My Japanese Coach: Konnichiwa and beyond
by Alisha Karabinus 
{ Oct 30th 2008 at 1:30PM }
Just as we did with My French Coach, we're taking a long, hard look at the recent My Japanese Coach -- but with one key difference. This time, instead of just lowly little me, slaving along with some knowledge of French, this time I'm struggling with a language I know very little of, and I'm working with a "partner" who knows quite a bit of Japanese already.Before tearing into Ubisoft's latest DS language trainer, if asked, I would have struggled to produce ten words in Japanese, and one of those ten would have been in the title of this post (and another would have been sushi). Perhaps that's exaggerating; after all, I did know a bit more than the fact that I prefer nigiri to sashimi, such as the words for red, blue, and green, and words like "please." My Japanese Coach-partner -- also known as my husband -- has always been very good about teaching me words when I ask. I suppose that makes me 1% more knowledgeable about the Japanese language than the average person pulled off the street.
And that fraction means absolutely nothing, I learned, when you sit down to study a language like Japanese with any tool, even My Japanese Coach.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
neaux @ Oct 30th 2008 2:22PM
very nice review. I was very tempted to purchase either My Japanese or My Chinese Coach this past weekend. My biggest problem was the voice recognition, as I'm suffering from a cold and didnt want to purchase something that required it (when I currently don't have a voice).
So I'll probably look at these at another time when I am healthy. I wound up buying Dragon Quest IV instead.
Are they going to do a korean version? My wife was born in Korea and would probably like to learn a little bit of the language.
R_Fusion @ Oct 30th 2008 2:29PM
Nice. I bought this for my gf and she already knew a little japanese but it doesn't hurt to pulish her skills and practice it once in a while with this game. It was very helpful since noone can help her practice with something we are so unfamiliar with.
I wish they made MyGerman Coach
R_Fusion @ Oct 30th 2008 2:30PM
aaah!! I meant polish.
Mr Khan @ Oct 30th 2008 2:34PM
わたし は にほんご を かきます。
Ricky @ Oct 30th 2008 4:00PM
でも、漢字を読んでいますか？ I think not.
Tamyu @ Oct 30th 2008 8:44PM
漢字を書いたからってすごいというわけではないと思うんですよ。 というかさ、「読んでいますか」じゃなくて「読めますか」でしょ～
調子に乗るなよ♪
Kimiko @ Oct 30th 2008 2:43PM
Thanks for the review :) I was wondering when you'd get around to it. This is one of my most anticipated games of the year.
I also found this review of My Japanese Coach very good:
http://diehardgamefan.com/2008/10/17/review-my-japanese-coach-nds/
I'm planning on buying some basic text/workbooks, My Japanese Coach (for variety), and the Japanese edition of Pokemon Platinum (to keep it fun) soon.
Mr Khan @ Oct 30th 2008 3:13PM
あなた は にほんご を わかります か?
PJ @ Oct 30th 2008 3:27PM
はい！
ぼくはにほんごをわかります！
Matias @ Oct 30th 2008 7:22PM
Watching anime on a daily basis for many years helped me a lot to learn some pronunciation, basic words , and sentences. But this game made me learn kana (both of them) in 3 days, and I can't wait to learn more of verb conjugation and vocabulary so I an translate the rune factory frontier homepage.
Also reading manga helps a lot, just read the untranslated version, try to understand, and then compare it with the translated one.
Robin @ Nov 2nd 2008 12:15PM
You can NOT learn japanese from anime, maybe only some simple words you already knew, but NOT fluent Japanese, that's just impossible.
If you really want to learn Japanese take Japanese lessons, I am, with a private teacher, and yes, I am getting My Japanese Coach but I am 100% sure a teacher is way better than this game.
ShadowGirl @ Oct 30th 2008 7:57PM
Will this game help me in playing imported games, seeing as it deals more with romanji then kanji?
Sally @ Oct 30th 2008 11:09PM
I have this. After lesson 30, you're on Kana. No more romanji. So yes, if you work hard enough, you'll be able to play your import games.
This game is awesome.
Only complaint: the "speak" mode where you get to hear yourself back? You'd always sound like a chipmunk. I have no idea why. Rosetta stone does the same thing. Maybe I DO sound like a chipmunk.
Chinese coach, on the other hand, I didn't find very useful. Thing is, you can type romanji in and be understood. There is NO WAY you can type pinyin in and be understood. NO WAY.
BTW, I'm Chinese, and I read / write / speak fluently. It's too hard of a language to learn without a bunch of workbooks, lessons, and immersion.
BlackDS @ Oct 31st 2008 1:12PM
I plan on getting this next weekend
chibi_wings @ Oct 31st 2008 10:40PM
i'm horrible with languages, I took german for a bit and I struggled through it. Maybe I should pick up the German/Japanese coach if I see it. If it's with my DS it may actually get me to reinforce the lessons I learned awhile ago. ^^
Allan Rosewarne @ Nov 2nd 2008 7:48PM
So, I got my DS Lite yesterday, upgrading trade-in from a GB Advanced (inherited from a late family member) at Game Stop, they've got a trade-in deal ongoing. During the trade-in on a whim I got My Japanese Coach. After one day, I'm impressed and many of my first impressions agree with this review. With my newer interests in anime and manga (Hell Girl, Scrapped Princess, To Heart, Witchblade), I'm anticipating the two activities to augment each other.
RachelKat @ Nov 5th 2008 7:08AM
It's great to finally see the Fanboy review of MJC; I've been waiting for it before I run out and buy the game. Still, I have one critical question:
Is there any kind of grammar help for sentence structure and verb/adjective tenses, or is it all just vocabulary? I studied Japanese for one year in college, and I finally want to get up to the level where I can read Manga.
Matt @ Nov 6th 2008 1:48PM
Nice review, picked this up when it launched and I'm loving it so far, on lesson 20 or so right now. Definitely something where you have to keep replaying and replaying to really get it all to sink in. The "Write Cards" game is terrific with practicing kana, very few recognition problems for me, and it's great that it checks the stroke order and stroke direction. Anxious to see how the difficulty changes when I get past lesson 30 and out of romanji!
JeniferPlague @ Dec 19th 2008 2:53PM
I was looking for reviews on this, and what I read was that the Japanese Coach game is wrong on some stroke orders. And this worries me - if it's wrong on some stroke orders, which is very important, what else could it be wrong on?
So for me, I've picked up a couple textbooks from Half Price Books (....a textbook that's normally $50 was found for $8, type of place) and I'll get those other two games, the one that teaches stroke order for kanji and the one that is the Japanese-English dictionary thing.
dracostarhome @ Jan 16th 2009 6:36PM
I just recently bought this game and i've just started lessoin one. I had the chance to skip to level four when I first started the game, but I rigged it to where I started on lesson 1 instead.
I would say as with the little knowledge I already knew via the Japanese language, this seems both a little good and bad for a beginner .
it does help you learn and give you a basis on starting the language, however the only flaw I see on it when You go to start practicing writing the kana out... would be that when you write over the kana for the practice part... it doesn't allow you pen pressure.
I was told in my Katakana lessons, that if your writing it out, PRESSURE, as well as which order you do your strokes in, is important! ^.^'
Also, there are certain words that I KNEW had Kanji but it wasn't writing it out for you in the practice thing.
Since i've only picked it up yesterday, I am already impressed with it....