Learn japanese rpg kanji dictionary how to#

With higher resolutions on handhelds and Nintendo making an effort, furigana has never been in more games than this generation. You can use the voices to follow along with the Japanese text to help you get a feel for it, then can go back and read through to check meaning. Use game features to your learning advantage!ĭoes your game have a lot of voice acting? Backlog with the option to replay voices like Persona 4 Golden? Maybe a cutscene replay option like Bravely Default? Excellent, you are set for a good learning experience. If you want to progress more quickly, use intuition, voice acting, and context-based assumption if you feel you have a good idea and have already just looked up four words. Think about your level and where you want to be. If you just want general understanding, not every unknown word needs to be dealt with immediately while playing.

Used in tandem with a dictionary this can be a powerful time-saver.īut remember your goals. Use it to scan photos of your game screen to help you get a few kanji readings quickly. You can have it scan photos taken with your smartphone for text. While its translations are less than ideal, that is not its strength for gaming. With JED you can attach tags to words, which you can then add to a program like Anki for review, or bring up the tag list as a quick reference while playing.Īnother app you might find useful is the Google Translate app. If you are doing any kind of looking up in your games, you should make a list to review with later.

Learn japanese rpg kanji dictionary how to#

Have a smartphone dictionary on hand and know how to use it.įor mobile dictionaries, I recommend JED, a fairly basic but never-fail free dictionary. People beat Final Fantasy IX at level one, after all. Even if your level is low, you can struggle through some difficult visual novels with enough dedication. Do keep in mind though that with patience and a good dictionary on hand to help you, you should be able to solve most vocabulary problems eventually. Just be reasonable, know where you struggle and be prepared to struggle. If you can’t read the following sentence 私はポケモンが大好きです, then maybe you should not be trying to play Steins Gate in Japanese. Now you have a goal, it is important to see if that goal is viable.

(Strategy: look up words and grammar until you have a good idea of most text boxes, but not necessarily every word or grammar point.) With concrete goals, you can prevent yourself from getting side-tracked or stuck on things that aren’t helping those goals. The core study goal here is listening.)ĭ) I want to understand the story of Corpse Party in Japanese. (Strategy: Since the main part of your enjoyment is the vocal performances, you should be looking up some words to confirm understanding, but not necessarily every word or grammar point. (Strategy: Look up words for menus and maybe some in-game alerts, but for story you’ll play it by ear and read what you can without doing much homework.)Ĭ) I want to enjoy the voice performances in Umineko.

It’s not a game suitable for studying Japanese, although you’ll probably notice patterns in the UI.)ī) I want to enjoy the gameplay in Sengoku Basara 3. (Strategy: Use a walkthrough to solve progression problems. I don’t care about the text, I just want to progress. Here are some examples of goals for a few different games:Ī) I want to enjoy the combat in Jump Ultimate Stars. If you are playing an Adventure game but skipping through all the text you don’t understand, you probably aren’t getting what you want out of it. Different games you play for different purposes, so what you do and don’t need to learn in order to play changes greatly depending on the genre and what you want to get out of it. This is easily the most important advice you will ever hear for gaming in a foreign language. Know what you want from any given game you play. Some JETs come to Japan, or even start learning the language, because they love games, so time to level up the gamer way.

Want to level up your Japanese? Everyone has their own method, but there’s nothing like making your hobby a +1 bonus to language learning.