 Awesome! |
| Review Date: September 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: WYM19, Canada |
This is an excellent teaching tool for Chinese. It teaches you the Mandarin dialect (the official language of both China and Taiwan), pinyin (the anglicized pronounciation guide) and the simplified Chinese writing system (used in China).
Each lesson has a few characters and phrases to learn. You can hear the program pronounce each character and phrase, speak into the Nintendo DS to compare your pronounciation to the program, and practice writing. There are also games to play to strengthen the learning process. You can repeat the lessons and games as often as you like.
With Chinese writing, a character is only considered to be written correctly if the strokes are written in the right order and direction (imagine yourself writing a "plus" sign, there are 2 strokes that can come in different directions). So I found the writing part, using the stylus to write the characters, particularly helpful, because I could practice writing the characters.
A huge bonus is the mini-program included that includes travel phrases, dictionary of words known, etc. So if I'm in a restaurant in Beijing, I can choose the dining phrase from the list and show it to the waitor to ask a question.
I've tried to learn Chinese from language CDs, but found it hard to use because the CD's go on their own pace and the pronounciation is very fast. With this program, I can choose to replay something over and over again. With books, I'm not sure if my pronounciation is right. With this program, I can tell easily with the DS' audio capabilities.
So basically, this is the best language teaching tool I've seen for Mandarin (short of moving to China or knowing someone who speaks it fluently.) |
Great for anyone learning chinese
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| Review Date: September 10, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Duan Song, |
| I am a fluent chinese speaker but i can't write in chinese. I have taken many classes and have never really walked away with much success. This game kept me interested and excited to learn. The game has many functions. It first tests you on how much chinese you know, then places you in the right lesson to start with. You can record and compare the pronounication in the game. This game teaches you all the important charaters and grammer. Really good game. Perfect for anyone taking chinese or interested in learning the language. |
These language coach games are great!
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| Review Date: August 30, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Mark Youwanes, California |
I'm not looking to master any particular language. My goal in buying these language coach games (I have all three so far) is to familiarize myself with new languages, stimulate my brain, and have fun while doing it. I figure a few minutes a day won't take too much from my life. Keep this in mind as perhaps you may have a different learning goal.
I really like this game so far. The set up is very much like the Spanish and French coach games with one very important addition: it actually gives you a chance to practice writing the characters as well.
Wow this language is so foreign to me so I'm barely learning a few words a day. I expect my word-acquisition rate to increase as I warm up to it after weeks of daily training.
Basically it's broken up into many lessons. Each lesson includes a chance to read the set of words for the lesson, listen to them clearly spoken, say them and compare what you say to how they say it, and then practice writing the words in Chinese. In addition to this basic mode of learning, each lesson has fun mini games and quizzes. It appears that there are more unlockable games, but I haven't made it that far yet.
I'm not sure if you can actually learn a language from any single tool and this is no exception. I do believe, however, that this can make a valuable addition to a language student's toolset. I believe these language games give you a lot for the price. I love the DS for these kinds of educational games, and I look forward to getting more titles of this kind. |
This is amazing
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| Review Date: October 2, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Melanie Spiller, San Francisco |
I bought this product based on my happiness with UbiSoft's "My French Coach." It's just as good!
Like "My French Coach," "My Chinese Coach" teaches vocabulary and pronunciation by using games and common expressions. I have really learned a lot from the program's ability to record MY voice pronouncing things. I find the little graph that shows a voice print to be incredibly instructive. You can slow down or speed up the recording to match the speed at which you record your own voice, and see exactly where you've gone wrong on the graph while comparing your voice to the teacher's.
Learning to write the script has proven more difficult than I expected, but the tool allows you to write over theirs, repeat theirs, and apply theirs over the top of your own.
Two downsides:
--There is no option in the placement test for saying you don't know, so if you inadvertently guess correctly, you can get placed several lessons in (I got placed at the 5th lesson, and I could only say "thank you," and "happy New Year" when I started). It took me a little while to figure out how to retrace my steps and get to the first lesson. There is no option to just start at the first lesson, or if there is, I didn't find it. (In "My French Coach," I tested more accurately because I knew some French.)
--The script in some of the games is very small. Because these characters are unfamiliar to me, I need them to be large and clear enough that I can learn to distinguish them. |
Five Star Chinese
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| Review Date: October 25, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Got Book?, |
My Chinese Coach
This is one of the best Chinese (Mandarin) learning programs which I have come across and it is in a convenient format, as well.
The program is designed to start at a very basic level and after brief testing, you will be placed into the appropriate level. Each lesson gives the user several vocabulary words and several interactive ways of learning, from flashcards, hit-a-word, multiple choice, tones, and fading characters. Notes on culture are included intermittently. Users also have the opportunity to practice speaking and there is a feature to compare the user's speaking with that of a native speaker.
The program effectively reinforces learned material, while pairing it with new. The fading characters portion of the program is quite challenging, as it moves very fast, but once you start getting the hang of it, it is quite helpful. Some users have criticized the program for not including much Pinyin, (Romanized written alphabet/pronunciations), however, it serves the user well to learn pronunciations coupled with characters, as Pinyin is not used in China, except by children learning the language.
This is a great tool for kids, as well as adults. At $29 for over 1000 lessons, it is a bargain! |
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