日本語 - Japanese Language

~ ひかり ~

~ ひかり ~

このまま・・・時間が止まるといい
Site Staff
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Favourite title
Shenmue
Currently playing
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (PS4)
I said in other threads that asian culture always fascinated me since i was kid, one of the things that fascinate me is the different languages in Asia, i love learning languages, japanese is a interesting language.

I know the basics of japanese. I know Hiragana, Katakana and a few Kanji, i know a lot of words and how to say some things in japanese but i need to study more.

Hiragana - Hiragana is used with grammatical words, particles, sounds that follow after kanji, and for words that either don't have a kanji or the kanji is too difficult for the writer.



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Katakana - Katakana is mostly used for foreign words or names and kanji represent core concepts. For example, "television" is written テレビ (terebi).


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Kanji - Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. But unlike the Chinese language, Japanese cannot be written entirely in kanji. For grammatical endings and words without corresponding kanji, two additional, syllable-based scripts are being used, hiragana and katakana, each consisting of 46 syllables.


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A long time ago Switch made one interesting video about learning japanese with Shenmue. @Switch you have plans to continue this series? this idea of learning japanese with Shenmue is wonderful, beautiful video.



I'm creating this thread so we can help each other in our japanese studies. Here we can share everything about japanese language, thank you.
　　　　　　　　
日本語を勉強しましょう ありがとうございました Translation >> Let's study japanese, thank you
 
Hiki said:
A long time ago Switch made one interesting video about learning japanese with Shenmue. @Switch you have plans to continue this series? this idea of learning japanese with Shenmue is wonderful, beautiful video.
Click to expand...
Thanks Hiki! I really think a Shenmue based set of lessons would have amazing potential for a fun and integrated way to learn Japanese with the characters we know and love. About the video series, unfortunately with the other blog work etc I had to shelve the plans for it due to the time it takes to put together even that pilot episode. It could make for a nice project for a team to work on.

Edit:

Also to everyone who is learning, good luck with your studies! Has anyone tried the Japanese Language Proficiency Test ? I found it useful helping to set learning goals, even though it might be a bit more focused on reading & writing than conversation.
 
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Playing games like Shenmue in Japanese is a good way to immerse yourself in the language because it's fully voiced, there's native subtitles, there's stuff to read everywhere, and the contents(going around and asking various people different versions of the same question) are so repetitive that you will be forced to pick up certain things. However, if you're as familiar with the games as the people here are it's easy to zoom through without paying too much attention regardless of what language you're playing in.

I'm playing through S2 in Japanese right now and if you have the HD collection on steam I recommend checking out ner0's guide to getting the Japanese text back in the game on the modding forum(it's easy as pie for S1 but tricky for S2 if you're a dumdum like me). It's a godsend. His widescreen mod is also great.
 
Switch said:
Thanks Hiki! I really think a Shenmue based set of lessons would have amazing potential for a fun and integrated way to learn Japanese with the characters we know and love. About the video series, unfortunately with the other blog work etc I had to shelve the plans for it due to the time it takes to put together even that pilot episode. It make for a nice project for a team to work on.

Edit:

Also to everyone who is learning, good luck with your studies! Has anyone tried the Japanese Language Proficiency Test ? I found it useful helping to set learning goals, even though it might be a bit more focused on reading & writing than conversation.
Click to expand...

This type of videos takes a lot of time to put together, i really understand you had to shelve the plans. In the first video you really gave the basics of the japanese language for people who want to start learning japanese, really nice.

I never tried the Japanese Language Proficiency Test but maybe i will try someday, first i need to study more.

In this thread i will try to make some posts of learning japanese with Shenmue and other things, i think will be interesting for the community,
 
I am a student of the japanese Language and I am really enjoying studying it. Also have been in Japan 3 times already to visit a language school.
 
Switch said:
Thanks Hiki! I really think a Shenmue based set of lessons would have amazing potential for a fun and integrated way to learn Japanese with the characters we know and love. About the video series, unfortunately with the other blog work etc I had to shelve the plans for it due to the time it takes to put together even that pilot episode. It could make for a nice project for a team to work on.

Edit:

Also to everyone who is learning, good luck with your studies! Has anyone tried the Japanese Language Proficiency Test ? I found it useful helping to set learning goals, even though it might be a bit more focused on reading & writing than conversation.
Click to expand...
I passed the N5…failed the N4.

N5 was piss easy.
N4 showed me that my kanji reading is pretty bad. I’m way too dependant on technology for reading and struggle with Kanji in general. I tried in my third year of study and it was rough. Really tough.

I’ve been thinking about getting back into Japanese studies. I quit last year. I was going for 8 years straight but the pandemic kind of put an end to it.

I miss it so much. Studying Japanese used to make me happy and I have been feeling that urge to get back in and start studying again lately after such a long lapse. Was thinking about re-enrolling in my old class but I think they’ve moved on so much and I would need to refresh having lapsed from it so maybe a lower class. I still remember quite a bit, but I’m no doubt rusty after a year not thinking about it. At least when it comes to talking I would be rusty.
 
danielmann861 said:
N4 showed me that my kanji reading is pretty bad. I’m way too dependant on technology for reading and struggle with Kanji in general. I tried in my third year of study and it was rough. Really tough.
Click to expand...
One thing I've found has been really helpful for learning kanji (how to write them, but it helps for recognition as well) is to remember kanji as a visual story made up of components. There's a free site called Koohii which has a bunch of little stories for each kanji, and a built-in spaced repetition testing system. It's pretty effective, although due to the way it works you may end up learning some rare kanji much earlier than the standard frequency based list.

Koohii remembering the kanji website:
https://kanji.koohii.com/
 
This may sound like an idea that could be impossible given the many time differences and all but a part of me was wondering if anyone would be up for starting a Shenmue Dojo Japanese class of sorts over Zoom?

The only problems I forsee are time differences and maybe language skill levels. Like everyone would be at different levels maybe...but if it could be worked out, would anyone actually be interested in it? Or is this pie in the sky talking?

I miss Japanese...I miss being in a class environment and I've been wondering if this could work?

For a while there I thought about opening an Instagram page and doing something with the Japanese languaged Shenmue. Like maybe trying to do daily Japanese lessons through Shenmue in small bite size videos. You know, explain basic concepts like how to ask questions and such "Kikitai koto ga?" or even break down complex things in posts. I just don't know how to structure it for something anyone can understand and keep engaged with.
 
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Sorry for replying late. I've been busy and I guess I've been overlooking this thread for a while now.

Katakana - Katakana is mostly used for foreign words or names and kanji represent core concepts. For example, "television" is written テレビ (terebi).
Click to expand...
But I've always found it weird that cigarettes, or "tobacco," is always written in hiragana as たばこ (just like that cigarette shop near the bus stop).

Thanks Hiki! I really think a Shenmue based set of lessons would have amazing potential for a fun and integrated way to learn Japanese with the characters we know and love. About the video series, unfortunately with the other blog work etc I had to shelve the plans for it due to the time it takes to put together even that pilot episode. It could make for a nice project for a team to work on.
Click to expand...

The game is full of functional Japanese to the point that I think it is a good idea. While Shenmue didn't exactly teach me Japanese (I was already taking Japanese at the high school I was attending by the time I got my Japanese copy of Shenmue on Dec 31, 1999), it was a big help. I always had my notes, textbooks, and dictionaries on me just in case I didn't understand anything. I already understood basic grammar and my kanji was very limited so I was playing on "kodomo mode" my first year lol.

Also to everyone who is learning, good luck with your studies! Has anyone tried the Japanese Language Proficiency Test ? I found it useful helping to set learning goals, even though it might be a bit more focused on reading & writing than conversation.
Click to expand...
I've been meaning to take it. A good number of my friends have passed N2 and N1 and I know it's good for some job opportunities in Japan, but it ultimately doesn't measure some people's Japanese in the sense that an Eiken measures a person's English proficiency. Plus, the fact that the JLPT doesn't have a speaking test really turns me off. I'll admit this is kind of the influence of my boss at my old job. He can speak Japanese perfectly, but when it comes to actual literacy, he's practically an infant (and he's been living in Japan for 35 years). If you heard him conversing in Japanese, you'd think he'd score perfectly on the N1 when in fact, he probably can't pass N5 since it's a reading-oriented exam.

This may sound like an idea that could be impossible given the many time differences and all but a part of me was wondering if anyone would be up for starting a Shenmue Dojo Japanese class of sorts over Zoom?
Click to expand...

As in use clips and footage from Shenmue? I think that can work like Ken Cannon, who uses anime to teach Japanese.

If I had the time, I'd love to do something like that. I know that Ken Cannon charges his special course on Japanese through anime...maybe I should do something like Japanese through video games...?
 
It's a good time to learn Japanese. I encourage people who are interested in learning the language to take a in-person course. Online learning is convenient but nothing beats in-class learning. Especially learning a new language.
 
Yeah, there's no way I could've done it with books, tapes/CDs and other software back in the 90s. I was lucky that the high school I went to had Japanese courses. I might still have my old notes while playing Shenmue back at my parents' house lol. But until October this year, I was taking an online course for translating media. I would've liked to taken it in person, but I have a family and a full-time job. Taking it on ZOOM was best for me.
 
RyoHazuki84 said:
Sorry for replying late. I've been busy and I guess I've been overlooking this thread for a while now.


But I've always found it weird that cigarettes, or "tobacco," is always written in hiragana as たばこ (just like that cigarette shop near the bus stop).
Click to expand...

My understanding is that 煙草(tabako）has come to be treated as a native Japanese word and its meaning can be differentiated by the way you write it. i.e. in hiragana たばこ refers to the product(cigarettes), whereas the tabacco plant is written as タバコ in katakana as is common for all plants and animal names in scientific communities.
 
Somehow I’d missed this thread.

I started off trying to learn Japanese mostly with the intent to better enjoy foreign media like games and anime, etc., and while I’ve fallen off a bit, mostly just not being motivated and more things being localized much faster these days, I feel like at least a lot of what I have learned has been able to stick pretty well for some time.

Most importantly it’s how I’ve met the love of my life…kind of an exaggeration lol. But well, where we met it was just in writing, so we kind of both assumed the other was Japanese, until eventually we caught on we both suck at it. I’ve been meaning to learn more Chinese to be able to talk with her in her native language, so she doesn’t have to ask me what a lot of English words mean, but she seems much more generally fluent than me. Plus she calls what little I try to translate with google “cute”, like how a child would write in school. So I guess it’s a plus.

Learning other languages in general is just a bit of a hassle for me I guess. Hearing about my father’s grandparents exclusively speaking French, or the amount of Spanish I hear at work now I’ve moved to New Mexico, among other things like certain Native American languages or even those who’ve come from India or the Philippines, seems there’s just a ton of different ones to keep track of and I just can’t think any different from the English sentence structure and way of thinking.
 
I’ve been using this site called jisho.org for very particular words here and there but I’ll try that out too. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
My brother uses jisho.org, but I've been using Jim Breen for almost 20 years. My students at the school I teach at near Yasukuni Shrine use DeepL. It works okay, but not natural enough.

Google Translate in my experience has ALWAYS been misleading, most especially the fake Sega and Nintendo letters.
 
My reaction to seeing common everyday kanji.

lpshen_24_04.jpg
 
Isn't there a video of one of the members showing this letter to his Chinese girlfriend and it also took her a while to get it? LOL.

最近、また龍が如くをやっているので、そのゲームでいろいろな表現を勉強しようと思います。
 
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