Yomichan for Chrome

Yomichan for Chrome turns your browser into a tool for building Japanese language literacy by helping you to decipher texts which would be otherwise too difficult tackle. This extension was inspired in part by Rikaichan and Rikaikun, but it stands apart in its goal of being a all-encompassing learning tool as opposed to a mere browser-based dictionary. It is the evolution of the Yomichan plugin that I developed for Anki when I began studying Japanese.

Requirements

For basic functionality:

• Google Chrome

For development:

• 7-Zip
• Git LFS
• Go
• Handlebars
• Node.js

Installation

Yomichan can downloaded free of charge from the Chrome Web Store. If you find this extension helpful and appreciate the time that was spent developing it, I would kindly ask that you leave a positive review. Your support and feedback encourages continued development of this tool.

Basic Functionality

1. Left-click on the icon to enable or disable Yomichan for the current browser instance.
2. Right-click on the icon and select Options to display the Yomichan options page.
3. Hold down Shift (or the middle mouse button) as you hover over text to see term definitions.
4. Resize the definition window by dragging the bottom-left corner inwards or outwards.
5. Click on the Kanji links in the definition window to view additional information about those characters.
6. Click on the icon to hear the term pronounced by a native speaker.

Anki Integration

Yomichan features automatic flashcard creation for Anki, a free application designed to help you retain knowledge. While the AnkiConnect plugin offers the best experience, it is also possible to create flashcards through AnkiWeb, provided you already have an account.

Using AnkiConnect

Installing the AnkiConnect plugin for Anki is the preferred way of enabling automatic flashcard creation in Yomichan.

1. Open the Install Add-on dialog by selecting Tools > Add-ons > Browse & Install in Anki.
2. Input 2055492159 into the text box labeled Code and press the OK button to proceed.
3. Restart Anki when prompted to do so in order to complete the installation of AnkiConnect.

When using AnkiConnect, Anki must be kept running in the background for automatic flashcard creation to function.

Using AnkiWeb

Yomichan is able to create flashcards directly on AnkiWeb, assuming you have registered an account. While this method can be convenient as it does not require Anki to be running to running in the background, some features are not supported due to technical limitations:

• Preventing the creation of duplicate flashcards.
• Embedding audio in flashcards via the {audio} marker.

Your AnkiWeb login information must specified on the options page to make use of automatic flashcard creation. Note that AnkiWeb will temporarily block your IP address if there are too many login attempts; if this happens, just try again after waiting for about an hour.

Flashcard Configuration

Before flashcards can be automatically created through Yomichan, Anki must be configured as follows:

1. In Chrome, open the Yomichan options page by right-clicking the icon and selecting Options.

2. Activate the Terms or the Kanji tab, depending on the type of card template you wish to configure.

3. Select the Anki deck and model to use when creating new flashcards (see the Anki Manual for more details).

4. Populate the model fields with markup representing contextual properties for the current vocabulary term or Kanji:

   Markers for term tags

   Marker	Description
   {audio}	Audio sample of a native speaker's pronunciation in MP3 format (if available).
   {expression}	Term written in Kanji (will be written in Kana if Kanji is not available).
   {expression-furigana}	Term written in Kanji with Furigana displayed above it (e.g. 日本語にほんご).
   {glossary-list}	List of definitions with items expressed as a numbered list.
   {glossary}	List of definitions with items delimited using semicolons.
   {reading}	Kana reading for the term (empty for terms where the expression is the reading).
   {sentence}	Sentence, quote, or phrase in which the term appears in the source content.
   {tags}	Grammar and usage tags providing additional information about the term.
   {url}	Address of the web page in which the current vocabulary term appeared in.

   Markers for Kanji tags

   Marker	Description
   {character}	Unicode glyph representing the current Kanji.
   {glossary-list}	List of definitions with items expressed as a numbered list.
   {glossary}	List of definitions with items delimited using semicolons.
   {kunyomi}	Kunyomi (Japanese reading) for the current Kanji expressed in Katakana.
   {onyomi}	Onyomi (Chinese reading) for the current Kanji expressed in Hiragana.
   {url}	Address of the web page in which the current vocabulary term appeared in.

5. Click on the icon to add the current expression using Kanji (e.g. 食べる). If the icon appears grayed out, this means that a new flashcard cannot be created with the current configuration (please verify your Anki deck and model settings).

6. Click on the icon to add the current expression using the reading alone (e.g. たべる). If the icon appears grayed out, this means that a new flashcard cannot be created with the current configuration (please verify your Anki deck and model settings).

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is it possible to use Yomichan with files saved locally on my computer?

  It in order to be able use Yomichan with local files, you must first tick the Allow access to file URLs checkbox for Yomichan on the chrome extensions page. Due to restrictions placed on browser extensions by Chrome, it will likely never be possible to use Yomichan with PDF files.

• When are you going to port Yomichan to $MYBROWSER?

  I am considering creating a Firefox port once I am satisfied with the feature set of the Chrome extension. I may consider other browsers in the future, as long as porting would be trivial and the browser in question runs natively on Linux. This is not a high priority Firefox already has good extensions for Japanese learning (and I use Chrome exclusively).

• When are you going to add support for $MYLANGUAGE?

  Developing Yomichan required a significant understanding of Japanese sentence structure and grammar. I presently have no time to invest in learning yet another language; therefore other languages will not be supported. I will also not be accepting pull request containing this functionality, as I will ultimately be the one maintaining your code.

• When are you going to add support for EPWING J-J dictionaries?

  This is a long-term goal, and I do not yet have a timeline for this feature. That being said, I believe that I have figured out how to make this work in the restrictive Chrome extension environment, and mostly have to develop a new tool to support extraction of data from this format.

Screenshots

License

GPL