Rikaichan is an amazingly efficient tool for looking up Japanese words simply by placing the mouse over them on any given website in Firefox. (Or Rikaikun for Chrome) That’s why I don’t use it anymore.
The problem with Rikaichan is that it’s a quick fix – Too quick, in fact. By its very nature, it discourages you from focusing on words that you don’t understand. Sometimes you don’t want the learning process to be that easy.
It’s been about ten months since I’ve last used Rikaichan. I had been in love with it for such a long time that enabling it was a subconscious action whenever I’d land on what looked to be a wall of Japanese text on a website. If I came across a word I didn’t know, I’d mouse over it and get a definition, just like that. After a while, though, I began to notice that I wasn’t really learning the words that I was checking with Rikaichan. My eyes would dart to the English translation and then I’d move on in the text.
Meanwhile, going through regular books where Rikaichan wasn’t available, I noticed that the words I was looking up in my readings were sticking better after first sight. The main difference between reading a website and reading a book was the availability of Rikaichan. While the tool may be good for immediate results, it’s a crutch that supports you but doesn’t necessarily make you stronger. Of course, with enough self-discipline you can slow yourself down and focus, but the temptation to just blow through the content is strong.
I thought I’d go through Rikaichan withdrawals when I first gave it up, but I was amazed at how much I didn’t actually need it. Instead, I would spend more time looking at the words, allowing for processing time. Sometimes I would realize that I actually did know the word, and I wouldn’t need a dictionary at all. Other times, I would eventually copy the term and move over to a monolingual dictionary, or a bilingual dictionary that also had example sentences, so I would get more exposure.
In my university classes, I tell my students that simply making bilingual lists of words isn’t going to push them towards language mastery. Instead, I teach them how to exploit other tools, like dictionaries and corpora, so it would be hypocritical of me to not follow my own advice. Rikaichan is like a dynamic list of translated words. I hope you get the chance to try and ween yourself off of it and embrace your true potential as well.
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I absolutely hate repetition, so when it occurs, I’m really annoyed by it… That includes looking up words. I noticed that with Rikaichan, I -always- had to look up a word over and over and there was never a time it just clicked and I had it.
So I gave it up within a couple weeks of installing it.
Now that I’ve had a lot more time with the language, I think I can use it, but not leave it enabled… Only enable it when I need to look up a work. I’m going to try that soon… But I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe it’s for the better if I never do… I dunno.
It’s important to give yourself that processing time. That’s where the real learning occurs and each time you do it for a compound that’s hard to make stick, you learn new ways make those connections.
Yup, I have the exact same fears about it. It’s a really handy tool for those times when getting work done ir more important than studying the words, but for the most part, it’s best left turned off. I talked about it in my post on the top 5 dictionaries here:
http://gakuranman.com/top-5-free-online-japanese-english-dictionaries/
I’m going to have to take the other side. I am a user of rikaichan for 3+ years now. Yes, in the last 3 years, I probably could have learned more kanji without it, but at the same time, I think in the end, rikaichan has helped me become a reader of Japanese. Back in the day, I’d power through things with my dictionary, but the only difference was that it took too long. With Rikaichan, I’m able to actually read something in decent time.
Hell, I find myself wanting rikaichan for English sometimes, that’s just how useful that popup dictionary is. Maybe a version of only Japanese definitions would be more effective, but the fact that I can now overcome the hurdle of a block of text has really given me more experience. Previously, I would just give up, which was worse, because I wasn’t getting experience at all.
So, I would say, especially for those who are generally too busy to study, rikaichan is really an angel come down to help you over the blocks. A key to the Japanese web. It’s really not going to translate something for you, and you will still be getting experience reading Japanese. It may hurt vocab a little, but I like to use the copy function to throw into Anki for when I have time to actually study.
Anyway, I think it depends on who you are. If you are trying to learn a lot in a short amount of time and can really invest the time, get rid of it. But, if you are in for the long haul of loving Japanese while you also have a busy life, rikaichan will be there for you and she will help you. You will probably not stop using her because you will be reading, which leads to more reading, and even more difficult reading. I say throw away your electronic dictionary, or at least save yourself hundreds of dollars.
In short, I love rikaichan.
But 古川先生, 品川先生, 菅原先生, Saltzman-Li先生 and everyone else in the EALCS department would be so sad to learn that, after all of our classroom time, you’re still flirting with Rikaichan to process Japanese! Think of the teachers, Jeshii! Break up with Rikaichan for them!
I humbly disagree with this blog, too. Perhaps I have more willpower not to mouse over words without first tryiing to figure them out. For me, I just read along and when I can’t figure out what a word means (or much more often how to read it), I quickly get what I want and continue reading.
In my opinion, being able to read more text means that you actually learn more.
I’m glad that it works for you because that’s the most important part!
However, I think you actually get more controlled (and focused) exposure by moving over to a more “traditional” dictionary for 30 seconds, and then jumping back into the reading. The ultimate goal is to remember the vocabulary word the first time around so that you’ll never have to look it up again, after all.
Intentionally, I didn’t include an example in the blog post, but I think it’s best to provide one here in the comments to “show instead of tell”.
Imagine the following scenario:
You come across a headline that reads 「最先端技術にも活用される伝統文化「折り紙」の世界」(article). You don’t know what 最先端 means, so you fire-up Rikaichan, put your cursor over the word, and get “(n,adj-no) leading edge; forefront; ultra-fine; (P)” The end (not very descriptive). As you go through the article, you realize that the word doesn’t come up at any other time. Actually, you’ve probably already forgotten that you encountered it if you only spent a perfunctory 3 seconds looking at it.
Now imagine you spend a few more seconds on the word by moving over to a system like Weblio.jp. Looking up 最先端 you get:
the forefront
Ex. 科学技術の最先端をいくアポロ宇宙船の搭乗員に選ばれた。He was chosen as a crew member for the Apollo spacecraft, which was in the forefront of science and technology.
最先端 may not be the best example because it has a limited scope, but other Kanji compounds that have an array of 四字熟語 constructions would also be listed on Weblio.jp, which gives you more information to process all while focusing on 最先端, which only costs you 30 to 60 seconds of your life for a word that you probably won’t forget after the process. At the very least, you’ve associated 最先端 with アポロ宇宙船 to give you an image to associate with the abstract concept.
P.S., for anyone reading this who didn’t already know the word 最先端, I hope you never forget it from now on!
Rikai-chan did indeed become a mindless-crutch for a while, but since passing 1kyu I have found it a useful tool again, because I basically do know about every word I see now but sometimes I need Rikai-chan to power through memory blocks. Also, the name-dictionary is invaluable.
Every tool has its place. It’s quick and convenient when you’re at the right level, but it can hinder progress when you’re not ready for it yet.
I agree that the name-dictionary is very useful, except when there are multiple possibilities! There’s no alternative, though.
Thanks for the response, Claytonian.