Uh, hi!

My name is Noah Hall, I’m 16 years old, and in the 10th grade.

I’ve been programming video games for over 10 years now, having started when I was only 6 years old. I specialize in 2D platformers and slope physics (e.g. Sonic the Hedgehog), however I can program a myriad of other game types/genres. I currently work under Simon “Stealth” Thomley of Headcannon Game Engine (http://www.headcannon.com/HCGE/), working on a multiplatform project I can’t really talk about.

I really enjoy learning about pre-existing games, (I love to recreate old video game engines for practice) and differences between localizations of games.

With that being said, let’s get into why I want to learn Japanese.

I want to learn Japanese because of the job opportunities in the game industry. I could move to Japan, where the majority of the videogames I play are created (think Nintendo). I could become a translator for Japanese game spokespeople. You get the idea.

If that doesn’t work out? I’d also love to localize and translate Japanese games for the U.S.

So yea, that’s basically the reason why. I’ve been attempting to learn Japanese for about a year now, but I’ve never been able to find a solid, reasonably priced method of learning Japanese. Rosetta Stone seemed like a good idea, but it’s quite pricey (that’d have to cut out of my savings quite a bit), and it seems oriented towards people who are going to visit Japan, not someone who wants to fully learn the language. I’m honestly not sure about Rosetta Stone, it just didn’t seem to fit me from what I saw.

That’s when I stumbled upon this doohickey that is TextFugu. It’s exactly what I’ve casually been looking for, so far it seems like it’s oriented to somehow who actually wants to learn the language. From what I’ve experienced so far, it’s not going to teach me in the “Learn this language in 3 days!” way, but in a way that actually makes sense. “The hard way”, as the text says, which fortunately, is how I learn.

So that’s me and my story. I appreciate you taking the time to read this if you’ve come this far!

If you want a very small nibblet of what I’ve done in terms of game programming stuff, check out my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfb7SiX9k7y1LkGyepdEGdg/videos

• This topic was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by  Noah Hall.