Okonomiyaki-Chan

I already pre-ordered Yakuza 0. I played a bit of Yakuza on my PS2 but as I sold that recently I am super excited to see that Yakuza 0 and Kiwami are coming to PC.

Glad to see we've gotten a few responses here. I figured it would be best to keep trying to open up new topics in the club's discussion board to keep it thriving. Could help keep people interested in the club as well as entice more and more people to join up. I understand the sentiment regarding Spanish. I took three years of it in high school and learned jack. Seriously, I cannot tell you how many times we learned about verb tenses. I wanted to jump off a cliff with how much repetition there was and how little learning was going on. Aside from that, I never particularly found Spanish culture interesting to me. That might just be on me. Constructive criticism seems to be scarce in recent years. Everyone has an opinion and they will do everything in their power to make it heard, but I'll be damned if they can't offer any criticism to help you improve something. Seems to be relegated to educators. Sorta fits into the whole idea of people liking the idea of creating something, but not having the ability (or drive) to do so (i.e. games, books, movies, music, etc.). I get the sentiment there, too. Trying to develop anything is very difficult. Just ask my billions of failed attempts at making games. I've relegated myself to game modifications. Hope we start seeing more and more people interested in this club. Would be nice to get a little community going.

I got hit with this question earlier while just reading some things earlier and figured it could start up a nifty conversation. It can be any number of reasons ranging from simple to complex, but any reason is plenty! In some way, you want to learn a language to make your life better, and that is a pretty big thing! Gotta be proud of it! So, why do you want to learn Japanese? I'll go first: I started out wanting to learn Japanese simply because I'm a big old weeb who wanted to be able to play games and read manga that were never translated into English (or are not easily available i.e. Urusei Yatsura). Now I've gotten to the point where I've read a good bit about Japanese culture and I am genuinely interested in studying the language so I can understand more and more about the country and its history. I also plan on trying to teach English at a university in Japan, so communication is a must. Of course, I still want to play Japanese games, but a strong understanding of Japanese will also allow me to work on fan translations for those in the gaming community who are unable to learn the language themselves. These are the kinds of goals I've set for myself! So, how bout all of you?

There is nothing wrong with being a fan translator. I plan on doing that on the side for two reasons: it helps keep my Japanese sharp, and I can make more and more games accessible to the community who are unable to read or speak Japanese. I agree that critics are tough on translators, and I've seen criticisms for Atlus games and older SquareSoft games (Ted Woolsey you magnificent bastard). These issues people have with translation tend to fall under some kind of censorship or, as you said, the extreme localization since lots of Japanese puns and jokes would be lost on non-Japanese speakers. It is rough without a doubt, but I think we are getting to a point where there is less and less meddling in translation and localization, so hopefully we can start seeing a bit more praise for the hard work translators do!

I only used this YouTube channel for learning the kana, but Evan's Easy Japanese was quite helpful in that regard: [Hidden Content] He also has a website where you can find exercises to solidify your understanding of the kana: [Hidden Content] Outside of that, I've been getting ready to get into the Genki textbooks and workbooks. My university uses these, but they are also widely recommended as one of if not the best ways to learn Japanese. I think in terms of JLPT, you hit about N4-level comprehension by the end, which isn't amazing, but for two books that isn't so bad. Links: Genki I Text - [Hidden Content] Genki I Work - [Hidden Content] Genki II Text - [Hidden Content] Genki II Work - [Hidden Content] I also snagged the Kodansha Kanji Learner's Course and accompanying workbook for when I get into kanji more. Links: KKLC Text - [Hidden Content] KKLC Work - [Hidden Content] That's pretty much my plan for now. I actually just recently switched majors from Asian Studies to English Literature, but that is because the scheduling for my previous major would absolutely devastate me. I'd be stuck in university for many more years. Current goal is to get my bachelors and study Japanese so I can teach English abroad and hopefully get a decent university position over there. A weeb can dream, right?

I do read a lot of stuff aloud. Hearing my own voice helps sort of cement things. And I hum whatever song of the month is stuck in my head (currently something off Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers). I wonder if this sort of categorization has any relation to the forms of art I find easiest to digest or produce. I write in my own time and read out my lines to get a feel for the flow, and I used to play bass guitar (before mine broke). I feel that this is universal. I can't help but look into anything that hits me as interesting. Go down this rabbit hole. Oh look! Another one! And there goes my day.