Jappleng.com Instant access to an infinite library of Japanese material edit this microsummary

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edit Jappleng University - Providing all of Japan to you for free.

Synopsis
Jappleng University provides instant access to an infinite library of Japanese material for free, and comprehensive courses that teach the Japanese language & Culture. The materials provided at Jappleng are gratuitous whilst granting access to a large community to learn from as well.

Jappleng has released parts of its website in September 2011 marking a new chapter in the development of the project. Since then, frequent updates to the website and new content is placed onto the website making it a more of a complete product.

Jappleng is set to release in full on May 14th, 2012 with continual updates and upgrades to the site and content.

The following is quoted from Jappleng University's Website:

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Education

Jappleng provides various methods to learn Japanese and about the Japanese culture. At the present time, online methods are their primary focus and has announced in various Development blogs that it has plans to expand beyond online education.

The education page is now accessible with limited features, remainder is said to be released on May 14.

-JPLearn!
JPLearn! is our course that we offer here at Jappleng University. Granted it isn’t the only method of learning here, but we’re proud at having such a curriculum to offer what we believe is the fastest approach to learn a new language, and retain the information.

-The JPL-U Libary
Should there be a need for further explanation on a particular subject, you will find it in our library. This library contains articles dedicated to individual lessons such as a lesson for each particle, kanji of the day, and many more. What can’t be found at JPLearn! can be found at this library.

Japanese Culture / -Japan Life!
The Japan Life! segment is for all who would like to learn everything there is about Japan and see how it is to live in Japan from your living room. At Japan Life, we’ll cover topics ranging from Japan’s Agriculture, television shows, history, and traditions, to experiences, destination information, and everything in between.

Japan life has been renamed to Japanese Culture and is fully accessible.

-Nakama Robot
Consider this robot as a good companion that keeps a record of your progress here at Jappleng University. It’ll take note at your progress, quiz you on the things you’re not sure of, and ensure that you are ready for the next step. It’ll even prepare graphs, personal worksheets and tests for you when you need it.

-Club Jappleng
This is more than just a group, this is a club of hundreds of groups worldwide. Perhaps you wanted to create a club about Japan at your school, workplace, online, or with your friends but didn’t know where to start? We’ll not only help you start but provide all of the materials needed free of charge every week! Club Jappleng will also have its own section on the website for even more fun things to do!

JVShare / -Multimedia Education
We’re dedicating ourselves to provide more than internet learning materials, and that is why we’ll have multiple ways to help people out that text cannot do. From audio educational material, to videos that can be downloaded to your portable video player, we’re covering all ends.

"Multimedia Education" is now known as JVShare and is currently accessible with a private beta subscription.

-Jappleng Publishing
Curious to know about our publishing services? We’re developing books, pocket guides, and a monthly magazine to help you learn more, and keep us afloat financially. No worries, you won’t be missing too much should you not have the funding to purchase a magazine subscription or other of our publishing materials.

-JSpot!
Tickle your interest by finding your own JSpot! This is you own hub where you can customize the appearance, upload your own “podcast” and “videocast”, create daily syndicates, and become an important contributor to Jappleng.

JSpot had released partially in October 2011 and is currently under revision.

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News in Japan / News from Japan (Jappleng News)

The origin of Jappleng University began with 'news of Japan' in the form of a blog. Jappleng News as it was called, was the predecessor of Jappleng University and was later changed as it changed its focus towards education, rather than news. It was then decided in 2011 that Jappleng News would return as "News in Japan" where it would be community driven. News in Japan was set to release around second quarter 2012 and in May 2012 it was released and useable for public use.

Members, also known as 'Students' can submit news articles, comment and vote for them similarly to Digg.

-Interactive Media & Chat
Previously known as the IDC (Ineractive Dance and Chat), the IMC is an online multimedia center application that combines user interactions with online media. Not much else is known at this time.

-The Arcades
The Arcades have been taken down in favor for a stronger education foundation. Project Pinchy Attach has been announced to be in development many times and is said to release in late 2012 for facebook.

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The Community

Quote from an announcement that was made in early 2010: "Become part of the community, and that can start right now! Our community forums provides discussions regarding anything in Japan and what is even better is that you can meet new people and become “study-buddies”. Having a friend that can practice Japanese with you is a crucial step in bettering your Japanese. Come in, we’re friendly and bite very little." - Mark

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Publishing Services

In May 2008, Mark Greig announced that there would be publishing services in the distant future such as a Magazine Subscription, Pocket Guides, an education game, and Text Books. There has yet to be a confirmation of this recently.

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Corporate Details

Jappleng University is* a Limited Liability Corporation, established in March 2010. Its Headquarters are uncertain but what is certain is that they are located near San Francisco, CA.

• There have been hints that this LLC has long since been dissolved due to annual taxes being so high in the state of California, however no confirmation on this have been made.
  

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History of Jappleng

Jappleng blog was founded in Mid-November 2006 by Mark Greig.
In December 2006, Mark Greig asked Emmanuel Gilpin to be his partner for Jappleng News.
In February 2007, Jappleng Blog was now known as Jappleng News and its first website released.
In late June 2007, Jappleng News was turned offline for upgrades.
In August 2007, Jappleng News returns online temporarily.
In September 2007, Jappleng News goes offline and the “Staff Blog” along with a new promotional teaser is online. The release date for Jappleng News was set to be October 27th, 2007.
October 27th, 2007, Jappleng News goes online for approximately 15 minutes with over 600 member signups, and was quickly moved offline once again due to bandwidth exceeds.
November 1st, 2007, Mark Greig announces that there is not enough funding to support Jappleng and its supporting CMS must be migrated to a better one.
December 2007, Jappleng News has its first announcement in over a month stating it will release in January.
January 21st, 2008, Jappleng fails to release. The cause is the lead programmer had gone missing.
February 2008, a message from Mark states that Jappleng is currently “under advisement” and not to lose hope and that one day Jappleng will return and will be heard by everyone who is interested into Japan.
April 26-27th, 2008, Jappleng attends the Cherry Blossom Festival May 2nd 2008, Mark announces that he has taken full initiative for the company and will resume production shortly as soon as the business plans are made complete.
May 4th, 2008, Jappleng attends the Nikkei Festival
May 21st, 2008, Jappleng attends the Graphics Design Expo at SJSU
May 23rd, 2008, Mark announces that Jappleng will soon be ready for production once again and that it will face tremendous changes within the next couple of months.
May 23-26th, 2008, Jappleng attends FanimeCon 2008
May 28th, 2008, Jappleng announces Jappleng University and upcoming previews and beta later next month.
June 7th, 2008, Jappleng Social Networking Day is successful and new previews available.
June 9th, 2008, Jappleng “Lite” is announced for the 27th.
June 27th, 2008, Jappleng “Lite” is released, on-site sponsorship campaign also begins.
October, 2008, Jappleng Shut its doors until further notice. Internal staffing issues.
December, 2009, Mark Greig announces the return of Jappleng University and "major changes" will be in effect
January, 2010, The new community forums are released, and part of the website is available for closed Beta. The 'Jappleng University' revised theme has been implemented across the forums and the new server is ready (shared private hosting).
February, 2010, Community forums are approximately 90% completed, and the website is roughly 60% complete
March, 2010, The community forums and website is released under Public Beta and is now in operation.
April 3, 2010, Jappleng begins its first advertising campaign.
May 15, 2010, Jappleng is put under hiatus, difficulties with personal life announced.
June 18, 2012, An announcement is made that life is still very stressful and "things may not end well".
September 15, 2011, Jappleng is not announced for a return but a new design begun to be seen around the website. The first hints of Victor and Hannaminx is seen here.
October 20, 2011, Jappleng is said to return and better than before.
November 2011, A revised layout has been implemented, the entertainment section has received an overhaul, and an announcement to release in full 'soon' has been made.
December 12, 2011, Private Beta has been announced to be ready by year's end.
December 28, 2011, Private Beta is ready and accessible (Most features are functional)
January 8, 2012, JVShare is announced, an hints of a full release with a Learning Management System tentatively called "Nakama" is made.
January 9-15, 2012, Server is downed for 'upgrades'.
January 16, 2012, Server is back online and is running on a 100mbps dedicated server.
February 1, 2012, Jappleng releases most of its website to the public in a 'Public Beta'
February 2-30, 2012, Updates continue nearly every day.
March 4+ 2012, No updates were made, no signs of life, just existence of what's online
April 2, 2012, Announcement that life's problems have been sorted out and the problems of the past will not affect the future.
April 8, 2012, Nearly every day there has been updates since...
April 20, 2012, New sections are released to the public, Announcement for full website release has been made (May 14)
May 1, 2012, Most of Jappleng is ready to be used, few sections and features remain.

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Staff of Jappleng

There's no information on the staff page on the website as of yet, however the wiki and forums have acted as a guide to find out who has worked on the project. The actual cast is said to be announced sometime after its full release (May 14, 2012).

Current (confirmed):
Mark Greig - Graphics designer and Programmer
Emily – Unconfirmed Position
Nick Dean - C# Programmer
Lawrence Kok - Software Advisor

Unconfirmed (Rumored):
Victor Boggio - Lessons
Tomoko - Lessons
Hannaminx - N/A

Former Staff:
Tony Pham – Editor in Chief
Julia B. - Editor
Sheeva H. – Writer
Elfgren – Music Composer
Lammert - Programmer (PHP/mySQL)
Nick - Programmer (Games)
Peyton - Programmer (Died February 2009)

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Rumors and Speculations

There have been discussions in the IMChat where Mark and Emily are the same person and the 'personal' issues of the past have been because of Mark possibly being transgendered.

Victor Boggio and Tomoko from Maggie-Sensei are rumored to have lessons on the website. Many hints have been dropped regarding this in the announcements, and also the conceptual "screenshots".

There has been discussions that Jappleng might be involved with NHK for news and radio broadcasting.

It has been rumored in the IRC that Jappleng may be releasing in full (with the exception of JSpot, Infinity-Connections, and project Social Center) in September 2009. - This did not happen as the project was in 'hiatus' at the time.

It has been rumored in the IRC that Jappleng may be releasing their new forums with the Jappleng University theme in August 2008. It is also rumored that the design is more complex than the original. - This has happened in August 2008.

Pinchy's Learning Advent Chores has been rumored to be a game for the Nintendo DS to be released in Winter 2009. - This game was never announced or released, rumor busted.

It has been speculated whether or not Jappleng is intending on building their very own University in the future because of their new name and motives.

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Easter Eggs

The return of Easter eggs? In April 2012 a new article has been made "Where do I begin?" and inside hints that there are new Easter eggs to find.
Konami Fools On April 1st and April 4th, 2010, if you typed in the famous Konami Code onto the website homepage (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, enter) an Easter egg would crack open and a baby Pinchy would creep out.
Various Easter Eggs can be found around Jappleng's website. Bellow are a list of known Easter Eggs, although there may be more that are still yet to be discovered.

YinYen Hunt Challenge!!! - Every now-and-then, there are episodes of "YinYen Hunt Challenge!!!" located in random locations of both the website and the forums. Often this is simple trivia related or not related to the section where it was asked. The first to reply correctly is generally the winner, however different Challenges may differ. The tougher the challenge, the more 'YinYen' is given if answered correctly.

The Jappleng Toybox - Various hidden features or "behind the scenes" material are located in the Jappleng Toybox. You can find the Toybox url at --URL no longer exists-- however, it is just an empty splash screen with no links attached to it. All Toybox materials can be found throughout the Jappleng Network.

Japleng.com - Visit http://www.japleng.com/ and you should see a spelling mistake page "You have misspelled Jappleng. You typed in Japleng.com which is missing an extra p."

Promo Flash menu - Right click on the Promo flash file on the main page (prior to release) and a menu will show up with two items: "There is no Easter-Egg here I swear!" and underneath of it "Best Served With Breakfast". Click on the first item and it will bring you to --URL no longer exists-- with an interesting message explaining that there really is no Easter-Eggs around but if you check http://www.japleng.com/ you might find something interesting.

Mandy's birthday? - In an early promotional screenshot regarding the Jappleng Forums, you can see that Mandy Crabs's birthday is actually Mark Greig's (Founder) Birthdate (September 5th).

Source Code Fun - In June 2006 the home page of Jappleng had a comment within it quote: "Japple is like apples, but very fuzzy and clean!". What it means is up to your imagination.

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Additional Information

Subscription Services
Although claimed to be entirely free numerous times in the past, various hints have been made that a subscription service for both video and tutoring may be a possibility(forums/news announcement).

Discussions in the IMChat have speculated subscription services are to be aimed towards redeeming your education for high-school or college credit, and there may be a possibly for a subscription to access higher levels of Japanese, though this has not yet been confirmed only speculated amongst members.

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Community Reviews

Jappleng University has been on the front page of Bestuff.com for over 5-days in a row in June 2009.

There has been many drawings, videos, and audio renditions about Jappleng prior to its release as it has been widely anticipated. Many fans composed videos about writing "I love Jappleng" onto themselves, in the snow, and on large posters. One particular member decorated her entire room with giant letters spelling out "I <3 JAPPLENG" glued onto the wall.

"I think that Jappleng University looks very promissing as it will offer many new ways to learn Japanese as well as traditional. I like the way that it breaks it self apart from all the other educaational websites out there by introducing "casual japanese" lessons, great community feautres, amazing website features, and so forth.

I've been looking forward to this website when I first heard about it about a year ago, and expect nothing less than an excellent website that offers so much for free. I'm even more excited today as they discussed their online services to be a minor step towards their goals with Jappleng, and I await in anticipation.

There aren't any releae dates, however there has been rumors in the chat room #lobby, that it will release this september. The authors of this project hinted out that it is a possibility because of an earlier announcement back in May-ish when Mark was revealing his personal goals.

There are no other website out there like Jappleng, and I can't wait for it to release. Thank you for all your hard work and because of it, I am writing a review for it here, and will tell many others about your amazing project! - BlackHaiyate"

"Jappleng rocks! The staff is nice and informal, and their goals are out there! They know what their doing and their doing it right too Smile Ganbatte!! - Japanice"

"Jappleng is a great place to be even if your not much interested in Japanese news (it's in english). Because there is a place to learn the language and its culture, a chat room, games, and various other free online things, even a forum. The website is one of the best if not the best looking one for this kind of thing. It's so helpful too! - Gemini32"

"Oh My God! Thats gunna be so helpful to everyone! It looks absolutely fantastic! I cant wait :3! - dominoprincess"

These reviews were taken from the community forums, and Beststuff.com.

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External Links

• Jappleng University: http://www.jappleng.com/
• Pinchy's Official Website: http://www.pinchy.com/