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Topic: Learning Japanese for Switch Imports

Posts 1 to 20 of 59

JaxonH

So, I'm importing Monster Hunter XX for Switch. Regardless of whether it gets localized later, I want to play asap. I figured with the game lacking any meaningful story, the fact I'm very familiar with the series, the Google Translate app for instant translations and the instant save transfers to 3DS for reference (where I have an English fan translation of the game)... I figured I'd be all set.

But then I decided I should at least learn Hiragana and Katakana before launch (80% of the game uses kana for item games, monster names, weapons and items, etc) and memorize as much kanji from the game as I play.... Well, I thought about it and decided if I'm going to learn that much, may as well see it through. 5 years will go by regardless. Wouldn't it be cool to speak Japanese at the end of that time span? Even on a rudimentary level, it would open up a world of new games to play.

So I was talking to some others in an article comment section the other day who were also learning Japanese. Thought maybe I'd start a forum thread for anyone else learning. Maybe, if there are others besides myself, we could help each other or talk about what we're having issues with, or just discuss the learning experience in general.

I've finished learning Hiragana and am 20 characters in to Katakana. I'm using tofugu website guide for the kana, and I ordered "Zero to Japanese #1" for when I'm done with the kana. Also using Duolingo app for quick learning sessions when I have a few minutes at work each day. 1 hour learning per day, no exceptions... that's my rule for myself. Idk if I'll be speaking the language fluently in 5 years, but I know if I dedicate myself I'll know a considerable amount at the end of it.

August 25th is when Monster Hunter XX releases for Switch. I can't wait to put my learning to use and sink 1,000 hrs into that game (which, ironically, if I sunk 1,000 hrs into studying Japanese I'd probably know the language!)

ありがとう 😁

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

maruse

@JaxonH Hello! I just added you on my 3DS, so it'd be nice if you could add me too, and also on the Switch too! You can check my Friend Code in my profile. I've been living in Japan for almost 14 years now, so I know what it takes to learn this language.

Nickname/user name: マノロ

Switch Friend Code: SW-0173-2422-2348 | Nintendo Network ID: maruse

JaxonH

@maruse
That code is for a 3DS I don't use much anymore. This is my current one 5215-3174-9522 Most of my time is spent on Switch now, but I'll be using 3DS to transfer saves from MHXX on Switch for English reference, and of course Metroid Samus Returns.

That's awesome btw. Did you know any Japanese when you moved there? Or was it "I moved to this country and don't understand a word they're saying... better get to learning" lol

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

maruse

@JaxonH Hi1 Thanks! I added you back on my New 2DS!

I'm also really looking forward to Metroid: Samus Returns! In fact that game is the main reason why I bought a New 2DS XL in the first place!

I came to Japan without a clue about the language! (I memorized katakana and hiragana beforehand but I couldn't speak a word) I learned everything here by speaking to people and watching TV! I never went to language school, so my grammar is quite funny sometimes

Edited on by maruse

Nickname/user name: マノロ

Switch Friend Code: SW-0173-2422-2348 | Nintendo Network ID: maruse

JaxonH

@maruse
Ya, I'm so ready to move on from 3DS- I love it but, it's in its 7th year and after experiencing Switch it's hard to go back. But games like Metroid are not to be missed. That one's gonna be a masterpiece!

And wow, that's impressive... like, really impressive. Learning Japanese just from talking to people and watching tv... so basically exposing yourself to it, like how a kid sops up language like a sponge in their early years. I'll have all my kanaa learned by early next week. Then it's review review review until I feel comfortable moving on to Kanji and vocabulary (need to know kana and a small set of vocab as a foundation). What gets me is, I'll Google Translate a line of text, and experiment by deleting one kana at a time, and the meaning changes almost every time... radically, in some cases. And there's so many different words and Kanji for the same thing. I translated a line from Fire Emblem Warriors, that said "It is much stronger than destiny". So I looked up the Kanji for destiny, and one meant luck and the other meant life. Together they meant destiny. But I translated "life" in English back to JP to see if the same Kanji showed up, but it didn't. A completely different one showed up. Only in the alternate suggestion did I see the same house looking Kanji as before.

It's gonna be a long road ahead...

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

SMEXIZELDAMAN

I'm playing Pokemon Moon in Japanese

Check out SUBLIME GAMER, my YouTube Channel
God loves you

maruse

@JaxonH

No one in my wife's family speaks English (much less Spanish!) and to find a job you need to speak the language unless you aim to be an English teacher. So I had no other choice but to learn.

Kanji is tough. Very tough. But Japanese grammar is not that difficult and pronunciation is also very easy (for a Spaniard at least), because it's pronounced as it's written. For an English speaking person it'll be much more difficult to pronounce correctly.

Keep studying! 頑張って!

Nickname/user name: マノロ

Switch Friend Code: SW-0173-2422-2348 | Nintendo Network ID: maruse

OorWullie

I too find the best way to pick up a language is by exposing yourself to it,whether through talking to locals or watching their TV shows with English subtitles.You can learn the basics from books to get you started but eventually you hit a wall,at least I do.I'm Scottish but haven't lived there for over 16 years.I spent nearly 2 years in France,7 years in The Netherlands and over 7 years in Thailand.Even after all this time away from my homeland my Scottish accent is still really strong and it's hard for me to speak any foreign language and sound convincing. Before I come to Thailand I read up on the basics but when I got here and tried to put it to use,no one understood me.Knocks your confidence big time.But now after being here so long and picking up bits and bobs from friends and living with ex-girlfriends and just hearing it in general all the time when I'm out and about,I can sound pretty convincing.I could in no way hold any more than a basic conversation in Thai but I know enough to get me by.My confidence in the tone in how I speak it sky rocketed when I was on this trip to the middle of nowhere in some jungle on the Myanmar border and we met this village tribe who invited us into their home for a meal.I made some basic conversation with them and they easily understood me without me having to repeat myself,felt great. Ever since then it just comes out my mouth naturally without having to think about it first.I do wish I had more motivation to go further with it though.I'm more than likely going to be spending the rest of my days here so I really should learn more.One problem with living here so long is it's affected my spoken and even written English.I have friends who've been here for years who say the same.So yeah,exposure is definitely the best way but too much exposure for too long is to the detriment of your own language haha.

Edited on by OorWullie

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Krull

Great thread! I also want to learn Japanese, but not got much beyond a few podcasts. Thanks for the tofugu recommendation - think I've pretty much nailed hiragana after one afternoon! I actually did a term of Japanese lessons when I was about 15 and nothing stuck. Literally the only thing I learned to do was introduce myself and then two words: kawaii and kikimasho. Could have learnt more watching anime...

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Octane

If there's one thing that I've learned is that learning a language becomes progressively more difficult when you're getting older. I'm not sure I'd be willing go give it a go at this point anymore. European languages are a lot easier for me. And when you get at a point where you know a couple, you also start picking up parts of closely related languages. I never learned Spanish for example, but since I do know Latin, French and a bit of Italian, I'm able to comprehend a bit of Spanish. Enough to manage myself when I'm in Spain at least.

I've once thought about learning Japanese. I got sick of waiting more than a year for the Pokemon games to get localised and released over here, so I imported some from Japan with the idea of learning Japanese. I've managed to learn a few basic words and some hiragana and katakana. I could make out the moves and things like that, but I never bothered with the grammar. That's obviously the meat of any language and the most difficult part.

Anyway, good luck, it's always a lot harder than you think it is!

Octane

Wichtel

I think learning a new language is a great plan. It is not something you can do in a few months, unless you really go hardcore with private lessons and stuff. But you wrote that you want to do it over 5 years, which sounds realistic.
Languages are also about culture and history. They can open a whole new world to you. Yes it will take longer as you get older. But that doesn't mean it's impossible.
I thought about learning japanese myself, since i learn chinese now for quite some time. but i am still not really fluent in chinese and don't want to lose focus too early.
Maybe in a year or two.

Edited on by Wichtel

Wichtel

chriiiiiiiiiis

I'm a language teacher and researcher. There really is no evidence to prove learning a language is harder when you're older. If anything, a dedicated older age student will learn faster than a teenager who has little to no interest. It's only harder as an adult because we can have really busy lives and learning without going to school means there is a little less structure. If you stop studying, no one is going to notice or care so you can become lazier that way.

Lots of people I know really like Memrise which is basically a fancy flash card app for your phone or you can play on your computer as well. If you dedicate time to playing it often, I think for memorising characters you'll definitely get better. The good thing about a lot of video games is that the language they use is a lot of loan words from English so if you learn the katakana characters, you'll instantly have access to a lot of words you probably can work out. For example, 'menu' in Japanese is just the phonetic Japanese letters メニュー(menyuu)

chriiiiiiiiiis

Anti-Matter

@maruse
Kanji words are very hard to be memorized all. And they have Two different spelling: Kunyomi and Onyomi.
Kunyomi = Japanese spelling, such as Tanoshii, Higashi, Mizu, etc.
Onyomi = Chinese spelling, such as Raku (Happy), ToKyo, Ryu (Dragon), Sui (Water), etc.

But, somehow... memorized those Kanji words in Japanese for me is easier than memorized as a Chinese language.
And for some reason.... I don't really like to learn Chinese language, but really excited to study Japanese language.
Well... maybe the Hype came from Anime / Games / Manga / Toys / etc. I don't have any Hype from China. When I think about China, I think about Lame, Boring, Cheap (Not good product), Too Archaic, Counterfeit, Unoriginal, etc.
But, when I think about Japan, I think about Sugoi (Awesome), Role Model, Creativity, Unique, Couture, Center of Interest, Must buy products.

Edited on by Anti-Matter

Anti-Matter

maruse

@Anti-Matter
I get what you're talking about. I never cared about China myself...
I can read most text without too much trouble (after all I'm working in Japanese and exchanging email and everything in Japanese) but, honestly, I can't get as comfortable reading Japanese as I am reading English or Spanish.
But it's a matter of "training". The more you read the more comfortable you'll become.

Nickname/user name: マノロ

Switch Friend Code: SW-0173-2422-2348 | Nintendo Network ID: maruse

JaxonH

Some great input from people. I'll try that flash card app for sure.

And, I had a mental block about it being harder as I'm in my 30's, but it's going great so far. Just out of the habit of learning and having to self discipline. Keeping your eye on the prize and reminding yourself why you're doing this, and how it will ultimately benefit you, is key I think.

I like that the Duolingo app says the kana and words in Japanese so you can hear the pronunciation. Good stuff.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

Samus7Killer

Sounds awesome. Just keep studying. You'll get it eventually. I got a fwend that moved to Japan to learn their tongue and after a year hes doing great. Good luck

Edited on by Samus7Killer

Samus7Killer

crimsontadpoles

I've taken an interest in Japanese before, since I figured that anime would be even more fun if I could understand what they're saying without relying on the subtitles. I've been listening to audio books during my lunch break maybe once every couple of weeks, so it's unsurprising that I'm not making much progress.

That's always been my problem. Whenever there's something new that I want to do, I quickly lose interest if it requires effort.

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Switch Friend Code: SW-5487-8712-2210 | 3DS Friend Code: 2165-5759-7889 | Nintendo Network ID: crimsontadpoles

JaxonH

@crimsontadpoles
Ha, woulda never guessed...

Talked to a friend at work today who said he took an initial interest in college to help understand anime but didn't stick with it. When I told him I was diligently studying every single day, he seem to get interested like he wanted to pick up learning it again.

Having Duolingo app helps remind you to do a lesson every day (quick 2 minute lessons, I do a couple or do them repeatedly to help it sink in) but also just make myself learn 10 new kana every day. I'm about to learn na, ni, nu, ne, no, ha, hi, fu, he, ho in Katatana today, and tomorrow I'll learn ma, mi, mu, me, mo, ya, yu, yo and Monday it'll be ra, ri, ru, re, ro, wa, wo, n and I'll be done with all of Hiragana and Katatana. Then I'll have to figure out how to ration learning kanji daily. Maybe 5 new words per day... we'll see.

Edited on by JaxonH

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

FriedSquid

Duolingo's Japanese was good for a while, it helped me pretty much master the hiragana characters. However, probably because it's new, it's not very developed yet (you can't even use it on desktop last time I checked). It might just be how I prefer to learn, but I found it confusing how Duolingo started introducing katakana and kanji characters only when it was convenient. My main problem with Duolingo in general, too, is that it never really explains the grammar or rules in a given language, so you have to rely on other users' comments (which are typically useful, just frustrating).

And to OP, though unfortunately I don't know of any other ways to learn kanji, I would advise against using Google Translate as, in my experience, it never seems to translate Japanese very well. I've always been confused by it and I fear it will leave you confused, too, but whatever works for you I suppose. Good luck!

Sav'aaq!
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JaxonH

@FriedSquid
Oh, I don't use it as my main learning tool. It's just a little extra for when I have five spare minutes at work, to help keep things fresh via repetition.

But until I learn Japanese, Google Translate will be a huge boon in playing Monster Hunter XX, and for quick translations of things I'm unsure of. The whole reason I got it was to help with Monster Hunter XX. And it's so amazing how you can select which text to translate and then it stores it for you to reference later. So any menus or armor lists, etc, can be translated once with the app and then used as a reference for the entire 600 hours I play the game. It also is not a "main learning tool". But it is an invaluable asset for playing a game in a language you don't yet know.

All have sinned and fall short of Gods glory. Wages of sin is death. Romans

God so loved the world He sent His only Son- whoever believes on Him has eternal life. Unless you believe, you will die in your sins. Whoever believes, rivers of living water flow within them. John

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