Learning a Language with Nintendo DS
Japanese owners of the Nintendo DS have been using it for all sorts of uses outside of games, like learning how to cook with Shaberu! Dīesu Oryōri Nabi or using it as a sweet synthesizer with the Korg DS-10. It looks like this trend is finally coming to the U.S. as people begin to discover how versatile the hardware can be for education.
A recent example of this is the new game called My Chinese Coach, published by Ubisoft. This game falls under a whole series of titles that teach language with the Nintendo DS. Previous titles include My French Coach, My Spanish Coach, My Word Coach, and My Japanese Coach is expected to be released in October.
I am ethnically Chinese but I have grown up speaking a dialect of Chinese known as Fukienese or Fujianese, which is so different from Mandarin that it is almost like learning a completely new language. So I went in without much prior knowledge other than the basic fortune-cookie Chinese of Ni hao (Hello) and Xie Xie (Thank you).
I was expecting My Chinese Coach to be a rather shallow program but boy was I wrong. The first lesson introduced me to Pinyin, which is the romanized version of Chinese. It does this by playing a sample of each sound through the speakers and then allows you to record your own voice with the DS’s built-in microphone. You can then play it back and view the waveforms of the recording and compare and retry until you have the correct pronunciation.
The next lesson introduced the 5 different tones and how to read them in Pinyin. A word like ma can be said differently with rising or lowering intonation to mean different things. For example, ma said with a low tone to a higher tone like a question can mean “hemp,” while ma with a high to low tone means “scold.”
These lessons were followed by mini games where you rack up points and “level up” each word. The first minigame is a multiple choice quiz where you have to match the Pinyin or Chinese characters with the English word and vice versa. The next game is a whack-a-mole style game where you are told to only whack the mole that pops up with a specific Chinese character. I found that this greatly forced me to recognize a Chinese character in a short period of time. Another game makes you write the Chinese character with the correct stroke order on top of an example in the background. Each time you write it, the character that you are tracing begins to disappear faster until you are forced to write the character without any guidance. As someone who has had to write Japanese characters over and over in the past, this is an excellent way of learning how to write properly.
As you “level up” each word with each one you get right, you eventually master the word after you get enough right. After you master all the words, it will unlock the new lesson. There is a addictively rewarding satisfaction in unlocking new lessons similar to leveling up your character in World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy. This is also good because it really does require you to master everything and prevents you from skipping through all the lessons. One thing I was worried about was that the game would not be robust enough for people who were experienced with the language. So I asked my Mom, who’s fluent in Chinese, to try it out. She was able to skip through the really basic lessons by taking a proficiency test at the beginning. She really liked how it taught her the proper tones and pronunciation and she told me that she had actually learned a lot of things wrong when she learned it in the Philippines. I was shocked to find that it teaches you over 12,000 words!
Here’s a little vid of the placement test:
My Chinese Coach may not be a complete substitute for a college level language course, but for people who can’t afford classes or don’t have time for them, it’s a great way to get your feet wet and familiarize yourself with a language so you will be primed and ready if you do decide to take some classes. I liken it to having a portable Rosetta Stone with you when you’re waiting in line or taking the bus or train. These games are also great for people who have learned a language in the past and need a refresher. My Chinese Coach is $29.99 and available wherever Nintendo DS games are sold.
As someone who is also studying Japanese, I also can’t wait for My Japanese Coach, which uses the same format to teach Japanese and arrives later this month on October 15. I will be sure to post my impressions.
