Japanese teachers might feel a little uneasy about their job security, as one of the country’s schools has begun trialling Nintendo’s DS console as a way of teaching kids to read and write English.
DS_school_Japan A Japanese student learns English with her DS
Image courtesy Reuters
According to a report by Reuters, Japan's …
Make well and happy studious in harmonious language!
Nintendo ediicate success with most excited training legimen, never to make doredom. Studious will be engage in repeats of english trial to sure complete mastermind of idiotic english languages.
It's simply computer aided learning with a tool that spurs the kids' interest. Good thing. It will not be a substitute for a good teacher though.
When I was a kid, I learned *a lot* of English by playing games. If I wanted to know what was going on, I had to understand the language. This was before each and every game was localized. Along this line—long long ago(tm)—it also helped that games actually featured text instead of voice. Next time when someone inquires about "where" I learned English I might answer "on Monkey Island" *arrrr*
It is very common for English-speaking people to use the DS to learn Japanese. Lots of software packages for those kinds of things. They are being replaced by mobile phones now though.
Can someone make this available to people in the US? It would be nice to hear English around these parts again. Not only that, but we could massively reduce governmental waste of our tax dollars by removing the "necessity" of translating and printing government documents in multiple languages. I find it quite sad that countries who do not use English as a first language have a greater percentage of English-speaking citizens than the US (or at least large portions thereof).
I use some of the higher level English Teaching software for Japanese students to work on my Japanese, as it also teaches correct kanji stroke order via the touch screen. It is very handy as a dictionary, even though a lot of it is well beyond me at this point.
in this case it's no bad thing: English tuition in Japan is legendarily bad. Most teachers can't speak the language, and pronunciation is usually mangled to fit katakana. This is why most Japanese students end up with an excellent grasp of English grammar, but can't speak or understand spoken English.
What the hell? My experiance of the Japanese and Japan (and that of a number of Western English teachers I met) is that they tend to have a wonderfully wide vocabulary but absolutely no concept of English grammer. Which makes drunken conversations relatively fluid as with a bit of hand waving, their vocabulary and our basic grasp of Japanese you can get past most things.
Also we discovered that shady looking youths in caps were often the ones who knew the most English grammer.
@As a DS Fan
Heeey it's Moe-tan/Pen-chan that's such a retarded series, but the duck was funny.
I taught in summer schools for several years, and agree Japanese and Arabian teaching of spoken English is pretty poor, a bit like French taught in GB/US. The Nintendo will fix part of this, by providing correct sound patterns, but will not provide talking practice. That part, I approached by, for example, trying to get students to butt into an argument - though they were really too polite for our lifestyle, which worked against my purpose.
As an aside, those particular games are aimed at a very specific market and there are probably dozens of increadibly boring versions, versions with giant robots, versions with gay guys and versions with a fantasy warrior theme.
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Japanese girls taught English by Nintendo DS
Japanese teachers might feel a little uneasy about their job security, as one of the country’s schools has begun trialling Nintendo’s DS console as a way of teaching kids to read and write English. DS_school_Japan A Japanese student learns English with her DS Image courtesy Reuters According to a report by Reuters, Japan's …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 15:11 GMT
Anonymous Coward
well #
A DS is cheaper then an eeepc and I wouldn't be suprised if the material was better/more stimulating as well.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 15:11 GMT
4a$$Monkey
job security #
you might as well say teachers should fear computers because they will take their jobs.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 15:11 GMT
Anonymous Coward
obligatory #
i for one welcome out new nintento based overlords
or am i the only one that sees all this DS based teaching as part of the RotM
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 15:11 GMT
Dave
All your base #
All your base are belong to us...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base
Dave
P.S. Mine's the one with the pictograms on the back.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 16:38 GMT
Sean Ellis
Nintendo DS teach excellency in English #
Make well and happy studious in harmonious language!
Nintendo ediicate success with most excited training legimen, never to make doredom. Studious will be engage in repeats of english trial to sure complete mastermind of idiotic english languages.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 16:38 GMT
Charlie
RE:Dave #
If there's anyone who reads El Reg and didn't already know 'All your base' i'll eat my hat.
And wikipeida is a horrible thing to link to!
Random p.s. It seems wikipedia isn't part of the Firefox spell checker. Thank god for that.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 16:38 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Sounds like Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age #
albeit with slightly fewer interactive logic puzzles and martial arts
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 16:38 GMT
Bad Beaver
Why not #
It's simply computer aided learning with a tool that spurs the kids' interest. Good thing. It will not be a substitute for a good teacher though.
When I was a kid, I learned *a lot* of English by playing games. If I wanted to know what was going on, I had to understand the language. This was before each and every game was localized. Along this line—long long ago(tm)—it also helped that games actually featured text instead of voice. Next time when someone inquires about "where" I learned English I might answer "on Monkey Island" *arrrr*
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 16:41 GMT
Highlander
Obligatory balance? #
Isn't the obligatory Sony PSP mention missing?
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/04/03/PSP_to_be_used_in_schools/1
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-unveils-new-education-initiative
http://www.nforcershq.com/uk-school-trials-sony-psp-as-academic-tool/
The fun part is that these stories are more than a year old now...There, that's better. Oh, wait, I feel another more balanced link coming on...
Education on handhelds! (DS, PSP and Windows CE PDA)
http://www.sums.co.uk/
Not nearly as much fun as a story about Japanese school girls is it?
Paris, because she'd know what to do with a handheld in a classroom. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 18:52 GMT
IR
Not only that #
It is very common for English-speaking people to use the DS to learn Japanese. Lots of software packages for those kinds of things. They are being replaced by mobile phones now though.
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 19:29 GMT
Chris C
Can we get it over here? #
Can someone make this available to people in the US? It would be nice to hear English around these parts again. Not only that, but we could massively reduce governmental waste of our tax dollars by removing the "necessity" of translating and printing government documents in multiple languages. I find it quite sad that countries who do not use English as a first language have a greater percentage of English-speaking citizens than the US (or at least large portions thereof).
Posted Monday 30th June 2008 23:09 GMT
Captain DaFt
As a DS Fan #
I follow the new games that come out.
My conclusion; WTF!? Here's a couple of English teaching games for the DS, available in Japan (Yes, these are real, and NSFW):
http://kotaku.com/5011773/another-moe-english-ds-with-game-promo-video
http://kotaku.com/5011297/ds-game-teaches-english-with-jailbait
I'm feeling kind of dizzy imagining what the girls versions are like.
Posted Tuesday 1st July 2008 09:18 GMT
Aidan Heather
DS Teching Software #
I use some of the higher level English Teaching software for Japanese students to work on my Japanese, as it also teaches correct kanji stroke order via the touch screen. It is very handy as a dictionary, even though a lot of it is well beyond me at this point.
Posted Tuesday 1st July 2008 09:18 GMT
spider from mars
re: job security #
in this case it's no bad thing: English tuition in Japan is legendarily bad. Most teachers can't speak the language, and pronunciation is usually mangled to fit katakana. This is why most Japanese students end up with an excellent grasp of English grammar, but can't speak or understand spoken English.
Posted Tuesday 1st July 2008 10:46 GMT
Anonymous Coward
re re: job security #
What the hell? My experiance of the Japanese and Japan (and that of a number of Western English teachers I met) is that they tend to have a wonderfully wide vocabulary but absolutely no concept of English grammer. Which makes drunken conversations relatively fluid as with a bit of hand waving, their vocabulary and our basic grasp of Japanese you can get past most things.
Also we discovered that shady looking youths in caps were often the ones who knew the most English grammer.
@As a DS Fan
Heeey it's Moe-tan/Pen-chan that's such a retarded series, but the duck was funny.
Posted Tuesday 1st July 2008 10:46 GMT
Britt Johnston
bad teaching - @ spider #
I taught in summer schools for several years, and agree Japanese and Arabian teaching of spoken English is pretty poor, a bit like French taught in GB/US. The Nintendo will fix part of this, by providing correct sound patterns, but will not provide talking practice. That part, I approached by, for example, trying to get students to butt into an argument - though they were really too polite for our lifestyle, which worked against my purpose.
Posted Tuesday 1st July 2008 10:47 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@As a DS Fan #
As an aside, those particular games are aimed at a very specific market and there are probably dozens of increadibly boring versions, versions with giant robots, versions with gay guys and versions with a fantasy warrior theme.
This topic is closed for new posts.