Review of Sashingo: Enhancing Japanese Learning Through Photography

Sashingo: Learn Japanese With Photography offers a straightforward concept that you can easily gather from its title. In this game, you find yourself in a scaled-down replica of Shibuya, Tokyo, equipped with nothing but a small polaroid camera. The freedom to wander is entirely yours, capturing photos as you go. The unique twist is that whenever you snap a picture, the game highlights one object in the frame and presents you with its Japanese name, along with the Hiragana or Katakana characters. While there are no strict objectives, curiosity will drive you to discover all the words hidden across the map and collect these snapshots in your album.

The open-ended nature of Sashingo is a refreshing and imaginative way to introduce players to basic Japanese vocabulary. The option to take small quizzes, where you’re tasked with finding specific objects based on given words, cleverly mixes exploration with language learning. Credit where credit is due—the game excels in its educational mission. It ensures words are pronounced clearly and offers a comprehensive guide that includes practical phrases to help you communicate in simple Japanese. In many ways, I found this approach more engaging than traditional platforms like Duolingo. While Duolingo serves well as a learning tool, it sometimes lacks the element of fun. Sashingo, on the other hand, makes the process of learning feel more user-friendly, allowing you to choose the vocabulary you want to focus on.

Despite my fascination with Japan and countless visits there, language has always been a hurdle. I’ve dabbled with Duolingo, and my partner has taken formal Japanese classes. However, the real hurdle in mastering a language is consistent practice and the necessity to actually speak it. Sashingo stands in a unique position; while it employs effective educational strategies for teaching Japanese words, it misses out on certain foundational aspects and interactive dialogues that are crucial for grasping the language’s nuances. The manual provides deeper insights into these scenarios, offering explanations and voice clips for particular phrases—but without reinforcement in-game, it’s hard for this method to really stick.

To my delight, my partner enjoyed watching me play, joining in to help learn the words. With her basic grasp of Japanese from her courses, she could easily recognize items like bottles, bicycles, traffic lights, and cars, and enjoyed discovering terms her classes didn’t cover, such as construction site and garbage bin. It’s here that Sashingo truly shines – as a beneficial supplement for vocabulary expansion, and a playful, interactive practice tool. The gameplay aspect, though, feels a tad underdeveloped. While you can purchase diverse filters after passing tests, there’s limited scope to express photographic creativity. The game includes a reliable zoom and focus feature but lacks options like camera tilts or selfies, grounding it more as an educational tool, which might disappoint photography enthusiasts like myself.

Ultimately, Sashingo: Learn Japanese with Photography serves as an excellent supplementary tool for anyone already on the path of learning Japanese. Its charming art style and miniature version of Shibuya are delightful to explore, offering ample opportunities to discover Japanese words. However, it falls short as a comprehensive language learning method and even as a photography game. Still, if you’re headed to Japan, it could be a delightful way to pick up a few words and phrases before you touch down.