Japanese, Game Review

Almost everyone I know speaks another language, or wants to learn one. Those who want to learn one talk about not of having time and how tedious it is to read through the books or listen to tapes. Unnamed Method (UM) has addressed these issues by making a game out of learning a language. I met some of the people at Salt Lake Comic Convention 2017 and picked up a deck of the core cards for their game Japanese.

Japaneseis a card game designed to have fun while learning the language. The core deck is 108 cards: 4 reference cards and 104 cards with words and grammatical components of the Japanese language. It can be played as a competitive, cooperative, or solitaire game. All three variants are similar in style, it really is how you decide to keep score and who is available to play.

In the competitive version each player creates a grammatically correct sentence or sentences. You win if you are the first person with 20 points laid out on the table or have the most points when the deck runs out. There is only one round of play, which makes it easier to focus on the sentences instead of tracking the score between rounds.

Unnamed Method

When playing cooperatively, everyone works on sentences together. You can play this to create the points, or just run through to the end of the deck to see what sentences you come up with. When playing cooperatively you can do it in turns or let everyone join as a free-for-all. Consider who you have at the table if you want to do the free-for-all. If you have a dominant player who takes control, someone is bound to be left out.

The solitaire version is really working through the deck. If you really are wanting to learn the language, this works well because you can use the game as a filler just about wherever you go. All you really need is a place where you can set the cards out. Or, if you can hold them in order, you don't even need the table space.

Every card has information about the sentence structure and the word(s) on the card. They explain which part of the sentence the word belongs to, how to write it, how to speak it, and an example of a sentence it would be used in. The reference card provides information for how sentences are structured and advanced grammatical use. The playing cards and the reference cards are easily cross-referenced.

The cards have a color code for easy use. The sentence structure is broken down by colors which are included on the cards. The reference cards show the order of colors to provide an easy visual reference of the sentence structure.

The rules for playing Japanese are on the company’s web site. It is recommended to have 25 or 50 cards per player (one location I found said 25 and another said 50). They also make another recommendation of each player having their own deck. This would make all the words available to everyone playing and not just a portion. I didn’t try this variation because I have only one core deck.

As you advance in your ability of playing Japanese, you can increase the challenge by picking up any of the five expansion decks. Each adds a specific area of knowledge or advanced language skill. The expansions are half the size of the core deck, or the size of a standard deck of playing cards.

There is no listed age or time for game play. The age limit would be a function of capability of reading. The length of time becomes a variable based on your skill with the language. We took a little while with our game as we spent time reading and reciting the words and how they are used. I’m sure the more time spent with the game would make it shorter to play because you are learning the words and the language.

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