jfrost wrote:I thought writing in kanji was actually a benefit in old Japanese games, since you would be able to say more with just one symbol, taking less screen space and thus less text (memory) to say the same thing.
Actually, I thought I had read somewhere that was a big reason why localization mostly sucked in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, since translators had to deal with extremely limited room for text.
Yes and no. Kanji lets you say more using less screen real-estate, but it's more expensive to store the graphics of all the kanji. In terms of memory required at run time it's more expensive to use kanji. Kanji takes up twice the memory per character, so you need to be using less than half the characters you would in English to save memory.
And that's what usually happens, no? I mean, one character in English is just a letter, whereas one kanji character can be a whole word. To me it makes sense that it would use much less than half the characters (compared to English) to say the same thing. I, however, don't know much about memory or Japanese language. But it does seem to justify the heavy use of kanji in Japanese RPGs.
If the Japanese were concerned about memory usage when making the ending of the Japanese LoZ in English, they might as well have written it in Japanese using romaji (I don't know whether they would find this notion anathema, but if it isn't, it would be better than to put the ending in English, which few people would understand anyway).
I'm an English teacher in Japan working directly for the Board of Education. I can tell you that the Japanese have much better English than you think. The problem is, they spend most of their time studying grammar and very little actually using conversational English. As a result, their writing and comprehension is top-notch. However, they're incredibly shy and their lack of focus on functional speaking makes their pronunciation often quite horrid (not to mention their phonetics is incredibly different than English).
From what I understand, English is only required in Junior and Senior High Schools. Though many Elementary schools also have English programs. In a few years, I think Elementary schools are also going to be required to teach English as well.
yomomma1 wrote:@rainny why is english taught in japanese schools?
I'm guessing for the same reason that it is taught in most first world countries: that it is seen as the predominant language for international communication.
That and the fact that the U.S. was instrumental in the rebuilding of Japan after WWII.
yomomma1 wrote:@rainny why is english taught in japanese schools?
I'm guessing for the same reason that it is taught in most first world countries: that it is seen as the predominant language for international communication.
That and the fact that the U.S. was instrumental in the rebuilding of Japan after WWII.
I've listened to a lot of bands from foreign countries(like Finland for example) and often wondered why many of them sang in English rather than their native language and I found out that English is indeed a commonly taught and commonly known language throughout the world. This was a bit of a surprise to me.
Interesting, given that there is, generally speaking, little interest among Americans in learning foreign languages. While our language is known by many people in a lot of other countries
RyaNtheSlayA wrote:
Seriously. Screw you Shao Kahn I'm gonna play Animal Crossing.
Gamerforlife wrote:
Interesting, given that there is, generally speaking, little interest among Americans in learning foreign languages. While our language is known by many people in a lot of other countries
I disagree. I took 6 years worth of French/Spanish in middle/high schools. I would estimate around 50%+ of kids took a foreign language when I was going to school. The problem is that unless you use it conversationally, it's difficult to maintain your skills.
Gamerforlife wrote:
Interesting, given that there is, generally speaking, little interest among Americans in learning foreign languages. While our language is known by many people in a lot of other countries
I disagree. I took 6 years worth of French/Spanish in middle/high schools. I would estimate around 50%+ of kids took a foreign language when I was going to school. The problem is that unless you use it conversationally, it's difficult to maintain your skills.
Yeah, the students study it, but the point is that there is little interest in it. So, even if the kids learn it, most have no desire or even any reason to use it. Seeing as their native tongue is commonly viewed as the most important language in the world.
And let me tell you, I also took a foreign language in school in America. Comparing the schooling in America to Japan is a joke. And this goes not just for English but for every subject (I imagine this again to be true for most first world countries).
Gamerforlife wrote:Interesting, given that there is, generally speaking, little interest among Americans in learning foreign languages. While our language is known by many people in a lot of other countries
That means we won the language war, right?
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