Japanese with Video Games (part 4)

Recently, I mentioned using non-traditional study methods for my Japanese studies. While it may be a no-brainer to many people to do things in the foreign language they are studying or rather look to material, that native speakers of the foreign language use, for foreign language study material, it is still a fairly new concept for me. Lately, I have decided to use my love of video games as study material for Japanese, since I really like Japanese video games. In this post, I talk about playing video games in Japanese.

What if you just want to play video games in Japanese? Then start! Actually, playing games in another language can be intimidating, especially when after you get the game you realize how much vocabulary you have never seen before or if you have a limited knowledge of the language. I remember when I first played Gailardia, I was so confused at the beginning and even attempted playing the English and Japanese versions side by side. I began playing the Japanese version with a dictionary in hand and I constantly would attempt to write down new terms and play the game (both English and Japanese versions) at the same time. (The text was really small on my phone and my kanji knowledge was lacking when it came to playing video games.) Needless to say, playing both versions of the game got old really fast. After playing for a while, I had built up my video game vocabulary enough to know how to fight monsters, buy potions and other basic equipment, stay at an inn and save the game. I stopped playing the English version of the game and started playing the Japanese version only. I started to recognize more and more kanji and while I did not remember every term I came across, looking up the same terms over and over pushed those terms into my long term memory and allowed me to recognize the characters and their meanings, which has helped me in playing other games of similar genres in Japanese and remembering the kanji later when I came across them in a different context.

Also, I attempted to play Pokemon awhile ago and I did not get very far, because I attempted to look every new term up in the dictionary. I had looked up more than 200 terms (vocabulary and kanji) by the time I got to route 2 or so. It was a bit discouraging and I stopped playing that particular Pokemon game (it was not Pokemon X or Y), but it was a good experience. I did start playing Pokemon X in Spanish, which I have studied longer and found that to be a fun experience, since I rarely pick up a dictionary to play the game and I can guess the English equivalents of Pokemon attacks through the animation. So learning vocabulary through contexts is more enjoyable for me if the medium is a video game.

Using video games as a learning resource can be an enjoyable experience or a painful one. It just depends on how you interact with the game and utilize it as a learning resource. As for me, I found that using the dictionary an excessive amount destroys the enjoyment I get out of playing a video game, but it can be a necessary evil to just begin playing the game. The good thing about video games is that many of the ‘characters’ on some games only say one thing or the same type of expressions and if you speak to them enough, you will start to remember and understand what they are saying. As long as you are enjoying yourself, video games can be a great way to get repetitive practice without feeling as though you are doing the same exercise over and over.

Have you played any video games in Japanese? How was your experience?