Sites for learning video game related Katakana??

[Drag0nsfyre]

Hey all,
Now that I'm set up ( or getting there) to start the import gaming goodness for SNES & Saturn. I was wondering if any of you know of any sites where I can try and attempt to read some basic Katakana.
I did a quick search and came across this blog (http://www.bardinelli.com/blog/?p=46). He had a bunch of helpful tips and he even had this japanese for gamers (http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/3254/funstuff_jfgamer/jfgamers.html) link.
So does anyone know of any other helpful links? or will I eventually just get the hang of it after seeing the same basic menu options the more imports I play.
Thanks! :)

[goemon]

[QUOTE=Drag0nsfyre;1142435]will I eventually just get the hang of it after seeing the same basic menu options the more imports I play.[QUOTE]

That's the best way to learn ANY language -- use it! If it isn't useful to you, and is just words on paper, you will not remember it. If you can use it to do something you enjoy, you will learn it faster. Keep a kana chart next to you while you play and use it to identify and name the sounds. Try to recognize patterns in the sounds. Once you can do that, you will be ahead of many import gamers. Good luck, and PM me if you need help.

[udisi]

I too have been trying to work on my ability to read/understand Japanese.

I've found it very useful to learn both Hiragana and katakana. These 2 are actually pretty easy. They both match up to sounds and just make sense to me.

Kanji on the other hand are a lot more complex and have given me a bit more trouble. They seem to be shorthand to me when they don't want to write out longer words. Very interesting language so far.

[GillianSeed]

DreamKana (http://www.softempire.com/dreamkana.html) is a nice little freeware flashcard program for learning katakana and hiragana.

And if you're looking to delve a bit deeper, www.japanesepod101.com is a daily Japanese language podcast. The basic service is free.

[CartCollector]

Project LRNJ (http://lrnj.com/) is something you might want to check out. It's an RPG about learning Japanese, so it would probably fit with your interests. I haven't used it, so I don't know how good it is or how well it works.

[Imstarryeyed]

Project LRNJ (http://lrnj.com/) is something you might want to check out. It's an RPG about learning Japanese, so it would probably fit with your interests. I haven't used it, so I don't know how good it is or how well it works.

I did not know about this one, thanks for the link.

I have studied Japanese for a few years and I have found games that are meant for Japanese people to learn English can be a fun way to help learn Japanese.

In addition you can also get to play an interesting game that normally you would not be able to!

Here is a list of the ones I'm aware of / own:

Sega Saturn (My fave console hee hee)

EMIT Vol 1 (If anyone knows where I can get Vol 1 please let me know I am currently looking for this one!!)
http://www.segagagadomain.com/saturn8/emit-vol1.htm

EMIT Vol 2
http://www.segagagadomain.com/saturn8/emit-vol2.htm

EMIT Vol 3
http://www.segagagadomain.com/saturn8/emit-vol3.htm

EMIT is also available on Super Famicom as well

Dark Hunter: Shou Kotojigen Gakuen
http://www.segagagadomain.com/saturn12/darkhunter1.htm

Dark Hunter: Shita Youma no Mori
http://www.segagagadomain.com/saturn12/darkhunter2.htm

These are the only games I am aware of that are for consoles and have the ability to change the game into spoken Japanese/English and/or Subtitles.

Many of the games for Japanese folks are not very useful to Non Japanese folks unless they have some way of changing the subtitles or spoken text.

Does anyone know of any others on any consoles (not PC's) that are useful to folks learning Japanese?

In the end get yourself a good Japanese dictionary and once you learn the basic Hiragana/Katakana you can look up most of your words.

One last piece of advice read all of the tips on this page..

http://lrnj.com/primer/tips.html

I just finishing reading them from the link CartCollector sent, I have to say this is the best advice for anyone learning Japanese!!

I hope this helps a bit!!

[Technosis]

Wow a major thanks for posting all these awesome links!

[Drag0nsfyre]

Thanks everyone for the links, suggestions and help. :)

[Aussie2B]

I've never understood those charts of various Japanese terms common in games translated to English like they had in PSM back in the day. If you're not learning the individual characters, then you're either forced to memorize how the entire word looks which is bound to bring up problems or you have to hunt through the charts as you play to attempt to match up a word. It all seems very silly and tedious to me.

It might take a little more work, but it's a lot more logical to put "katakana chart" or "hiragana chart" into Google and pick whatever charts look best to you in order to learn the characters. Actually, those gamer charts might come in handy as you're starting since it can be hard to get used to picking out what English words are being represented. Once you get used to "title" being pronounced as "taitoru" and such, you'll be off and running.

As for kanji, though, good luck. Those Japanese for gamers charts might be useful in that case, but again I think it would be so tedious that it generally wouldn't be worth the effort. If you'd go that far, you may as well get some kanji flash cards.

[GillianSeed]

As for kanji, though, good luck.
This is actually a pretty decent site, linked off one of the pages referenced earlier: http://www.kanjisite.com. But yes, it's not for the faint of heart.