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My Japanese Coach: Konnichiwa and beyond
Just as we did with My French Coach, we're taking a long, hard look at the recent My Japanese Coach -- but with one key difference. This time, instead of just lowly little me, slaving along with some knowledge of French, this time I'm struggling with a language I know very little of, and I'm working with a "partner" who knows quite a bit of Japanese already.Before tearing into Ubisoft's latest DS language trainer, if asked, I would have struggled to produce ten words in Japanese, and one of those ten would have been in the title of this post (and another would have been sushi). Perhaps that's exaggerating; after all, I did know a bit more than the fact that I prefer nigiri to sashimi, such as the words for red, blue, and green, and words like "please." My Japanese Coach-partner -- also known as my husband -- has always been very good about teaching me words when I ask. I suppose that makes me 1% more knowledgeable about the Japanese language than the average person pulled off the street.And that fraction means absolutely nothing, I learned, when you sit down to study a language like Japanese with any tool, even My Japanese Coach. %Gallery-28607% #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >>
Wii Warm Up: Training on Wii
Training games have been big on the DS, and a few have made it big on the Wii -- most notably, of course, Wii Fit -- but the lion's share of these "games" have remained on the DS. Big Brain Academy and My Word Coach are a few that have been on both systems. Have you tried them on both? We'd love to hear opinions about training games crossing the gulf, as it were. We're of the opinion that they're better when they're designed specifically for one system, and can thus play to that system's strength, but there are always exceptions.
Calligraphy Training brushes away our doubts
You might not remember the footnote mention of a Calligraphy Training (non)game for the DS -- it was two years ago, after all -- but some more news has recently surfaced about the title. Set to release in Japan on March 13th, this training game is aimed at teaching folks how to properly draw Japanese characters. One of the coolest things about this nongame is that it will ship with a special brush stylus. That alone has us starry-eyed in love with Calligraphy Training, but that's not even all the game has to offer. Apparently, the game has a multiplayer mode that lets up to six players compete over who's calligraphy is the most accurate. We're sure that's a better idea in theory than in practice, but it's still a nice feature.Game Watch also reports that there's a quest mode included in Calligraphy Training, as you'll be helping a wanderer to perfect 3099 different characters. Not bad for a simple little calligraphy game, Nintendo.Before you think "neat" and then forget about this game for the rest of time, you can head on over to its official website to watch some video footage, should you feel so inclined.[Via Modojo]
