Japanese Study Tips

Some tips to help you study Japanese

I've recently started learning Japanese and looked for ways to improve my learning. In the process, I've discovered a new way to learn Japanese that combines a cool transcription app called MacWhisper, a simple web app that comes with an audio player, a local MongoDB instance (managed on MongoDB Compass), and a Google Translate Chrome extension. I hope they can help you too!

japanese-study-tips
  1. Download an audio file from a Japanese learning website of your choice (in my case, podcasts by Nihongo con Teppei) and upload it to MacWhisper.
macwhisper

  1. Transcribe the audio file. Duration depends on the length of the audio file. For instance, a 5-minute audio file would take less than a minute.

  2. Export the transcription as "Segments" to a CSV file and import it to a local MongoDB instance.

  3. Open a Mongosh shell, and execute the following commands to rename the header row.

> use <DATABASE_NAME>;
> db.<DATABASE_NAME>.updateMany({}, {$rename: {"Transcript": "text", "Start Timestamp": "start", "End Timestamp": "end"}});
  1. Export the query result to a JSON file, excluding the _id field. It can be done by adding the following query to the projection field.
{ _id: 0 }

  1. Move the exported JSON file, along with the original audio file, to a web app directory under /public/data directory.

  2. Run the web app and open the browser. You can now listen to the audio file and read the transcription, line by line, at the same time.

  3. Enable google translate extension and translate the text to your preferred language.

google-translate

  1. Copy and paste the original and translated text that you want to learn more.

  2. List down the words and create a flashcard using Anki or any flashcard app of your choice. Also, share the words with your friends who are also learning Japanese 🙇🙇🏻‍♀️🏻

So below is a list of words that I've learned from the podcast:

share-on-slack