Learning a Foreign Language on the NDS...?

[ifirit]

Having recently purchased a Nintendo DS, I've realized how ideal it's set up for interactively learning a foreign language, being that it has a touchscreen, microphone and region-free game compatibility. I suppose that is why there is a proliferation of "My _________ Coach" games for NDS. However, one of the most common concerns/problems I've read about the My Coach games, particularly with My Japanese Coach, is that the software will sometimes provide incorrect translations, spellings, and/or pronunciations.

Assuming that there are others aside from myself that are interested in learning a foreign language this way, has anyone else used the My Coach series to learn a foreign language, particularly My Japanese Coach? More importantly, are there other Nintendo DS titles which more correctly, or more efficiently, teach a given language?

(I've heard excellent things about "200 man nin no Kanken" and "Kakitori Kun 1 & 2." But are they easy for non-Japanese speakers to pick up and learn from?)

[Thylacine]

When I was first learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana, I remember practicing and finding it was really impractical to use paper. I had limited desk space and I needed to cover the correct answers while I practiced.

Then I remembered Pictochat had Hiragana/Katakana keyboards, and I could flip between those and English. It was primitive, but it was the first time that thing was actively useful for me. It was an excellent practice tool. Not quite what you had in mind, I'm sure, but if you're just starting out, it's a nice first step.

I've wanted to try My Chinese Coach, but I want to buy a physical copy rather than pre-order/online order. The less I'm on the grid about my gaming purchase habits, the better.

[OverCoat]

My Spanish Coach works really well. Fortunately I have a couple spanish speaking coworkers that helped me along too, but it really worked IMO - it sounds out all the words, even, and you can use the DS microphone to record yourself, play it back, and compare it with the game. This really helps with the main problem everyone has learning a new language - actually speaking it.

I tried my Japanese Coach a little bit but I wanted to finish Spanish before I move on to a less useful language

[lazygecko]

Obligatory

[Drack]

I don't recommend My Japanese Coach.

Though I was already well beyond the proficiency level it teaches when I tried it, there are a lot of flaws.

-The stroke order for writing (Both kanji and kana) is inflexible and often wrong. For a simple example, the き hiragana (For those of you without fonts installed, thats "ki"), when TYPED, usually uses 3 strokes, but is almost always handwritten with 4 strokes (the "third" stroke, mostly vertical then curve, is separated). If you try to write it this (correct!) way, the game will mark you as wrong. This happens with a lot of characters and builds bad habits.

-The method they use to teach verb conjugations is all wrong. Instead of teaching you one conjugation at a time, they dump all of them on you at once, without telling you how they're used until later, and at that time just referring to it by number (which I might add, is unique to this program .. no other sources I know of refer to conjugations by number). Some of the conjugations the program never gets around to explaining as the grammatical structures that CALL for said conjugations are well beyond the scope of the game.

-There's no way to skip ahead if you know all a lesson has to offer except by playing their memorization games. Scoring PERFECT on the initial pretest only jumped me maybe 20% through the game's content. Wanting to see how deep it went meant going through each and every lesson plodding through at the game's pace.

If you want a DS game to help you study Japanese, try Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten. You'll have to import it, and it won't tutor you, but it is FANTASTIC at being a cross-language dictionary and has EXCELLENT handwriting recognition (for Japanese characters ... not so much English, but has a keyboard for that). This app saved my ass MANY times when I was in Japan last summer. It won't TEACH you, but is an excellent companion to more conventional methods like books, classes, and SRS.

Speaking of SRS, you should DEFINITELY look into using an SRS like anki if you really want to learn a foreign language.

[Calpis]

(I've heard excellent things about "200 man nin no Kanken" and "Kakitori Kun 1 & 2." But are they easy for non-Japanese speakers to pick up and learn from?)

I can't speak for the My _____ Coach series but I have both of the games you mentioned there help immensely for my Kanji, specifically the Kakitori Kun games, which are slightly easier to stumble through if you're a first-timer.

[Brushfire]

You know I almost picked up the one for learning English just to see if it actually taught in Overly Enthusiastic English while I was in Japan. But it was 55 dollars, and frankly that is too costly for a larf.