Forget the Wii. The DS is the real revolution in Japan, where students at the Tokyo’s Joshi Gakuen junior high school for girls are learning to spell in English using Paon Corp.’s English training DS software instead of the company’s textbooks. The school is getting free systems and software to serve as a trial run for the educational program, which has won over both school administrators and parents.

A giggly class of 32 seventh-graders used plastic pens to spell words like “hamburger” and “cola” on the touch panel screen – the key feature of the hit console – following an electronic voice from the machine. It’s a sort of high-tech spelling bee. When the students got the spelling right, the word “good” popped up on the screen, and the student went on to the next exercise. The first five students to complete the drills were awarded colorful stickers.

“It’s fun,” said Chigusa Matsumoto, 12, who zipped through the drills to get her sticker. “You can study while you have fun.”

Maybe that’s why DS “sales” are down in Japan. The schools keep gobbling them up. It beats having to carry around a bunch of textbooks and workbooks, I’ll bet!

The Washington Post