ToasterMage wrote:

Because I`ve been linking this everywhere I can recently (and I didnt see it mentioned in the thread):
http://digital-haze.net/ndsrs.php

SRS program for the DS, with support for japanese(and any other language, really).

Interesting, but completely useless since it lacks support for opening/importing (or exporting) existing data. If it could directly open anki files and retain intervals (or even better, sync to anki online) I'd definitely use it.

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2008 August 12, 7:53 pm)

Sorry if this kind of question has already been answered but; which Kanji game would you recommend to an absolute beginner, that has finished RtK1 but only knows how to read very few or no kanji? I'm definitely getting 漢字そのまま楽引き辞典, it'd be neat to get such a cheap but high-quality electronic dictionary.

I've got my eyes on Kakitori kun, but the Naruhudo review says it's mainly used for revising the Kanji rather than learning them, and Kanken DS2 looks a bit daunting when it brings up all the unknown kanji right when you boot the game, or at least, that's how it showed up on my friend's DS (can you change it to 100% hiragana?).

Thanks!

Edit: Also, if it only requires 80-240 kanji to be able to read some of these games, then I'll be willing to get half of 2001KO down, but I'm not a textbook kind of person >_>

Last edited by Squintox (2008 August 30, 12:41 am)

jreaves wrote:

My question is, does the dictionary used with the DS have the copy/paste or import/export capabilities?

Nope.

Squintox wrote:

Sorry if this kind of question has already been answered but; which Kanji game would you recommend to an absolute beginner, that has finished RtK1 but only knows how to read very few or no kanji?

In my humble opinion, none of them. Once you are a bit more advanced, some of them can be good to test your knowledge, but every single one I have tried seems very daunting for a beginner. There seem to be 2 primary styles of kanji games:
- ones that just ask you to draw a certain character - things like kakitorikun, bimoji training... in my opinion these are not very useful at all.
- ones that show you japanese sentences and you have to change hiragana to kanji, or kanji to hiragana - things like kanken. Theses are really tough for a beginner, because they expect you to actually know Japanese. If you can't read the sentences, how can you answer the questions correctly? If you rely on the nintendo ds dictionary rather than an electronic dictionary, then you will have no means of really looking up the words in the games either, unless you sit at a computer the whole time you play it.

Zarxrax wrote:

ones that show you japanese sentences and you have to change hiragana to kanji, or kanji to hiragana - things like kanken. Theses are really tough for a beginner, because they expect you to actually know Japanese. If you can't read the sentences, how can you answer the questions correctly? If you rely on the nintendo ds dictionary rather than an electronic dictionary, then you will have no means of really looking up the words in the games either, unless you sit at a computer the whole time you play it.

Kanken sounds like the thing I've been looking for Thanks!

I have 2 DS's, a phat and a lite, so in one DS (the phat) I'll have 漢字そのまま and the lite, I'll have the next kanji game.

ファブリス wrote:

It's true. Unless you are following exactly the same kanji progression as Japanese children (and thus not using RtK) in which case you could revise the material. Otherwise like zarxrax says. But don't let that discourage you.

Would it be too late to switch over to the system in the way Japanese children learn them?

ファブリス wrote:

Kakitori Kun is a title you may still enjoy for the writing exercises, until you are of sufficient level that at least 30% of the kanji you can have some guess. BUT >>>>> in that case I'd recommend to get the 2nd version of Kakitori Kun because the writing practice is much MUCH easier to use (no need to go back to the main menu for every single kanji, which is really annoying), and it's got quite a few other modes that you could practice such as the one where you have to name the constituent parts, and another where you have to match constituents and kanji. Then when you are of a minimum level like you can read about 20% of the characters you can start to  get some enjoyment out of the kanji tests (just skip the ones you don't know).

So would it be a smart idea if I learn the first 240 (or 440?) from KO2001 before I start using the Kanji games?

ファブリス wrote:

Nazotte Oboeru is also a great title. But Nazotte's writing mode is really bad, you just trace over something. It doesn"t track the characters you practiced neither score you on how well your writing was, contrary to Kakitori Kun.

Would you say it's good for improving your handwriting? My Japanese handwriting is absolutely terrible, and I'd definitely love to improve that. Or would you rather recommend Bimoji training?

ファブリス wrote:

But otherwise I dont know of any kanji title on the DS that groups kanji in an efficient manner for learning purposes.

What if you already know how to write the Kanji, but not know how to read them (as per a person who has finished RtK1)? Is there any good game that concentrates on readings rather than correct stroke order? Thanks!

So far I'm definitely getting 漢字そのまま楽引き辞典 and 漢字検定2. I'll also either be getting なぞって覚える or 美文字 depending on which improves your handwriting better.

Thanks for the suggestions!~

I'd also like to add that I don't think ds games can really help your handwriting much. It's just not the same as real handwriting. First off, you have that horrible little stylus (if you get a better one, then that's a big help), but then you are still trying to write on a little ds, which just ain't the same as writing on paper. In bimoji training, it shows that you should even put some sort of box object beside the ds so your hand actually has somewhere to rest on. All these hoops you have to jump through just to get to the point where you can sorta write like you would on a piece of paper... and you may as well have just been practicing on paper the whole time

漢字そのまま楽引き辞典 is simply a must if you have a DS and study japanese. It's a really good dictionary and while it lacks several nice features new 電子辞書 has, it's just awesome for the price.

As for kanji training games, THE Kanji Quiz is the best one I've used. It lets you train reading, writing, radicals and other stuff like opposites. The level is pretty high though and you have to know a lot of Japanese to use it since it uses sentences for most of the training.

usis35 wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88ziFTPpHxE

Is it that difficult to recognize characters input by the stylus in this program? 

Correct stroke order plays a big part in the cpu recognizing the character for the other DS programs that I own.  I can tell that the maker of this video has no concept of stroke order, but is the character recognition still that inaccurate assuming correct stroke order is used?

I just got the sonomama dictionary and it's the best Japanese learning tool I've ever seen! (Maybe tied with anki). There are example sentences for everything I can think of. Does anyone know how to get it to show furigana when displaying japanese definitions?

A new title for kanji writing practice: ユーキャン　ペン字トレーニングDS.

Zarxrax wrote:

There's a new game called にほんごであそぼ.

Anyone checked it out? I've only spent a short amount of time with it, so I don't quite fully understand the point of it yet, but it seems pretty interesting. It seems like it's a sentence memorization game of sorts.

I came to the same conclusion that you did.  The idea is to memorize a few sentences, then be able to fill in the blanks when they quiz you.  It'd be a lot easier if I understood the words.  Hehe.

I found a website that has a huge list, some descriptions and some screen shots and stuff of a whole ton of Kanji games.

http://learn-japanese-ds.blogspot.com

My Japanese Coach is decent for learning japanese. On the bright side, it has 10,000+ words to learn and excellent native speaking for the words, which has fixed some of my pronunciation. on the other hand, it doesn't have any SRS program and you can't really go back to old lessons if they don't support the correct review type.  It's good for studying what you already know on the go, but without SRS functionality it's pretty meh.