Nintendo DS kanji "game"

As far as I know, DS games are not region encoded, so you can buy a game in Japan and it'll work on your DS. I've got Japanese games and they work fine on my North American DS.

If you're looking at buying Japanese games, I would buy them when you're in Japan. The stores there have a wide variety of new and used games so you might find deal.

I stumbled across this thread when looking for alternative Japanese learning games, and thought I'd leave a message just in case it can help. I recently purchased Ubisoft's 'My Chinese Coach' (in fact I bought the DS for this game), and have found it to be very useful so far. I studied Mandarin while in China so already have a basic knowledge, and though I haven't learned a great deal more because of this game YET, it is a great tool for learning characters and reaffirming vocab (and imagine it is very good for beginners too). It offers handy hints with grammar and usually all is explained as it goes along, so each lesson can be easily understanded as you progress. Very easy to use interface and offers useful games that works on recognition of characters/vocab and tones. It has a character writer which doesn't concentrate too much on stroke order (though it is written quickly in stroke order to allow you to trace/copy it), but it certainly helps. It also allows you to record your voice and compare it to a native, either with sentences or with words.

At the moment this game is only available in the US (but can be ordered on ebay for fairly cheap - and yes, there is no region lock on DS; you can play any game on any console, well at least until the new Dsi takes off), and they have just released a 'My Japanese Coach' version, which I have ordered and will try very soon. If it is as good as this one it'll be worth the money, cos god knows my kanji need work!

I hope this message was useful. Email me if you have any questions about the games.

i know that nintendo is coming out with a game dor the ds that is supposed to teach you how to speak and write in japanese. it's called "my japanese coach". i not for sure if its out yet

Yes, it is released today I believe! (Oct 15th) Just ordered it. See above for info on 'My Chinese Coach', the Mandarin version of the same game.

So what is the program like? What JLPT levels does it cover and how systematic is it as opposed to just a random collection of quizzes without any system?

It isn't very systematic for studying for the JLPT. The lessons and vocabulary are pretty random. There are also many errors in the game, especially in writing. The game was clearly designed by foreigners, not Japanese teachers. Luckily the audio is done by a native Japanese. Had that been done by a foreigner too it would really stink. For a more complete review see: http://traveljapanblog.com/wordpress/tag/my-japanese-coach/

i brought the game
'my japanese coach'
and it is indeed very useful
for beginners ! -^_^-
there are also games
and u have to play them
to get the scores to
unlock the next level
it is really fun and not
boring at all !! i love it!
it teaches u grammar,
hiragana, katakana
im not sure about kanji yet
because im still at leven
15, but still, its not boring!

i also bruoght'my chinese
coach' but i have to admit
that it's not simple as
japanese! its really much more
complicated and u have to
learn each character one
by one.. im still at leven 3
there, ohh dear~ ;___;'

if u are a beginner for
japanese learining, this
game will help u a lot to
get to japanese daily life!

NOTE: ok, sometimes i've
got problems, and cant
understand everything, like
when to use wich numbers,
although it is explained there
but still, i cant understand..
so u cannot ask the game
to explain it to you XDD

have to ask a teacher ~.~

ok thats for it hopue
i helped a lil bit !
GANBATTE! x3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16878147...

がんばって　ね

A number of people seem to like My Japanese Coach, but I don't really like it. I think that it's too reliant on romaji for one, and I don't really know why I need to learn how to write Japanese using English characters rather than Japanese Characters. For another there are a number of kana and kanji that are taught with the wrong stroke orders which, apart from being wrong in the first place, makes it hard for people to use when they've already learnt them with the proper stroke order.

When you get down to it game has three basic qualities:

* It's Japanese grammar pamphlet
* It's a vocab list with pronunciations
* It's a couple of decent vocab learning mini-games

As far as the mini games go after you discount the ones that teach you how to spell Japanese in English, the ones that muck you around with Kanji, and a few other innanities there are two left:

Multiple Choice - You see an English word and have to select the correct Japanese translation.

Flash Cards: You hear and see a Japanese word (in kana) and select the correct English translation, with the additional option of hearing the word only.

Instead of buying all of the DS games, you can legally buy an "R4" card at many Japanese electronic stores, which run emulators of any region DS game that you download to a micro SD card.

I've gotten one in the past for $35 on sale, in a Bic Camera in kyoto city near the Kyoto train station.

do you know how i can download the games onto a flash drive? is there a website?

http://www.nds-roms.com/ is where you can find the roms for the R4 card, and you just need to put them on a a Micro SD card. You can find USB that you insert Micro SD cards into, incase you don't have a Micro SD slot on your PC or laptop. Other than that, put the Micro SD into the R4 card, and you're done.