Learn Japanese Today

 
To get Perapera-kun, click here .

So lately I’ve been trying out this new online reading tool called Perapera-kun. Rather than being a straight-up website like rikai.com, Perapera-kun is a Firefox add-on. I apologize to all you guys who don’t use Firefox, but you might want to switch over if you haven’t already. As far as useful plug-ins and add-ons go, the software development being done for Firefox far exceeds any other browser. If you’d like to convert, click here .

Also, remember you need to download a dictionary file for it to work. Download the Japanese-English file here .

Ease of Use: 9.5

Perapera-kun is truly for the really lazy. I mean, who wants to go through all that work of plugging a URL into a reading tool on a different website when you can just right-click? Seriously though, Perapera-kun really gives you instant gratification. Even if there’s just a couple of words in Japanese on a site, you just right-click the word and activate Perapera-kun, and then whenever you mouse over a Japanese word you’ll get a little bubble that pops up and tells you the reading and definition.

Sometimes selecting the thing you want to in a long string of Japanese can be difficult, causing a little more hassle than Rikai. I would probably recommend Rikai for reading something very long, but it’s hard to say no to how fast Perapera-kun has you reading the Japanese. It’s surprising, but the extra couple of sentences it takes to run a site through Rikai can be very off-putting, you may not want to get into it. But if you just have to right-click, then you’re more inclined to do some more Japanese reading. That’s a big plus in my opinion of Perapera-kun.

Authenticity: 8

Perapera-kun has the same problem that most reading tools have that they don’t allow you to distinguish context. The definitions are all correct (use WWWJDIC entries), but you don’t know which one to use if there are multiple. Make sure you know what’s going on with the context of the sentence before thinking you know a word.

Quantity of Knowledge: 9

Uses the same WWWJDIC files as Rikai.com, and therefore knows most words, but has trouble with some prefixes, suffixes, and abbreviations. Watch out for those.

Price: 10

It’s ever so free. However, the creators and coders encourage a small donation at their site .  If you like the reading tool, help them out.

Fun: 9

It’s hard to beat instant gratification for the fun of a reading tool. It’s really liberating to just stay on the same window and be able to understand any Japanese. However, the slight selection problems can be somewhat frustrating.

Overall: 9.1

I’m giving a slight nod to Perapera-kun over Rikai.com, but I still use both of them. If I’m reading a long newspaper article, I usually use Rikai because i think its slightly easier to select words with, then I use Perapera-kun whenever I just run across some Japanese by chance that I want to read. I feel like I’ve some what over-dramatized the selection difficulties with Perapera-kun, because as I use it more, I’ve gotten a lot better with it. It may just take you a little while to get used to.

Anyways, enjoy!