Kanji practice game for the DS

[becki_kanou]

Recently, I've been inspired by everyone's hard work here to start improving my kanji writing skills, which have always lagged seriously behind my speaking etc.

To that I end, I bought a new game for the DS called 「なぞって覚える大人の漢字練習完全版」. It's a really great study tool, as you can practice writing kanji as much as you like without wasting paper, and it offers traceble practice templates for more than 2,000 kanji with full stroke order diagrams. It has 10 difficulty levels from 小学一年生 all the way to adult, and has fun games, and tracing practice of the 百人一首 as well.

So far I'm loving it, and I'd recommend to anyone who has a basic foundation in kanji but wants to improve their handwriting and overall kanji knowledge.

[chikara]

Sounds great. Do you know if it is available outside of Japan?

[Harisenbon]

Hmm... I had been using the kanji kentei game to study kanji, but it's not very good for learning or reinforcing the kanji, just for reviewing them.

I'll have to go pick up a copy of that on the way home from work tonight.

Also, Chikara, I'm sure that you can get a copy from amazon.co.jp or even play-asia.

[becki_kanou]

Hmm... I had been using the kanji kentei game to study kanji, but it's not very good for learning or reinforcing the kanji, just for reviewing them.

Exactly! I originally bought 漢検DS 2, but I was unsatisfied with the look-up system and lack of a stroke order guide. With なぞって覚える you can access a traceble stroke-order diagram directly from the lessons, whereas with 漢検 you have to go into dictionary mode, and they just show the stroke order, rather than allowing you to trace it.

Chikara- I just checked amazon.co.jp and they have it here
They ship to Aus (that's where you are, right?), but there is a ¥2,000 shipping fee.

edited: url tag problems have now been solved!

[Sairana]

Sounds great. Do you know if it is available outside of Japan?

If your asking for the sake of convenience, then the rest of my post is pretty much meaningless. However, if you're concerned about region encoding, etc, I figured I'd toss this out there.

The DS is region free, supposedly to promote taking it along for travel and being able to buy games for it wherever you go. Unlike other gaming systems, you don't have to worry about having to mod your DS to play imported games.

[chikara]

If your asking for the sake of convenience, then the rest of my post is pretty much meaningless. However, if you're concerned about region encoding, etc, I figured I'd toss this out there.

The DS is region free, supposedly to promote taking it along for travel and being able to buy games for it wherever you go. Unlike other gaming systems, you don't have to worry about having to mod your DS to play imported games.

I was asking for the sake of convenience but the rest of your post was still of interest none the less.

[Harisenbon]

Unlike other gaming systems, you don't have to worry about having to mod your DS to play imported games.

Actually, now Region-encoded Systems are the minority [/quibble]

DS, PSP, PS3 and XBox360(mostly) are all region-free for games.

[furrykef]

I don't think Amazon.co.jp will ship games or other DS software, though. If I recall, they only ship books, CDs, DVDs, and videos. Computer software isn't included in CDs or DVDs, either.

But in case you order anything else from Amazon:

but there is a ¥2,000 shipping fee.

What I do is I buy as much as I can from amazon.co.jp in one shot. That reduces the relative impact of the shipping fee, since it applies once to the entire package no matter how much stuff you buy. (Be aware there's an additional ¥300 fee per for each item, though.) In other words, if there's stuff you'd still want to buy later, it may be cheaper to get it now and have it all in one shipment, and get hit by the ¥2,000 fee once.

- Kef

[becki_kanou]

I don't think Amazon.co.jp will ship games or other DS software, though. If I recall, they only ship books, CDs, DVDs, and videos. Computer software isn't included in CDs or DVDs, either.

Oops, you're right, I didn't notice that.

Health & Beauty, Sports & Outdoor, Toys & Hobbies, software, games, game consoles, Electronics, Home & Kitchen items and adult products can be shipped only to locations within Japan.

Sorry to get anyone's hopes up.
I see, however, Clay has some DS games available at the Japan Shop, maybe he can expand the selection? It seems like it might be popular. I don't know the logistics of that, but it's an idea...

[hungryhotei]

I use http://www.yesasia.com to import my DS games and http://www.play-asia.com/ is also another good choice. The prices are also in US$ which makes it nice and cheap, yesasia prices inculde postage, but play asia's doesn't.

This game sounds interesting. I've been getting great use my kankenDS2 and still have a lot to go with my bimoji training, but I may take another look at this one too if it has such a good recommendation.

[becki_kanou]

How is 美文字 training? That was another one that I was looking at in the shop the other day, and one of my students said she's using it. I kind of like the idea of the special pen as well.

[hungryhotei]

How is 美文字 training? That was another one that I was looking at in the shop the other day, and one of my students said she's using it. I kind of like the idea of the special pen as well.

I'm still undecided on 美文字 training. As you'd expect it only trains handwriting, so you never have to remember which kanji to use or write anything for memory. For each kanji you write it gives you useful advice on issues like balance and proportion, but I haven't used the software long enough yet to know just how much it will help.

[becki_kanou]

I'm still undecided on 美文字 training. As you'd expect it only trains handwriting, so you never have to remember which kanji to use or write anything for memory. For each kanji you write it gives you useful advice on issues like balance and proportion, but I haven't used the software long enough yet to know just how much it will help.

Hmm...sounds interesting. Handwriting has always been my weakest area; my English handwriting's not even very good.

I'll put it on my list. (It's a very long list, and currently at the top is レイトン教授と悪魔の箱).

[Pork Chop]

I know this is a few minutes shy of being one month dead, but has anybody tried 正しい漢字かきとりくん?
I've got this game and I've been going through it a lot lately. I find it really helpful and I'm loving it.

It's broken up into grades 1-6 of 小学校; 1=80 kanji, 2=160, 3=200, 4=200, 5=185, 6=181 for a total of 1006 kanji; which may be a little short if you're trying to go for the whole Jouyou - but it's definitely a good start.
For each level, it has kakitori for hand writing, drills for remembering onyomi, kunyomi, and jukugo, a chikara dameshi test for testing you on the material, and even a mini-game at the end of each section, which is sometimes harder than the actual test.

There's a calendar that tracks how frequently you use the program and daily use gets extra little bonuses (usually a congrats from the funny little "host" of the game).

[becki_kanou]

Actually, that was one of the other games I looked at when deciding which kanji practice game to buy, but as you say, it only goes up to about 1000 kanji, so I gave it a miss. Nazotte oboeru has many of the same features you mentioned; broken up into school levels, tests on reading + writing, has other games etc.