NihongoUp has been around for nearly 9 months now, so I felt it was time to give it a review.
When the program was first announced on JapanSoc.com, I had this to say,
It looks good, but I have one question for you to consider: What are the benefits of your software for users over free services like readthekanji.com that already has all four JLPT levels and is online based?
I look forward to seeing your software develop more! It’s always good to have more study resources around!
Philip Seyfi, the game’s creator, only responded that it’s an additional resource to study from. I wasn’t satisfied with that answer, so I put the software on hold to give him some more time to develop it further.
NihongoUp has a clean interface, but that’s about all that it has going for it considering other options available. My first point of criticism is the repetitiveness. Regardless of the game type you choose (except for the typing tutor for the kana systems), you are presented with multiple choice questions in the form of descending balloons. That doesn’t offer enough cognitive depth to foster long-term memory retention.
There are four categories to choose – Kana, Kanji, Vocabulary, and Grammar. The Kana category is divided into Hiragana, Katakana, and a combination of both. Essentially, this is a glorified typing tutor. Unfortunately, you can find the same functionality in the free service of Smart.fm with just less emphasis on typing and more on recognition. (Hiragana, Katakana)
As of this review, the Kanji game is limited to only the lowest two JLPT tests (levels 3 and 4), and hasn’t been updated to account for the upcoming revamped version of the test (based on 5 levels).
As mentioned above, this game is in the form of an increasingly quick multiple choice game. The sentences are limited, however, and often repeat, even sequentially. Another problem with this game is that sometimes the answers are duplicates. (As seen for possible answers 1 and 2 in the screenshot below)
One other issue I have is that the sentences that offer hints towards the correct answer are composed primarily of Kana, which really affects the readability and results in the loss of a “teachable moment”. Incidentally, this criticism reinforces my argument that sometimes you need to study slower to learn faster.
The vocabulary game, unlike the Kanji game, features all four levels of the now outdated version JLPT test. One major flaw in the presentation of this game is a lack of context. Players are presented with English and are asked to choose the Japanese equivalent. A free system like Smart.fm, on the other hand, asks for a range of input – English, Japanese, Japanese in context, and even in the form of dictation, which brings me to another fault of the NihongoUp system – There is no audio.
Yet another downside to the system is a lack of flexibility. Users can’t create, share, or import their own customized “decks”. We are instead left to chance with what we study, regardless of how well grounded we are, which adds more to the repetitiveness of the system overall.
What I thought had the most potential was the particle game in the grammar section. Because I had the highest hopes for it, it let me down the most. As with the Kanji game, the particle game gives us sentences in Kana which greatly reduces the readability. But that’s something users can put up with. What is less tolerable are questions with multiple answers – The biggest folly of an amateur test maker.
(In case you didn’t catch it, 時間はありません and 時間がありません are both valid answers, but change the nuance of the sentence.)
On only one game does NihongoUp shine, and that is the counter game.
Sentences are presented with natural use of Kanji and it’s an area that many students of the language need to focus on. However, again, you can get the same content for free on Smart.fm with a broader range of question styles that demand more from learner input.
The real kicker was in the credits of the game.
“All sentences in this game were provided by smart.fm – the place you go to learn.” And learn for free.
While I do appreciate developments made towards expanding resources for studying foreign languages, especially Japanese, I’m sorry to say that I can’t get behind this particular project as it stands now. To summarize what I consider to be negative attributes in serious need of attention:
- It’s repetitive
- There is absolutely no Japanese audio
- It has limited content
- It has limited context
- It’s inflexible
- It’s not free (neither is readthekanji.com, which I’d recommend over this if you’re willing to pay)
- The Kana flooded sentences are difficult to process
- Some of the questions are ambiguous
I hope we can see some improvements in the system over the next few months. If there is a major overhaul of the system, I’ll be happy to update this review in the future. If you’d like to try it out for yourself, you can try it out for 15 days by downloading it from the official site.
You can read another review of the system at Gakuranman. He basically outlines the same points I have here, but concludes that even with the cons in mind the price is worth it.
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Thanks for the review
I’ll try to respond to some of your critics:
1. It’s repetitive: Yes, it may be repetitive, but so is smart.fm.
2. That’s something I’m planning to address in NihongoUp v2, but as the whole project is in a great deficit (not that I ever hoped to make a living out of it, but I wasn’t planning to spend that much time & money on it either ^^) I’m not yet sure when it could be released. I have great plans for NihongoUp v2 which would address most of your concerns and ad plenty new features but I first have to find and investor or another way of funding the project.
3. How are over 10,000 sentences limited content? But yes, I’m ashamed that I still wasn’t able to deliver JLPT 2 & 3 kanji levels.
4. Something that would be address in v2
5. Something that would be address in v2
6. When I’m a big fan of smart.fm, I can’t say the same about readthekanji and I would take NihongoUp over it any time. Of course, that’s just my opinion and I suggest everyone to try all of the available products.
7. That was a very difficult decision. When I first used kanji, many users were asking for kana only sentences (and I’m still criticized for not having more “basic” levels in the game). I finally decided to use all kanji from lower levels in the kanji mode (ex. all JLPT 4 kanji in the JLPT 3 mode etc.), there’s an option in the settings to use all kanji or kana only in the vocabulary mode, I use kana only in the particles section and I use all kanji in the counters mode. Some of these decisions upset some of the more advanced users (including myself ^^) but the majority of my user-base is interested in less advanced modes. Also, as the JLPT 2 mode will include all JLPT 4 & 3 kanji and the JLPT 1 mode will include all the JLPT 4, 3 & 2 kanji the more advanced you are the more natural the sentences will be.
If I’ll be able to make NihongoUp v2, I’m sure you’ll like it a lot. Unfortunately I can’t promise anything at the moment
Hello Philip,
I’m glad to see you came to comment here. All of my criticism still stands, but, as I mentioned, I look forward to reviewing an updated version of NihongoUp in the future.
When I say the system is repetitive, I mean that the question type is limited to the very narrow-range multiple choice genre. Systems like Smart.fm, while keeping intact the traditional index card cycle system, mix up the question format with both 5 and 10-question multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and dictation tests, not to mention that the question types (i.e. Kanji – reading, reading – Kanji, Japanese – English, English – Japanese, contextual gap-fills, etc.) are sprinkled throughout the cycle, giving a better variety for learner assessment.
Anyways, at the end of the article, I invited readers to try out the system for themselves to see if it’s a fit for them. There are, of course, different learner-types, so some may like the system more than others.