Last weekend I bought a Nintendo DSi for educational purposes. It’s only the third handheld I’ve owned… my first two were a Sega Game Gear and Nintendo Game Boy. My Game Gear crapped out after leaking a mysterious, brown, sticky goo, and I don’t know what happened to the Game Boy. Point being, I’m not a big handheld console gamer. Or a much of a console gamer at all. Hell, the Wii I bought (and sold a month later for a $50 profit (cue some Rule of Acquisition)) was my first console since a Nintendo 64.
I purchased the DSi along with a game in order to replace a Japanese-English dictionary and kanji dictionary. Kanji are the complex symbols of the Japanese writing system, and are largely borrow from China. An example of two would be 日本 – nihon – Japan.
Both books have served me well for years, but looking up terms, especially in the kanji one, is time consuming, and carrying them around when out and about is out of the question. So the DSi and a “game” called 漢字そのまま DS楽引辞典 – Kanji Sonomama has replaced the books.
Now that I have the DSi and 漢字そのまま, I shall cherish them forever. The ability to write kanji to lookup a meaning is amazing. This is something I can (and have) carry comfortably in my pocket, and whip out and scribble on when I encounter an unknown word. The ability for the DSi to enter sleep mode means the dictionary is always ready at a moment’s notice. Along with definitions, 漢字そのまま provides a few example sentences. I won’t ramble further on about it, as there’s already several stellar reviews of the software on Amazon, YouTube, etc.
I also found an electronic dictionary with kanji recognition abilities, the Casio Ex-word XD-GF9800. While it has a few more features than a DS + 漢字そのまま, I certainly don’t believe they warrant a ~$130 higher price tag. I’ll pass.
Not long after, I bought a kanji study game called 250万人の漢検. I actually bought the previous version… It has received better reviews, plus the new version wasn’t available at a nearby store. It’s meant to prepare one for the Kanji Kentei, an aptitude test of kanji ability. This game provides practice for reading and writing kanji, identifying stroke order, and more. One of the chief benefits of the game is it always uses kanji within the context of a sentence. I’ve played it for about two hours so far, and have learned literally scores of new kanji. It is without a doubt the best kanji study method I have used… It’s proven more effective than rote learning (what isn’t more effective than that?), classroom instruction, flashcards, Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji (what a waste of $30), writing the same character over and over, etc. This game impresses me so much I’m considering dropping my kanji class, which has thus far proven to be a frustrating waste of time.
As I bought the DSi primarily for the kanji dictionary, I was wholly unaware of its other features. Cameras, wireless, PictoChat, DSi Shop, web browser, microphone, and more… it’s all icing on the cake. At the time of purchase, I realized I a DSi bought in Japan may not work with games from other regions. But as mentioned before, in my mind the DSi was simply a platform for an superb kanji dictionary. Fortunately though, DSis are largely region-free. In the future, I will be able to play games made in the US… which is great, because I’m looking forward to Scribblenauts. Also, it seems I’ll be able to communicate with American consoles. Pretty much the only aspect which is linked to Japan is the firmware and access to only the Japanese DSi Shop. Non issues, in my case.
