Everyday English Trainer

The English language is considered by many to be one of the hardest foreign languages for someone to learn from scratch.

Much of the language structure is actually relatively straightforward, but complications arise from confusing exceptions to grammatical rules, the surprising amount of words with similar meaning, or that are said the same but spelt differently – take 'allowed' and 'aloud', or 'grate' and 'great', for instance.

Everyday English Trainer, is very much in keeping with the brain training craze that's sweeping the pocket gaming sector, and features a number of different exercises designed to improve your language skills in practical situations. Which effectively translates to working through three categories, each possessing a handful of sections, to prepare you for the main test.

The first category, 'School', throws up rounds including Observation (choose the best description to the image shown), Grammar (select the correct words to fill in the blanks), Match Blanks (choose three answers in the correct order to complete the sentences) and Tense Stories (select the correct tenses to finish a story).

The second category, 'Real Life', sees you undertake a conversation challenge, as well as examinations on your knowledge of English idioms and slang. A great idea and definitely of benefit to those learning English, we'd say.

Meanwhile, 'Fun', the final category, gives you a bit of respite from the hard work for the test – the main element of the game – and makes it possible to have a go at games like Hangman.

As you'd expect, the challenges are timed, and as you select your response from three possible options you're given a green tick for a correct answer (you get extra points for answering particularly quickly) or – that's right – a red cross if you get it wrong.

Finish the challenge and you're marked by a rather nice looking lecturer who gives you a grade and a percentage based on your swiftness at answering the questions.

The overall presentation of Everyday English Trainer is polished, with nice bold visuals, a variety of interesting screens and animated menus. The British theme and Union Jack imagery work well, while the sound effects hit the spot and music features a clock chiming – all suitably quaint.

The confidence of the presentation serves a considerable purpose, in that it enables you to become immersed in the game quickly, and you'll soon be flying through the quick-fire tests. (One pleasing aspect worth mentioning is that once you begin the full test, you can step in and out whenever it suits as the game saves your progress.)

So, Gameloft has put together an interesting spin on the brain training genre by not only making EET about words and lexicon, but also giving it a nationality theme. It could easily have ended up something of a mess, but thankfully, what we have here works.

The only major drawback we can level at it is that the images in the observation round can be a little on the small side. That and the fact that the game's nature does mean its long-term appeal is inevitably cut short.

But if numbers aren't your bag and you want to exercise your mind on your mobile, you're genuinely learning English as your second language or are simply looking to sharpen your skills, then this can provide a worthwhile diversion.

Everyday English Trainer

Works well and, considering the subject matter, looks pretty good, too. Everyday English Training is fun and more of a challenge than you might expect
Score
Chris Maddox
Chris Maddox
Liverpool fan, Chris, loves to watch the mighty Redmen play. In between matches however, he's an avid mobile games reviewer for Pocket Gamer. Chris has assured us that he only thinks about Liverpool FC a mere 80 per cent of the day.