Using the Nintendo DS Lite to study kanji

[aldergrove]

Has anyone used the Nintendo DS Lite to study Japanese?


I don't have one yet, but I think I might buy one just for this game. Unfortunately, I don't know where I could just try it out, but I'm still thinking about making the plunge. Anyone have any first hand experience with this?
Thanks.

[kichigaijin]

I got the game and I love it.

but it's not enough to study kanji on it's own:
you still need onyomi and konyomi pronunciations
you still need the english meanings if you want to understand each kanji's use.
you probably need some more repetition than the game offers, in order to feel comfortable with the kanji
you wouldn't do wrong to have a guide for kanji mnemonics, for being able to understand the origin of the kanji, being able to delineate the bushu (defining radical), and also to help you to remember.

it will definitely spice up your kanji training though!

[aldergrove]

Thanks for your response.

I have some kanji books. I study. Can you explain a little more how the game works? I currently don't own a DS Lite, but am thinking of getting it, but then again, it's 20,000 yen. Is it worth it to spend that money for one? Can you take me though a sample session playing the game? Thanks.

[kichigaijin]

umm you can get a ds lite online or in the states for 120 or so.
i got mine for about 180 after shipping, but that was when they were sold out everywhere.

basically you start up the game
you create your own user account, you can have 3 i think
then you choose if you want to do かきとり　(writing practice), ドリル (drills), or I forget the last one.

After that it asks you to choose the grade you want to start at (elementary, year's 1 through 6) and whether or not you want explanation (せつめい）

the first one かきとり is just copying the kanji that appears on the screen with the stylus, click 消す to erase, click さいてん　to grade it, in the upper left they've got one box where you can see the computer draw the character (complete with stroke order & direction), plus another box that will give you a light gray version of the kanji on the drawing screen that you can trace over (kinda like cheating).

The second of the 3, ドリル　is basically like a workbook, where they give you 音読みor　訓読み and get you to draw the kanji for various reading sections. Again, it's split up by grade. It grades each kanji for each reading section (usually 4 or 5 per section), also if you get some kanji wrong, it makes you go back and fix your errors.

The third option, from what i remember (haven't spent much time on that one yet) is exactly like ドリル　but it actually grades your paper on the whole, and not just each individual kanji.

if you use the kanji listed in the game as a guide for what to study out of the books, with some more repetition, some focus on the important radicals, and learning the 音読み and 訓読みfor each kanji; then you could use the game to evaluate your progress.

[padrik]

Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten and
Zaidanhoujin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kounin: KanKen
are also both good, not really games, except for a few mini-games, but great for learning and preparing for tests, translating, etc...

both for the DS!
カール

[aldergrove]

With the exchange rate as it is now, it's cheaper to buy it in Japan! Thanks for taking the time to explain! Looks like I'm going to have to pull the trigger.

[kichigaijin]

don't get me wrong, i bought mine off of ebay when they were sold out everywhere, that's why it was so expensive.

i'm pretty sure you could find one at target online, walmart online, or somewhere else for a much more reasonable price.

[Bucko]

I recently bought ２００万人の漢検 for my DS. It's great! You can see a video of how it works here:

http://www.thejapanshop.com/product.php ... 333&page=1

[aldergrove]

I pulled the trigger and bought one at Toys R Us here in Japan. I bought the DS Lite for 16,799, the kaki tori game for 3,399, a bigger pen for 299 and a case for 999. All in it cost me 21,496 yen.

Bucko, thanks for the link on the other game. I'll give my game a go and then maybe move on to that one!

[Elfunko]

I think my friend had one of those. Cant you also look up kanji on it?? Like write the kanji (or how it appears), then they give you a list to choose from to get onyomi kunyomi and stuff like that??

For the serious student, money permitting, this sounds like an invaluable tool. Of course I just spent $100 at kinokuniya on a bunch of reference books. So if your poor like me go to the 100Yen shop and get KanjiDrill and Kokugo workbooks for whatever level suits your fancy (1st year elementry all the way to high school I suppose, though I only found until 9th grade, thats 3rd year middle school).

Get workin and then I'll drop some cash on this.

[attwad]

Hi there!
I'm hesitating to buy a DS lite to study Japanese/kanji but I can't choose between 2 options:
1) buy a Japanese DS and the games by Internet but with that I won't be able to play the games I buy in my country (I'm in France so correct me if I'm wrong on that please...)
2) buy a French DS and flash it so I can play import games (matter of compatibility here perhaps?) AND the games I buy in France.

If someone own a flashed DS and can play the Japanese games perfectly please tell me because I don't wanna invest that money if the Japanese games don't work...

Thanks!

[kichigaijin]

The DS has no region encoding.
Wherever you buy it should be okay.
The only difference might be the default language of the DS operating system; but you could still play games from anywhere.
I have an American DS and play Japanese games without any modification.

[attwad]

Ho ok thanks!
Then it's decided I'm gonna buy one in no time ^^
Do you guys have any reccomended websites to buy import games?

thanks!

[attwad]

OK I finally bought one!
After 3 days of usage here are my impressions:

Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten is very useful!!! I tested a few kanji games/dictionnaries but it's this one which recognize the handwriting the best and provide a useful translation. It seems that the Japanese dictionnary has more entries than the english one but it's way enough!

I'm a total beginner in Japanese and especially in kanji (I'm getting the JLPT 4 this year that's my level... ) and knowing only a hundred of kanji makes 99,99% of the games unplayables but in the same time it's very motivating

Can someone recommend "child" games? I mean with very simple sentences? and furigana up of all kanji? (if it exists but I'm sure it does!)

[MattTheCat]

Not meaning to necropost, but I've been away for awhile and I figure new info is good no matter how dated the topic...

In the Kakitori-kun program mentioned in the first post and referenced in the second, it is true that it doesn't give you on-kun youmi readings for the main kakitori feature. However, the game also has a test mode (under the menu option ドリル), where it gives you a sentence with furigana but the kanji part is left blank, and you draw the kanji to match the kana on the side. During this drill, if you wait a bit, it'll feature a question mark prompt in the upper left-hand corner of the touch screen. If you click on the box where this prompt appears (it looks like an empty box with an underscore) you go to a subsection that gives you the answer and on-kun readings, and more touch options to practice the kanji in question.

(BTW you don't have to wait for the prompt; you can click this box at any time.)