Gakken DS Otona No Gakushu Kindaichi Sensei No Nihongo Resson

学研DS大人の学習金田一先生の日本語レッソン


Gakken DS Otona No Gakushu Kindaichi Sensei No Nihongo Resson


- A Japanese learner's perspective review



Gacha-Gacha Review

Level: Advanced Japanese students

The Good:
Outstanding, fun, graphical interface. Input recognition is very high. Quizzes that deal with a wide range of Japanese from kanji to idioms to counters to keigo to katakana, it's a great one stop shop for improving various areas of your Japanese ability at one time. Good background music. A wide variety of different games (arranging tiles, multiple choice, user input, etc.) keeps quizzes fresh and interesting. Great overall theme that ties everything together making game play really enjoyable.

The Bad:
Basic system for user to see problems study areas. No overall ability test...that is the entire game is a series of mini-quizzes. No review to practice problem words or kanji, you go to the free mode and just play the games over again with the same questions. (although I realize this is a common complaint with most Japanese DS games so don't weight this factor too heavily).

The Ugly:
This game is HARD! 上級の日本語を勉強している人しか出来ないと思います。<- If you can read that, then you *might* have a chance at this game. As it stands though it is really only for native speakers or advanced and beyond. As much as I don't want to say this (as it is a fun game), intermediate students and below should save their money and buy a good kanji or grammar book. Even as a challenge it's just plain frustrating sometimes.


Nitty - Gritty Review

I'm going to start off this review with a warning. This is going to a kind of review / opinion article hybrid kinda thing. I tried to write up a straight review piece and talk about what the game is, how it plays, and if it's worth your money. But a little ways into that one thing became apparently clear to me...it doesn't work that way with this game.

I'd like to state right up front here that when I review these games I am testing them for two main things, 1) how much will they help the average Japanese student (beginner, intermediate, and all shades between those two), and going in hand with that 2) if it's worth the time and money to pick the title up. First I'd like to say that I think the main problem with these kinds of study games is that many of the 日本語 titles that are on the DS are not meant for the foreign Japanese student to study from. Almost all are meant for the native Japanese speaker (i.e. Japanese people) to review or brush up on the stuff they already know. That is these games aren't really about 日本語, but rather *国語*. That last part is the key to seeing and understanding the strengths and faults for this game and, ultimately, why I can't recommend it.

Unlike the other two games that I reviewed before, this game while being called a "Japanese lesson", is less about the teaching part, and heavy on the "do you know this?" kind of questions. To be fair most of the games that have been talked about and reviewed on the site here have dealt only with the study of kanji. Occasionally there would be quizzes and tests for the readings and vocabulary that uses the kanji in question, but for the most part it was kanji and their readings.

This game of course deals with the readings of kanji, but it also has large sections that deal with idioms (commonly used and rare ones), keigo, commonly used phrases (that use hard kanji that the user should already know), counters, katakana, and 理解 or understanding (key concepts or the idea of a passage from an essay or novel or conversation).

Before I go on with this tangent, let's get back to the game for a second. I'd like to talk about the nitty-gritty of game play and what you'll actaully be doing.

The game is centered around the theme that you are a young girl and a her dog walking from Nipponbashi to Kyoto (during what I think is the Edo era) with Kindaichi sensei who is teaching you Japanese along the way. You make a stops at 53 towns where, at each town, you'll play three games at increasing difficult levels that deal with one of five categories, 単語力、漢字力、伝達力、教養力、and 理解力. The thing is that each of these five categories are further subdivided into different themes at each town. That is at one town, the theme for the 漢字力 might be food, but at the other it might be animals. Of course the games vary as well. One might have you inputting the kanji and another might be having you select the correct kanji from tiles.

The games themselves are very fun actually. The problem comes in that the Japanese is HARD! Here is just an example of the kanji that appeared in the *first* town on the first level (this level dealt with food)....落雁、昆布茶、杏仁豆腐、求肥...do you know what that last one means? ぎゅうひ. Turkish Delight. I can just see it now..."この求肥はとてもおいしいよ!". I have never eaten Turkish delight, come to think of it, the only time I have ever heard the word "Turkish delight" was when I first read "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.L.Lewis (the white witch temps Edmund with it in the first chapter).

That's the problem I have with recommending this game. It's basically just throwing random, hard words that Japanese people might have seen once and the beginner and intermediate learner has little or no clue as to how to read. This also goes true for the idiom and understanding section. In the idiom section after you choose the answer, Kindaichi sensei explains a little about the meaning of the idiom. Unfortunately, unless your an advanced learner the grammar and kanji in the explanations are harder than the question itself. It turns an otherwise fun game into a frustrating challenge for the Japanese language learner. For me, just to get past some levels I had to write down every word that came up in the game, go look them up and make little mini-dictionaries for each section.

Sure, it helped my vocabulary, but did I really need to spend time studying the kanji for 餡蜜、あんみつ, a fruit cocktail with gelatin cubes and sweet azuki topping? In short, no. That's the kind of word that you pick up when your offered to actaully eat it (not to mention the fact that it's usually written in hiragana!) I could have used that time to get some new grammar or more useful words. Although if your the kind of student who loves studying hard, obscure kanji, then this game will be great for you!

There are really only two sections where it get's a little easier. One of the games has you arranging katakana to form a word. That game is pretty easy for the Intermediate, though beginners will have trouble with it. The other game I found really enjoyable (since it's one of my favorite areas) is counters. The screen shot on the right below shows that game. It give you a number and counter and you have to pick the right object from the list.



It's really a shame that it has to be so hard, because it really is a well put together game. The theme is fun, the games are designed and look great...that screen shot above on the left is of a retro RPG style game for keigo! How cool is that one? Unfortunately it comes after a long while in the game and with 53 town to go through, it seems at times the game will never end. There are also unlockable games (game?), like a shooter kanji game that is in the free mode, but I have yet to get to that and can't really comment on it (I read it on the main games website).

Unfortunately a lot of these games just weren't designed to be study aids for foreign learners. Now that doesn't mean we *can't* use them, we just have to find the ones that are the most accessable...and fit the level you are at. This game is just really too hard to be useful to the average Japanese language student. And with import companies charging a lot for the games, I'd like to see people choose games that will be appropriate for their level and feel like they spent their money wisely (and can use the game right away, as opposed to studying while playing). Right now there are just better games that will help you acquire kanji and vocabulary at an easier rate.

I won't leave you all down trodden though. Kindaichi Sensei has published a book that is somewhat like the game in that it tests your Japanese in various areas. I bought that and can HIGHLY recommend it. It has much more useful words, kanji, and everyday Japanese. You can see it here. It's not as hard (more importantly it focuses on frequently used Japanese) and also manages to capture the playful theme in the illustrations. Of course it's all in Japanese, but it's defiantly accessible to an intermediate learner. If your really itching to learn from Kindaichi sensei, then I would recommend finding a way to order this book.