How to learn kanji with Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-kun

Playing Nintendo DS (NDS) is so much fun, but it isn’t just about game. In japan there are lot of NDS software that are not fall into game category, and some of them made it to US shore, like Brain Age series. Well most of them did not, because they were targeting niche market of japanese culture. NDS has become a little computer that adults in Japan using it not only for fun, but also for learning. Japanese learner should love Nintendo DS, because it has many titles that are designed for learning Japanese. Of course it was designed for Japanese thus basic knowledge of Japanese will be required, if you can read hiragana then you’re good to go. As you develop your japanese skills, there are lot more challenging softwares that will sharpen your skills. I have fun learning japanese with NDS and I would like to review all as post series, my first review today is Kageyama Method, Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-kun, there’s a little pun there because kakitori means dictation but it “tori” also means chicken which become the logo of this software.

Review
This software has similar interface as Brain Age, you need to turn your NDS sideway, like you’re reading a book. It’s designed to help elementary students to remember kanji, at the end of course you’ll (hopefully) remember 1006 kanjis. The emphasize is on daily drilling, there’s also a calendar to remind the days you’ve been skipping in case you’re a lazy person like me.

There are 4 types of lesson, first is kakitori practice, here you practice your skill in writing kanji. The important thing here is the sequence how you write kanji. The write checking is pretty accurate and you can’t just drawing the kanji. The sequence whether you draw top to bottom first or which line starts first, is matters more than the looks. To pass this practice you need to score not less than 50 points.

Second is kanji drill, here you’ll be given sentence with blanks which you must fill with correct kanji. There’re no time limit. I think this method put more emphasize on understanding kanji. When you in doubt or have no idea what to fill, just click on help, then you’ll be given the kanji and some information on pronunciation and its meaning. The sentence is easy on level 1 and getting more difficult as you progress to next kanji level, of course with addition of more kanji.

Third is juukugo drill, this emphasizes on compound kanji. You’ll be given it’s meaning and you’ll have to figure out the pronunciation. This is a great help to enrich our vocabulary, as most japanese vocabulary are made of compounds.

Fourth is chikara dameshi. This is a mini game of little kanji puzzle, as a result of previous drills and exercises you had.

There’s CM video in youtube, got to love youtube

You could buy this game from:
Amazon.co.jp

Play-Asia.com

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Tags: amazon:asin=B000VXJEW6, book:isbn=0824831675, game, kanji, learning, nds, nintendo ds