![]() ![]() It was as if all my childhood dreams came to fruition. When this game first came to Japan, as a grown adult I rode my bike far into the night all over Matsudo finding and catching pokémon. We can’t leave Isabelle, or Sizue (her Japanese name), left hanging. This way I can go term for term and build a word bank either on paper or in the above Flashcard app, then go back later to study all the new words I read that day. If something is too overwhelming for me in-game, I take a screenshot and upload it to the Google Translate application. ![]() Don’t let this deter you, in fact, embrace the discomfort. There is a lot of conversation in this application and there is some use of kanji. Pocket Camp lets you decide your language setting before you start playing, so no worries if things get too intense and you want to switch back to English. I owe a lot of my animal and common item’s vocabulary to Animal Crossing for the 3DS. The first week it was released, I saw young and old alike playing it on the train to pass the time. Nintendo 3DS fans rejoice! Our beloved Animal Crossing is finally available on a mobile platform as Pocket Camp. Not to mention: who wouldn’t like to collect a ton of cats, take pictures of them and customize all their surroundings? Some of them also give you gifts made from everyday items to help boost your vocabulary. For each cat you come across, you can read about what they’re like and learn what their personality type is called in Japanese. The educational part of this game starts when you switch over to Japanese and practice reading full sentences or sounding out item names in katakana. The currency in this game is sardines (natch!) and as you progress you can buy more food and cute toys for your cats to get them to visit. You can play the game in either English or Japanese, making it no issue to get a feel for the game in English before navigating all the menus in Japanese. And that’s the premise of the game in a nutshell. Neko Atsume translates roughly to collecting, or gathering, cats. If you’re a fan of cats - and let’s face it, you should be - this game is purrfect for you. Regardless of the game, you’re going to remember your vocabulary and become more proficient in Japanese. It’s the QBattle, Loci, Flappy and Blocks games that you have to play to find out what they’re all about. ![]() We can guess what the games Match, Spelling and True & False could be. Once you’ve added that kaleidoscope border you’ve been eyeing, it’s time for the games. Once you make one, you can go further and edit your lists via more choices, such as adding borders or changing the colors of your cards. These are all options available before you even make a deck. Flashcards can be made with either text, images, drawings, videos or even sound recordings. If you’re a teacher or just looking to share your vocabulary decks, there are even export and sharing options. If you’re a big visual learner, you can enable Flickr search to add some flair to your deck. Here you’ll find 27 different study games to pick from for your deck. I’d recommend checking out the Tools/Games section under Deck Defaults. Get in there and play around with the settings, see what works for you and your study habits. Everything appears to be customizable, to the point where I would need to write another article just to explain it all. Before we get into the game side of things, let’s dig into all the available options. One that cannot easily be replicated by pen and paper methods. Flashcards by NKOįor the traditional student, this app gives a twist to studying flashcards. Below are a mix of five apps to appeal to the masses, as well as those who span the beginner to intermediate Japanese levels. In this one, I’m going to provide some tips on how to further your Japanese via mobile gaming. In the first post of this series, we looked at mobile applications geared toward general learning. You could even go the extra mile and get a Japanese PlayStation Network account. Another option is to set up your Sony PS4 console in Japanese. You can opt for a Japanese Switch or change the language settings. If you would like to study Japanese by means of honest-to-goodness video games, one way to do so is to buy a Japanese handheld Nintendo 3DS or a Switch. OK, so video games, per se, aren’t really what I mean (at least for the purposes of this article), but the gamification of mobile apps has come a long way. What else can you do to keep all this new information in your head? I’m going to tell you something that I’m sure we all wish our parents told us to do as kids: play video games. So… you’ve studied hiragana and katakana until you can’t stomach looking at another gojūon (Japanese written symbols used to represent the syllables of words) chart again. ![]()
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