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Hi, everyone.
I’m learning Japanese for a lot of reasons. First, and I know how hard this might be, I want to be able to read Japanese literature, like Kobo Abe, Kawabata, Mishima, Junichiro Tanizaki, Kenzaburo Oe, Banana Yoshimoto, and so on. I want to visit Japan one day, or maybe live there for a while and be able to communicate with people.
Of course, I’m also an otaku. I want to read manga and light novels in the original language, see animes without subs, and play j-rpgs and visual novels not yet translated to english.
So far, I have learn hiragana, katakana and I’m at level 4 in WaniKani. I did a Japanese class for a year some time ago, but I prefer self-learning – I usually learn fast, making classes somewhat boring, and I have very limited spare time to attend to one anyway.
About me: I’m from Brazil, but I’ll be moving to Canada in the next year. I’m a psychiatrist and a researcher in neuroscience and predictive analysis with machine learning, and currently doing a PhD. I love languages and to study almost everything.
Very nice to meet you all!
Best regards,
Diego
Welcome! I have to admit, I’ve never heard of a single one of those authors you mentioned. =P
I’ve been playing an untranslated RPG myself, and I’ve found I’ve been understanding it surprisingly well.
I was about to say the same but I recognise the name Banana Yoshimoto. One of her essays is included in the book “Read Real Japanese: Essays”. Once you get a bit better with reading, I’d definitely recommend giving that book a go – it’s got Japanese text on one page and on the opposite is English translation of most individual phrases, plus explanations for certain interesting grammar points at the back of the book. Like so.
I recently started playing a Japanese copy of Wind Waker, on an emulator so with glorious custom HD textures and all that good stuff. I’m understanding a nice few chunks of the dialogue, but since I’ve played the game so many times in English over the years, I’ve got a decent amount of context to figure out most of the rest. What’s more, I’ve got a table I found online of each line of Japanese dialogue next to it’s English counterpart, so I can refer to that for trickier grammar and the like. Plus 100% furigana! :D
Hi!
Joel, Kenzaburo Oe and Yasunari Kawabata are both Nobel Prize winners in literature, and both very good readings. Which RPG are you playing?
MisterM2402 [Michael]: Thanks very much for your suggestion! Wind Waker is an awesome game. I can understand a few words while watching animes, but the speed the dialogues usually have is quite troublesome…
Thanks!
二ノ国 on the DS – the team-up between Level 5 and Studio Ghibli.
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