I bought the game 「うっかり」をなくそう！文章読みトレーニング at the recommendation of Game Gengo. It’s quickly become my favorite learning resource, so I want to talk about it more in depth.
What is it?
Ukkari is a Nintendo DS game aimed at improving the reading skills of Japanese elementary school children.
It uses limited kanji, often with furigana. I find at my level (32) that I haven’t seen many kanji I’m unfamiliar with.
For grammar ability, I’d recommend it to anyone who has passed the N5 or has a lower intermediate level or higher. The grammar is not usually very complex, so a good handle on the basics will take you far. Part of it also teaches grammar, so it can help fill your gaps. However, it may be tiring to play since the game works your brain in a couple of different ways.
Kinds of questions
There are 4 main sections, 文字、決まり、イメージ、 and すじ道. Each day, the game will chose 1 section to focus on.
Some types of questions will come up no matter what the type though, like synonym matching and categorization.
文字 kanji questions. These often ask you to match readings and kanji with meanings. Sometimes they ask you to match meaning in context.
決まり logic questions. These often feature choosing the right conjunction or how a construction is interpreted (ie how certain a statement is, if it’s fact or opinion, etc).
イメージ image questions. Sometimes they’re logic puzzle type and sometimes they test vocab and reasoning.
すじ道 order/logic questions. A lot of times, you’re given a passage and have to say where it changes, what order events happen in, or infer if something is true/false/indeterminate
Other great points
A lot of the vocab questions feature onomatopoeia words, particularly the ones for conditions, movements, and feelings.
The game also has a daily basic limit. You can only do the daily training x3, which really doesn’t take too long. You can do other training to help with questions you get wrong and more practice, but I’m finding resources with max usage allowances help the user more consistently do the training and also allows the brain time to process and digest new content.
Every so often in a level, you earn these trading card type things. The usually feature some sort of pun. I’ve had a lot of fun reading them or trying to figure them out. Although sometimes they’re half or fully in kana so it’s quite difficult to figure out.
I’ll try to add more question types and clarify things as I play more. I’ve had this game for less than a month so far.
