CALICO Software Review CALICO Journal, Volume 21 Number 3, pp. 644-658 TileTag for Kana (Version 1.02)/ TileSet Creator for TileTag (Version 1.0) Yoshiko Okuyama - University of Hawaii at Hilo Product at a glance Product type TileTag for Kana: Kana letter recognition game (with pronunciation, romanization, stroke-order animation, hint, and scoring of time and errors) TileSet Creator for TileTag: Game authoring software Language TileTag for Kana: Japanese TileSet Creator for TileTag: written symbols of any language Level TileTag for Kana: Beginning level, from adolescents to adults TileSet Creator for TileTag: Instructors and student users who are already familiar with TileTag for Kana Activities TileTag for Kana: Display of up to 144 kana letters in multiple-choice format; letter (and some word) recognition; matching kana and romaji/pronunciation versions TileSet Creator for TileTag: Creation of new TileSets to be added to TileTag for Kana. Media Format Floppy Disk Operating System Windows 95/98/ME Hardware requirements PC 386+ RAM: 8 MB Hard Disk Space: 4 MB Floppy Drive (required only for installation) Sound Card & Speakers Video 256colors; 480 x 640 Printed Documentation User Manual, ‘Quick-Start’ Card Price TileTag and TileSet Creator are each priced at $14* (individual copy) + shipping and handling ($2 within the U.S.) * A two-seat license can be obtained for each copy at this price. General Description TileTag for Kana is a very simple, yet multifaceted, game-based program that helps meet the very first challenges of learning written Japanese – the two phonetic scripts called kana. This involves learning 144 kana letters (72 hiragana + 72 katakana) as well as the ones with glides (a consonant + y + vowel combination such as kya, kyu, kyo). You can also test how many kana letters you can remember with this program. All built-in games are generated in the format of a tile set, which displays kana characters and romaji letters (i.e., Roman alphabet letters that transcribe the pronunciation of kana letters) on white rectangular tiles. All you have to do is match the kana and romaji tiles as accurately and quickly as you can. The program is based on video-game concepts, and it surely brings in a sense of excitement and addiction to those who try it the first time. The game can be played with 15 different tile sets, ranging from a type of basic kana letter recognition to a more complex type (e.g., hiragana letters that resemble the letter ‘ha’) to a word recognition type (e.g., computer-related katakana words). The last type is, however, called ‘bonus material’ and constitutes only a small portion of the program. TileTag for Kana is designed for students with no Japanese background as well as for those who wish to review both kana scripts (i.e., hiragana and katakana). Although at first glance its screen layout may resemble a workbook to software savvy users, TileTag for Kana offers more engaging practice with the Japanese alphabet than workbook exercises can. The software not only assists your learning with speech, animated stroke order, and hints, but also reinforces what you have yet to learn by providing correct answers and a brief progress report immediately. Furthermore, you are in charge of your own learning: you can readily adjust your difficulty level, decide what type of kana to work with, and take as long as you want previewing the game contents prior to the play mode. TileTag for Kana is accompanied by two types of print documents: the Quick Start Card and The User Manual. The former gives simple instructions on how to install and run the software while the latter depicts more detailed information on the procedures and program features. No on-line help is available except for technical support on the company’s website (http://www.bitboost.com). This site also offers free downloadable shareware that contains games with 40 kana letters and eight words related to the days of the week. Some promotional testimonials are also found on a website ( which posts three anonymous reviewers’ assessment of the shareware version. Two out of three gave an overall grade of ‘thumbs-up’ and rated the stability of the program for 5 (in a 1-5 scale with 5 as the highest). One of the two even commented that it was "addictive and helpful." Also, a personal review of the full version can be seen where an unofficial reviewer highly regarded the program and claimed that "focused study becomes fun" in this computer-assisted kana letter learning. TileTag for Kana is complemented by a separately sold authoring system, TileSet Creator for TileTag, which allows experienced TileTag users to create their own template called a "TileSet" with any written symbols, such as kana or kanji characters, words and phrases. The new TileSets are imported into the existing TileTag games after their files are saved.TileSet Creator for TileTag automatically generates an animated demonstration of the stroke order for any symbol that you draw with the mouse. This authoring software is a perfect solution to teachers who wish to have learners of Japanese or Chinese see the correct stroke order of characters. Technical support is available to users of TileSet Creator for TileTagon the company’s website, too, for at least 60 days after the purchase of the product. Evaluation Technological features The installation of TileTag for Kana takes only a minute. With a double-click on the program icon, it opens right away. The operation of the program appears to be very stable: when four student users and I pilot-tested the program, no crashes, malfunctioning features, or stalled presentations occurred. The piloting of the program was conducted on the Windows 98 platform and was completed with no operational problems. In addition to the easy installation, the program demonstrates steady speed and smooth navigation from the menu screen to the game screen and from one game to another. The only time the program appears slow is when it sorts out the user’s mistakes and loads the subsequent trial for a replay. Yet, it is only a matter of several seconds, and none of the student users complained about the wait time. According to the software producer, the time lapse was deliberately inserted as a mental break for the users. The screen layout is very restrained: no graphics are included and colors are used minimally. The conservative use of aesthetic effects appears to be intended to allow for faster load times and avoid potential software crashes or conflicts. The fact that the program was originally designed for a 386 CPU would explain why it lacks the ‘bells and whistles’ of most current CD-ROM based language software. A drawback of such simplicity in design is that it tends to mask the software’s capabilities: the program can display elapsed time in seconds, pronounce each character, suggest a hint, and demonstrate animated stroke order, but none of these are immediately apparent. Student users figured out how to play the game easily, but most failed to notice these functions, which I had to point out to them during the piloting. With one exception, they were not aware of the time display in their first games. First-time users would be well advised to read the Quick Start Card, or better yet, the User Manual to be familiar with the ‘preview’ task on the menu screen and with the clickable, multi-task, letter tiles on the game screen. Improving the user interface to make the availability of these features more salient would certainly enhance the program. The voice recording of a female speaker pronouncing each kana syllable is satisfactory in audio quality. The speech is also flexible in use: it can be deactivated or replaced by a simple ‘pop’ sound that occurs upon every successful match. The presentation of kana and romaji scripts is clear except for three vocabulary games whose word tiles are disproportionately small: more than half the space of the whole screen seems wasted. The program includes no picture animations or video clips, nor does it utilize Internet resources. Such technical simplicity was, however, favorably regarded by all the student users, and is quite reasonable given that priority be put on the robustness of the software, rather than on the gratuitous use of technological bells and whistles. The authoring system, TileSet Creator, also installed easily. No knowledge of a programming language is required to create TileSets because all the clickable buttons are already encoded with commands such as erasing or straightening the stroke just drawn on the editing screen. The user just needs to understand the different functions of the buttons. It takes a few trials until the first-time user becomes familiar with the command buttons. When the full-size screen of the program is in use, the drawing of a symbol can be done more precisely. The advanced functionality of the program, however, allows skilled computer programmers to write their own text files in a computer script. Activities (Procedure) The linguistic focus of TileTag for Kana is simply on recognition skills. For the most part, the user has to match various written symbols of Japanese with their romanized spellings. Its activities consist of three steps: selecting a topic and play level, playing the game, and receiving feedback. If desired, the user can keep on playing the game on different topics and levels without quitting the program. All the tiles are shuffled from a custom data set, thus, you cannot rote-memorize their positions from the previous games. The program records your play time and score in each game, challenges you to retry your mistakes, and offers assistive features such as animated stroke-order and pronunciation by a native speaker of Japanese.