漢字の館とお化け達：小学生1-6

If you have a Japanese 3DS, you may have heard of the 漢字の館とお化け達 (Kanji no yakata to obake-tachi: shougakusei) series. Or if you are considering investing in a Japanese 3DS, this is a game you can buy for it to help in your Japanese language studies. 漢字の館とお化け達 is a Kanji learning game series for Elementary school students. Each game gives you writing practice for the kanji that Elementary school students learn for each grade level, for example, the first grade game has all the kanji that first graders learn. If you play the entire series, first grade through six grade, it is possible to learn or rather practice 1006 kanji. The series focuses on writing kanji, recognizing kanji and kana reading skills. 漢字の館とお化け達 is broken down into three gates or types of kanji drills: 書き書きお化け, かくれんぼお化け and 書き取りお化け.

The first gate, 書き書きお化け, introduces 5 kanji by displaying each kanji on a big ghost (or obake), giving you one or two of the readings for the character in a small green box on the top left 3DS screen in kana. On the bottom 3DS screen, you have to write the kanji. There are options to end your study session, change your writing speed (the options are fast, normal and slow) or to erase the last thing you wrote on the bottom screen. After the game recognizes what you wrote in the bottom 3DS screen, whether you finished or not, the character the game recognizes your writing as will appear in a small box on the top 3DS screen below the ghost (オバケ).

The second gate, かくれんぼお化け, has multiple picture frames of various sizes on the top 3DS screen, which a kanji will move behind, so only parts of the character will be displayed through the frames. Again in the bottom 3DS screen, your goal is to draw the kanji based off the parts of it you can recognize on the top screen.

The third gate, 書き取りお化け, is a timed activity unlike the other two gates. A small オバケ slowly blows out a row of candles as you attempt to read a group of hiragana on the top 3DS screen and write the accompanying kanji for it on the bottom 3DS screen. This activity has the potential to give you a lot of points or rather, kanji written if you have a wide vocabulary and can remember and write the kanji for hiragana words quickly.

After you finish each quick activity, one of the gate activities, your written kanji will be added to a list of (whatever grade level you are playing) kanji for the game that will list how many times you have written each kanji. After you write a certain amount of kanji so many times, pieces of a hidden puzzle on the top 3DS screen disappear and your rank for the game goes up. The rank starts out low at E and rises until rank S, where the all the panels are uncovered in the puzzle panel.

Reflection on the Results of ‘3 Months of Japanese Studies’

This was actually a reply to a comment on a previous post and an attempt to expand upon my previous answer to whether or not the time I used to study Japanese before my study abroad last year was successful or not.

While I did learn (review) a lot of Japanese, I think my approach was wrong. I spent my time reviewing Japanese I learned from my classes rather than focusing on Japanese that would be the most useful for my time there. Most of this review came in the form of reviewing Genki I, a standard beginning Japanese textbook used at many colleges in the US. I also did a lot of reviewing or learning through apps on my iPhone. I think in the beginning of my three months of study, I had a lot of momentum and a plan in place. If you follow this blog, you probably noticed that I used to update a lot more often in the beginning as well. Then, I think I lost sight of the purpose of my study and failed to reevaluate my approach. Not to say that I wasn’t still learning Japanese or preparing to go to Japan, but the last two months were not as productive as the first month was.

I don’t think that a person can truly be prepared for all of the situations they’ll run into in a country they’ve never been to before, because there’s always something that will take them by surprise. I think the lack of what I didn’t learn, made my experience in Japan more educational. But basically, I think I tried to do too much and got burnt out very quickly by my Japanese studies that should have been more focused on Japanese that would have been more useful for living in Japan for four months. There’s also the fact that I had to prepare to live there for four months, which also took time away from studying (e.g. buying a plane ticket, packing, studying about cultural differences etc.). While I don’t think my language studies were as great as they could be, I think I was prepared for most of the cultural situations I encountered; but that may be the result of my long-term interest in Japanese culture rather than anything I did in those three months.

I think the best thing someone studying Japanese can do, especially someone with limited Japanese, aka a beginner, is study maybe the equivalent to the first semester or year of Japanese (if they took a class). It’s surprisingly easy to get around Japan without being fluent. Reviewing or learning the basics will prepare you for most of the situations you’ll come across daily. I can’t count how many times I had to stop and ask for directions from strangers, usually policeman or store clerks. I did not remember how to give and take directions from Japanese 101 class, I learned it through my Japanese classes in Japan and mostly through having to use it, because I kept getting lost. I’m probably a little bias since I went to Tokyo. But I think reviewing beginning Japanese and being open (to learning, to getting lost etc.) and not upset about any difficulties you’ll run into are some of the best things you can do.

I’ll try to write on this blog more regularly since I’m dedicating a lot of my time to studying Japanese again in hopes that I will return to Japan again soon.

JLR: Minna no Nihongo

This is one of my favorite apps to use. Minna no Nihongo is an iPod/iPhone application that is basically a textbook in an app.

What I like:

• Flashcards. Most of these have audio and some have kanji. They’re primarily written in kana with English translations. Some flashcards only have kanji and some of those have comments with show the reading in hiragana.
• 50 Lessons. I don’t have a physical copy of the Minna no Nihongo textbook, so I can’t compare the app with the physical textbook series. But that’s a lot of lessons.
• Really inexpensive. I don’t remember what I paid for this app, but I’m sure it was cheaper than the current price ($5.99), which isn’t very expensive.
• Dialogues. The dialogue tab has so many features/ways you can interact with the dialogue. There’s a picture with each dialogue, English translation, audio, text (which you can make disappear depending on which role/person speaking you want to listen to, manual mode to listen to each sentence at your leisure and my favorite: a video of the conversation.
• Grammar lessons. These are pretty brief, so it’s best to have another grammar source to use alongside this app for better explanations.
• Covers some things that I didn’t see in the Genki textbook, such as some vocabulary. Or maybe the way/order it teaches grammar and vocabulary is different.

What I dislike:

• I wish there were kanji for all the vocabulary words that kanji exists for. 
• Some English mistakes, I noticed “postcard” was spelled “poat card” and some other things. Overall, the English is really good. The application maker seems to primarily make apps in Chinese.
• A learning tool for kanji would be cool.

Conclusion:

I really like this app. It’s more of a review for what I learned with the Genki textbook series for me. I think the dialogue features are what makes it the best…and the low price. It covers what my college considers elementary and intermediate Japanese, so two years of college Japanese (minus the reading and writing practice).

Resources:

Minna no Nihongo by iLoveStudy

JLR: Japanese for All Occasions

Yesterday, I rediscovered a book I bought a while ago to improve my Japanese called Japanese for All Occasions: Mastering Speech Styles from Casual to Honorific by Taeko Kamiya. It’s published by Kodansha International, which makes a bunch of Japanese culture and learning books. I haven’t really used the book, but I skimmed through it and decided I’ll make it a part of my study plan for the next three months.

What I like about this book:

• No romaji! This book is not for beginners. You need to at least know kana and some Elementary Japanese (vocabulary and grammar) to really benefit from this book. So, it’s for Intermediate learners.
• Conversations/Dialogues. This is the majority of the book (19 dialogue lessons, 57 dialogues) with pictures, explanations of new phrases, English translations and grammar notes.
• Charts. Although some programs give you organized charts for reference, most of the ones that I’ve seen are not as nice as the ones in this book. There are vocabulary charts, conjugation charts (for verbs, adjectives) that are more complete than any other charts I’ve seen in other books. The verb conjugation charts include all (I think) of the conjugations covered in both Genki I & II textbooks.
• Audio CD. This covers all of the dialogues in the book and the example sentences in the first section of the book, none of  the charts though.
• There’s Furigana! If you don’t know what furigana is, I’ll explain. It’s small kana characters that appear above kanji to help you know how to read the kanji they accompany. Most of the kanji have furigana, but it doesn’t hurt to know some kanji before picking up this book.

What I dislike:

• While I was skimming the first section of the book, I did not see any mention of using じゃあ instead of で（は）. Actually, this contraction is explained later on in one of the notes in the dialogue section, but I think it should have been put in the beginning of the book with the conjugation charts. 
• I did find a small English translation mistake in the front of the book, where the word “after” was typed instead of “every” . But from what I’ve seen so far that was just a typo and most of the book’s English is correct.
• Sometimes the print seems a bit small (furigana, charts and in the appendices).

Conclusion:

This seems like a great book and if you want to work on your 警護（けいご）formal language and other speech styles and levels, this is a good book to purchase.

Resources:

http://www.kodansha-intl.com

JLR: iStart Japanese

If you are new to learning Japanese, then iStart Japanese may be for you. It is an iPod/iPhone application that teaches basic Japanese.

What I like:

• 51 lessons
• Culture lessons/information
• Learn 250 Japanese words
• Learn hiragana and katakana
• Flashcards
• Quizzes
• App dictionary English>Japanese/Japanese>English
• You can get it on sale for half off throughout the year.

What I dislike:

• Slow pace
• Only teaches Beginner/Elementary Japanese
• Kind of dry, but pretty thorough (but not as thorough as Genki I textbook)

Conclusion:

It’s a good application for beginners.

Resources:

App Store

http://www.miraijapanese.com

JLR: iKnow Japanese…Core

If you have an iPod or iPhone, you can buy the iKnow Japanese Core Beginner 1,000 or Intermediate 1,000 at the App Store. These apps are made by the company Cerego, which also created the iKnow website that use to be known as smart.fm. The apps teach 1,000 words each, so if you spend the $20 to buy both apps, you can learn the 2,000 Japanese words. It’s a good way to help you decide if you want a subscription to iKnow to learn Japanese, since there are no apps for Japanese Core (3,000 to 6,000).

What I like:

• Audio for vocabulary words and sentences
• Text for vocabulary words and sentences
• Pictures
• Study feature and the quiz that accompanies it
• Report feature to track your progress
• Game: FlickPicture!

What I dislike:

• I have no complaints about any of the apps features.

Conclusion:

It would be cool if this app had a flashcard system where you could add words that you need to study more. 

Resources:

http://iknow.jp/

http://www.cerego.co.jp/en/

JLR: Nextbook Elementary Kanji iPod Apps

I already did a review of the Elementary Kanji Drill application for iPod/iPhone. I originally did a review of that application, because one of the other Kanji learning applications I wanted to try out by Nextbook was more expensive. But, Nextbook is having a sale right now, so I decided to try out their apps: 小学＿年漢字ゆびドリル, all six of them.

What I like:

• All of their Elementary kanji learning apps, which includes first grade through sixth grade, are on sale right now for a dollar!
• Writing practice
• Reading practice
• Animated stroke order shown for each kanji
• Kanji readings (on’yomi and kun’yomi) are provided
• Your handwriting is shown, not auto corrected into a perfectly drawn kanji by the app like Elementary Kanji Drill 
• More Writing practice than Elementary Kanji Drill 
• Made for Japanese people

What I dislike:

• Elementary Kanji Drill apps talk to you, these apps do not
  
• In-app purchases (I have not tried them; I just dislike in-app purchases)

Conclusion:

This has more features or rather practice than Elementary Kanji Drill  apps. I like Nextbook’s Kanji apps better.

Resources:

iTunes App store

JLR: Lang-8

Lang-8 is a website I learned about from Tofugu’s YouTube videos. It is a website to practice and connect  with people learning languages. The basic idea of the site is that you write journals in the language you are studying, wait for native speakers to correct your writing and correct others who are learning your language. I like to think of this website as Facebook for languages.

What I like:

• It’s free! But you can support the website by getting a premium account.
• You can connect with people through groups on the website
• Built-in dictionary
• Messaging (you can send messages back and forth with other members)
• Writing journals
• Friending (like Facebook)
• You are able to read other journal entries (so that’s reading and comprehension practice)
• Multi-language website (you can change your language settings, so the website will appear in Japanese)

What I dislike:

• Nothing really.

Conclusion:

I like this website a lot because if you do not have access to natives of the language you are studying, you can meet them here. However, it is really easy to become addicted, or to just correct journal entries in your native language. So, 気をつけて！

Resources:

http://www.tofugu.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/tofugu

http://lang-8.com/

JLR: My Japanese Coach

I have not played My Japanese Coach in a while, but it was one of the Japanese learning products I used before I could take classes. My Japanese Coach is a Nintendo DS game that starts teaching you Japanese through lessons and mini-games. The game is also available for iPod/iPhone users.

What I like:

• Structured lessons at the beginning of the game
• Cultural Facts
• Builds vocabulary
• Audio
• Japanese writing practice
• Mini-games that help you with listening, writing and reading practice
• Dictionary and Phrasebook

What I dislike:

• Structured lessons stop after a while, which means this game is only good for Elementary level grammar
• This game is mostly for building vocabulary (I think it is suppose to teach about 1,000 words or so)

Conclusion:

It is okay when you are starting out learning Japanese, but should not be used as your primary language learning resource. I do really like the writing practice…somehow the interactive writing mini-games help me a lot with remembering characters and stroke order. However, this game becomes repetitive really fast, so you have to motivate yourself (especially when the structured lessons disappear and you are just given the ‘open lessons’ full of random vocabulary words).

Resources:

My memory (no joke)

My Japanese Coach (Nintendo DS version)

Day 3

Last night, I stayed up late in order to finish some of the items of my study checklist. There are some things I do not want to get behind on, such as studying from my Japanese textbooks and studying kanji. Today, I decided to start studying my textbook first so that I can make sure that gets crossed off my checklist. Everything seems a lot easier since I have already had five Japanese language classes and I notice important facts written in the book about grammar that I overlooked the first time I read the textbook in class. One of my major achievements yesterday was the fact that I finished reviewing kana! Now, I can focus on learning kanji.