Japanese Rules
Let's Speak Japanese
Japanese for Everyone
Butler Consulting, Inc.:
Mac CD-Rom review

Considering all the interfaces, codes, and rules CD-ROM developers devise for their audience, there's a dearth of titles that delve into the equally complex game of language. Setting out to learn Japanese in the privacy of my own Mac, I was surprised to find not a pile of competing major titles, but rather, two very plain CD-ROMs sold independently by Harvard PhD Ken Butler. Butler is the enterprising originator of Stanford's Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo; he claims to have introduced the tape recorder to language school in the late '60s. Abiding by the "aural/oral" method of repetitive listening and speaking, Butler has now created an educationally sound series of multimedia surrogate teachers.

The newer of two discs in his core curriculum, 1994's Let's Speak Japanese, is a 10-lesson course for high school and university students. Butler presumes that Japanese is a simpler language than English and thus easy to learn once you grasp the basic grammatical concepts (no articles, no plurals, no possessive pronouns). Animated characters illustrate colorful pages, forming a simple but effective pattern of variety and reinforcement.

Coverage of the three major Japanese writing systems is not very interactive, but a number of shareware tutors like the engaging Free Light Japanese can strengthen vocabulary with flashcards and game-playing. This is how I envisioned learning a language on a computer to be.

Too bad Butler's earlier, more comprehensive effort isn't as bright. Decked in dire, black-and-white hypertext, 1992's Japanese for Everyone is reminiscent of government training booklets. Intended for adult businessmen, this disc teaches the written character sets, then moves into vocabulary, situational Japanese, and important nuances of grammar (such as politeness).

The program can seem crude and sometimes confusing. The Mac SE-compatible screens are a jumble of tiny Japanese characters (hiragana), overemphasized instruction boxes, and unnecessary icons, some of which lead to long dialogs that are difficult to escape. The pronunciation samples are another setback; students may find themselves sounding like drunk old men when imitating these guttural sounds. Butler will have to revisit this disc with help from a good software designer if he plans to create a paradigm for multimedia language instruction.

By Ian Christe
Copyright © 1996 HotWired, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Updated January 25, 1997