Japanese on the DS
 

So this year when I start college I'm going to start taking Japanese. Since I'm really interested in the language I've been looking around a bit and found that in Japan they have games on the Nintendo DS for kids learning the language. They basically help them learn kanji. Since I'm going to Japan in a couple weeks I was thinking about maybe picking one or two of these games up to help me learn the language later on (once I get my katakana and hiragana down.)

There are Spanish and French games out now in the US that focus on teaching those languages, and from what I've heard and read on those games is that they do a pretty good job.

My question are, has anyone used any of these games (which one(s) and if so, how well did they work?

Thanks

not at game, but i basically have this with me everywhere i go
漢字そのまま楽引辞典
here's a video: YouTube - Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten 漢字そのまま楽引辞典

As do I...

Awesome. Yeah, I don't really see any of these "games" as games, but that one is truly not a game. I found a blog that has a list of the "games" and has reviews for some of them, as well as a link to another site where you can read more reviews and buy them. They ship to the states, but I don't know about other countries. So basically, I answered my own question, because I can just look at their reviews but any other recommendations here are nice and appreciated.

Learn Japanese DS is the blog I mentioned.

Well, there a new game coming to the US, called "My japanese Coach", I saw a few days ago a new about it, I'm really interested in it, if I see some more info about it, I'll put it here.

Sounds Cool! Thanks for the heads up! I'll be looking out for this.

I have talkman on my PSP... it's sweet for learning phrases and stuff but not so good for learning grammar. :vsign:

Hiragana Problem
 

Along my studies with Hiragana I have come across many symbols that don't look the same. I use a DS Game Called My Japanese Coach I mainly bought it to learn how to write the symbols correctly. I got a book from my friend for christmas it's a TUTTLE Edition Hiragana and Katakana and I find it helps more then the coach program. anyway I noticed Ki on the coach program RIGHT and the book LEFT.

This has severly confused me. Have I been learning the wrong symbols all this time? I don't know which is the correct one. Could someone please explain this to a newcomer to the japanese script. Thank you ^^;

As i understand it the left one is more seen in hand writing whereas the right one would be seen in fonts on computers etc. like this き.

You'll see a lot of little differences between hand writing and fonts just like you do in English as you learn more, after a while you won't feel so confused :)

It's the same thing, you can write some of them a bit differently but its essentially the same thing. Look at "ri", sometimes the two lines in it are connected to form kinda half heart shape and somtimes people just leave them split with the right line longer and curving under the left shorter one. It's personal preference really. They(Japanese people or other people that know it) will know what you mean.

Both are correct, I must say.

In Japan, when kids are taught hiragana in schools in the first grade (or sometimes in the kindergarten), the style on the left is the one that's taught.
But as kids get used to writing kana, some change to the right. Same thing happens with さ. This is because many adults around them, including the very teachers who taught the kids to use the left, actually use the style on the right.

I myself was strictly taught to use the left in the first grade and I still do so. I'd say the majority of adult Japanese use the left. But no one will complain if you used the right.

Oh my! that was very fast ^^;;

Thank you so much that really helps I can go on now. I'll be making another thread with a kanji problem later. Thanks alot People :D

Nintendo DS My Japanese Coach...
 

My sister bought me "My Japanese Coach" for my Nintendo DS for Christmas and I was wondering how well it works. I'm not expecting to become fluent or anything from it, but just wondering if it is effective in learning Japanese? :confused:

if you're a total noob then yes imo. I learned basic words *bought it few days ago*. You will probably have to replay things till you perfectly memorize the words. My personal method: spam the multiplke choice game of your lesson. Once you can associate each word with the romaji, cover the bottom screen and try to remember the actual word and how to pronounce. works for me hehe.

As you already know it is NOT a substitute for taking classes. this is more of a review/introduction software. The refrence book in it is pretty usefull if you carry your DS around. has alot of basic phrases

if i remember correctly there is already a topic about this game..
or at least related to it

I found that it was a really great way of building a foundation with the language. I stopped using it after about 25 lessons, but I think that it helped me get through the hardest stage of Japanese - starting out.

It's what got me into Japan but as I got into it My Japanese Coach proved itself to be a flawed teaching tool.

The story being, I didn't really have much interest in Japan but then my brother got My Japanese Coach and said I should have a go on it. So I had a quick go on it and then got a little hooked on the thought of learning a new language. So I went through many 15 or so lessons on my brother’s game then bought my own copy and continued study with it. I then decided I should probably find out more about Japan and started looking up information on its culture and so on. Anyhoo I continued to use it for another few lessons which is where it starts showing its flaws. The grammar explanations for verb bases are one of the main points to be scolded. It is badly explained and feels rushed. The explanation also seems to be split between two lessons with vocabulary lessons in between is very annoying considering how it was badly demonstrated in the first place. It also does stuff like teach the bases and masu form but not even tell you what they do. It seems to expect you to just know some bits.

I got up to about lesson 35 before I decided it probably wasn't too much of a good idea to just continue using it. Especially since a lot of the vocabulary it teaches is while not incorrect in its translated meaning, but the game doesn't explain what context you would use it in and would lead a lot of people to use it wrongly. Using Sayounara to say bye to your friend at college when you’re just going out to pick something up then come right back for example.

But anyways because of that I started a separate save file and did the lesson unlock code to have a quick glance over what it would have taught me in future lessons before I moved onto a different primary source for my Japanese learning. Once glaringly bad thing that I noticed was the Kanji lessons which start around lesson 44 I think. They were not really explained well or in a good order and just threw kanji at you with a list of readings not telling you which is which and the examples didn't cover all the readings. I had no idea how anyone could learn from those lessons easily.

A lot of these mistakes I would not have noticed if I hadn't been also doing other study independent of My Japanese Coach so I was lucky. But some people won’t be using many external sources and could very well develop incorrect usage of the language. It started out not too bad and the mini games were pretty cool but overall I wouldn't rate it and would recommend learning another way.

Ten bucks got me a used copy of My Japanese Coach at EB Games. Here I go providing comedy with my flawed intentions and limited teaching tool! :mtongue:

I'm not saying everything it does is wrong but it's factual that it does many things wrong. Such as wrong stroke order for kana and many unexplained points about verbs. Also the odd vocabulary mistake seems to arise.