Articles like this push me closer and closer to buying a book to learn Japanese and signing up for classes. My niece speaks Japanese and she suggested if I help her learn Spanish she can help with Japanese. I may take her up on that
I tried in the past. Its harder than you'd expect. Katakana and hiragana are easy. Single words are easy.
The grammar is incredibly difficult to wrap your Western brain around, but if you can get through that you are stuck with fucking Kanji. Which is basically a lifelong commitment to even become kinda okay at.
Then you get the even bigger task of dealing with the Japanese and their love of puns. Fucking every 4th word is somehow a pun or allusion. Often to the point of being complete nonsense until you pick up on it.
What is Kanji? I live in Texas so learning Spanish was easier since it’s very easy to find people to speak with and I’ve had multiple jobs where I had to speak it 70 to 90 percent of the day. Trying to find similar immersion with Japanese short of going to Japan would be tough. Also with Spanish there are a lot of words that are similar to English due to common Latin/Greek root words
Kanji is the main form of writing they use, that they stole from China.
Its basically them combining multiple words or concepts (with their own unique meaning) together to create an entirely new and unique meaning. One example is that the Kanji for adolescence is the Kanji for Blue and for Spring put together because Blue can also mean youth and that age is considered the "springtime of your life."
Imagine basically every single word requires that level of knowledge of the vocabulary. Its almost as if the English language had an alphabet of 2000+ letters, because even native Japanese people have to just memorize Kanji for the most part.
Hiragana and Katakana are basic alphabets that function just like any other, but its considered either "for babies" or "for women" to use, so for the most part its not used in anything that isn't a kid's game or to make a point about how someone is talking being odd. They deliberately use the most difficult form of communication.
Speaking Japanese isn't that bad, relatively. So immersion will help you with that, but if you want to learn Japanese to get around localizers you will be memorizing Kanji out the ass no matter what you do.
Completely unrelated beyond your example fo Kanji but this coincidentally helps me understand the meaning of the OP for JJK Season 2 part 1 better. The talk of "this is our blue" and how the themes of part 1 heavily lean on "blue" and there are many Blue pallettes explain a lot since it's based on the adolescence of the characters being featured.
Sorry for the tangent, but you gave me an epiphany in a moment lol
I firmly believe that Japanese is very easy to learn to speak and understand compared to many languages, yet it is also likely the most difficult language to learn to read and write well.
The grammar is easy for any brain, western or otherwise, to wrap their head around so long as they are good at pattern recognition; compared to something like English, Japanese is incredibly consistent. Anyone who did well at math in school should be able to easily comprehend Japanese grammar. Yeah, they have a couple more conjugations for verbs based on respect/politeness, but the rules have few exceptions, so it isn't too difficult.
Vocabulary, while lacking Greek and Latin roots that simplify transferring word knowledge from one western language to another, is also very limited for non-academic Japanese. There simply aren't many synonyms in conversational (and anime) Japanese, context is typically in how the limited set of vocabulary is spoken. For instance, there really is only one word used for "big," "ooki." How many synonyms for big are there in common, everyday English? Likely over a dozen.
The written side is a bear, and I just have come to accept that, unless I move to Japan, I will never be motivated to learn to read and write Kanji past a basic level. Even in very common usage there just are too many characters, and it is often a 50/50 guess at pronunciation of Kanji.
Summary: learning any language is difficult, but for speaking and understanding Japanese, I believe it is one of the easier ones. Isolation has kept their grammar and vocabulary more fundamentally sound and simple compared to most other languages. Unfortunately, the reading and writing is incredibly difficult.
I agree with the grammar part. I still am not perfect but getting there. I just love how some stuff is easily understood that way but kanji is just a monster. I wish there was some trick to it. I know maybe 50 kanji and that is barely scratching the surface, I would probably never be able to write those by hand mind you, probably only by computer.
It's a written character system, not based on phonetics like hiragana (used with typical Japanese words) and katakana (typically used for foreign words). Imagine an alphabet of six thousand characters.
On the bright side, at least subs aren't anywhere near as cucked as the dub scene. They're also significantly more replaceable. Even if AI doesn't take over, I'm sure there's still a decent fan community, at least for the somewhat popular stuff. It's much easier to do a base translation, versus translating, and then hiring and directing actors, and all that.
As Arkana said, though, the locusts are currently in the process of going after Japan more directly, so if they don't hold the line the source material itself will get infected too.
Are you sure about subs? Gushing over magical girls which is currently airing has me ripping my hair our because of the dumb subs. They use words like "sus" and others I just know are wrong. My biggest pet peve was the subs of dangers in my heart season 1 where it had outright mansplaining in a very cute moment. Outright ruined that scene when in the manga it was a great moment.
I didn't say subs were perfect (unfortunately they very much aren't) I said they're often better, and are easier to fix. You can likely find fansubs for those. Dubs are harder to fix, at present.
And, yeah, it's frustrating when either method - subs or dubs - ruins stuff through ineptitude or malice.
Doesn't really help, considering new series just get censored during development. Most big games get the English teams "consulting" to remove things that are "insensitive" and promote the parts that are "diverse" instead.
If you really want a head start on series that are untainted you probably need to learn Korean or Chinese, but of course smaller works are good anywhere, as long as they have enough reach to sustain an audience.
There's more than 30 years worth of Japanese videogames to play, and the older titles have their own charm. If you're looking for untainted new stuff, many eroge makers are still releasing games that have avoided lolcowlizers and ESG. I don't know if that will last for long as the industry has been in decline for over a decade, but it has enough soul for its heart to keep beating.
I don't know if that will last for long as the industry has been in decline for over a decade, but it has enough soul for its heart to keep beating.
Worthwhile japanese entertainment doesn't decline, it simply returns to its doujin roots after it had it time in spotlight.
Take Touhou for example, it's nowhere near as relevant as it used to be. ZUN doesn't care, he still churns out 6 new lolis every 2 years or so and let music doujin groups write entire albums around them.
The heart will continue to beat in its own little corner of the internet just like Newgrounds.
Take Touhou for example, it's nowhere near as relevant as it used to be. ZUN doesn't care, he still churns out 6 new lolis every 2 years or so and let music doujin groups write entire albums around them.
Had the privilege to shake this man's hand at Summer Comiket last year while buying his newest game and it might be sad but it's one of the highlights of last year for me.
I've been learning Japanese on my own for 5 years while working full-time and I just passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2 with a great score. So speaking from experience, it's both worth it and doable.
I began to play some games in Japanese when I was like 1 year in, and I started to really enjoy them after struggling for a year or so. Now I'm at a level where I can pick up any Japanese game, manga or anime and enjoy it without much trouble.
If you decide to start learning, you are in luck, as the greatest apps, sources, books, etc. are all in English, and since you know Spanish the pronunciation side of things is going to be a lot easier.
In case you're interested, watch this video. Let me know if you want to know about the specific things I did, as everyone goes through a different journey with unique tools that may just work for you.
Articles like this push me closer and closer to buying a book to learn Japanese and signing up for classes. My niece speaks Japanese and she suggested if I help her learn Spanish she can help with Japanese. I may take her up on that
I tried in the past. Its harder than you'd expect. Katakana and hiragana are easy. Single words are easy.
The grammar is incredibly difficult to wrap your Western brain around, but if you can get through that you are stuck with fucking Kanji. Which is basically a lifelong commitment to even become kinda okay at.
Then you get the even bigger task of dealing with the Japanese and their love of puns. Fucking every 4th word is somehow a pun or allusion. Often to the point of being complete nonsense until you pick up on it.
What is Kanji? I live in Texas so learning Spanish was easier since it’s very easy to find people to speak with and I’ve had multiple jobs where I had to speak it 70 to 90 percent of the day. Trying to find similar immersion with Japanese short of going to Japan would be tough. Also with Spanish there are a lot of words that are similar to English due to common Latin/Greek root words
Kanji is the main form of writing they use, that they stole from China.
Its basically them combining multiple words or concepts (with their own unique meaning) together to create an entirely new and unique meaning. One example is that the Kanji for adolescence is the Kanji for Blue and for Spring put together because Blue can also mean youth and that age is considered the "springtime of your life."
Imagine basically every single word requires that level of knowledge of the vocabulary. Its almost as if the English language had an alphabet of 2000+ letters, because even native Japanese people have to just memorize Kanji for the most part.
Hiragana and Katakana are basic alphabets that function just like any other, but its considered either "for babies" or "for women" to use, so for the most part its not used in anything that isn't a kid's game or to make a point about how someone is talking being odd. They deliberately use the most difficult form of communication.
Speaking Japanese isn't that bad, relatively. So immersion will help you with that, but if you want to learn Japanese to get around localizers you will be memorizing Kanji out the ass no matter what you do.
You forgot the worst part. No spaces. If you don't know the kanji, good fucking luck figuring out where words end or begin.
Completely unrelated beyond your example fo Kanji but this coincidentally helps me understand the meaning of the OP for JJK Season 2 part 1 better. The talk of "this is our blue" and how the themes of part 1 heavily lean on "blue" and there are many Blue pallettes explain a lot since it's based on the adolescence of the characters being featured.
Sorry for the tangent, but you gave me an epiphany in a moment lol
I firmly believe that Japanese is very easy to learn to speak and understand compared to many languages, yet it is also likely the most difficult language to learn to read and write well.
The grammar is easy for any brain, western or otherwise, to wrap their head around so long as they are good at pattern recognition; compared to something like English, Japanese is incredibly consistent. Anyone who did well at math in school should be able to easily comprehend Japanese grammar. Yeah, they have a couple more conjugations for verbs based on respect/politeness, but the rules have few exceptions, so it isn't too difficult.
Vocabulary, while lacking Greek and Latin roots that simplify transferring word knowledge from one western language to another, is also very limited for non-academic Japanese. There simply aren't many synonyms in conversational (and anime) Japanese, context is typically in how the limited set of vocabulary is spoken. For instance, there really is only one word used for "big," "ooki." How many synonyms for big are there in common, everyday English? Likely over a dozen.
The written side is a bear, and I just have come to accept that, unless I move to Japan, I will never be motivated to learn to read and write Kanji past a basic level. Even in very common usage there just are too many characters, and it is often a 50/50 guess at pronunciation of Kanji.
Summary: learning any language is difficult, but for speaking and understanding Japanese, I believe it is one of the easier ones. Isolation has kept their grammar and vocabulary more fundamentally sound and simple compared to most other languages. Unfortunately, the reading and writing is incredibly difficult.
I agree with the grammar part. I still am not perfect but getting there. I just love how some stuff is easily understood that way but kanji is just a monster. I wish there was some trick to it. I know maybe 50 kanji and that is barely scratching the surface, I would probably never be able to write those by hand mind you, probably only by computer.
Thanks. I’ll definitely keep all this in mind
Good luck with the Kanji. You'll need it.
Is that a dialect?
It's a written character system, not based on phonetics like hiragana (used with typical Japanese words) and katakana (typically used for foreign words). Imagine an alphabet of six thousand characters.
Wow!!
They just won't let us have anything, will they?
On the bright side, at least subs aren't anywhere near as cucked as the dub scene. They're also significantly more replaceable. Even if AI doesn't take over, I'm sure there's still a decent fan community, at least for the somewhat popular stuff. It's much easier to do a base translation, versus translating, and then hiring and directing actors, and all that.
As Arkana said, though, the locusts are currently in the process of going after Japan more directly, so if they don't hold the line the source material itself will get infected too.
Are you sure about subs? Gushing over magical girls which is currently airing has me ripping my hair our because of the dumb subs. They use words like "sus" and others I just know are wrong. My biggest pet peve was the subs of dangers in my heart season 1 where it had outright mansplaining in a very cute moment. Outright ruined that scene when in the manga it was a great moment.
I didn't say subs were perfect (unfortunately they very much aren't) I said they're often better, and are easier to fix. You can likely find fansubs for those. Dubs are harder to fix, at present.
And, yeah, it's frustrating when either method - subs or dubs - ruins stuff through ineptitude or malice.
Truth! Fansubs are findable and a .ass file is easy to download thankfully.
Makes sense. I do hope they just let AI translate soon
Doesn't really help, considering new series just get censored during development. Most big games get the English teams "consulting" to remove things that are "insensitive" and promote the parts that are "diverse" instead.
If you really want a head start on series that are untainted you probably need to learn Korean or Chinese, but of course smaller works are good anywhere, as long as they have enough reach to sustain an audience.
There's more than 30 years worth of Japanese videogames to play, and the older titles have their own charm. If you're looking for untainted new stuff, many eroge makers are still releasing games that have avoided lolcowlizers and ESG. I don't know if that will last for long as the industry has been in decline for over a decade, but it has enough soul for its heart to keep beating.
Worthwhile japanese entertainment doesn't decline, it simply returns to its doujin roots after it had it time in spotlight.
Take Touhou for example, it's nowhere near as relevant as it used to be. ZUN doesn't care, he still churns out 6 new lolis every 2 years or so and let music doujin groups write entire albums around them.
The heart will continue to beat in its own little corner of the internet just like Newgrounds.
Had the privilege to shake this man's hand at Summer Comiket last year while buying his newest game and it might be sad but it's one of the highlights of last year for me.
Good point
I've been learning Japanese on my own for 5 years while working full-time and I just passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2 with a great score. So speaking from experience, it's both worth it and doable.
I began to play some games in Japanese when I was like 1 year in, and I started to really enjoy them after struggling for a year or so. Now I'm at a level where I can pick up any Japanese game, manga or anime and enjoy it without much trouble.
If you decide to start learning, you are in luck, as the greatest apps, sources, books, etc. are all in English, and since you know Spanish the pronunciation side of things is going to be a lot easier.
In case you're interested, watch this video. Let me know if you want to know about the specific things I did, as everyone goes through a different journey with unique tools that may just work for you.
Thank you!