Passively Learning Japanese through Video Games

[LularLollelSquiller]

Good stuff, I live in Taiwan and i've learned most of my Chinese from Manga and games, aside from talking to friends. It's a great method, because i'm not a textbook guy. (Chinese language textbooks are the worst...)

[Clearie552]

hey I heard there was actually a video game made specifically for studying japanese... like it was an rpg that teaches you kanji or something.. I forgot what it was called, but does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[Suisei]

@Clearie552

I think I do. It's called Slime forest right? : O

[Ziris85]

I'm actually learning (or at least TRYING to learn) japanese, and changing the OS language was one of the things I tried. Seemed like a nice idea at the time, only problem was I had NO clue what anything was. It was all, like, WAAAY above my skill level! So I found myself just memorizing the locations of things I needed, rather than reading what it said! So try and not fall into that BAD habit! I eventually undid it and installed a virtual machine in JP so I could switch back as necessary.

[Luxverus]

what are those 1500 kanji/hanzi on the wall?

youre using it to keep track of what you still got to learn, is it categorized in some manner?

[StormWolf01]

Wow, that's true AJATT alright.

Nice.

[iwantinyoursocks]

Haha sweet books :).. I really want that zelda book!

[santiagoff]

Remember that game has a feature to show furigana of kanjis you don't know~

[TheBleachAmv]

I am doing french gcse and my parents say it will help with my language learning skills both my parents can speak more than 2 languages so i trust them and they say it will help me with my discipline of learning a language

should I do French to help with my japanesse(sounds kinda weird i know:)

[delbertmon]

im not sure what gcse is, but it sounds like your parents are more experts than I am about learning language and I would trust their opinion.

sometimes to avoid thinking in English as long as possible I'll use Spanish vocab if I don't know the word in Japanese... it's fun, but can be quite confusing if you're not careful.

[TheBleachAmv]

Thanks for the quick reply I will try it and see if it works out and also please keep posting more videos they are great:)

[DOty3]

It looks like your getting somewhere.

I need to buy some nihongo books online maybe.

[iammike08]

I wish 47 cents still got you 50 yen. :(

[delbertmon]

@iammike08 haha, I guess the going rate is dropping faster than I thought.

[iammike08]

Yeah, unfortunately, today 50 yen will cost you 55 cents.

[delbertmon]

@iammike08 classic blunder on my part, did my quick conversion the wrong way. thanks again :-)

[iammike08]

It's ok, you own a Mac therefor you are forgiven. lol

[zionviller]

Cool! 偶然にも, I just switched all my OS's and devices to Japanese.. and started playing Final Fantasy 6 in Japanese along with an online walkthrough.. in Japanese.

..it really takes the edge off of studying.

[delbertmon]

@zionviller sweet! where did you find the online guide?!

[zionviller]

@delbertmon FFDQ(dot)com has walkthroughs for almost every Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest game in Japanese. Quite cool!

[delbertmon]

@zionviller ffdq FOR THE WIN!! seriously, thanks.

[keanbean]

i burst out laughing at the clap

[delbertmon]

@keanbean sometimes you just gotta clap.

[runningwithipods]

i love you. like seriously your my hero. im going to chicago for photography school next year : ) and hope to move to japan as well. keep it up X)

[delbertmon]

@runningwithipods aww. i appreciate it, but most foreigners who come to Japan are much more worthy of your admiration because they already can communicate.

chicago for photography! I was accepted to transfer to Columbia for my Junior year when in university. i didn't because i decided i already had roots in my current campus at the time.

good luck.

[myfreepaysite1]

so the kids you teach already know english? easier than i thought it would be...

damn crash bandicoot brings me back.

[delbertmon]

@myfreepaysite1 i think i gave off the wrong impression, the kids I teach do not know english. at times this poses a large hurdle to overcome in the classroom

[myfreepaysite1]

oh, well since you don't speak much japanese, can you explain to me the methods with how you teach your students? do you mostly just copy out of a book and write on the board or something?

i'm interested because i might be doing this one day. i'm a white guy from america as well, only 20 though with no degree yet.

[delbertmon]

@myfreepaysite1 That would take awhile, but they have textbooks and know a little English. Copying info they already have onto the board seems redundant, I usually focus on application. Take the target sentance patterns from the book and have show students how and where to plug words into them and them make them practice with each other and me. Also, lots of worksheets with engaging pictures like from manga they read.

[myfreepaysite1]

right on. thanks for the response and it's really cool you post these videos. keep em coming

[TheVinster]

Cool. I've wanted to switch my gaming habits to Japanese, but since I have no job I can't get the Japanese PS2 I want. I think I'll be a bit more comfortable waiting until I get better, anyway. As for changing my OS to Japanese... too scared at this point.

But you're right when you discuss having fun, because that's the best way to learn. Hope you're having a good time in Japan, you're helping me keep my dream in sight.

[delbertmon]

@TheVinster dude, just switch the OS. It's really no big deal. you can always switch it back and you'll learn a lot.

[lordmetroid]

You should check hard off or book off they usually have sell used consoles for cheap.

[delbertmon]

@lordmetroid thanks. at the moment, i have no need for another console, but i'll keep it in mind.

[keiran110]

The whole operating system! I thought it was hectic when i first changed my facebook to Japanese! You must be in tatters with it!

Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat!

[delbertmon]

@keiran110 naw it's fun!

[212rocky212]

wow awesome, i played crash when i was a kid, you should get final fantasy 13 in japanese and then try to follow it with an english guide people are doing on the internet, im really temped to import it and use a guide to translate to english, but not sure how well it will work for actually learning the japanese language, either way awesome vid!!!

[delbertmon]

@212rocky212 ah 212rocky212. always great to get a comment from you.

I would equate your ffxiii japanese with english guide method to something like watching anime with subs. i doubt i would be focused enough on learning while in the throes of the game to translate anything I didn't have to. In the end, I would get the Japanese guide and do the dirty work. Eventually (maybe by ff15?) i wouldn't need to translate anything, i would just read the guide in japanese. :-)

[NuroXS]

Man, I really enjoy how homey your videos feel. You just a sensible guy! love these videos.

[NuroXS]

This is an awesome video. I love watching your videos. They are exactly what I'm looking for.

[up0]

If you have taken basic Japanese class (like a semester or two), you'll find it easier to learn by immersing yourself in culture and fun stuff like manga, movies, anime, TV, etc. That's a fun way to learn.

[NuroXS]

@up0 nope

[delbertmon]

@up0 Although I see your point, I would quickly add from experience that no classes are needed to start immersing and benefitting. In fact the few lessons I've taken (free and just group study really) have only worked to confuse me. I'm learning quite a lot through immersion and self study and would never invest more time in classes.

[RisuMiso]

I play some games on my computer in Japanese and look up words I see often in my dictionary. I try and read as much as possible but don't kill myself translating everything.

I think I'm going to get a PS3 in the next few months so I can play Final Fantasy 13 and then 14 when it comes out. RPG's have lots of text and are good for reading practice and learning vocab, though can be difficult.

I must say an electronic dictionary is nice to have when playing Japanese video games!

[delbertmon]

@RisuMiso Curses! I totally want an ex-word or something like it. Right I'm riding dirty with 日本語そのまま. It's fine for my purposes now, but I feel I will quickly outgrow it.

I was going to start Final Fantasy 7 but realized that such a commitment would be well over my head so opted to go with zelda.

[RisuMiso]

The ex-word I bought off amazon was an older model (brand new) so it was 50% off. Plus it's a 国語 model which I added the kenkyusha to after. I'm extremely happy with it and use it all the time. I'm hoping to be finished UBJG and part way through 2001KO before I get my Japanese PS3.

Final Fantasy games are pretty hard language wise compared to zelda. The new dragon quest for DS has furigana, so I might try that eventually.

[delbertmon]

@RisuMiso Ya, I love Final Fantasy though so I'm tempted as well. However, my tight budget works well to keep me content with what I have. Honestly, I already have so much Japanese media lined up to consume, I really just need to make time for it all before getting more.

[RisuMiso]

Yeah, I'm hoping for a nice tax refund from my 2 months of work last year in Canada. Fingers are crossed! Otherwise I might end up finishing 2001KO before I can afford a PS3, which wouldn't be bad either.

[RobotKoi]

I spy a final fantasy can. I tried some but didn't like it much.

[delbertmon]

@RobotKoi WOW GOOD EYE!

I forgot that was there.

Ya, i only bought that one with the intention of sending stateside for a friend, but never got around to it so just kept the can. Didn't like it much either.

[furetosan]

I guess that's what they call "head fakes", right? I mean. Fooling yourself into learning something while pretending to do something else.

[delbertmon]

@furetosan haha. right on. but the trick is that i actually believe i'm just having fun... otherwise it would be like studying.

[NodnarbRS]

Hey did get your computer outside of japan? Because I want to get a laptop that has a really good Japanese input system... But I'm in the states.

[RisuMiso]

Mac's have pretty good input for kana. I just set mine up to go to kana if i push command+space. Most Japanese people do not use a kana keyboard but type in romaji and use the space bar to change kana to kanji. Japanese keyboards usually have a dedicated button to switch from kana to English though.

[delbertmon]

@RisuMiso how'd you get the hotkeys to work for switching romaji to kana?

[delbertmon]

@RisuMiso nevermind　やった。