The Journey of Saigo's Japanese Learning Tool

I hope that future generations do not have to walk the same winding paths that those before them have. I also hope that juniors will not be like me: wasting a lot of time in confusion and growing in just a few moments.

2023-04-09#

I chose Japanese because I didn't want to study mathematics, and I wasted a lot of time during my four years in college taking many detours. If I had a systematic guide like CS Self-Learning Guide or Shanghai Jiao Tong University Survival Manual in my freshman year, my college experience would have been much more meaningful. Unfortunately, I didn't discover such projects until I graduated.

Fortunately, I had anticipated this outcome long ago, so I had been planning to create such a project. However, due to procrastination, it wasn't until my senior year that I officially put Saigo's Japanese Learning Tools on the agenda. Initially, I intended to create a survival manual for Japanese majors modeled after the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Survival Manual, but since I decided not to pursue a master's degree in China and do not plan to study purely in Japanese-related fields, I will focus on maintaining and updating it primarily for "self-learners of Japanese."

As graduation approached, looking back at the many so-called suggestions I made earlier, only this statement stands out: I personally believe that for this project to be maintained effectively and sustainably in the long run, it should encourage more students to participate voluntarily, rather than relying on a few individuals or turning it into a departmental task: Compared to the computer industry, which has been greatly influenced by the open-source movement, other industries are still in the "just want to work behind closed doors" phase, but "if you don't contribute, I won't contribute, who will contribute? If you take, and I take, who do we take from?"

I hope this project can help more people and encourage more people to participate in "active sharing."

2022-09-08#

Here are some suggestions I made to the relevant person in charge when the department was establishing a large group for undergraduates, which can be seen as the starting point for Saigo's Japanese Learning Tools.

Hi! XX, I'm sorry to bother you with some personal thoughts. I mainly want to make a few immature suggestions regarding the newly established undergraduate communication group yesterday afternoon:

I strongly agree with establishing a department-level large group so that everyone can connect with more classmates from the Japanese department;
However, I personally believe that QQ groups are not suitable for all needs, such as: they are not suitable for preserving valuable discussions (if accidentally deleted, it's gone), sharing some materials (strange review restrictions), inconvenient for categorization and organization, and inconvenient for classmates to participate (I believe that for this project to be maintained effectively and sustainably in the long run, it should encourage more students to participate voluntarily, rather than relying on a few individuals or turning it into a departmental task);
Therefore, I suggest organizing valuable content and materials discussed in the QQ group on other platforms.

Github#

First recommendation is GitHub, reasons: (Okay, I'm just sneaking in my own agenda 233)

Loose review, although it is in a semi-blocked state, most of the time access is still fine. If not, text can be directly synced to gitee (the only obvious difference in restrictions between this platform and GitHub is that the total project size cannot exceed 1G);
No total size limit for uploaded files, individual files over 100M will receive a warning, but there are other ways to solve this;
Other universities have similar projects: for example, Zhejiang University Course Strategy Sharing Plan, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Survival Manual, which can serve as references for the structure and design of these projects;
Participating in the project is very "simple," allowing for relatively standardized collaboration among multiple people—participating classmates only need 3 steps: Fork a branch - modify/upload files - submit PR; while managing classmates need to check the modified parts after submitting PR (GitHub will show what has been modified), and after confirming correctness, merge it, so other classmates can see it (rejected PRs will be kept in a dedicated place and will not disappear directly, meaning that regardless of whether they pass review, other classmates can see them, which maximizes project transparency);
The issue area can serve as a discussion area for discussing problems—unlike QQ messages, discussions in issues will be recorded and archived, so some things do not need to be answered repeatedly.

Disadvantages#

Downloading files requires a VPN; otherwise, the speed can sometimes be very slow: it is recommended to save the collected textbook PDFs in Baidu Cloud and Lanzou Cloud (the latter allows downloading files in the browser without logging in and has no speed limit, but can only upload single files not exceeding 100M and cannot share folders);
Most classmates are not familiar with this tool, so the desire to participate may be very low: well... it's actually not that difficult, right? If someone really wants to participate in this project, they should be able to learn it (I hope so 233);
You need to download it locally to search: you can use gitbook to provide online search services for free, but the setup and maintenance costs are relatively high and require certain technical skills (not complicated);
Managing classmates may feel a bit tired because GitHub uses git technology, and they may need to master git commands to ensure that the content submitted by participating classmates does not get lost or conflict, but mastering pull, push, merge, and diff commands should be enough: this work can be handed over to the technical department (sorry, I have not joined the technical department, so I'm not sure if the colleagues in the technical department are willing to take on such a burden), the project from Zhejiang University is maintained by the Zhejiang University Technical Society QSCTech.

Yuque#

Secondly, Yuque, reasons:

The multi-person collaboration mechanism is relatively complete (Yuque itself is an internal knowledge management tool of Alibaba), and after enabling the space function, different people can be given different permissions—if the division of labor is clear and the process is clear, the quality of the project will be somewhat guaranteed;
The free version allows uploading 10G of files, and downloads are unlimited. Considering the nature of the project, it should be possible to apply for a free public welfare plan;
Easy and clear to use, the "team" and "knowledge base" functions of Yuque are very suitable for this project—there will be many documents and files, and relying solely on folder classification may be quite messy. A specific introduction can be found in this article Which note-taking software is better? Me, Feishu, or Yuque? - Konggu's answer - Zhihu;
Comes with search and comment functions, and the webpage loading speed is also very fast.

Disadvantages#

The review mechanism is quite strange; considering the special nature of Japanese major materials, accounts may be banned 233, but one of my articles link linked many sensitive foreign websites, and nothing happened after more than a year;
Even if you apply for the public welfare plan, there may be a limit on the number of participants: however, the minimum upper limit is 50 people, which should be enough 233.

Flowus#

Then I recommend Flowus, reasons:
1. It supports multi-person collaboration relatively well (emphasizing this point to prevent malicious deletion of files and ensure project transparency), and the loading speed is also very fast;
2. Downloads are unlimited; as long as there is one paid account, there are no restrictions on uploading files (60 per year, educational version certification Student/Teacher Personal Professional Edition Discount (flowus.cn));

Disadvantages#

It is impossible to get it for free; the free version can only invite 5 people to collaborate and upload a maximum of 2G of files;
Files can only be divided by folders, which may be a bit chaotic (Yuque's "team" and "knowledge base" can clearly divide and organize files), but with a search function, it should not have too much impact.

Other platforms not recommended#

Then there are some platforms that I personally do not recommend:

Tencent Docs:
- Advantages: Can be closely connected with QQ groups, very easy to use;
- Disadvantages:
  - Cannot upload files (although links from Baidu Cloud and Lanzou Cloud can be used);
  - Organizing a large number of documents can be quite troublesome;
  - Cross-document searching can be quite troublesome;
  - Multi-person collaboration lacks review and proofreading steps (which can easily lead to disputes);
  - Loading speed can be affected by the length of the article.
Evernote: (Note: I haven't used Evernote for a long time, so this evaluation may not be very accurate)
- Advantages: Many classmates and teachers are familiar with it, so the difficulty of use should not be high;
- Disadvantages: Considering the nature of the project, it may require using Evernote TEAMS instead of just Evernote, meaning that everyone cannot get it for free.
Self-built forum:
- You don't have to start coding from scratch; just choose Discuz or Discourse and wrap it up (just kidding, there are probably a series of problems to solve);
- The review will be a bit looser (but it cannot be a lawless land);
- The difficulty of setup and maintenance is very high, and server costs are at least 500+ per year;
- Mainly inspired by this article by a teacher from Beijing Language and Culture University Why do we insist on doing education;
- Just consider me exaggerating.jpg.

Thank you very much for reading this long and tedious article.

I used to hold the idea of "those who plant trees for future generations to enjoy," and I have made several half-hearted attempts, so when I saw the department group this time, I felt compelled to write so much:

Sichuan International Studies University Japanese Department Survival Manual: Flowus platform, I only opened it a little bit and then gave up 233, but the structure of this project, which started strong but ended weak, may have some reference value.

Resources related to Japanese learning: Yuque platform, my classmates may be more familiar with it, but there is a Sichuan International Studies University Library Tour Guide that I (should) not have shared yet—this introduces some interesting books in the library, which should be quite useful, but I also gave up later 233.

Saigo's Japanese Learning Tools: GitHub platform, I haven't given up yet, but there are already some resources: mainly websites related to Japanese learning that I have collected, as well as a few small tools I wrote.

Finally, I am glad to see that the department is willing to create a project that is useful for everyone, and I hope this project can be like the Zhejiang University Course Strategy Sharing Plan:

I hope to turn these obscure, uncertain, and orally transmitted materials and experiences into publicly accessible, easily obtainable, and collectively improved and accumulated shared resources.
I hope that future generations do not have to walk the same winding paths that those before them have. This is my belief and the reason I established this project.

I also hope that juniors will not be like me: wasting a lot of time in confusion and growing in just a few moments.