My Japanese Coach (Nintendo DS, 2008)

I have tried so hard to learn another language in the past & have always failed.
But with this, "game" I am learning faster than ever! I have only been playing it a day a I already know how to count to 19 & I know a bunch of new words! And I am completely comfortable & having a blast with it!!!

Within just a few days of owning this game, both my son and I are addicted to it, and his Japanese vocabulary has improved greatly. I had tried everything - other games, cds, flash cards, and he just wasn't showing interest. Putting it in such a simple format on the DS turned the trick for him, and now we have simple conversations and drills.

It makes learning incredibly easy, non-stressful, and amusing. You can just do a few minutes a day to take one lesson, or do more than one lesson if you're doing review. The ability to switch to comparing your speech, to comparing your handwriting, is wonderful. I have games from Japan which can do these things, but you have to already know how to read the Kanji to even get thru the menu, so this is much simpler. The games are cute, and there are unlockables for doing well in your lessons. You can repeat the older ones if you want - for example, if you're learning the romajii and speech first, you can still go back and memorize the reading and writing. Later on, the flash cards dissolve the kanji or kana, and you have to write it with proper brush stroke from memory, so it does offer some challenge, but it is best for beginners or those who need a fun way to review. I use this with another game primarily for study despite having all the flash cards, cds, and books that you could imagine.

This is one of THE best pieces of Japanese soft I've ever used. As a native English speaker having studying Japanese for over 8 years + living currently in Japan for 2+ years, this has been very very helpful!

This soft is cool, because it does not allow you to cheat. It makes you start at the beginning, even as after the "proficiency" test. Thought the beginning was very easy for me, it made me drill many things I thought that I had mastered, but had not. This was humbling + helpful.

If you have a DS and have any interest at all in learning Japanese, no matter your "level" I highly suggest this one!

It's fun and very educational!

Cheers!

I have "My Japanese Coach" for a week now, and i think this is the most easiest, cheapest and effective way to learn Japanese. I would highly recommend it to those people who's been desperately wanting to learn to speak and write Japanese.

This game is amazing. I wanted to catch up on my Japanese, but I don't have a flexible enough schedule to go to any actual class. This game lets me review and learn what I want, when I want. Not TOO great for someone who's never taken any Japanese. I took one quarter of it and it seems perfect. I'm just a bit rusty on my katakana.

All in all, it's great!

Hi I bought this item for my daughter, have been looking for ages to get it and finally found it in USA, bought, sent and received with little trouble at all, would recommend to anyone, good ebayer, thank you

This game is what its called, it coaches you on how to learn japanese in mini game style fun. at first the game gives you a placement test to see how good are you in japanese (of course i failed) and teaches you from scratch starting with hello, good bye, the numbers/colors. then goes to phrases. the only thing i dislike where learning the letters. its good to learn but the ds handwritting with it could have been better (Found it really difficult with the ds) in all this game does teach you a lot of the foundamental of the japanese language.

Definitely helpful for anyone who is serious about the language. However, if you are just trying to learn it casually, you will have a tough time with this.

This is a really great product for anyone that has little to no knowledge of the Japanese language, and who would like to sort of "start from the ground up" so to speak. It has numerous mini-games to help you with learning your words, and the part I like most about this game is that you have to master all the words in your current lesson and previous lessons before you can go on to the next ones, so no skipping around and getting confused! This also ensures you learn things in the proper order.

One not so great feature is the opening placement test, to see how much Japanese you already know. Based on how well you do, you may skip a few of the beginning lessons (there are about 1000 lessons total). I skipped the first four lessons originally, but I deleted that game after completing only one lesson, and decided to fail the placement test on purpose in my new file so I would not skip a single lesson. Trust me you will want to do this as well unless you know a fair amount of Japanese vocab words. The problem here is it assumes, based on words you get right in the placement test, that you know other similar words, when you may not. It also then changes the status of the skipped lesson words to mastered, even if you have no idea what the words mean. An example being, I knew words like anime, manga, hello, a few random colors I guessed at, etc. and it bumped me ahead 4 lessons, but it also assumed I knew all the days of the week, a few numbers and others I didn't know at all. So do yourself a favor, if you are really set on learning everything you can from this game, and fail the placement test on purpose.

Other than that so far the game has been great. I have learned loads of things already and because you repeat the words so often and in so many different forms they really do get drilled into your head. Practicing things in real life is also fun and helps you learn as well.
There are numerous mini-games too, some more helpful for certain things than others, to help you master your words. Other features, in the lessons themselves, helped enormously in my understanding of the Japanese writing system, and these were things that I picked up on my own, they were not actual lessons (at least not in the beginning of the game).

There are numerous other features that can help you if you take the game traveling to Japan, which allows the game to dual as a portable Japanese phrase book and dictionary. These expansive and well organized features alone are worth the price of the game, and they are only a side feature!

The music does get repetitive after a while, but since you will only be doing one or two lessons a day it is not intolerable.

One important thing to mention is to make sure you do the lessons while you are alert and awake! Don't do them late at night when you are tired, and make sure you are getting plenty of sleep! Sleep is when you brain really works it's magic on things you learn throughout your day and if you don't get enough it won't matter how good of a program you are using to learn from, you won't be able to remember things.

And remember, real fluency in a language generally takes years of school study and practice, so don't expect to be able to fluently speak Japanese when you have completed this game. However, for being only a game, it will teach you a vast amount of things, and you will be well on your way to being fluent, especially if you use this game in conjunction with actual Japanese classes.

I give it a 4/5.

I didn't realize just how expansive this game was when I intially bought it, it's worth so much more than I paid for it I almost feel like I stole it!

The lessons are really easy to follow and effective! If you use this game as it is supposed to be used it is amazing how much you can learn in a short amount of time!

I love this product. The program has helped me learn Japanese quickly and easily. I am taking a trip to Japan next spring and I think this product will definitely prepare me for the trip. I think spending several hundreds of dollars on classes is ridiculous if you are just visiting Japan.

This game is really helpful in teaching its language! The games are entertaining and the lessons are exciting!! :)

I have tried so many books to learn Japanese. With "my Japanese coach", it's the first time I can learn the kana and the kanji in the same time I learn what they mean, and in a funny way.
The only problem : it's important to speak english first; it's perhaps not a problem for most of the people but for french speaking people like me, it's a little bit harder, moreover with the speed games, and this "coach" doesn't exist in other language than english.
Inspite of that : a perfect way to learn Japanese.
SWW

this is probably one of the best ways to learn japanese on your own. you can listen to the game correctly pronounce the words for you, it lets you record yourself speaking the phrases and words (the first time i've enjoyed using the microphone in a DS game) and compare your pronunciation to the game's speaker, it shows you how to write in hirigana, katakana and simple kanji, showing you stroke direction and order- you can practice writing with the stylus, and there are a bunch of memory games including flash cards, multiple choice, writing from memory, and a few others.
there are over 1000 lessons, and it will not let you pass on to the next lesson until you have mastered the 10 or so words, phrases or characters in that lesson, via repetition of games. words and phrases from previous lessons occasionally pop up in each lessons' tests to keep you from forgetting what you already learned.

it can save up to 3 profiles, so family members can share the game, you don't have to each own your own copy. when you first create a new profile, you take an aptitude test to see what level you can start at, so its good whether you're new to the language or intermediate. my husband and i have been taking turns on this, he started off new to the language and i studied 2 years of japanese in college, and its been beneficial to both of us.

my only complaints are that the writing portions are a little too sensitive (if you lighten the stylus' pressure on the screen during a stroke, it sees it as 2+ strokes and you get it wrong) and also so far (i'm at level 41) there's not as much verb conjugation and sentence structure as i'd like, mostly vocabulary, but perhaps farther on it will have more phrases. i might be able to say "863" now, but at the moment that's a little useless.

there are several other "my coach" languages that you can buy, including spanish, chinese and french. if they come out with polish or german i'm sure i'll be buying those as well. its said that the average person is capable of mastering 7 languages, and these DS games are probably the cheapest and fastest way to make that goal before you die :)

This is an easy, fun to use and easy way to learn Japanese. I highly recommend it for those who are on the go a lot and can't seem to make time to sit down at a computer to learn from a language software.

This product is fun to use and is effective in learning the Japanese language becaue we enjoy using it.

This game is better than the computer versions because it moves at your pace. If you are having trouble with a skill it reveiws it until you have it mastered. It is an excellent choice for children as well. My kids think of it as a game, not a learning tool. My two, very young, sons are in a Japanese Immersion Program and it has helped them with their proficiency. The Japanese language is very hard to learn so you may need several different teaching aides. This game should definetly be on the short list for anyone wanting exposure to the language. The low cost is also a benefit!

My Japanese coach is great if you are looking to get into the language as a first timer or if you are intermediate and want more practice. You get to practice writing the characters in the proper stroke order, and it actually forces you to learn the kana unlike other learn Japanese methods. It even teaches you helpful grammar and vocab and gives you lots of games to practice learning them. The cons are that even if you get all the beginning questions right, it will still put you at a preschool level, so it is hard to jump ahead to your current level. Also the game is reluctant to get rid of romaji (great for beginners, not so great for more experienced learners). Not as much grammar and conjugation practice as writing practice, but if you are looking to practice your Japanese or learn it for the first time, this is a fun interactive way to do it.

I enjoy this game immensely! I have studied Japanese during college and off and on since then. I've always enjoyed all elements about the language and culture of Japan. I've been looking for a class, book, computer software, etc. to assist me with refreshing my knowledge of the language. I've always had difficulty maintaining my knowledge of Kanji, and this game is an excellent tool to assist me with practicing and remembering the stroke order of the characters. It teachs via combining all three writing styles as well as romaji. I feel like this is going to be one of my favorite learning tools for refreshing my Japanese skills. I HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone trying to learn or just to refresh their skills.

I love this game! It incorporates romanji for the beginner and hirigana & kanji for the more advanced student. Just started playing it last night and I can't put it down.

Thank you for the rapid service and excellent product. My granddaughter is taking Japanese and is absolutely thrilled with the DS Japanese Coach. Now I will have to borrow it in order to understand her!Best Regards for the New year, judi tuerck

Good pricing and available. Don' t know too much about the product is actually a Christmas Present. Looks like it' s in tact and hopefully good working order.