Words and Monsters

 Hello everyone!

This time I would like to share a fun free game that you can play to learn English called Words and Monsters. The game is available for iOS and for Android smartphones. You can find a brief explanation in Japanese and download links on the application's main website here. The link will open in a new window. The direct link is at https://free.wordsandmonsters.com/ja/. Here is a picture of the download screen.

The game is pretty easy to understand and you can get explanations in English or Japanese. The game adapts to your level and the words get harder as you learn. The words you miss will come back later to give you a chance to show that you learned them.

Here is the first welcome screen:

Once you have signed in with a username and password, you are brought to the main screen.

The screen shows your name (here the player's name is Shigeru), your rank and level, your points, and how many awards you have. Here Shigeru has 20 gems. Gems can be donated at the Temple for a chance to win more treasure.

The Study Progress link will open up once you have used the game for a little while. At that point it will show your scores and progress data.

The other links are the Store (mentioned above), Groups (see below), Settings, and the Leaderboard (where you can see how you are doing in comparison to other players).

The Settings lets you change the language, turn on or off the sounds, change your password, change your nickname (the name that other players see when you play others), log out, and delete your account.

The Groups setting is where you can join a group if you are studying in a school and the teacher has created a group for your class. In this case you can compete against people you know.

When you click Battle to play, you have a choice between a Random live player (if anyone is online), someone in your Group, or Solo by yourself. All let you gain points. 

Once you start to play you will see a couple different types of questions. In one type of question you are given a word and you have to choose the correct definition from the three words below. Even when you play a solo game, your session is timed, so try to answer as quickly as you can!

In this example, the meaning of the word tutorial is a period of instruction.

For the other type of question you need to click on a speaker icon to hear the word and then select the correct answer.

Once you have finished a session you get a chance to choose an award. Depending on your luck you might get a few or many gems to use in the Store.

At this point you might want to check the Leaders board to see how you are doing.

The Leaders board looks like this:

This game can be a very fun way to learn English, either against a random partner or someone in your class if you are competitive (but don't worry, you won't ever be embarrassed by your performance, or as a solo player.

Again, as you play the game and learn more words, you will move up and see and learn more new words as you are ready for them. The words are selected by their usefulness in English (more common words come first) and the program keeps track of how far you have come in your learning.

I hope you will give Words and Monsters a try!