Anybody know of a book to translate japanese for videogamers?
I'm not looking to translate conversations in an RPG or anything, just so i can navigate menus to get into import games, and maybe a little basic vocabulary for gaming.
there are a lot of japanese puzzle games I want to play with, but I am just guessing at random in the menus, hoping I can get the game started... let alone set up right. once I am in them gameplay is easy enough to figure out usually.
anybody know of anything that will help with this?
japanese translation
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NebachadnezzaR
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Here, try this: http://www.ntsc-uk.com/tech.php?tech=GuideToJapanese
You want to read japanes?
or understand it?
Reading will take you about 10 or more years.
Start with learning Hiragana and Katakana.
Then you will already understand a bit.
After that...
Well Kanjis.
About 2000 for everyday life(you never know what kanjis will be used in games...)
Understanding can be done in less than a year.
To be good at it, you will need about 3 years of hard training.
or understand it?
Reading will take you about 10 or more years.
Start with learning Hiragana and Katakana.
Then you will already understand a bit.
After that...
Well Kanjis.
About 2000 for everyday life(you never know what kanjis will be used in games...)
Understanding can be done in less than a year.
To be good at it, you will need about 3 years of hard training.
I'd highly recomend the above link. I can read katakana and enough of hiragana to get by in games. I couldn't play an import of final fantasy for example though. For most games like shmups/fighters etc you only really need to know words like; start (sutaato) yes(hai) and no (iie) everything else you can work out with a simple katakana dictionary (most words are phonetically VERY similar to ours (due to katakana being the japanese language for english words that they have borrowed from english) Just 'spell' the symbols out and say the word and you'll get something very close to the english. It's only when you get combination harigana and katakana sentences where you'll hit some problems. After a good few weeks of working at it you should be able to read the symbols phonetically and decipher any words that stump you.
@ Aaron: Zeruda no Densetsu!
^ thats a good example of what I said before about the phonetic translation. Theres no consonent L or V sounds in japanese. So you get Zeruda instead of zelda. Legend of Zelda is a good example of harigana, katakana and kanji combination. As Densetsu is Kanji word, no is obviously harigana and Zeruda is katakana (ze-ru-da).
@ Aaron: Zeruda no Densetsu!
^ thats a good example of what I said before about the phonetic translation. Theres no consonent L or V sounds in japanese. So you get Zeruda instead of zelda. Legend of Zelda is a good example of harigana, katakana and kanji combination. As Densetsu is Kanji word, no is obviously harigana and Zeruda is katakana (ze-ru-da).
Marurun wrote:Don’t mind-shart your pants, guys
NebachadnezzaR wrote:Here, try this: http://www.ntsc-uk.com/tech.php?tech=GuideToJapanese
exactly what I am looking to do, wonderful link NebachadnezzaR!marurun wrote:I think he just wants a reference guide to basic common video game terms. Style and wording varies enough, however, that such a thing is only going to be so useful.
excellent idea also! I will be using that as welldudex77 wrote:Gamefaqs usually has guides for the menus on most popular Japanese only games. That´s what I did until I just could recognize basic stuff like save and load.
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D.D.D.
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What I did when I started learning Japanese...
I had learned hira+katakana and had taken a year of intro Japanese. FF7 had just come out in Japan and I picked it up but needed kanji knowledge to play, well, understand it. So armed with an electronic dictionary and a bushu (a kanji book that lets you look up the sounds of the kanji and etc info), I went line by line over the intro scene with them doing their bomb thing and by the time I made it through that, I had seen enough of the same words + kanji that I was able to start progressing through the game. Don't get me wrong though, it was painfully slow at first but it really was a motivator in learning a language that is quite hard.
I don't know if you have time for that but it would be a good start to actually learning how to read instead of a crutch to get by. Gambare~
And FYI, even though they say you need 2000apx kanji to be able to read, it's really closer to 1000.
I had learned hira+katakana and had taken a year of intro Japanese. FF7 had just come out in Japan and I picked it up but needed kanji knowledge to play, well, understand it. So armed with an electronic dictionary and a bushu (a kanji book that lets you look up the sounds of the kanji and etc info), I went line by line over the intro scene with them doing their bomb thing and by the time I made it through that, I had seen enough of the same words + kanji that I was able to start progressing through the game. Don't get me wrong though, it was painfully slow at first but it really was a motivator in learning a language that is quite hard.
I don't know if you have time for that but it would be a good start to actually learning how to read instead of a crutch to get by. Gambare~
And FYI, even though they say you need 2000apx kanji to be able to read, it's really closer to 1000.