Do YOU speak Japanese?

[Genesaturn]

Hey guys, I've imported my fair share of games. Most of them are fighting games, or ones I don't need to read much of to understand...I do own a few RPG's I wish I could read. So my question...

Do any of you speak Japanese? and did you do it so you can understand imported games?

I recently received a copy of Japanese Rosetta Stone, in order to learn...my reason...to play awesome Japanese games we can't get here :P

[Guyra]

I wish I did understand and could read Japanese. Both for games and a lot of other stuff. Online shopping, manga, music, etc. But it's not easy learning on your own.

[NE146]

I've been visiting and shopping in Japan multiple dozens of times since the 70's. However I do not know a lick of japanese except for maybe "onara" (fart). LOL

My older sister and grandparents however, are fluent.

[Sunnyvale]

I speak a little. Not much. I can't read it for shit anymore, except Katana. For some reason, my Gaijin brain can remember the Gaijin writing.

Edit: Erm... Katakana :oops:

[SpaceFlea]

I also speak very little. Rosetta Stone is AMAZING!!! I went through the first couple units of Japanese level 1. And after 1.5 years of not working with it (I plan to get back to it soon - hopefully) I still remember practically on the spot what it taught me, at least for the earlier stuff in it, the latter stuff not so much. Though I can only make some basic statements and queries like "I have a green bicycle", "the boy and girl are drinking milk", "is there a dog under the table" and stuff like that.

Reading it... now that's a whole other can o' beans.

[Ludwig]

In the middle of learning it, it really helps to have japanese friends.
Against the general consensus, reading doesn't appear to be that difficult after all, i'm starting to get my stuff together, but it takes time and practice, but i expect that everyone is aware of that.

I started because the english speaking folks keept ruining translations of books, games and motion pictures of all sorts. I couldn't care less about what you people do, but the issue i was facing was: The germans often just used the faulty english translation to translate it into german which sucks big time. I have no choice but to learn japanese if i want a version that makes sense.

[FoxNtd]

Ha, funny thread with funny replies so far. I've been doing this for a few years now. I'm doing ok too I guess. Games are not the source of inspiration, they're just another reason it's valuable to have the knowledge. (It's also my fourth language, I still have room up there to cram more words in yet another language...) I will tell you this: once you have some foundation, playing things like RPGs help you because of the exposure, the reading practice, and if you have a dictionary on hand you can start picking up new words.. It's funny to me sometimes because I can remember a word not just from the past but also how I learned it. For example I can look at 熟練度 and remember learning it because of Final Fantasy 2. :popcorn:

My language skill only improves so I'm basically fearless when I buy a new title. I don't care how much text there is, I can handle my way through. :)

[Gapporin]

I took two years of Japanese in college, but I'll be damned if I remember any of it now. I still have the katakana and hiragana tables memorized, however. I probably could take a decent stab at some basic sentence structure as well.

[xelement5x]

I took 3 semesters of Japanese in college and lived there for a bit in 2005 (great conversion rate, wooo!). But haven't really used it much since then. I can still read relatively basic stuff and recognize some kanji, but I'd definitely need a refresher if I wanted to play an RPG. Audio wise I can understand a fair amount of stuff since I still watch anime, but my wife is much better at it since she has better hearing than me and also watches a lot of Japanese Dramas still.

I've got a fair amount of import games though, so my hope is to get some time eventually to polish up my comprehension using the old games.

[Ludwig]

(It's also my fourth language)

And which are those? :) (just curious)

[FoxNtd]

And which are those? :) (just curious)

Russian and French. :popcorn:

[Ludwig]

I thought about Russian once, i would love to travel through Siberia, but in the end i didn't see enough practical applications in my life. I speak a bit of Swedish and German. :)

[slapdash]

I'm with Gapporin -- studied a bit in college (never quite to fluency), but don't remember much now. The way I see it, the last thing I'll be able to say is "Boku no Nihongo wa, jouzu ja nai", or "Nihongo ga dekimasen".

[FoxNtd]

I'm with Gapporin -- studied a bit in college (never quite to fluency), but don't remember much now. The way I see it, the last thing I'll be able to say is "Boku no Nihongo wa, jouzu ja nai", or "Nihongo ga dekimasen".

I laughed reading those sentences. (Particularly 上手じゃない hahaha.) I'm honestly confused how you can study actively for a notable amount and forget almost everything. I haven't studied French for over 8 years and I can still read and write almost as much as I remember knowing about it. Sure I remember some more advanced grammatical lessons but have forgotten their rules since then but overall, it's certainly far from lost. As for Japanese, kanji are a curious thing. Besides how amazing they are, the nature of their function and all, I swear some of them are permanently memorized. For example I don't think I can look at 水 and not know that it is water and how to say it as well. I cannot forget it. I have never forgotten it. There are many words I just know.

Of course I haven't abstained from exposure to the language for a long period of time to see what I forget... I don't want to either. :)

言語を毎日使ったら忘れられないと思う :)

[StealthLurker]

Ha, funny thread with funny replies so far. I've been doing this for a few years now. I'm doing ok too I guess. Games are not the source of inspiration, they're just another reason it's valuable to have the knowledge. (It's also my fourth language, I still have room up there to cram more words in yet another language...) I will tell you this: once you have some foundation, playing things like RPGs help you because of the exposure, the reading practice, and if you have a dictionary on hand you can start picking up new words.. It's funny to me sometimes because I can remember a word not just from the past but also how I learned it. For example I can look at 熟練度 and remember learning it because of Final Fantasy 2. :popcorn:

My language skill only improves so I'm basically fearless when I buy a new title. I don't care how much text there is, I can handle my way through. :)

It's funny you mention this, I'm fluent in 3 languages however Japanese is NOT one of them.

I took 1 year of japanese in order to fulfill a requirement but that was almost 15 years ago. So when it comes time to actually speak japanese, in my mind sometimes sentences get jumbled up with words from 3-4 different languages lol. Listening and understanding is easier though. In actuality I'm really surprised how much I remember. I can hold a decent conversation with my japanese neighbor. We also watch dramas together from time to time and I'm surprised by how much I can understand. She'd turn to me to translate and before she even speaks I tell her what just happened and what they said.... she'd look at me in astonishment and say I thought you weren't fluent in japanese, lol. However I still need help from her with certain colloquialisms, especially very, very modern ones.

I guess it's a testament to the class and teacher I studied japanese under. She was the author of a japanese textbook that was used in Universities all across the United States at the time. After completing that class, I felt that I could basically say anything in japanese. It may not be the normal, everyday way of speaking but it would have been technically correct. She really made sure we got a strong foundation in the grammar and she really drove us to gain a significantly large vocabulary in comparison to other japanese classes. I remember comparing notes and progress with other first year students in several other schools at a comparative academic level and I was amazed at how little grammar, vocabulary and kanji they had to deal with on a weekly basis.

Now in terms of kanji forget about it. I can still recall the overall meaning of some characters but stroke order and combinations has all gone to crap. It reminds me of western tattoo guys... yeah by itself that character means that, but if you put those two kanjis together it doesn't mean anything! I remember giggling behind some tattoo guys with my mandarin/cantonese friends about some ridiculous tattoos. However I can still do the simple hiragana and katakana forwards and backwards.

In terms of games I actually have very little desire to use it to play things such as RPGs. Growing up, I had a lot of japanese friends either recently from japan or second generation going to japanese school everyday/once a week. I wanted to learn to be able to understand when they spoke with their parents lol. I also grew up watching a lot of live action japanese tv shows/movies... understanding those was probably my biggest motivation. Gaming is kinda just icing on the cake. For gaming, I use what japanese I know to aid me in searching for stuff I want to collect.

.

[FoxNtd]

StealthLurker that sounds amazing. I'm probably on my 3rd year of self-study, and watching a TV show and trying to understand dialogue is only starting to open up to me. I am going to need many more hours of exposure as well as acquisition of new vocabulary before I make marvelous improvement in this department. "Icing on the cake" regarding Japanese games, I would agree with this. The language should be used as if it is the natural one, and anywhere language has a presence, you should be able to interact with it in Japanese. That is my intention; I would like for it to be second-nature as my hearing skills are for Russian. :)

[Genesaturn]

Everyone holds information differently...I took spanish from 6th grade until 12th , thats 6 years and I had straight A's. The problem is I don't have ANY hispanic friends or friends that speak spanish...so after going 12 years without using an ounce of spanish..I only remember a handful. I've been using rosetta stone to learn Japanese with my gf, and my best friends takes it in college. I'm doing ok..but even if I go months on end without speaking or writing it..I still remember..mostly because I watch quite a bit of subtitled anime and Japanese live action films.

[Shulamana]

It's one of my pipe dreams to be able to play Super Famicom games in the original language and understand the text, but I don't have nearly enough drive to do so. I probably have the memory to get a good grasp but none of the determination.

[The 1 2 P]

Outside of a few words and giberish sentences I don't speak very much Japanese. But the Katakana alphabet has come in handy for many import gaming sessions.

[SEGA_Queen]

Outside of a few words and giberish sentences I don't speak very much Japanese. But the Katakana alphabet has come in handy for many import gaming sessions.

This is exactly where I stand as far as my Japanese language skills are concerned. I just don't have the time to study Japanese extensively.

[markusman64ds]

I can't read or speak Japanese. The writing looks like scribbles and the speech sounds like gibberish, all because I can't understand it.

Why can't Japanese be in English :(

[Aussie2B]

Speak, no. Understand spoken Japanese, not really. Read, a tiny bit. I know the katakana and hiragana characters, and a very small assortment of kanji. It's just that my understanding of native Japanese is very limited, so my reading skills are 95% used for the purpose of reading English represented with Japanese characters. I'd love to know more, but what I have learned has all been self-taught (without even the assistance of programs like Rosetta Stone or what have you; just online character charts and dictionaries, basically) and I don't think I really have the drive and time to fluently learn the language like that. I am always picking up new words, though, like, for example, I recently memorized "uso" ("lie") and "majime" ("serious"). Anyway, I find that with games, even the most text-heavy ones, the critical information, like the names of characters, locations, moves, items, etc., are often in English (represented via katakana), and that's enough to get by well most of the time. And, yeah, this learning process was started because of Japanese video games (Star Ocean on Super Famicom specifically was my start), but I also import a lot of other Japanese products, like manga, music, etc.

[layzee]

My main goal at the moment: Understanding Japanese text via memorising the Kanji (but not necessarily how to read it, that's a longer-term goal) and if possible, without using electronic dictionaries (also a longer-term goal). Concurrent goal: Learning how to write it.

Sub-goals: Learning how to write Kanji (high priority, concurrent with main goal); increasing vocabulary (high); using the correct readings (i.e. on/kun) (medium-high); comprehending compound Kanji (medium-high); understanding spoken Japanese speech (medium); speaking Japanese (low).

Current status of main goal: I'm getting there. I am currently in the process of reviewing and memorising 2200 Kanji (i.e. I have already looked at/studied, and associated an English meaning/word to each Kanji, at least several times). Additionally and at the same time, I hope to be able to reproduce/write 2200 Kanji out of thin air.

The Kanji, which was by far, the main obstacle to my understanding of any sentence, and which used to all looked barely the same to me, are now slowly becoming comprehensible. The Kanji which I think used to all look the same, now all look unique. Each individual Kanji has a story to tell and you would do well to heed it.

In today's age of technology, learning how to write the Kanji seems like a futile and pointless exercise. In fact, I argue to the contrary. Merely looking at a Kanji (while still useful for recognition purposes) is only partly helpful. I argue that learning the meaning of the Kanji and learning how to write it are linked (doing one, helps the doing the other). It is by writing the Kanji with a pen, and with the correct stroke order, that you will be able to get a "feel" of the Kanji. In time, writing a particular Kanji will not require thinking. You will learn and write a Kanji the same way tennis player hits a ball over the net. It will become a reflex action. A good side-effect is that your usage of electronic dictionaries (with pen input) will be more efficient, where correct stroke order is relatively important.

Above all, with the exceptions of the simplest and most basic Kanji, all Kanji does not consist of mere lines or strokes. Rather, each Kanji can be separated into smaller parts, and these are called "radicals" or "primitives". And it is with these radicals/primitives, these building blocks for which you can use to construct a story for that particular Kanji. This strategy will be necessary for both your writing and for your understanding of the Kanji. Either that, or just rote learning/brute force it. You don't have a choice.

Having said that, even if I have all the meanings of the Kanji memorised, I will probably still have trouble with 2 things: 1) compound Kanji (a simple search on an electronic dictionary solves this) and 2) Long and complicated sentences using multiple types of grammar (will need more study on intermediate/advanced grammar for that one).

But I am optimistic that my goal will be realised in the near future. I will be able to finally play my Super Famicom RPGs (among other things like unreleased Japanese RPGs in the future) in their original language and to satisfy my purist self.

[Damaramu]

I took a semester of Japanese in high school and have studied it on my own since then. I can read and write hiragana/katakana and can form basic sentences. VERY basic sentences. I can understand about 30 to 40% of what I hear. I've been meaning to take classes.

Anyway, what little I know has helped when it comes to import games.

[LordDarkrai]

Pretty much no upset for only sayonara and a very few other words.

[Retrocade Fantasia]

Hajimemashite Digit press

O-tearai wa doko ni arimasu ka?

[ice1605]

Yeah, right now, I am finishing my 3rd year of Japanese at the university level. I am an electrical engineering and Japanese double major. Starting this summer, I am studying abroad at the University of Tsukuba for a year. I hope that spending a year over there will help me improve my Japanese.
日本語を話せることも読むことも書くことも全部好きなんですけど、まだまだ上手じゃありません 。

[FoxNtd]

日本語を話せる

可能形使ったら「を」助詞が使えません。このボイスには、その助詞が「が」になります。日本語の学習者は、 この間違いが通常だと思います。

便利な説明を読むには、下記のサイトをご覧ください。

http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/25boisu.html#25.4

25.4.1 可能形の形についてという部分。

頑張ってください。 :)

[ice1605]

可能形使ったら「を」助詞が使えません。このボイスには、その助詞が「が」になります。日本語の学習者は、 この間違いが通常だと思います。

便利な説明を読むには、下記のサイトをご覧ください。

http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/25boisu.html#25.4

25.4.1 可能形の形についてという部分。

頑張ってください。 :)

あ、そうですね。「が」と書いた方がいいですね。ありがとうございます。まだ間違いをしますからもっと勉強 します。

[Manhattan Sports Club]

I can speak japanese moderately enough. But my main interest is in japanese music and literature (classic novels and manga). I imported alot of text-driven games with intention to play them in the original tongue and indeed I do dabble in some RPGs and Visual Novels but am actually enjoying the learning experience much more than the games in general. It makes it more fun for me to learn something while I play. But I prefer to import stuff like books and music instead.

[TRM]

I don't speak Japanese (though whether I could speak it would have no relation to whether I could read it...) and I do not read it either. Although the idea of playing Famicom games in their original language is exciting, I just do not think that I have enough inspiration to learn to read this language, and this is coming from a guy who speaks English and German, and also a conversational rate of Afrikaans (and used to know some Dutch until he forgot it...could probably fake it though). I also took 2 years of Spanish at the uni and am working on learning Chinese now...

On another note, Rosetta Stone is garbage. The only reason that program sells as many copies as it does is due to the promotion. I have tinkered with many languages to various levels, and have found RS to be worthless. Many other seasoned language students will tell you the same thing, if you do your research ;) Also, for those of you who remember your English (or whatever your native language is) grammar, consider self-study. Classes move REALLY slow, and I talk from both being an ESL teacher (well technically EFL but that is a different story) and as having been a student in many language classes. A good textbook and a private tutor once a week (to help with pronunciation and potential grammar questions) will take you further, faster, than generic classes.

[Bardoly]

I speak Mandarin Chinese and read a little, and many of the Japanese characters come right from the Chinese, so sometimes I have half a clue what the Japanese is as long as it's written legibly.

[Zama]

I actually took a course in Japanese in college and I was pretty much confused by the end of the semester :( I think I rather stick with improving English instead (I speak, read, and write in three other languages though) <3

[Yamazaki]

Hi guys.

I studied Japanese for 8 years and lots of people say that I am fluent. But my vocabulary and kanji knowledge is definitely crumbling since I dont use it too often here in Germany.

[vivek88]

no i can't speak japnese

[slapdash]

@vivek88: the next time someone asks, respond "Nihongo ga dekimasen" instead.

[Lady Jaye]

I've been wanting to take Japanese lessons for a long time, but can't find the time to do so. I'm still hoping that I'll be able to take some basic lessons in September at a local manga lounge (classes are being taught by a very competent teacher), but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. We'll see.

[goatse]

haha pretty funny that no one speaks japanese on the import games forum.

fluent btw.

[The 1 2 P]

I've been wanting to take Japanese lessons for a long time, but can't find the time to do so. I'm still hoping that I'll be able to take some basic lessons in September at a local manga lounge (classes are being taught by a very competent teacher), but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. We'll see.

I thought you did translations for Japanese to English, or is that for French? I remember you saying you were a translator in another thread, unless I'm confusing you for someone else.

[FoxNtd]

haha pretty funny that no one speaks japanese on the import games forum

このスレをよく読まなかったと思う・・・

:roll:

[Eyedunno]

可能形使ったら「を」助詞が使えません。このボイスには、その助詞が「が」になります。日本語の学習者は、 この間違いが通常だと思います。

便利な説明を読むには、下記のサイトをご覧ください。

http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/25boisu.html#25.4

25.4.1 可能形の形についてという部分。

頑張ってください。 :)

Funny thing is, the very page you posted makes it clear that either を or が is acceptable (aside from with できる), albeit with some difference in nuance.


ただ、このガ／ヲの交替は、「できる」の場合とは違って、義務的なもので
はありません。特に、スル動詞の場合や、否定の場合、「Ｎが」と動詞の間が
離れている場合は「Ｎを」のままでもかまいません。

練習メニューを何とか消化できた。
　　　　　大きな声で夢を語れなくなった。
　　　　　こんな難しい本を辞書なしですらすら読めるなんてすごい。

[Breetai]

Speak? Yeah, sure, I coulc get by just fine last time I checked.
Listen? Yeah, but speaking is easier.
Read? Eh, not really. Just stuff you'd use in daily life. I'm too lazy to actually study, so I don't know too much kanji.

I don't know anything about any study programs. I never studied it. I just lived there for a bunch of years and got used to it. My Japanese is pretty crude I think.


haha pretty funny that no one speaks japanese on the import games forum.

fluent btw.
Pretty funny how you aren't fluent enough in reading web-forums to have bothered actually reading the posts in the two pages of this thread. Not to mention that a lot of people here who know Japanese of various levels won't even bother to post in this thread.

Burn!

[Aussie2B]

It's not like it matters anyway. It's not like there's some import gaming police who requires people to learn Japanese before they're allowed to enjoy games released in Japan. There are also plenty of gamers who stick only with import games that are more action-based and have very little text in them, so it's no surprise to me that a lot of people in this forum enjoy imports without knowing Japanese.

Also, I think it helps to realize that as English speakers and/or Japanese speakers, we're in a fortunate and unusual position. Those are the dominant languages for games, so it's easy to take for granted having most games in your mother tongue. Most of the world has to either learn one of those fluently or adapt to playing games in a language that they don't understand well or at all. Like in Europe, if a game is released in multiple languages, it's usually, what, 4 or 5 languages? If you're from one of the less powerful/populated European countries, you have to get by on whatever you may have learned as a second language. It's not uncommon at all for people to play games in English even though their English is pretty weak or nonexistent, so why is it strange for people to play games in Japanese without being totally fluent?

[FoxNtd]

Funny thing is, the very page you posted makes it clear that either を or が is acceptable (aside from with できる), albeit with some difference in nuance.

ハハ。「を」は、動詞の可能形と一緒に使われてることたまに見た。

できるという動詞は別の意味を表せるからこの動詞は特別の場合ですね・・というわけで「を」と「できる」と 一緒に言ったら別の意味を伝えると思う

[InsertCleverName]

My school offers a vitual language course which is basically Rosetta Stone. I just started Japanese this month, and it's pretty fun so far. I'm aware that Rosetta Stone doesn't teach you everything but its a nice platform for beginners.

[The 1 2 P]

I was actually thinking of trying out one of the cheaper alternatives to Rosetta Stone. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[Bubble_Man]

Sukoshi (a little). I studied it for a while back in my late teens and had a Japanese penpal whom I exchanged emails with on a daily basis (a few sentences in Japanese and a few in English). That was about 10 years ago, so I've forgotten quite a bit due to a loss of interest. I'd have to do some reviewing just to read hiragana again.

[Manhattan Sports Club]

I've already posted here but what kind of games do you guys play the most to keep yourself immersed in the language? I'm finding playing games that I am already familiar with to be much more helpful in learning new phrases and vocabulary than attempting stuff you haven't, despite how tempting it is. After all, most people who pursue it based on the otaku culture want to play RPGs that aren't available in english. Still, I'm learning alot by playing the Final Fantasies and Grandia in the original Japanese since I'm already familiar with the story and dialogue.

[Ogreatgames]

Currently I do not speak Japanese, but it would be a really nice skill!

[MadaoBob]

I err.....

Sorta cheated. :p

Having learnt Chinese before hand, I kinda somewhat cheated with the Kanji, considering that the meanings are usually the same except for the few that aren't.

Aside from that, I can only speak a meager amount of Japanese, broken but enough to perhaps get my point across.... I hope. :p