Brain Training in Japanese for the White Man

For the dual reason of having my brain become less than complete mush and perhaps increase my Japanese abilities, I have purchased 東北大学未来科学技術共同研究センター 川島隆太教授監修 もっと脳を鍛える大人のDSトレーニング which is the long Japanese way of saying Brain Age 2.

So as a non-native speaker of Japanese working with software designed for not-me how have I been faring?

Well some of the games still work. There are plenty of math games and a music game where
have to tap piano keys on time that I am just plain awful at. These all carry over well and I have been improving rapidly. If you’ve played any non-Japanese version, I’d imagine these games are available and work just as well.

And instead of shouting colors like I did in the first US one, I get to yell out GUU, CHOKI or PA in the Rock Paper Scissors game. The trick is that the goal alternates between needing to win and needing to lose so often I find myself yelling GUU when I need to PA. A problem that clearly occurs in all moments of my life.

The interesting games are the ones designed with Japanese folk in mind and I’m actually really enjoying them even though I am often failing miserably.

One involves a simple “fill in the kanji blank”. The reading is given and the task is to put the correct kanji there. Another gives spinning pieces of Japanese characters and the goal is to assemble them into a kanji as fast as possible. This one really picks my brain and I am often spending minutes staring at one combination just to go, “Oh! I do know that.” Occasionally I am stumped and shocked to realize the solution was quite simple. And one particular bastard is when they give me 36 kanji and only two minutes to remember them. Then in 3 minutes I have to write out as many as possible. I am often surprised that I can crank out as many as I do, and my daily retention has been improving.

But the one that is killing me is this listening one. It starts out with one person saying a 3 syllable word in Japanese and it works up to 3 people doing it. You have to write out each of the words. It’s really forcing me to focus on the sound of the voices and Japanese comprehension in general.

I’m not sure I understand the entire thought process behind brain training, but since this is pushing my Japanese abilities as well, I will try to keep up with it. It’s definitely not for beginners to the Japanese language. I’m not fluent, but I’m also not understanding everything. I will admit it is a fun challenge.