Japanese high school students use DS to learn English
by David Hinkle 
{ Oct 24th 2006 at 1:45PM }
At Yawata High, students are using the DS in the classroom. Obviously, portly plumbers smashing bricks with their head and ace attorneys finding contradictions in witness testimony come to mind when we think of the DS being used in school, however it turns out these Japanese students are using it to learn English. See also:
[Via QJ]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
glap @ Oct 24th 2006 2:54PM
great! the console itself is good enough for it, so why not?
Jackson Pritt @ Oct 24th 2006 3:08PM
I wish they'd make one for English speakers to learn Japanese, Spanish, or really any other language at all. I'd gladly pay upwards of $45 for a DS-based Japanese language learning game.
Josh @ Oct 24th 2006 3:55PM
Jackson Pritt (#2), I think the whole DS-owning population of the Western world agrees with you on the Japanese part, but for some reason Nintendo can't see it...
Off topic, but it's funny to see real people wearing those school uniforms one sees in anime so much. ^^
Mr. Khan @ Oct 24th 2006 6:38PM
@ #2, The reason why a japanese language game wouldn't work in Nintendo's eyes is probably an American stereotyping issue
Outsiders see Americans as arrogant slobs, who see English as "God's given language,"
And to a small extent, that's true, while the VAST majority of japanese can read the Anglo-Roman Alphabet(its included as vital text in sooo many games over there) while, how many americans do you know who can see 付 and know it means "attach?"
Mevolution @ Oct 24th 2006 6:57PM
The english alphabet has 26 letters.
The japanese consist of two syllabaries of about 40 characters each, and then some 20,000 kanji characters (only 2000 or so required by the ministry of education) which add up to hundreds of thousands of kanji variations.
It's hard to fault the american public for not being enamored with such a massive language.
Archaic @ Oct 24th 2006 9:26PM
Us people learning Japanese do at least have one tool for our DS that can help. A recently released Japanese to English dictionary for the DS also works in reverse, and can do Kanji lookup by simply drawing the characters (with the correct stroke order, of course), amongst other things. Of course, you'll have to order it through Play-Asia, and soon, before Sony get their mitts on them too.
Kefka @ Oct 24th 2006 10:59PM
I've got an American friend who's in Japan with JET - teaching school kids to speak English.
She uses her DS to translate Japanese. :D