My Japanese Coach

Overview

My Japanese Coach uses the same approach as My Word Coach, My Spanish Coach, and My French Coach. Players learn to write hiragana, katakana, and kanji characters and use proper pronunciation by way of mini-games, writing, and pronunciation exercises.

Features

The game features a section for lessons, games, and reference.

Lessons

The lessons section of the game has the player learning each new lesson by embarking on a journey through Japan. The first lesson area is held in Tokyo and progresses through small markers. Every five markers, there is a new description of part of Japan. Selecting one of the markers brings the

player to Haruka, the Japanese teacher. She normally gives a brief description of what will be gone over in the lesson, lists the words/phrases for the lesson, gives a game to practice the words/phrases with, gives some example sentences, and gives another game for practice.

When presented with vocabulary in a lesson, the player can listen to the pronunciation of words/phases by touching the kana. The player also has the option to practice speaking and writing the words through the same means.

Selecting the tab labeled 'Speak' and a word/phrase brings up the voice comparison tool. Touching the record button allows the player's voice to be recorded. Once done recording, the temporary audio file may be played back by itself or together with the Japanese. The Japanese may also be played back for reference. This tool also allows the player to adjust the volume of the Japanese being spoken, the speed at which it is being spoken, and the volume of the player's mic.

Selecting the tab labeled 'Write' and a word/phrase brings up the writing practice tool. The player may either trace over the given kana/kanji, clear the screen to practice the kana/kanji without tracing, or write the kana/kanji and the select the compare button to see how close the writing is.

After every lesson, new things are unlocked, though typically just the next lesson. Sometimes a new game will be revealed, while other times have new mastery titles such as Baby or Kindergartener.

Games

The games in this game are used as activities to instill learning into the player. Each game has an easy, medium, and hard difficulty. For the most part, changing difficulty simply changes the time limit and how many points are earned per word. There is also the option to only use words that are from the current lesson or to use words that are already mastered. The later implies that none of the current words being worked on are to be included, but that assumption is false. Games include:

• For Multiple Choice, the game gives the player 10 English words/phrases and four possible solutions for each in Japanese.

  

• Hit-a-Word plays like whack-a-mole. The game gives the player a word in English, and the player is expected to hit as many gophers with that phrase above their heads as possible. The player must hit at least 60% of the correct gophers in order to gain word mastery points.
• Word Search is, well, word search. Easy consists of horizontal-only placed words, medium adds vertical, and hard finalizes it with diagonal.
• Fading Characters involves tracing over kana and then writing the kana without tracing. Easy has the player trace twice, medium once, and hard has no traces.
• Write Cards is writing out kana from memory. 
• Flash Cards is the inverse of Multiple Choice with a few differences. There are time limits per question and some difficulties have only audio prompts. Easy is all written with four seconds given per question, medium is 50% audio and has three seconds per question, and hard is done entirely by ear and has a two second time limit per question.
• Memory is played like classic memory except there are two different color decks to differentiate the Japanese cards (red) from the English cards (blue). All cards are spaced on a four by five grid.
  

Each game ends once the time limit runs out. Based upon correct answers and the difficulty selected, points are gained towards word mastery. Word mastery points can never be lost.

Reference

This section includes the following:

• Player Status shows the progress for the current lesson, what has been unlocked, and overall game stats.
  
• Dictionary list of all the words/phrases in the game. Can be searched through by English, romanji, and kana (the language settings on the side are written incorrectly as English, Japanese, and hiragana). There is also a section for all the words mastered in the game. All words/phrases in the dictionary category can be compared to with the player's voice.
  
• The Phrasebook has a section for phrases by category, a list of all phrases in the game, a search for phrases, and a section for favorited phrases. Categories includes dining, shopping, travel, conversation, entertainment, emergency, and miscellaneous. All words/phrases in the phrasebook category can be compared to with the player's voice.
  
• The Sketchpad is used for writing notes, drawing pictures, practicing writing, whatever the player can come up with. Sketchpad comes with a blank space for writing/drawing, a large brush, a small brush, an eraser, and an "undo last stroke" button. Anything left on the sketchpad may be saved for a later date.