WorkingFromHere

Introducing JaLaGa

Jalaga is short for Japanese Language Game. It’s a simple flash card game for studying Japanese kana, Hiragana and Katakana. Answer questions to gain points, gain enough points and you level up, as you level up the kana advance in difficulty as well.

I built Jalaga to be the kind of supplemental studying game/tool I would have liked to use when I first started studying Japanese. Way back in the early days of my lessons in MLJ 101 I quickly realized how necessary it was going to be to grind those flashcards in order to learn how to read the basic Japanese character set. However, grinding flashcards was such a chore, and much of my dedicated studying time would quickly devolve into “Age of Empires 2″ time (but at least I always played as the Japanese). I often wished for an enjoyable way to combine some gaming aspect into my studying.

Now 10 years later that original inspiration has lead to my first game for the Android platform. Of course, Jalaga on it’s own isn’t really a good game. It’s also not even a good replacement for your flash cards. I like to think of it as more of a supplemental distraction for a beginning Japanese student. It adds a basic game element to flash cards of gaining points or experience and subsequently levels. And hopefully some of you out there find it useful as you begin your trek into the Japanese language.

Anyways, please do download Jalaga if you are so inclined. You can either search for it on the market or scan the QR Code below with your phone to go directly to the market page. And if you do I’d also love to hear what you think. Please feel free to leave a comment here or on the market with your thoughts (and/or bug reports).

I also would be remiss if I did not give some huge props to Juan Sanchez. He gets all the credit for the incredible design and assets, without which I would’ve been too embarrassed to release this app.