Japanese students at Tokyo's Joshi Gakuen all-girls junior high school are getting DS handhelds for the classroom, but they're not playing New Super Mario Bros. on them. They're using them to learn a new language: English. What makes it such a great tool in aiding their studies? Perhaps it's familiarity ...The handheld system is incredibly popular in the country and many students have one they enjoy using to play games on a regular basis. It's a system they're comfortable with, has an easy interface, and mixes a bit of fun in with the learning. If we would've had the option when learning another language in our schooltime studies, we'd probably remember how to ask where the bathroom is in German.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-26-2008 @ 11:04AM
Josh said...
It would be nice if there was a DS game made for English speakers to learn Japanese. I've tried some of the Japanese carts such as "Sonomama", but they're really for Japanese natives.
Reply
6-26-2008 @ 12:13PM
Ryan A said...
Agreed. I would've thought that by now we would've seen something to teach Japanese to English-speakers. It's not like there's not a demand for such a thing.
The DS is region-free, and so when a game is released in Japan that is awesome (which happens frequently) with no plans to bring that game to English-speaking countries, there is frustration. Maybe if we could read Japanese then we could import those awesome games, and it would certainly help matters if there were a DS program to help us with that.
6-26-2008 @ 12:13PM
Ryan Arndt said...
Agreed. I would've thought that by now we would've seen something to
teach Japanese to English-speakers. It's not like there's not a
demand for such a thing.
The DS is region-free, and so when a game is released in Japan that
is awesome (which happens frequently) with no plans to bring that
game to English-speaking countries, there is frustration. Maybe if we
could read Japanese then we could import those awesome games, and it
would certainly help matters if there were a DS program to help us
with that.
Reply
6-26-2008 @ 3:18PM
Atomsk said...
It's "Wo find ich die Toilette?" just in case you wondered.
And Sonomama has been a must have in my Japanese class at the University. Either that or a 40000yen electronic translator, that you have to import from Japan and that can't do anything besides translating stuff.
Personally I'd very much appreciate a kanji trainer with english translations. Kanken DS and 200mannin no kanken are far too frustrating to use, at least for me.
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6-26-2008 @ 4:55PM
Fiefdom said...
I doubted that this game/program/app would be of any use until I read the sourced article. :P By itself a spelling bee or fill in the blank sort of program is pretty much useless for language learning, but it looks like the school has integrated it into a much more varied curriculum than that which would normally be used at a Japanese school. Maybe second language instruction in Japan will finally be able to parallel the scant effectiveness of second language instruction in the United States. :(
Josh & Ryan, such a game wouldn't be as useful as you'd think. You're much better off looking up various language acquisition methods and digesting authentic material than relying on one game which will only be able to offer a stripped down perspective on the language. A bilingual dictionary won't be of much help unless you have some ground in your target language anyways.
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6-26-2008 @ 8:00PM
dubq said...
Agreed. Now a game that helps to memorize kanji, katakana or hiragana would be great for people who already have a handle on the grammar and sentence structure of Japanese.