Tsugawa Method DS Review

Professor Hiroyoshi Tsugawa has a very simple method for reviewing kanji, and ERTAIN has put it together on the Nintendo DS in Tsugawa Method DS. I had never heard of Professor Tsugawa's method before this game out, and at first I was a little bit skeptical on how it would work as a learning tool. But after using the software for over a week now, I'm convinced--the red circles work.

Tsugawa Method DS has two main modes: memorization and testing. Let's take a look at memorization first.

After starting up the memorization mode, you can select from six topics:

基本 (Basic)
ビジネス (Business)
暮らし (Daily Life)
常識 (Common Sense)
漢検 (Kanji Kentei)
自慢 (Bragging Rights)



Most of these topics should be pretty self-explanatory. Basic covers characters that you encounter almost daily. Business covers kanji that you might find at the office or in business documents. Daily Life covers some interesting topics ranging from special characters for the zodiac animals to greetings. Common Sense characters are a little bit tricky, but no native speaker would be caught dead not knowing them. Kanji Kentei covers characters that pop up on the tests. Bragging Rights cover some extremely difficult characters that you can show off to your friends once you've memorized them.

Once you've selected a topic, you can choose a subset of characters within that topic to study, called "steps". Each step done in sets of ten problems.

So how's it work exactly? Let's get started.

First you'll be given an example sentence with the written in red. Then the kanji will be displayed alone and you will be prompted to circle the corresponding hiragana reading for kanji. In the picture, you can see that 静 corresponds to せい, and 寂 to じゃく. This is excellent reading practice and really helps hammer in how different kanji are pronounced and how they combine together to form compounds. If you make a mistake, the software will prompt you to try again.

Then you will be asked to circle one or more spots on the kanji (or kanji compound) that you have difficulty with. Once you've made your circles, you can take a good look at the character and at your problem spot.

The next step is to see if your circling has paid off. The software will ask you to write the kanji you just memorized. Once you've written it in, you can compare it with the correct answer. If you failed to write it correctly, you'll go back to the circling screen and given another chance. If you answer correctly, you'll go on to the next problem.

After the first five problems, you'll be given a quick quiz for review before moving on to the second half (which also has a quiz). Answering quiz problems correctly earns you points that contribute to your Tsugawa Method Rank.

The structure of the lessons and the variety of characters to study make the software an excellent learning tool. You can move step-by-step at your own pace, and if you mess up, you're forced to overcome your weaknesses.

The testing mode allows you to review the characters you have memorized in the first mode. There are a few types, but my favorite is the standard review (復習) option. In this mode, you'll be given ten problems at random featuring kanji that you have already memorized in the past. If you get a problem wrong, the test will be over and the software will tell you in which topic and which step the kanji you missed can be found. The software does a great job of pinpointing your weaknesses and also giving you the tools and information necessary to fill in the gaps.

You'll need to be coming in with a pretty good understanding of kanji to get the most out of the software. At the absolute least, you should know about 1000 characters. If you know 1600 or more, though, you'll be able to really use the software to its fullest potential. I've been able to hammer down a lot of characters I used to trip over when I wrote. I've also learned some very difficult characters that most native speakers can't write with confidence (or at all).

I should also mention that the input recognition is great, and the music's pretty enjoyable, too.

Tsugawa Method DS gets two thumbs up.