掲示板 Forums - [Nintendo DS / ★★★★☆] - Kanji practice software -KanKen DS

[url=http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-4ece-71-hw-49-en-84-j-70-1i50.html]Zaidanhoujin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kounin: KanKen DS [/url]

Living over here in Japanland, I've snapped up every piece of Japanese-learning-related software for the DS, and a large number of them have had fatal flaws (at least, for my study needs). Finally, I picked up one that is absolutely fantastic.

The name is [u]Zaidanhoujin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kounin: KanKen DS[/u], abbreviated to KanKen (漢検). It is made primarily for those aiming for kanji proficiency (both reading and writing), with emphasis on those taking the Kanji proficiency (KanKen) test. The KanKen has 10 main levels, and the software covers 10きゅう to 2きゅう, which is all you'll ever need.

[b]Software setup[/b]
There's three main sections to the software. [u]Training[/u] is where you'll start out. For each of the different levels, you can choose from 8-10 different quiz types. These include (that I've come on so far):
[list]
[li]reading kanji (enter in hiragana)[/li]
[li]writing kanji (when given hiragana)[/li]
[li]kanji total stroke count[/li]
[li]stroke number of a particular stroke (a single stroke will be highlighted, and you enter the number of that stroke)[/li]
[li]opposites: you'll be given two opposing terms in hiragana, with one highlighted red - you enter that one in. Example: はな and [color=red]くち[/color][/li]
[li]similiar sounds: given a kanji, choose the correct reading (the readings will usually differ by a よ or a ょ, for example[/li]
[li]Radical practice: given a radical and some hiragana, you replace the hiragana with a kanji using that radical.[/li]
[li]はねる／とめる: you see a kanji that's almost completed, and you need to decide if the stroke is ended abruptly, or hooked at the end.[/li]
[li]送りがな: Given a kanji and the full reading in katakana, determine which part is the kanji. For example, given 楽 and タノシい, the answer would be 楽しい[/li]
[li]Multiple-choice - given a sentence, choose which kanji replaces a particular piece of text.[/li]
[/list]
Those are one's I've seen, and that's just in the first 4きゅう (10->7).

You are given a short quiz, and you always have the option at the end to repeat the ones you missed.

[u]Challenge[/u] - you pick a time amount (10,20,40 minutes) and you are given a mix of quizzes from all the quiz-types available for that level. If you pass, you can move onto the next level. Think of this as a test after practicing with the training quizzes.

[u]Game[/u] - there's several simple games. One involves a car moving by with kanji written on the side, you have to translate the kanji as fast as possible. The downside to the games are that they don't seem to allow you to choose your kanji strength level, so they start off at a (seemingly) random level, which will possibly be way beyond your current knowledge level.

The software's menus are very simple, and so it's easy to navigate around. It can hold data for 3 users - this is everything from quiz history to strength in certain types of quiz types to progress on the different strength levels.

[b]Pros[/b]
[list]
[li]Unlike every software title before it, you can start at the most basic of basic kanjis, so the level (games aside) is adjustable for anyone. The 10きゅう stuff even has some hiragana/katakana practice in it.[/li]
[li]Most of the quiz types involves reading natural Japanese sentences, so you're getting good reading practice as well. Take this as far as you'd like, and mentally translating everything you read can help vocab and grammar too.[/li]
[li]The DS is perfectly suited to this. It's extremely easy to enter in characters on the screen. Since the quizzes are so small, it's very easy to pick up, work on it for 5-15 minutes, then put it down.[/li]
[li]Cheaper than most DS games.[/li]
[/list]

[b]Cons[/b]
Only one con real far - that's the games section which seems to act independently of your established kanji strength (through the training and challenge sections).

I've been using it every day and am loving it! I'm happy to answer any questions about it.

I've dabbled with it a tad, but haven't played it extensively yet as I'm trying to focus in on the JLPT at the moment - I will second Mike's recommendation though. As soon as I saw stuff about it I knew it was gonna be gold, so I recommended another friend to pick it up, which he did. Especially if you're at a higher level this is great practice, but as previously mentioned it can still help you out at lower levels as well, unlike some other games. It also forces you to practice writing, and oft times if you don't write it correctly (ie: stroke order, etc.) then it won't register, so it helps improve your handwriting as well. I plan on jumping on the kanken train once I'm done with JLPT (1kyuu this year hopefully), so for me it's absolutely perfect.

One thing to keep in mind though that was sort of frustrating for my friend (taking 3kyuu this year) is that you're expected to know [i]all[/i] readings for a kanji as soon as it appears, which sometimes results in you learning pretty advanced readings for simpler kanji earlier than you might have otherwise. If your goal is total mastery then that's not a big deal, but I'm sure that sucks for some people who don't care if they know how to say 髭を生えてる as long as they know the more common readings for 生 for example.

my 2 yen.

Ok, I went out and bought the game... couldn't hold out til next month!! It is absolutely marvelous. ;D There are a bunch of words that show up even at the lower levels that I don't have much practice using, so I'm loving it. The way I figure it, when you get to my point and there's a word that 3rd graders know that I'm not too familiar with it can't hurt to learn it, right?

As far as being inspiration, glad to be of service! I never get used to hearing that though. I've actually heard that from a few people since arriving in Miyagi - some have told me that if they listened to what Japanese people tell them all the time then they'd think learning Japanese is impossible. So yeah, don't listen to all the naysayers: if I can do it then you can too. :)

Im gonna get one of the Kanken's next week... or both... Let me know if its worth having both when youve had a good tinker:)

Got kanken... the one you reviewed.Thumbs up indeed! Im sure ill get even more use out of this as i get better but im still finding it very useful at my level *passed 10 today hehe, still i want to get full points before i move on* Yeh bummer about the game section...haaaard.. but theres still enough content I can access even at my level to make it worth having. I likes the revision and the break up of testing styles.

Hey what are these 10 levels based on? I want to google to find a kanji listing for each level but not sure what to ugoogelise.

Ｉｓ　ｔｈｅｒｅ　ａ　ｄｉｃｔｉｏｎａｒｙ　ｉｎｃｌｕｄｅｄ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　Ｋａｎｋｅｎ　ＤＳ？
Ｉ　ａｍ　ｕｓｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｏｆｔｗａｒｅ　Ｋａｎｊｉ　Ｓｏｎｏｍａｍａ　ｆｏｒ　ｔｈｅ　Ｎｉｎｔｅｎｄｏ　ＤＳ.This is basically a dictionary, but also includes a quiz and you
are able to save past looked up Kanji. Also useful for chatting if I ever happen to find someone nearby with a Nintendo DS.
Software is designed for Japanese learning English, therefore it includes the English pronounciation, but not any Japanese pronounciation.

Sometimes I woud like to hear the difference in pronouncing 橋　(はし) and 箸　(はし).　Otherwise I aggree that the pronouncition of Japanese is straightforward, unlike English.

Good point. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll see Japanese-language interest at 1/100 the level that English-studying carries in Japan (or anywhere else), so the chances of having software that caters to those who aren't assumed to be verbally fluent in Japanese is slim. Alack!

I'll be adding (some day) functionality to the site so that you'll be able to (very easily) just add words into a personal vocab list; I use the kanji step books for studying (and I make flashcards from the vocab listed in there) - I will see, however, words that dont have kanji appear in the software and wish I had a way to just toss that into a list for later study.

[quote author=マイケル link=topic=26.msg226#msg226 date=1169359858]
Question - would it be of worth to have sound files available for words, read by native speakers? I know of another site that has these for bulk download; I've worked with him in the past, and might be able to get them worked into the site. The words are focused on JLPT lists.
[/quote]

Ｔｈａｔ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｂｅ　ｇｒｅａｔ．　
Ｉ　ａｍ　ｌｏｏｋｉｎｇ　ｆｏｒｗａｒｄ　ｔｏ　ｉｔ．

Sorry - I've had some personal stuff to deal with, so I wasn't able to respond to your message nearly as fast as I wanted to.

As a side note, there's been a huge influx of Japanese-related software titles for the DS; if there's interest, I can post reviews of some of the not so great stuff (which I've bought), and maybe pick up some of the newer ones based on what people are interested in; I really really want to push up the non-existant activity level in the forums; there's 1000 registered users and yet not a single active conversation =/.