"My Japanese Coach" just released for the Nintendo

[Taurus]

Yeah, I've tried switching to kana in the options but it doesn't seem to let me (I'm at about lesson 22 or something). The months took me a little while to work out too!

But on the subject of romaji, I'm not sure how the wordsearch game is of any benefit at all - picking out the romaji spellings from a grid of random letters doesn't seem to me to be the best way of learning vocab (although I have yet to get to any vocab I don't already know).

I guess part of my problem with it is that it is mainly geared towards vocab learning, which I have no problem with. I'd rather spend more time on sentence drills. Which may come later, of course - I have yet to find out.

[wccrawford]

Yeah, I've tried switching to kana in the options but it doesn't seem to let me (I'm at about lesson 22 or something). The months took me a little while to work out too!

But on the subject of romaji, I'm not sure how the wordsearch game is of any benefit at all - picking out the romaji spellings from a grid of random letters doesn't seem to me to be the best way of learning vocab (although I have yet to get to any vocab I don't already know).

I guess part of my problem with it is that it is mainly geared towards vocab learning, which I have no problem with. I'd rather spend more time on sentence drills. Which may come later, of course - I have yet to find out.

Oh, I'm pretty sure you can't set that option until level 30. I'm surprised it's different for you and me at this point, though. (The mi vs み, I'm mean.)

[paulp1988]

does anyone know if this will be coming out in Europe? I liked the look of the other ones (like My Spanish Coach) but would love to get the Japanese one. I can't seem to find news of it anywhere.

Arigato

[wccrawford]

does anyone know if this will be coming out in Europe? I liked the look of the other ones (like My Spanish Coach) but would love to get the Japanese one. I can't seem to find news of it anywhere.

Arigato

I answered that already in this thread.

[paulp1988]

oops, sorry about that i didnt notice. Thanks though

[lazer85]

I used the spanish one and it was totally OK for $25 to review spanish I had forgotten. Does anyone know a program like this for more intermediate/advanced speakers of Japanese? I'm talking like JLPT2+. I know in Japan theres a lot more educational DS games but I havn't seen much for learners of Japanese. It would be great to have a game to practice the difference in nuances between the 3 or 4 kanji you can use for some words (表す、現す、著すなど）　and common body idioms。目につぶる、手が出ないなだとか、 四字熟語とか。。。　and differences between similar grammar structures or to teach more advanced grammar. Anything like this that I've overlooked. All I know of is the dictionary program and I think I saw a kanji program but it was for native speakers to learn almost pretty obscure kanji.

[wccrawford]

I used the spanish one and it was totally OK for $25 to review spanish I had forgotten. Does anyone know a program like this for more intermediate/advanced speakers of Japanese? I'm talking like JLPT2+. I know in Japan theres a lot more educational DS games but I havn't seen much for learners of Japanese. It would be great to have a game to practice the difference in nuances between the 3 or 4 kanji you can use for some words (表す、現す、著すなど）　and common body idioms。目につぶる、手が出ないなだとか、 四字熟語とか。。。　and differences between similar grammar structures or to teach more advanced grammar. Anything like this that I've overlooked. All I know of is the dictionary program and I think I saw a kanji program but it was for native speakers to learn almost pretty obscure kanji.

Bimoji Training is a game to teach you to write the characters better.
Kanji Kakitorikun covers the Jouyo Kanji.
Nihongo De Asobo is for kids and has you memories very very short stories and then fill in the missing characters, or say them, or write them...

There are quite a few quiz games in japanese now, too. I haven't a clue how good they are.

And I think maybe you've given up on JP Coach early. Granted, I'm very much a beginner, but some of the grammar is started to be covered around the 20th lesson... That's around 200 vocab out of about 10,000, I think. There's a -long- way left to go and they've already started on grammar.

From what I remember of the Spanish (and French) one, it didn't get into grammar this early at all.

Edit: Also see: http://www.mrbass.org/nintendoDS/japanesegames/

[Taurus]

Okay, so I don't understand the scoring system at all. The game will tell me that I have, say, 150 points till my next lesson. Then I'll do a game that promises me 5 points per correct word. I'll get 10 correct words, and then it'll tell me that I still have 140 points till my next lesson. It never seems to add up, but it always seems to take many more lessons than I expect to unlock the next lesson (and I still have yet to unlock the option to defaul to kana, or to unlock any grammar that I don't already know. I really can't explain how idiotic I think it is to have to play a wordsearch game to find the romaji spelling of some words that I already know in order to access grammar that I don't!).

I'm not sure I'm too impressed with the grammar explanations, either. It's covering grammar I already know and it's still confusing me! All this bases stuff - is that a common way to teach Japanese? I haven't come across it before and it seems way more confusing than the methods that I have come across.

Also, lazer85, aside from the games that have already been mentioned, there is a new Sega DS game called U-Can Pen Ji that, from the limited time I've spent on it, teaches you good calligraphy (if nothing else).

[wccrawford]

Okay, so I don't understand the scoring system at all. The game will tell me that I have, say, 150 points till my next lesson. Then I'll do a game that promises me 5 points per correct word. I'll get 10 correct words, and then it'll tell me that I still have 140 points till my next lesson. It never seems to add up, but it always seems to take many more lessons than I expect to unlock the next lesson (and I still have yet to unlock the option to defaul to kana, or to unlock any grammar that I don't already know. I really can't explain how idiotic I think it is to have to play a wordsearch game to find the romaji spelling of some words that I already know in order to access grammar that I don't!).

I'm not sure I'm too impressed with the grammar explanations, either. It's covering grammar I already know and it's still confusing me! All this bases stuff - is that a common way to teach Japanese? I haven't come across it before and it seems way more confusing than the methods that I have come across.

Also, lazer85, aside from the games that have already been mentioned, there is a new Sega DS game called U-Can Pen Ji that, from the limited time I've spent on it, teaches you good calligraphy (if nothing else).

Scoring - You only earn points for words you haven't mastered yet. If you earned no points in that game, you either need to change to 'open' (instead of 'mastered') or go back to the learning section and pick up some new words.

Can't help with the grammar part... I'm learning that for the first time.

[Taurus]

Yeah, I thought that was the system, but I'm sure I've only been playing 'open' games. Maybe I've not been paying enough attention!

[Taurus]

Okay, so I think what happens is that if, say, you only have one or two remaining 'open' words and you start a game, that game will use a mix of open and mastered words. Which is a bit annoying, because you only win points towards opening your next lesson by answering the questions relating to your open words. And there are some games that don't seem to ever use kana, such as bridge builder.

[wccrawford]

Okay, so I think what happens is that if, say, you only have one or two remaining 'open' words and you start a game, that game will use a mix of open and mastered words. Which is a bit annoying, because you only win points towards opening your next lesson by answering the questions relating to your open words. And there are some games that don't seem to ever use kana, such as bridge builder.

Yeah, that's exactly what it does. I actually like that feature as it forces me to review. (Even if that review is random.)

BTW, at level 44, it starts throwing kanji at you. As I've been lazy with learning to write kana and kanji, I'm finding it a bit hard. (Which is good! I need the challenge.)

[WalterWills]

My copy arrived this morning! It looks like a great game, but it could be better I think.

I think the dictionary could be misleading for beginners, I mean it says that "furui" means old but it doesn't tell you that you shouldn't use it to describe people.

And the level test needs to be more rigorous, I think it should include grammar questions. At the moment I'm learning that "desu" comes at the end of sentences...

[WalterWills]

I've noticed they've got the stroke order wrong for some of the kana...Well maybe not wrong but different to what my other DS game tells me. For example in My Japanese Coach it tells you that the horizontal line of よ has to be written last, but if you write it first, as you do in Tadashii Kanji Kakitorikun, it doesn't give you any points! Perhaps it doesn't matter with Kana.

[wccrawford]

I've noticed they've got the stroke order wrong for some of the kana...Well maybe not wrong but different to what my other DS game tells me. For example in My Japanese Coach it tells you that the horizontal line of よ has to be written last, but if you write it first, as you do in Tadashii Kanji Kakitorikun, it doesn't give you any points! Perhaps it doesn't matter with Kana.

Odd. I'm really bad about stroke order, often doing it wrong in the game because I'm in a hurry (I hate timers!) and it almost always accepts it, if I've done all the strokes in the right places.

The test only brings you up to level 10, max, apparently. It's not really meant to test your level, just to give you a bit of a jump if you already know things. It's pretty pointless, actually.

I also agree that it may not be the best teacher... But it's an excellent addition to set of practice 'games'.