My Japanese Coach Review

Nintendo DS: My Japanese Coach

Why I bought My Japanese Coach

I bought My Japanese Coach as a Japanese language learning aid for me when I was just starting to learn Japanese. Actually, I bought it as kind of a motivator/introductory language learning game. I figured that if it was set up for a gaming platform it would probably be pretty simple to navigate and probably be a convenient way to ease myself into the language, after the audio CD's I had taken out from the library. It turns out I was right, but not in the way that I would have expected.

My first few minutes with My Japanese Coach

Within the first few minutes of playing My Japanese Coach I have to admit, I was not impressed at all. While I like the opening screen they have, and the simple format for selecting the lessons or games, the introductory assessment quiz was, in my opinion, a waste of time. I felt like I knew the level of my knowledge of Japanese better than My Japanese Coach (which it turned out I did, since My Japanese Coach actually tried to put me ahead of some stuff I didn't know yet). They base they're assessment system on some very broad stuff (at least on the easier level I was at; like knowing how to count to ten and knowing some basic words, some of them crossover English and Japanese words).

My Japanese Coach over a period of time

Over the next few weeks and months My Japanese Coach began to grow on me a lot more, though, especially as I began to go through the sections on hiragana. While I hadn't been planning on studying the hiragana yet (something I've now learned is frowned upon, as many believe you should be reading Japanese characters as soon as possibly) I really loved practicing writing them. As the lessons went by I began to realize that I was learning, actually learning the hiragana. It wasn't too long (or at least it didn't feel like long) before I could draw them and recognize them without an aid. Now I know all of the hiragana without an aid (though I still read and write at the speed of a Japanese four-year-old, I'm sure).

Overall My Japanese Coach

My Japanese Coach, overall, I would rank pretty high. This is kind of made obvious in the fact that I currently do not have my copy because I lent it out to a friend who is also interested in learning Japanese. I do think that My Japanese Coach is something that is intended mainly for beginners, though again I did not make it all the way through the program. I'm still on what My Japanese Coach terms "Toddler level" for my Japanese language skills. So if you want to learn Japanese and you're prepared to drop a buck, or go halvsies with a friend, or resell it after you're done, congratulations and I hope you consider My Japanese Coach as one of your options. It is lots of fun and with the DS touchscreen capabilites it makes it really easy to work on the hiragana (though beware, they are wrong about the stroke order a couple of times, but it's easy to spot once you know the rules for ordering strokes).