Best Nintendo DS games for Japanese Learning

[Emoni]

For those of you haven't messed around with it, the DS is probably one of the best little Japanese learning tools I have run across. The denshi jisho program for Japanese, as well as Korean/English/Japanese (sadly no Chinese one!! :'( ) alone is enough to make it extremely valuable. Add on to the numerous kanji games and you have one heck of a practice tool.

Recently, I've been messing with the Japanese version of Zelda on the DS. It is absolutely great for Japanese due to all Kanji having the option of clicking on them to reveal furigana. Makes it easy to look up in my secondary denshi jisho. NiceGaijin just recommended Phoenix Wright for good practice as well, although I'm not entirely sure how to pull that off due to the DS being my kanji writing dictionary. (Off topic... any ideas on how?)

Anyway, I'm curious, what other games/programs do your recommend or use for Japanese practice with the DS? What, why, and HOW do you use it for your Japanese language practice?

 

[AroundTheWorld]

I could imagine that a dating sim would be... educational. >> But seriously, it would be mostly conversational Japanese, so maybe.

Care to explain a little more on the topic? :3

 

[Kirakira1232]

The only thing I have right now is a Kanji dictionary for my DS ^_^ I can't live without it. Its so convenient to just draw the kanji instead of counting strokes/looking at radicals etc. It has J to E and E to J functions and lets you find the meaning of kanji compounds as opposed to each individual kanji.

Its called 漢字そのまま楽引辞典 Kanji sono mama rakubiki jiten. Most Asian import stores like yesasia should have it.

Compared to an actual denshi jisho the price is quite reasonable.

Of course the only caveat is that you would have to have reasonable knowledge of stroke order so you draw the unknown kanji properly.

 

[Emoni]

Same thing here Kira Kira. Amazingly useful. Only problem... Can't use it for DS games cause I'm already playing it ! Great otherwise.

I tried Clannad, a Japanese dating game recommended to me by a friend. Not really in to that sort of stuff, but I'm finding the vocabulary and conversational reading useful. The only thing is that the whiny little ***** emo kid I'm playing annoys me and I'm hoping to be able to make choices that ruin his life rather than set him up with the shallow cardboard cut out girl "objects." Oddly the thing I like most about it is the music with the background scenes.

 

[iwuvvleskaylee]

I think a more interesting question is where would we buy? That is, without using a site that's not as well heard of as newegg or amazon.

 

[Charles Barkley]

Buy the kanken 250 man users game. I'm sure you could buy a game off amazon.co.jp or a similar japanese language site if you wanted...

 

[iwuvvleskaylee]

Wouldn't it not accept us using our non-japanese address to send to?

 

[Charles Barkley]

I have used America's amazon.com living here in Japan without problems so I imagine the reverse is ok.

Its just a matter of individual sellers. If they are willing to ship overseas, you can buy from them. If they aren't, find someone else...

 

[iwuvvleskaylee]

You mean amazon is just another ebay? Doesn't amazon.com sell stuff themselves? I'd rather not use a credit card number to transfer funds to a very private investor.

 

[Ashikaga]

amazon.jp allows stores to sell their stuff through them in addition to selling their own stock. If you only want to deal with stuff sold by amazon.jp, make sure the particular item is being sold by them.

Just look where it says "availability" on the details page of the item, and if the item is amazon.jp's stock, it should say "availability: In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.co.jp.".

They do ship overseas.

 

[iwuvvleskaylee]

Ah, thank you. When i get back from camping, i should look through the wares, as this card can now only be used online, and i don't know whether or not i can transfer the funds to the new card, so i may have to just spend the money online so it doesn't go to waste (the old card had contact with water so the signature and black part no exist, making the card not work in mac machines).

 

[Emoni]

I once got a few Japanese games from play-asia.com They have a decent amount of stuff and the prices are "average" I guess for imports. You'd probably be able to find better prices used on amazon shops or maybe even ebay though.

 

[DingoEnderZOE2]

You could also try National Console Support(Ncsx.com) their prices are decent at best and their shipping methods are pretty fast.

 

[ShadowSpirit]

White Rabbit Press - Best-selling Japanese language products Kana and Kanji Flashcards · Japanese Graded Readers · Posters and more!

That's a legit site that does international orders (including to the U.S.) I've bought a few games from them and the Genki language series books. This site specializes in selling audio tapes, books, software, and games that are aimed towards teaching the Japanese language or about Japanese culture.

http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/catalog/Gamesofts-orderby0-p-1-c-252.html

The above link specifically will take you to the video games that they offer. It isn't a large selection, but these games are picked out as being recommended for learners of the Japanese language. The prices are reasonable, and I even had some nice freebies (a book marker and a book called The Manga Guide to Double Sudoku.) sent to me when I ordered my books from this site.

 

[oula]

漢字そのまま楽引辞典

i have this one too and can't live without it... it's really useful although i can't all read the examples hihihih, but i think with out this dictionary i wouldn't be able to make the jlpt3 ^^