JapanEase — Japanese Language Learning — 日本語教育

[JDW]

日本語を大好きな人たちへ！

I just uploaded the full version of JapanEase to Macintosh Garden:

JapanEase Full Version Vol.1 & Vol.2 - Macintosh Garden

JapanEase is pretty amazing in terms of how comprehensive it is, especially when one considers this software was made in 1990. It teaches basic written and oral Japanese, with native speakers having recorded the Japanese audio tracks. Content is quite practical in terms of everyday Japanese. It...

macintoshgarden.org

I purchased this new in 1994, just prior to moving to Japan. I can't find the documentation or original disks. I simply extracted the stacks from a backup I had made of my Quadra 650 many years ago. The original disks must have had some Japanese fonts because there is a small splattering of Japanese that becomes garbled when using the stacks on an English system, but it mostly displays fine even without those fonts. (If any of you can find the font references in the HyperCard script, you could theoretically swap them out for fonts in the Japanese Language Kit.) The Japanese version of HyperCard seems to fix the Mojibake (garbled text) issues though. I put more details in on the Macintosh Garden page I created below.

日本語を楽しんで勉強してくださいね！

 

[Drake]

This is very interesting, especially given your personal history using it. I have tried modern language software but often find it lacking, nothing will ever beat practicing amongst the people!

*my apologies to all the German grocery store clerks I assaulted with butchered words*

 

[JDW]

This is very interesting, especially given your personal history using it. I have tried modern language software but often find it lacking, nothing will ever beat practicing amongst the people!

*my apologies to all the German grocery store clerks I assaulted with butchered words*

The ticket to learning anything is to HAVE FUN while learning. Since we are all geeks who get our thrills from vintage computers, it makes sense that using this vintage software should be fun, especially for HyperCard fans. As such, I think it really can offer some meaningful basic instruction in the Japanese language.

 

[Paolo B]

Excellent, thanks for sharing! I will surely give it a try!
Besides, right today I received a very interesting “Mackey” ADB mechanical keyboard, with a fancy, compact extended Japanese layout.
Keys (should be black Alps) are much better than those on the Apple Extended II I normally use with my SE/30.
However, I now need to have it properly mapped by the System (I have A/UX, 7.6 and 8.1 on my SE/30).
Is there any localization software I can use without installing the whole OS in Japanese?

 

[JDW]

Excellent, thanks for sharing! I will surely give it a try!
Besides, right today I received a very interesting “Mackey” ADB mechanical keyboard, with a fancy, compact extended Japanese layout.
Keys (should be black Alps) are much better than those on the Apple Extended II I normally use with my SE/30.
However, I now need to have it properly mapped by the System (I have A/UX, 7.6 and 8.1 on my SE/30).
Is there any localization software I can use without installing the whole OS in Japanese?

I assume you mean that you have this...

I have a version of that same keyboard but am not yet able to test it because I found all the keys have been desoldered, probably by the previous owner who was trying to clean it. So I am unsure if mine will work at all. If yours does work but just has problems with keys being wrong, they having the correct keyboard layout is important. Perhaps @Kay K.M.Mods could help.

 

[Paolo B]

Yes, it’s exactly that one. On mine, all keys are responsive, except F5, which seems to be dead or not mapped.

 

[JDW]

Yes, it’s exactly that one. On mine, all keys are responsive, except F5, which seems to be dead or not mapped.

If every key other than F5 works and are correctly mapped, then F5 must be dead or improperly soldered.

 

[Paolo B]

If every key other than F5 works and are correctly mapped, then F5 must be dead or improperly soldered.

Did some checks.
1 - after some strokes, F5 key is now fully… functional
2 - Switches are really high quality
3 - Sanwa is still selling this keyboard, for some serious money (15k yen, plus taxes)
4 - I still have to figure out what is needed for installing the Japanese extended layout profile
5 - The unit is very clean, but I would like to disassemble and thoroughly clean the plastic parts. Seems to be hard to open, though… Any hint or suggestion?