"My Japanese Coach" just released for the Nintendo

[WalterWills]

I think it's a great game, but it has it's flaws.

[WalterWills]

...for example the stroke order for 九 is wrong on this game. I hope that's the only one.

[Taurus]

I think the fundamental problem with the game is that the grammar explanations are slightly confusing and arranged in a strange order; and the games only really test vocabulary (and too many of them do that by testing your understanding of romaji spellings).

I think it's fine as a revision aid, but I think most people would really struggle to learn Japanese from scratch with this.

[wccrawford]

I think the fundamental problem with the game is that the grammar explanations are slightly confusing and arranged in a strange order; and the games only really test vocabulary (and too many of them do that by testing your understanding of romaji spellings).

I think it's fine as a revision aid, but I think most people would really struggle to learn Japanese from scratch with this.

Now that I'm into new territory (and grammar), I'm going to have to agree. It's a great add-on, but it's not a good primary source. But I'd be hard-pressed to point at any one things as a good primary source, anyhow. Even college classes leave a lot to be desired.

[WalterWills]

Well I've completed lesson 100 and that's basically the end.
The next 900 lessons are just groups of random words you have to learn..

[Greg_Bow]

The lead programmer of My Japanese Coach has a blog and answers many questions.

http://thegameprogrammer.blogspot.com/2008/10/more-my-japanese-coach-news.html

[Taurus]

In case anyone's looking for other Japanese-learning DS games, there's some interesting posts here (click on the DS link from the list on the right for more).

[wccrawford]

In case anyone's looking for other Japanese-learning DS games, there's some interesting posts here (click on the DS link from the list on the right for more).

http://www.mrbass.org/nintendoDS/japanesegames/ Also lists some. Some have reviews, too. Note that many of the games aren't actually educational, but will probably provide some fun practice... Or just fun.

[Taurus]

Here's my official verdict.

[wccrawford]

Here's my official verdict.

Accurate.

I disagree with 2 things though:

I think JP Coach is a good game. It's not designed to be everything you need to learn Japanese, as that's just too ambitious for a tiny DS cart. Heck, nothing else has managed it, why would a DS game be the first? For $30, it's been well worth my money.

And learning romaji does serve a purpose: Typing. I was learning to touch-type Japanese and contacted iKnow to add in touch typing to their software. Their reply was that the IME is more common in Japan and there's no point in adding touch-typing. Is that true? I dunno, but it's common enough that they won't bother.

[Taurus]

I dunno. I think it's a useful enough resource, if you use it as supplementary material, but as a game I think it's pretty poor - and the real clincher is that it could have been so much better.

I'm not quite sure I understand your point about touch typing - when I type Japanese words (as I have been doing into Anki all afternoon!) I type in kanji and kana by typing it phonetically and letting Windows take care of converting it...

[wccrawford]

I type in kanji and kana by typing it phonetically and letting Windows take care of converting it...

You type tabemasu and up pops たべます or 食べます on the screen, right? So you have to actually type in romaji, but it shows kana and kanji. (The Windows IME is what pops up the proper characters when you type.) My point is that you have to know how to type it in romaji for that to happen, so learning romaji isn't useless.

The other method is touch-typing, where instead of the F key, there's a は key. The entire keyboard has kana characters instead of roman characters.

[Taurus]

You type tabemasu and up pops たべます or 食べます on the screen, right? So you have to actually type in romaji, but it shows kana and kanji. (The Windows IME is what pops up the proper characters when you type.) My point is that you have to know how to type it in romaji for that to happen, so learning romaji isn't useless.

The other method is touch-typing, where instead of the F key, there's a は key. The entire keyboard has kana characters instead of roman characters.

Ah, okay, I see what you mean. Yeah, whenever I've used computers in Japan, the keyboards have always been set to 'romaji' input. But I find it's easier to work backwards from the kana to type romaji in that sense. I still don't think the romaji spell-test games make much sense in My Japanese Coach though, because in many instances you're not learning the phonetic spelling, but some sort of adjusted version (I think the word パーティー, for example, is romaji-fied as 'pati').

[johnpa]

I'm a beginner and I've found that, after 102 lessons, my reading and writing speed have significantly improved. I can take notes and I don't have to sound each mora out like a first grader.
This may not sound like much, but i think it's pretty cool. And the best part is that I completed the lessons in my spare time at work.

[wccrawford]

I'm a beginner and I've found that, after 102 lessons, my reading and writing speed have significantly improved.

I noticed a -small- improvement myself, but I'm doing so many other things as well that I can't point to any of them and say 'That did it!' I'm glad to hear that it does help, though. (iKnow.co.jp is the other main tool that I would point at for this. Scanning through 10 items in a few seconds to find a particular answer tends to help you improve a bit.)