M Dash 27 – Blog by Hecko X

Smart.fm is probably the best online flash card software out there and is terrific for memorizing Japanese words and kanji.

I’ve been a member of the site since early December last year, when it was still called iKnow (which I still refer to it as) and only featured Japanese and English learning tools.

Today, it has grown into a massive learning database featuring dozens of languages as well as other school subjects, such as math, geography, history, etc.

Rather than me going on about how great iKnow is and trying to explain its many awesome features, I’ve added this video by Kouichi of tofugu.com (awesome and humorous website by the way, lots of stuff on Japanese language and culture).

In it, he shows many of the features using screen capture software (which I don’t have ;_;) and explains the awesomeness of iKnow. Note, however, that the video is quite old, so it doesn’t show the updated web-design or additional languages and such.

(2011 EDIT): As of 2011, iKnow has gone corporate, removing many of its features (such as shared wordlists), as well as all courses other than Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and English, and installing a pay-to-use system; it’s relatively cheap though.

It’s still one of the better options out there, and with its mobile app, you can learn on the go, however, I spent like 7-8 months deliberating whether or not it was worth the cost, and even now, I’m not entirely sure…