DS Daily: Coaching

by JC Fletcher { Nov 21st 2007 at 9:00AM }

When we first heard about the My (Language) Coach series, we approached the idea with cautious optimism, and immediately turned to ask your opinion. They're non-games, sure, but they're non-games in an area that may be interesting. The response was overall positive toward the games, though there was plenty of talk (plenty) about wishing for a Japanese edition.

Now that the Coach games have hit, and have been explored in exhaustive detail thanks to Alisha's daily gameplay journal, we thought we would ask again. Anyone out there thinking of picking up a new language with their own personal Coach? Or has Spanish for Everyone undone any goodwill you may possibly have toward DS language training?

Tags: language, my-french-coach, my-spanish-coach, spanish-for-everyone, training

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Try Mks Mmrs @ Nov 21st 2007 9:28AM

I picked up the spanish version last night. I love it. Im currently taking spanish 1 in highschool so this can help.

ELIJAH the ChaosDragon @ Nov 21st 2007 9:31AM

In my youth (Its funny i am only 19 and i am talking like an old man) I spoke a decent amount of both and intend on using this along with my other stuff to re-learn what i forgot. But i have to say thanks to alisha most of my skepticism has been removed and i will be purchasing it.

Waffala @ Nov 21st 2007 9:47AM

I picked up the My Word Coach, which I guess is the English trainer? I feel kind of let down though,I know most of the words, and I feel kind of insulted that no matter how well I do, I'm still going to be told I have a low level of "expression potential" until I complete at least a week [probably more] of training. More disappointingly however, the game seems more concerned with teaching you to recognize the terms with less of a precedent for everyday application, which was why I picked up the title in the first place. And, none of those coaches are near as charming as Dr. Kawashima's disembodied head.

TheCoats @ Nov 21st 2007 10:45AM

I would have to disagree.....My word coach might not be good.....but to generelize the other two pretty great language training games because of that one might be a mistake.......but i will have to agrre with you about none of teose coaches being nearly as charming as Dr. Kawashima's head........you should try one of the other two.......was there a placement test in my word coach and by chance was there a word a day calender??

Max Headroom @ Nov 21st 2007 9:50AM

I would almost certainly buy a Latin version. It was never offered at my highschool and I felt like I really missed out because of it. If you understand Latin, you understand the root of a multitude of languages. I would also be interested in German and ancient Greek, but I know that's not happening.

TheCoats @ Nov 21st 2007 9:57AM

I bought My French Coach because of Alisha's "Journal"........i bought it somewhere around day3 or 4.....and have enjoyed it very much

TheCoats @ Nov 21st 2007 10:00AM

I bought it around day of alishas diary.....i probably would not have if it wasn't for all the positives of "game-play" i saw in her articles

Xian B. @ Nov 21st 2007 10:04AM

Thanks to the efforts of Alisha, I have every intention of buying this... if I can find it. I live in Quebec and haven't seen it anywhere. Amazon.ca says it will be released on November 29th. That's odd. I wonder why it wasn't released across North America simultaneously as is the norm.

I've strictly avoided learning Quebec's dialectal French for years, so this Coach will go a long way towards helping me learn the language properly.

By the way, if Ubisoft and/or Nintendo is listening, my mom says she'll buy a DS if you develop My German Coach.

Po0py @ Nov 21st 2007 10:13AM

I've tried My Word Coach. Can't say I'm impressed with it. I know all the words it throws at me yet so far my expression level is 31% which is Secondary School Graduate level. I feel a little cheated. It is starting me off easy and praising the hell out of me, trying to make me think I'm making loads of progress, showing all the progress pars and graphs, when really I'm just running through words I already know.

I get nouns like "Galleon" "Meadow" when I should be challenged on more usefull adjectives like "Insouciant" or "Caliginous", for example.

They should have given a list of genuinly usefull words I could learn that can come in handy in everyday conversation. A list full of words that will allow me to express myself more rather than a whole bunch of nouns.

I'm not sure if I should bother keeping up with my daily lessons, tbh.

Waffala @ Nov 21st 2007 11:00AM

That's the same problem I had; there needed to be a placement test at the beginning, instead we're stuck with trudging through the easy stuff for days before it might open up and start teaching anything.

raindog @ Nov 21st 2007 10:26AM

I'd really like to try them first, but I'll probably pick up My Spanish Coach anyway because learning Spanish together was one of the things my partner and I planned to do together before he died, but we never had time.

If I learn enough Spanish from it to understand random conversations at the mall in my hometown, which are more often Spanish than English, I'll pick up the French one as well so I can be more prepared for my next trip to Montreal, whenever I get a passport. (I can read street signs and most of the common stuff you see in shops, but I'm not by any means conversational.) I'd love a German one as well so I could brush up... 5 years of high school and college classes is no match for 20 years of non-use. I can barely read Heise.de nowadays.

This is exactly the sort of non-game stuff I hoped to see when the DS was first announced.

Dash @ Nov 21st 2007 12:18PM

I'm thinking of buying some of the Ubisoft's My (language) coaches, they're the only ones that seens to teach anything.

Right now the only training game I have is Contra 4, or how I like to call it, the Death Training-Learn to die millions of time within minutes. The only vocabulary I learnt there is "Game Over" and "Dreaded Pus-Sucker" (Konami always has the best enemy names).

Ali @ Nov 21st 2007 1:14PM

Yet to try these but I would jump at the chance of a Japanese one, always wanted to learn Japanese I know about 30 words but mostly from Anime and such.............................

alisha.karabinus @ Nov 21st 2007 2:14PM

Yay for all the people studying French with me! :) I've got a review of My Word Coach coming up, but like some of the others, I'm not as impressed with it as I am with the language trainer.

Brittany @ Nov 21st 2007 2:17PM

I'd agree after reading your week long diary of how you were coming along with my french coach, I'm thinking about picking it up for myself - I took 4 years of French in high school and I'm curious to how much I remember!

I would be pretty excited to see them do other languages as well!

Goldilocks @ Nov 21st 2007 5:33PM

I picked up My French Coast last night. If it weren't for Alisha's reviews, I think a lot of skepticism would have kept me from getting it. There are hardly any good, in-depth reviews about it at all!

When I began opening the game, I felt a little intimidated, having never taken French in school (I took German) and not really knowing any words, let alone phrases. I actually started off at level Five though; impressed myself. And now, I'm gonna go play it some more. Talking about it just makes me wanna play.

Oh yeah! When they say use headphones for optimal results, they mean it!

Archibold @ Nov 21st 2007 6:31PM

I was going to get My Word Coach and My French Coach. However, with all the negative comments about My Word Coach, I am becoming a little skeptical. I already have a decent vocabulary and I just wanted to brush up. However, if it is as easy as you guys are making it seem, it will be of little use to me.

I still think I want to get My French Coach. I was never really able to find out how in-depth the game goes which is kind of important to me, but I still think I'll get it. Even with six years of French, I'm pretty sure I missed out on a lot of the basics and I just generally don't understand the language. So even if it doesn't help me with past tenses and whatnot, I'm sure I'll get something out of it.

Tiberius @ Nov 23rd 2007 12:58PM

Yes, Klingon you bunch of paTaks, grrrrrr.

Actually, it would probably be fun, mind you, it would have to come with a special cloth to wipe the guttural spittle off the DS screen... GGGGak this and GGGGuking that all over the place.

llamaeyes @ Nov 25th 2007 2:00AM

I would love to try Italian

amelinda @ Nov 30th 2007 2:13PM

I purchased My Word Coach after following the My French Coach entries and was disappointed with it as well. Over 5 days of use I saw very few words that were foreign to me prior to the start of the game. The greatest flaw is neglecting to include a real test of the user's vocabularly from the start of the program. The game as it stands now has the potential to be a good training game for children, in that it provides fun ways to practice basic words. I do hope that unisoft makes an improved version of this game tailored to vocabulary often seen on standardized tests along with My German Coach as I would purchase these titles if available.