice record shows its potential role. As you know, the purpose of this homepage is your creation. So, I recommend you to speak something while watching your collection of scripts and to record your voice message. Once you write your idea down on paper immediately, it becomes difficult to shift your point of view to another. It is too logical on writing to come up with your novel idea especially at the beginning stage. That is why I hope you to review the possibility of voice message. I believe your voice message could catch your strange but unique idea like a dream.

I sometimes see a genius programmer on TV drama or movie who remember all the scripts on world and can type them without any mistake. But, is this kind of ability really necessary nowadays? I would borrow the open source and consider the convention of them to work efficiently. (Sure, I have to learn a basic security, though.) I think it is not cheating to borrow the wisdom of our ancestors only if you feed it back with your little idea. This knowledge communication could contribute to make the better world. And I wish I could give this back with Catch Questions.

I am proud of human ability of guessing  the catched questions.

Here is the link;

IT words study with Catch Questions

Take a look if you are researcher!

In this chapter, I would like to show the usage of Catch Questions for those who works as researcher. As for the term of research, I see it is categorized into various jobs such as food, medicine, car or house. On the other hand, the academic major of mathematics, biology or economics are all based on some researches so not only adults who actually works but also students would be so-called researcher if they are in duty of some study. Whatever they really are, I appreciate if I could support those who try to produce something new in the world.

Through my current job, I lucky have many chances to meet some researchers and see their hard work by my eyes and feel the importance in our lives. From laboratory researcher who do experiment with a flask, dedicated doctor who try to produce brand new equipment for medical device to professor who works hard with his students to discover the new theory, it may be difficult to just say it is the job of research. However, whatever the research is, I believe there are some necessary factors to continue research. So, what do you think they are? (This kind of questions could be the one of titles for Catch Questions.) There may be a lot of opinions but from my point of views, I would say Vision, Patience and Adventure spirit. From these factors, the vision is what Catch Questions may support.

Solid vision of yours would be the base of your research so the out of focus eventually could results in you lose your purpose and have to end your precious work without any evaluation from others. Such a important vision could be reviewed with the Catch Word of this App.

Yes, the Catch Word could be your vision as well as the goal title of your research. And after that, you add your continuous questions to it. Let me show you an example. In case of cat research, you can set natural instinct of cat as the Catch Word. Then, you can add Q1: Why are they playful with toy?, Q2: Are they really satisfied with it?, Q3: The younger, the more playful? Now, you can note your subject like this.

You may say a pen and notes may be enough to do only this. Why does it have to be iPhone? Your answer is correct if you do only this. That is why I hope you to review the capability of picture and record. iPhone can combine various media system into one by using App. Besides, for people nowadays, it is said that they bring rather smart phone to go out than a pen and notes. Next, let me show you the example of how to apply the functions to your study.

1.      Utility Picture

For research purpose, you have to read many papers at first. You can have them from some publisher or internet such as pub med. I also read a lot of papers in my life and realize most of what the author want to tell are often condensed into “fig” or “table”. This kind of charts contribute to review the paper in our mind. Visual image are in the end, easy to bring and keep your memory. The question of Catch Questions can keep the picture and you can review them repeatedly. If you feel some inspiration about the paper you read, please catch the picture like this. Not only papers but also your hand writing memo also becomes the picture of your collection. It is often said that your first idea could be the best for your research. Before you dispose of your idea’s memo, why don’t Catch Questions keep it as your creation?

2.      Utility Record

One of the attractive points about record function is it can save your live voice with your emotional expression. The live voice is difficult to be kept in your mind only by letters. Even if it is by handwriting, the thing is same. And the emotional motivation could be the element of your research. The other attractive point is it does not fix your free idea so much and you sometimes make mistake while saying something repeatedly. Are you afraid of the mistake?  No, you shouldn’t. I would rather say it is your creation. Brand new idea always comes with the difference between your knowledge and your output. Once you write down your original idea, it is difficult to make a different point of view so I would recommend you to keep your original answer at the beginning you start something with your voice recorder. In this way, your idea could expand freely and could be the origin of genius creation.

For your best research!

Here is the link;

Developper Record with Catch Questions