Pitch-Accent Anki Decks
Added 2021-10-18 07:25:47 +0000 UTC(August 2022: I have updated this post to include new decks contributed by a third patron. Read on for more!)
Hello, Patrons!
Three different patrons have now contributed their time and effort to building Anki decks that other patrons could use to support their Japanese studies. To make it easier for everyone to find and use these, I decided to put them together in this post, along with some helpful instructions.
If you want to express your support for their efforts, I've included their PayPal / Cash App / Venmo info at the bottom of this post.
Before I get to the decks, however, I want to briefly touch on what Anki is for anyone who has not heard of it yet. I think the best way will be to borrow two points from the instructions by patron Neeson:
If you're not familiar with Anki, basically it works on flashcards and showing them to you at an appropriate time to efficiently build your memory. You can even record/playback your voice whilst reviewing! More info about what Anki is here.
Anki is free and is available for most platforms. The iOS app is paid, but you can still use the web app if you choose not to purchase it.
The first deck is by patron Céu, who put together a deck with Japanese pitch accent minimal pairs so that learners can test their listening abilities using words that have similar pronunciations. You can download his deck here: 1-Pitch Accent Minimal Pairs 3-28-21 update.apkg (last updated March 2021).
The second deck is by patron Neeson, who assembled an Anki deck that uses the native recordings and images from a large number of Japanese Phonetics lessons. You can get his deck here: 2-DogenPhonetics-202109.apkg (last updated August 2021). Neeson also included a page of instructions that covers both Anki and his deck, here: 2-Anki Readme.pdf
The next two decks were put together by patron Gambel. His decks cover the pitch accent conjugations and rules covered in the pitch accent course, using high-quality native recordings from the lessons. For simplicity his first deck (3-Dogen pitch conjugations and rules.apkg) uses the newer conjugations for i adjectives, while the traditional conjugations for i adjectives are available separately in his second deck (3-Dogen traditional downstep I-adjective conjugations.apkg). He also included an explanation of and instructions for his decks: 3-Gambel's Pitch Conjugations Deck Instructions.pdf.
If you are not familiar with Anki, Nesson's instructions are a good place to start. He included links to several websites with downloads and helpful information about Anki. Note that in his instructions he is talking about his deck specifically, but the process should be similar if you are installing any of the decks.
If you want to express your appreciation to Céu, Neeson, or Gambel, you can comment below, or you can donate to them directly to show your support!
Neeson: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/neesonc
Céu: (Cash App) $ceualonzo
Gambel: https://account.venmo.com/u/Gambel
You can find the decks and their instructions / information linked at the bottom of this post
Post in the comments below if you have any problems, questions, or comments about these decks. A special thank you to Céu, Neeson, and Gambel for their work, and as always thanks to everyone for your support!
Dōgen
Comments
Hi, Heidi. JP here. Forvo ( https://forvo.com/languages/ja/ ) could be what you're looking for. The quality can vary by speaker, but this can be a good resource for recordings. Unfortunately (as far as I can see) it does not provide pitch information, so you may need to look that up in a dictionary. Forvo is also where Dōgen found Kimi Sensei, who provides the majority of the recordings in the series. Hope this helps!
Dogen
2025-03-31 23:41:29 +0000 UTCHey, I'm new to the Patreon so I know I'm commenting on this years later, but I'd really like to add native audio to my own decks while also using these. I copied the ones from the decks here that were relevant for me rn, but I was wondering if there's somewhere I could download more native audio recordings. It doesn't have to be this exact same voice; anything would be good.
Heidi McClard
2025-03-31 22:33:01 +0000 UTCThis is awesome. Thank you!
Jon
2023-10-06 06:04:58 +0000 UTCHi, Sashin. JP here, Dōgen's business partner. I'm helping manage the messages here on Patreon. Thank you for your comment. Some people feel they benefit from the repetition, but others don't get as much out of it. In the end, find what works for you and run with that. Best of luck with your studies!
Dogen
2023-09-11 09:48:34 +0000 UTCThe first anki deck by Cue was great, but with the second I really feel like I'm just memorising what the answers were and I can't actually hear them.
Sashin Exists
2023-08-08 19:45:46 +0000 UTCHi Hiro, this is Gambel here, the creator of the deck. Dogen talks about this issue in detail in episode 12. Essentially, for downstep i-adjectives, there are two acceptable pronunciations, with the "traditional" conjugation being one of them. The original deck only includes the newer pronunciation to make memorizing the conjugations easier. However, for those who would like to also memorize the traditional conjugations for whatever reason can download the second add-on deck if they wish. However, this is totally optional, especially considering that the traditional pronunciations are not very hard to master, even without using the SRS. (the only caveat is that 3 mora downstep i-adjectives almost always use the traditional conjugations, however the original deck includes this exception.)
Gambel
2022-08-14 22:07:26 +0000 UTCI was just wondering. What would be the point in learning the traditional conjugation pattern? Or is it simply just to have that extra bit of knowledge? Just a little confused there
Hiro
2022-08-14 15:25:45 +0000 UTCHi, Andrew. JP here, Dōgen's business partner. I'm helping manage the messages here on Patreon. I reached out to Neeson to ask how he uses the deck, and here's his reply (below). I hope this helps! ===== I use it to test firstly whether I can hear the pitch accent in the audio recording, and secondly whether I think I can repeat it out loud accurately. Occasionally I will record and listen back to my attempts at pronunciation (and compare it to the native speaker) to see if I was close. Anki has this functionality built in. In terms of grading, keeping it simple so you can get through many cards quickly is my suggestion. If I feel like I'm happy with how it sounds I'll grade it Good. I'll hit Again if I feel like it still needs some work. I don't touch the other two buttons. Also don't judge yourself too harshly as you'll likely just get frustrated doing too many reviews. You'll likely improve on those cards by reviewing other cards anyway.
Dogen
2022-03-04 02:12:27 +0000 UTCHey Dogen/all! May I ask, how do you make use of Neeson's deck to test yourself? Or I guess, maybe you don't use it to test yourself? It's entirely different from how I've used Anki up to this point, so especially in terms of how I would answer (hard/good/easy, etc.) I'm not sure what I'd click, because without anything to test, there's no right or wrong? Or perhaps the idea is just to identify the word (and that could be tricky if there's another word with the same morae but different pitch-accent?) from the pitch accent?
Andrew Ryan
2022-02-19 18:08:38 +0000 UTCDōgen, I really appreciate you being open with your content to support supplemental material like this. I felt like I needed some kind of repeated drills to really train hearing the differences between the pitch accent patterns and the Anki deck has really helped things start to click for me.
Jeffrey
2021-12-04 15:52:31 +0000 UTCHey Dogen, This is great! I had no idea this even existed... Thank you so much for posting and sharing this with us!
Andy
2021-10-18 08:09:14 +0000 UTC
