Japanese with Video Games (part 1)

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 am going to discuss using Japanese video games as listening and reading practice.

How do you make video games into listening practice? One obvious idea is to play a video game in a foreign language that has voice actors and listen to what the characters in the game say. Although not everything will be vocalized, when you do hear audio, it will a good opportunity to test your listening skills at native speed or your ability to keep up with the speech as the subtitles (if offered in the game) flash by. (Of course, playing a video game in a foreign language usually requires buying said game or game system or both! depending on whether or not the game/game system is region locked. I will discuss some of the ways you can get Japanese video games in the third part of this ‘Japanese with Video Games’ posts.) Many games, especially home game systems have narrator or character audio. You can watch Japanese tv commercials for video games online or videos that Japanese game companies create to discuss their latest games and systems.

Playing video games in another language is mostly reading practice rather than listening practice. There are a lot of games that do not have audio, which makes for good reading practice. Games marketed towards children have furigana above kanji or may be written completely in kana! While video games are not books, they can have a surprisingly large amount of text. I like playing RPGs, which usually have long storylines and subquests. Some RPGs (role-playing games) allow you to do things not possible in other types of games such as sub-plots, which can help you build your vocabulary beyond the usual parameters of the game. Playing games in Japanese will expose you to a lot of vocabulary that you may not be exposed to in Japanese classes and can be a good supplement to using textbooks or studying kanji. While I was studying for the JLPT N3, I played Youkai Watch 2 Honke, which exposed me to not only vocabulary and kanji from the JLPT N3, but also from N2 and N1! Seeing the kanji and vocabulary in use in the video game helped solidify them in my memory more than just studying them from a textbook.

Have you used video games as listening or reading practice? What kind of games do you play and how was it effective?

 

JLPT N3

Yesterday, I took the JLPT for the first time. I have not mentioned the JLPT before, but I feel it is appropriate to write about it, since I just took the test. I decided to take the N3 earlier this year after completing my Japanese major. At first, I wanted to aim for the N2, but I quickly realized that would not be a realistic goal; thus, I decided to take the N3 instead.

I remembered hearing about the sou-matome (日本語総まとめ) JLPT (日本語能力試験) prep series from somewhere and purchased all of the N3 books (kanji, vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar and listening comprehension). I used that series in addition various other non-traditional study habits and apps on my phone such as sticky study to prepare for the exam. To make a long story short, I did not finish any of the books I purchased, although I did put a huge dent in many of them. I also was not as diligent in my studies as I originally planned to be, hence not finishing any of the textbooks I purchased for the test.

Luckily, I was able to do a day before the exam cram session with a friend, which was fairly productive. Walking into the exam, I did not know what to expect besides the general three tests (vocabulary/language knowledge, reading comprehension and listening) we were going to take.

As I did not study vocabulary as much as I originally planned to, that section was fairly hard for me. It started out deceptively easy and then I saw kanji I knew individually, but I did not know them in the compounds they appeared in the test. It was not super hard; it was doable and if I had studied more, it would have been easy since the JLPT books and material I used sufficiently prepared me for the exam.

Reading comprehension also started out easy and I quickly became overconfident believing I had plenty of time (70 mins) and soon the proctor called out 5 more minutes and I had not even read the last reading!

I was a little nervous about the listening comprehension, because the JLPT book I used had some quickly spoken dialogues and business dialogues that I had to refer to the transcripts to understand. But it was not really bad and some of the dialogues were actually funny! The only problem I had was that we only were able to listen to each dialogue once and then the test was over.

I am not sure if I passed the exam or not, but I think I did well considering it was my first time taking the exam. We were told our results will be available in February. Even if I did not pass, I plan to complete the N3 books I purchased and begin studying for the N2 so I can take it next December. Have any of you taken the JLPT? What was your impression of the test?

Japanese 3DS: 電波人間 (The ‘DENPA’ Men)

I first discovered 電波人間 on the Japanese Nintendo eShop. I watched a video and saw one of the DENPA men talking and thought, ‘This will be good listening practice!’

Actually, the game uses some kind of text to speech program and the audio is a little hard to understand, because it’s a computerized voice. So, it’s easier to just read the text than understand the quickly spoken and hard to understand voice of the main character, which is the only person in the game that has audio for his voice. (The new 電波人間のRPG FREE has audio for all of your Denpa ningen!)

I bought 電波人間 1 and 2 last year when 電波人間 3 had just came out in Japan, and they were promoting the series with a sale. Since then, 電波人間のRPG FREE has also come out.

What is 電波人間? 電波人間 are creatures that look like people that you can find anywhere there are radio waves. The literal translation is something like electric radio (wave) humans. Of course you need and 3DS and one of the 電波人間 games to see and catch them. Each of the games in the series has it’s own storyline. But in each game you have to assemble a team of 電波人間, which have different attributes depending on their color, equipped clothing, and antenna or lack of an antenna. Sometimes in the games, you solve other people’s problems and each game has various dungeons that you can explore, fight your way through and discover treasure.

Recently, I have been playing the free 電波人間 game. It has a lot of updates and you can decorate the island and houses your characters live in. There’s also a lot of event dungeons, sales and event 電波人間 that you can get.

Japanese 3DS

A Japanese 3DS is not that much different from the US version of the 3DS. I admit, when I first bought mine, it took a while to set up. Things that were easy to read for me in English, I did not understand in Japanese. But with my American 3DS and my Midori (Japanese-English dictionary app on iPhone) in hand, I managed to do it after what was probably a few hours. I also managed to learn a lot of technical vocabulary as well.

One thing that I noticed about my new Japanese 3DS was that games on it were very expensive. It shouldn’t have surprised me, because I had seen prices of video games at electronic stores and Book OFF. But compared to video game prices, games in Japan can be about $20 more expensive. A lot of new games cost around $50 or $60, whereas on the US 3DS, games are around $40 or $30. Physical games and downloadable games can be around the same price. Some games are only available through download and a lot of games on Japanese 3DS do not make it to America or take about a year to be released for American 3DS systems. Some games are relatively cheap for download too, less than $10.

Having a Japanese 3DS is great for studying Japanese. Not only can you buy Japanese games and play them in Japanese, which is great for reading practice and broadening your vocabulary, but you can watch videos on it as well. About every week, Nintendo comes out with Nintendo Direct videos and other Nintendo videos, which you can watch either on the 3DS or on their YouTube channel. I was also able to sign up for a NicoNico (ニコニコ動画) account through my 3DS and start watching videos in Japanese on it. Also, when you view games on the Nintendo eShop, many of the games have tv commercials or other videos that introduce the game that you can watch.

There is also a lot of free applications and games you can download and use on the 3DS. Although they have many in-app purchases available, there’s still a lot you can do for free.

Book OFF

Before going to Japan, I did not know what Book OFF was. So, my first Book OFF experience was in Japan. I think one of my apartment mates told me about Book OFF and I set off to find one. What is Book OFF? Well, it’s basically a store that sells books, games, DVDs and some other electronics. Many of the items at Book OFF are used, so buying things at Book OFF can be cheaper than buying items from other stores. While buying used items is something I have mixed feelings about, especially in the US, where used items can often be broken and not usable or in relatively ok condition, it’s something I didn’t really worry about in Japan. In general, I think Japanese people take better care of their things, so used items seem more gently used than the conditions I usually associate with used items.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did a mini tour of Book OFF in Tokyo and I bought a lot of things there. Many of those things were books, mostly comics and some video games. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, one of the games I bought, Pokemon Black/White was region locked, meaning I couldn’t play it on my American 3DS. This was upsetting to say the least, but it did prompt me to buy a Japanese DS. I decided to buy a Japanese 3DS, because I was not sure when I would be able to come back to Japan. That purchase is proving time and time again to be one of my better purchases during studying abroad in Japan, since I can still buy Japanese video games through it and use it for Japanese listening practice!

There are Book OFFs in major cities in the US, but I haven’t had the chance to visit one of them yet. Book OFFs in Japan are a great source if you want to buy a lot of Japanese reading material (or just read in the store like many Japanese people do), buy video games or electronics. Things such as DVDs can still be really expensive, but if you go to Book OFF, you have a better chance of finding items at lower prices.

What the heck did she do during those 3 Months?!

Many of you may be wondering (or not wondering), ‘what did she do during the three months she spent in Japan?’ since I didn’t write on my other blog about my experiences. I took classes at a Japanese university: an intensive Japanese course, a Japanese art course and a Japanese sociology course. I also traveled around Tokyo. I did a mini-Book OFF tour of Tokyo. I participated in cultural events. Generally, I spent most of my days doing normal things such as shopping, eating with friends and cooking. This list of things doesn’t’ do justice to all of those experiences, but it is basically what I did for three months in Japan. If you have any questions about specifics, feel free to ask through a comment.

Reflection on the Results of ‘3 Months of Japanese Studies’

This was actually a reply to a comment on a previous post and an attempt to expand upon my previous answer to whether or not the time I used to study Japanese before my study abroad last year was successful or not.

While I did learn (review) a lot of Japanese, I think my approach was wrong. I spent my time reviewing Japanese I learned from my classes rather than focusing on Japanese that would be the most useful for my time there. Most of this review came in the form of reviewing Genki I, a standard beginning Japanese textbook used at many colleges in the US. I also did a lot of reviewing or learning through apps on my iPhone. I think in the beginning of my three months of study, I had a lot of momentum and a plan in place. If you follow this blog, you probably noticed that I used to update a lot more often in the beginning as well. Then, I think I lost sight of the purpose of my study and failed to reevaluate my approach. Not to say that I wasn’t still learning Japanese or preparing to go to Japan, but the last two months were not as productive as the first month was.

I don’t think that a person can truly be prepared for all of the situations they’ll run into in a country they’ve never been to before, because there’s always something that will take them by surprise. I think the lack of what I didn’t learn, made my experience in Japan more educational. But basically, I think I tried to do too much and got burnt out very quickly by my Japanese studies that should have been more focused on Japanese that would have been more useful for living in Japan for four months. There’s also the fact that I had to prepare to live there for four months, which also took time away from studying (e.g. buying a plane ticket, packing, studying about cultural differences etc.). While I don’t think my language studies were as great as they could be, I think I was prepared for most of the cultural situations I encountered; but that may be the result of my long-term interest in Japanese culture rather than anything I did in those three months.

I think the best thing someone studying Japanese can do, especially someone with limited Japanese, aka a beginner, is study maybe the equivalent to the first semester or year of Japanese (if they took a class). It’s surprisingly easy to get around Japan without being fluent. Reviewing or learning the basics will prepare you for most of the situations you’ll come across daily. I can’t count how many times I had to stop and ask for directions from strangers, usually policeman or store clerks. I did not remember how to give and take directions from Japanese 101 class, I learned it through my Japanese classes in Japan and mostly through having to use it, because I kept getting lost. I’m probably a little bias since I went to Tokyo. But I think reviewing beginning Japanese and being open (to learning, to getting lost etc.) and not upset about any difficulties you’ll run into are some of the best things you can do.

I’ll try to write on this blog more regularly since I’m dedicating a lot of my time to studying Japanese again in hopes that I will return to Japan again soon.

New blog title

It’s been a long time! I’m changing my blog title from “Three Months to Learn Japanese” to “Learning Japanese for Life”. I’ll be graduating college soon, so I plan to start posting updates more frequently around the middle of May.

Update: This is long overdue

My three months are up…about two days ago, for me, since I’m in Japan now. I plan to rename my blog and continue updating it sporadically as a Japanese learning resource. My blog for study abroad is: here, so please visit it. My Internet access is limited, so I won’t even attempt to promise an update schedule. Thank you for following my blog and I hope that you continue to read my blog(s).

JLR: Japanese Kanji and Kana

I thought it was about time to invest in Kanji. So, I got a big Kanji reference guidebook to kanji and kana. It’s called Japanese Kanji and Kana: A Complete Guide to the Japanese Writing System. I got this book mostly for the 2,136 Joyo kanji it covers, but I was pleasantly surprised by all the other stuff in it.

Features:

• 2,136 Joyo kanji.
• Kana. (amazing katakana guide that goes over non-traditional sounds/writing like “ti” etc.)
• In-dept Introduction. (explanations about orthography, punctuation and stuff I don’t usually see in other programs)
• Indexes. (By radicals, stroke count and readings)

Conclusion:

Although I like my dictionary apps with their 1st grade through sixth grade and JLPT kanji and my kanji apps, I’ve wanted a Joyo Kanji resource for a while. This book has a lot more information that I was expecting.