Japanese proficiency?

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#1

Hi,

Does anyone speak Japanese here? I was hoping to play some of the more popular Japanese bishoujo games, such as Tokimeki Memorial, Air, Kanon, Kana Imouto, etc. But then I read some of Kumiko’s posts, and realized that these games would probably never be translated to English. That’s why I would like to know: how long did it take you to learn Japanese, up to a level of proficiency where you can play and understand these Japanese bishoujo games well enough?

FYI, I just took about 10 days to memorize the 46 Hiragana signs, along with the Daku and Handaku-On signs – it didn’t seem too difficult. How much longer do I have to go to understand written/spoken Japanese? 6 months? 2 years?

Thanks for any info.

#2

I’m in my second year of Japanese here at college and they just started teaching us kanji last semester. It’s gonna take you a heck of a lot longer than two years to learn Japanese unless you go over to Japan and do it.

#3

I’d recommend people consider YesJapan for language learning, they really have a great system in place. The URL is http://www.yesjapan.com

Also, for an overview of Japanese grammar and language and what’s involved in learning it, see my article at http://www.peterpayne.com

#4

It took me about 2 months to master hirgana and katakana + around 400 words. I used the Kanji & Kana book by Tuttle. But to master Kanji and Japanese grammar takes quite a bit more. I have been using Yesjapan and find it very informative and have been studying Kanji for around 2 months now and have mastered about 75 symbols. If you stick with it and practice daily you can get to basic understanding in around 4-5months. But you will still require a good dictionary, I recommend “The Kanji Dictionary” by tuttle as well it uses radicals + stroke count lookup and no romanization. Good luck!

#5

I know very little Japanese but I’m a good at Figuring out Game mechanics and menu choices. Also when you play some of the romantic simulations, save your game before you make a choice, then watch a characters reaction to that choice. (most of the really good games have character reactions on how they’re feeling.) You can usually play the game that way.

#6

Well, a friend of mine who’ve more or less mastered japanese told me that it takes about five year to learn Japanese, but it depends on the person who’re trying to learn the language, since some learn faster than others.

#7

I disagree that learning formal Japanese will not help you with games. You may not learn some of the slang, but you learn grammar, symbols, and alot of the basic words. These alone with the combination of 2 good dictionarys (One Kanji, One Katakana/Hiragana)and you can decipher any game. Now some people may think that this way takes forever and at first yes it does but as I went through games I have got very fast and looking up Kanji in the dictionary and I have memorized alot of the Kanji that I had to look up numerous times. Now I feel that I can decipher and play a game at about 1/2 the speed of a Fluent Japanese person. So studying formally does help its just not gonna make it possible to play without a good handy dictionary.

#8

Well the formal learning also won’t help with cultural references and contextual stuff as well. And you definitely don’t learn a lot of ‘basic adult’ words as well.

But I think Kumiko-san’s point was that it’s not going to be of ‘primary value’, i.e. that you won’t get the full experience of the game, because of the various references within the game, with just formal training. Not that formal training doesn’t help at all. (After all, if you don’t even know the basic ‘alphabet’, things become very hard very fast.)

#9

I am not understanding what you mean still? I do know that Japanese words can have numerous meanings and alot of the sentence is assumed. But if you learn the language, you can sit down and play a Japanese game. In my opinion the toughest part of Japanese if understanding the sentence structure and being able to pick out the seperate words. Formal Education will help you learn that and that is the first MAJOR stepping stone to understanding Bishoujo games. Once you have mastered the grammar and symbols you can begin deciphering and playing, thats what I did at least. You might not get some of the inside cultural references or jokes but thats not the WHOLE game. If you learn formal Japanese you can at least decipher the game and have some understanding of what is going on. Look how many people buy these games and cannot read them. I was one of them for awhile, I played numerous Japanese games with no knowledge and kinda made my own story up to go with the pictures. Its funny to go back and see what they were really about now =P. But I am going off subject, my point is learning Japanese is a excellent start and if you learn the formal side then you can decipher and understand 90% of the game.

#10

Thanks for everyone’s input.

I plan to keep supporting quality English bishoujo games, whether it’s from Peach Princess or someone else. Learning Japanese is really just a last resort for me, to play quality Japanese bishoujo games that are unlikely to become translated. With a game as emotionally-charged as Kana Imouto, for example, I hope to understand the dialogue’s text, and not just look at the pretty pictures.

Speaking of cultural differences, I just realized what an inappropriate name “Hentai newbie” is. Gomen Nasai. Bishoujo newbie would be much better.

#11
quote:
Originally posted by hentainewbie:
Speaking of cultural differences, I just realized what an inappropriate name "Hentai newbie" is. Gomen Nasai. Bishoujo newbie would be much better.

Don't worry, we won't hold it against you. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

#12

i understand what is being said here…i personally am learning Japanese at YesJapan, partially to be able to understand bishoujo games, but for many other reasons as well…i am learning the culture, i love the language, to be able to understand anime as well…i am finding that watching anime with subtitles helps me understand a lot of japanese as well…
i don’t have much time to spend learning japanese right now, but i am picking up a lot of ways that the japanese speak from watching subtitled anime and i am picking up inflection, pronunciation, and slang that i wouldn’t get just from a formal japanese course…
to really grasp the language, like said before, you need to immerse yourself in their culture as well

#13