Sentence Generator

edosan · 24 Aug 2012

Hi all. I'm writing a web application that tries to produce pseudo-random Japanese sentences. I created it out of a need to try and learn vocab. but within the context of actual sentences. The great thing is that I can load different sentence patterns and sets of vocabulary. My concern though is that because I am just a beginner I have no native speakers to see if these 'sentences' are ever unnatural. Of course they may sound strange due to the random nature but could I ask you guys to give me your thoughts or suggestions for improvement.

Japanese Sentence Generator
http://greenchili.co.uk

I have a Japanese font that it uses so can take a little bit of time to load first time.
Thanks.

Mike Cash · 24 Aug 2012

The sentences are alright, but the kanji in that font are kind of funky.

edosan · 24 Aug 2012

Mike Cash said:
The sentences are alright, but the kanji in that font are kind of funky.

Thanks, I've removed the embedded font now so it just uses the user's font. The reason is that i was experimenting with having an option to switch the output from a typed font to a handwritten looking font for extra reading practice.

ewww · 25 Aug 2012

It gives about 1 percent of repeated phrases (sorry I loaded it alitle, exactly 990 on 1000 requests)
If we will take into account that average string length in my set was about 16 kanjis, we could suppose it's vocabulary not that big.
I think that You are combining phrases by some pattern using compound phrases, or randomly returns phrases from some pregenerated set of correct phrases. I mean, that is not real 'phrase generator'

Sorry, I just started learning japanese, so my speculations could be incorrect

edosan · 25 Aug 2012

Hi ewww, yes it is really basic and used only by myself. At the moment I have 3 or 4 basic patterns for different verb types(action, movement, existence). It randomly chooses if it is past or present/future and then randomly chooses from word lists that are appropriate for that verb and yes the vocab is very limited in this presentation. At the moment I am working on storing all vocab in mysql with metadata such as kana,english and jlpt level. This would be useful because you could then choose the patterns to work with, verbs and the vocabulary level. I also want it to switch between polite and plain conjugations and have compound phrases as well.

ewww · 26 Aug 2012

edosan, I've got it, You are building Your generator along with learning japanese. I think that is very good approach,
and I should try that. I very appreciate what You are doing, and wishing You great success on Your way.
Sorry, if my initial post wasn't very polite

I did my initial reply on Your post because authomatic phrase generation is in my field of interest, and I am always trying to play with all new things.

FinancialWar · 26 Aug 2012

Ummm, I have a better random sentence generator, it's called a BOOK.

A sane person would be bored after 5 randomly generated sentences, why? Because it's random.

ewww · 27 Aug 2012

FinancialWar said:
A sane person would be bored after 5 randomly generated sentences, why? Because it's random.

exactly

edosan · 27 Aug 2012

FinancialWar said:
Ummm, I have a better random sentence generator, it's called a BOOK.

A sane person would be bored after 5 randomly generated sentences, why? Because it's random.

I would love to learn just by reading real books but at my level it can be hard finding suitable reading material. A session with Anki would be considered boring by most people but many of us would feel it useful. I'm using my humble tool in the same way.ie to review vocab but in the context of a grammatical pattern.

Mike Cash · 27 Aug 2012

I doubt either of them would have a great deal better results than you would randomly pulling sentences out of books, so don't let them get you down.

It strikes me as a good practice tool, or at the very least one that should do you no harm, and I presume that as you progress to more complicated patterns you will work to incorporate those into the generator. Anything you can do to provide yourself with oodles of level-appropriate practice materials is bound to be helpful, if you stick to it diligently.

Glenn · 28 Aug 2012

I agree. I find it to be a fairly inventive and interesting approach, and I think it has potential. I'm curious to know how it works for you. It being tailored to your level is a huge help, I'd wager.

FrustratedDave · 28 Aug 2012

What language are you using to generate the text string?

edosan · 28 Aug 2012

Glenn said:
I agree. I find it to be a fairly inventive and interesting approach, and I think it has potential. I'm curious to know how it works for you. It being tailored to your level is a huge help, I'd wager.

It is actually working really well. After drilling myself on a particular pattern many times I am actually starting to just understand it immediately rather than have the usual internal translation going on in my head.

---------- Post added at 12:36 ---------- Previous post was at 12:31 ----------

FrustratedDave said:
What language are you using to generate the text string?

I'm using php. I think you could do it quite easily using a standard spreadsheet which would be ideal if you don't have access to web server.

FrustratedDave · 29 Aug 2012

Sorry , I thought you may have been using C# or ASP.NET. I have been learning Java of late and I use VBA and VB6 for a lot of applications. Juts thought it was a neat thing you made up, very nice.

Sentence Generator

edosan

エド

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

edosan

エド

ewww

I am Groot

edosan

エド

ewww

I am Groot

FinancialWar

Sempai

ewww

I am Groot

edosan

エド

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Glenn

一切皆苦

FrustratedDave

先輩

edosan

エド

FrustratedDave

先輩

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