Comments on: Nintendo DS: 250万人の漢検

By: Clay

Clay — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:08:35 +0000

Harvey at JapanNewbie.com emailed me this morning saying this:

>>Note on DS Software, rather than “DS: 250 Mannin no Kanken”, the “Kanji Keitei” game made by Rocket Company is actually more popular with the gaijin in Japan crowd.

I haven’t gotten that software, but I will now. 250 Mannin no Kanken is really nice. But you may want to read this review on the other soft:
http://naruhodojapan.blogspot.com/2007/10/kanken-ds-2-review.html

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:49:46 +0000

I can’t make up my mind. Should I buy the 250万人の漢検 OR　漢検２？？？
My Japanese ability is pretty high and I took 2kyu last year (that does not mean that I passed!!)

By: AliAliAliAliAliAli

AliAliAliAliAliAli — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:52:28 +0000

Looks like a good piece of software !

By: Darsel

Darsel — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:30:35 +0000

I just gave this game a small test ride today… but it seems like there is no “write your kanji” dictionary included…
With Kanken DS 2 you can just try and write a kanji and the game will give you a list of possible coincidences (similar to the Windows XP IME Pad, or however it’s called XD).
But in 250 man nin no kanken I only see the possibility of searching by sound using a “virtual keyboard” (in Kanken DS 2 you would have to write the hiragana yourself), but not by freely writing the kanji itself!

Can anyone please confirm this? I’m afraid that since my Japanese level isn’t that good, I might have missed the option (I’m crossing my fingers here ^^).

By: Clay

Clay — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:49:06 +0000

I was afraid that would happen to me. My wife hoarded the DS when we first got it UNTIL she tested herself with the Brain game. It told her she had the mental age of an 80 year old. She hasn’t picked it up since.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:47:23 +0000

Thanks Clay. This game just arrived (from Amazon.co.jp) a few minutes ago and thanks to your instructions I was able to get through the screens to the practice itself (I’m only at JLPT 3-kyuu level so can’t read it).

However now my (Japanese) girlfriend has taken it to try herself, hmmmph! Methinks I need to get another DS…

By: Clay

Clay — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:41:30 +0000

>>having the option to turn off the auto submit feature must be really nice,

Absolutely. I think the 200 man nin no kanken had that option too, but the default was on. Or maybe I am thinking of the Casio XD-GW9600… It is too early in the morning!

By: Darsel

Darsel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:54:35 +0000

lol, if I ever get that game, I’m going to say that I’m a girl just to find out the difference!

But seriously now, I’m really looking forward to trying 250 since I’m mostly using Kanken for its Kanji Dictionary. Having an example sentence should be interesting, and being able to practice the writing of kanji over and over again should be more helpful for beginners like me!

Also, having the option to turn off the auto submit feature must be really nice, Kanken only has “fast”, “normal” and “slow”, but even in slow you can sometimes feel the pressure and make mistakes trying to write faster…

By: Clay

Clay — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:21:16 +0000

Maybe for males, the questions are more manly; for females they must be more flowery and full of sugar and spice?

I loved the 200 man nin and the 250 seems even better. I haven’t tried it yet, but the dragon game reminds me of the old typing training ‘games’ where you had to type the letters and words as they appeared to save the world. I preferred the more obvious this-is-for-studying software. I guess that would be 250 man nin no kanken.

By: Darsel

Darsel — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:10:02 +0000

I wonder what kind of use is there for asking your gender on this kind of game…
I’ll have to give this game a try, in the meanwhile, Kanken DS 2 will have to do.

By the way, I gave “hissatsu kanfu - kanji doragon” a small ride, but I got bored after 5 minutes on the tutorial… I couldn’t read any of the kanji