StarFestival... A Return to Japan
Mac/Win95/98
Instant Immersion Japanese
Win95/98/Me
Rosetta Stone: Japanese Explorer
Mac/Windows
- StarFestival: Can someone call more than one place "home"? Do you do that? The "StarFestival...a return to Japan" CD-ROM is an interactive novel about a young Japanese boy who comes to the U.S. when he is ten. He learns English and settles down to an American way of life, and eventually even becomes the real life MIT professor Shigeru Miyagawa. But all the while, he asks himself, "Am I Japanese or am I American?". To try to answer this, he returns as "the Professor" to rediscover his homeland after a 30-year absence. Along with him is his high-tech Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The user finds the Professor's futuristic electronic diary lying damaged in the street and is able to reconstruct his journey, while getting an insider's look at a small Japanese town that an outsider could never obtain. The CD-ROM examines Japan and issues of cultural identity as "The Professor" visits sites from his childhood, conducts interviews and shares his past. Stars George Takei, Star Trek's "Mr. Sulu", as the voice of Professor Miyagawa, who introduces documentary video clips. In addition, language tools enable users to study Japanese as it is spoken in Japan. "Star Festival" is a cross-cultural exploration of east and west; a personal look how Japan has changed since WW2 and, ultimately, what it means to go home again and find one's own identity...
- Instant Immersion Japanese: This is a package of four complementary CD-ROMs. The first two, Talk Now and World Talk, are designed to speed you from beginning to intermediate speaker, all the while providing fun activities to keep your interest. JquickTrans is a Japanese dictionary, study guide, translator, and kanji reference source that also supports online chatting and surfing in Japanese. The fourth CD-ROM, Voyage in Japan, offers a multimedia overview of the culture and history of Japan, illustrated with photos, audio, and animated clips.
- Rosetta Stone: Japanese Explorer: Unlike language learning programs that rely on text translation, The Rosetta Stone uses carefully selected pictures to clearly convey the meaning of each new spoken phrase. By invoking the mind's inherent ability to connect sound and meaning, learning occurs naturally and easily, the way you learned your first language as a child. With each new concept, your comprehension is verified with instantaneous feedback, confirming your progress. The program systematically integrates new vocabulary with new grammar in a natural, intuitive process as it builds on what you have mastered in the previous chapters. There is no other program that teaches and gives the feeling of success like The Rosetta Stone.