My Japanese Coach: Japanese Software for Nintendo DS

Learning Japanese does not have to be expensive and/or boring- learn Japanese as a second language through playing games. My Japanese Coach is new software for personal Nintendo DS game consoles for native English speakers wanting to learn Japanese. It is method of learning Japanese without flipping through hundreds of pages of textbook and homework assignment; learn the fun way!

Since my return to America a few years back I have been trying to find the perfect Japanese game to refresh and maintain my language skills. Unfortunately many Japanese educational games are setup just to learn the basic writing of Japanese hiragana and katakana (2 of the 3 simplistic Japanese alphabets). For beginners, this can be perfect but more serious students are left grasping for more.

Luckily an easily accessible game by UBI, partnered with Princeton University, has come out with My Japanese Coach. It is content rated by Entertainment Software Rating Board (aka ESRB) for "E" (everyone). The rating states it all: an advanced educational game geared for all students learning Japanese as a second language. If you can get past the general Nintendo usage warnings of possible "convulsions, altered vision, eye or muscle twitching, involuntary movements" and so on you are good to begin learning Japanese. The game can be purchased at most retail stores and online at Amazon.

Turning on the Game: The game has three player accounts. Each player opens up a new player account by starting with a preset placement test. Do not worry though; it is not as hard as the Japanese placement tests in school. Each new player is given three minutes to answer fifty starter language questions which are given as multiple choice options. The questions are very basic and should be a cinch if you have ever studied or know some basic terms. For instance you are asked what does "pinku" mean in English, days of the week, a few simple Kanji were thrown in there and et cetera. Miss two in a row and the test stops before the three minutes.

Levels: Depending on how many questions were answered within the three minutes, the game will choose your personal accounts level and where you should begin. This helps those whom have studied beforehand to skip ahead a little, while those who have not can start in the beginning. Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with this feature since the game will only allow you to skip ahead a few levels made up for complete beginners - these levels are called "baby" & "toddler". In addition, all the multiple choice questions were written in romanji (western alphabet) instead of in Japanese. Since my language skills are more advanced (as expected from someone that lived in Japan), I finished the placement test under the minute allotment so I started at the first level after acing the test: My level was "Kindergarten".

How to Play:

Grammar Lessons: Once the placement has been set, you may work through your highest level only: there is no working ahead. The main menu in all levels have "learning, games, reference, and options" to choose from. Start with the "learning" option you are taken to the lesson section of the game. Each lesson comes with grammar rules, writing, and speaking rules given in short description by the female animated character. Each player must work through each lesson to pass each level, which again means no cheating. There are enough levels to get you through what the game considers "grade 12" and continues on to around 1,000 lessons in total. There are 100 lessons to get to "grade 12", afterwards the lessons are for advanced vocabulary learning.

Games: After you have read the lesson, the animated character will tell you to click on the "games" option. Now in the game section: there are 12 games in total but you must work through the first few levels to unlock all the games. Some of the games are multiple choice, hit-a-word (similar to Whack a Mole), word search, fading characters, write cards, flash cards, memory, scrolls, bridge builder and so on. After each lesson you are required to play games to earn generally over 100 points and master 10 new words per lesson plan. Once you have done this you can go on to the next lesson plan. There are 100 lessons to master then.

Personally for me I found that the lessons were very simple hence I did not read all the lessons and tended to just play the games until I got to more interesting grammar sections. Hence, it is not necessary to read the lessons to practice with the games. As long as you get enough points, you can enter into the next lesson of vocabulary. This saves time and makes the completion of levels much faster for those of you that have intermediate or advanced skills.

References Section: The reference section contains the player status, dictionary, phrasebook, and a sketchbook (for times you just need a little break). This is a helpful section to look back at the words mastered already and for help with words or phrases.

Cons: All in all, I believe this is the best Japanese software from American soil. It is wonderful for beginners (such as my husband who is at the "baby" level). It is interactive and allows you to personally record your own voice and play it along the narrator voice talent, Hiromi De Young. It assists with reading, writing and grammar structure.

List of Pros:

*Helps with reading, writing and grammar lessons

*Lessons include all three alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and Kanji

*Allows user to record voice to assist in speaking the language

*Does not allow user to skip ahead of lessons to assure that the user is learning the material

*Introduces a large amount of grammar and vocabulary

*Each lesson is sectioned off into categories such as food, clothes or animals

*A fun interactive way to learn Japanese without opening a textbook

*Games are very interactive and allow the student to keep going with the studies

*The games are all different types encouraging users to play the ones that are most entertaining

*Lots of encouragement is given to learn the language

*The animated character is cute and entertaining

*Each lesson reinforces mastered material

As every gamer will agree, there are always cons to the pros. I believe the game is fantastic for learning general vocabulary and grammar; it is not however very accurate for learning Kanji. I have noticed that I sometimes do not write the alphabets correctly however I am told I have done it well. This may be a bug in the system but nonetheless it does have in accuracies.

List of Cons:

*The proficiency test in the beginning does not skip ahead enough for advanced students

*The game is 100% in English even in the higher levels

*Not enough Kanji is used in the entire system

*The Writing option does sometimes not work accurately

*A lot of the words (especially in Bridge Builder) are not written in Japanese but rather are in romanji even after advanced levels are reached

*Kanji is not spoken

*Some of the lessons are hard to understand if you do not have a grasp on the basic language

*After a wrong answer has been selected, the system does not speak the word (words are only spoken when a right answer is selected) which does not help in learning the new words missed

*There is only a female voice talent; a man would be nice to hear for male players

It is well worth the $30.00 on an average for the game and I would suggest it for almost all ages. It does not allow cheating or skipping ahead as some other games allow. Basically you either learn it or you do not move along in the game. Although not as strict as my Japanese university professors it is persistent. I would recommend to beginners or intermediate levels. Personally I like to have fun with refreshing my vocabulary memory.