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mane7777
Jan 29, 2012, 03:04 PM
Sorry if this isn't in the right area, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me what would be the best way to learn how to read Japanese? Thinking about importing but I dont know anything about Japanese.

Aiex
Jan 29, 2012, 03:20 PM
Your best bet is to start by learning "katakana". There are some good iOS and android flashcard apps that I would suggest.

Katakana are phonetic, and about 90% of the time they are used to spell English words. Learning katakana will be the fastest way to get the gyst of the menus and items because you won't even have to learn vocabulary.

Don't count on being able to communicate with katakana though. For that you'll need hiragana and kanji. Hiragana are similar to katakana, so that's not a big deal - but there are 2300 kanji. And that's not counting vocabulary or grammar.

Let me know if you need any help getting started.

mane7777
Jan 29, 2012, 03:23 PM
yeah i am not to worried about communicating right now. But would like to be able to read the menus and items. Yeah any help you can give me would be great, yea ipad apps would be best you know of some good ones.

Dinosaur
Jan 29, 2012, 03:24 PM
TEREPAIPU

テレパイプ

Aiex
Jan 29, 2012, 03:29 PM
I can't find the one I used to use. But they're all pretty much the same - flashcard apps. Do yourself a favor and google some nemonics for memorizing katakana. There's some really good ones that will save you a lot of time.

xMarle
Jan 29, 2012, 03:33 PM
The method that worked* for me was to use a katakana chart (http://www.saiga-jp.com/img/character/japanese_language/hiragana_katakana_list.gif) and just go through every character, writing them down on paper several times while saying the word outloud to memorize it.

There's some youtube vids out there that may have some useful tips and tricks as well, depending on what type of learner you are.

*Too bad i ended up forgetting all my katakana since i havn't played PSU in ages :(

If you really want to learn, i'd suggest picking up PSU to play while we're waiting for the next alpha/beta after a2 is done. Constant immersion in the language really helps retain those characters in your memory.

mane7777
Jan 29, 2012, 03:49 PM
Thanks guys!

Aiex
Jan 29, 2012, 03:58 PM
Once you learn the katakana, you'll have to get the hang of how English words sound in Japanese. Like the example given above "telepipe" sounds pretty different in katakana even though it's the same word. There's always a lightbulb moment when you make the connection - its actually pretty fun.

Reksanden
Jan 29, 2012, 07:04 PM
I'll try that as well... Was never able to get far into learning Japanese because I moved away from the school that had it

Cayenne
Jan 29, 2012, 07:14 PM
If you're worried about not being able to understand the menus, we have guides right now to understand them and more will be coming out but wanting to talk to random people and reading story/mission text then good luck, japanese is a long language to learn (i gave it a shot once, not easy)

Komali
Jan 29, 2012, 09:51 PM
Aiex has a great suggestion for just wanting to read the items, skills, locations, etc of Phantasy Star games; the vast majority of the words are not even Japanese so Katakana will go a very long way.
Though, that's only for nouns. Verbs are written in kanji, and even people who can speak fluently have trouble with them. Though the good news is that if you can read the kanji normally used in menus, then you can read most menus in Japanese!

I personally started learning two years ago with:
-A textbook called "Genki (http://www.amazon.ca/GENKI-Integrated-Course-Elementary-Japanese/dp/4789014401)" (Don't buy it from that link, it's probably much cheaper elsewhere.)
-Jim Breen (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C), the site I still use today to read things people say in PSU JP that I don't understand.
-Eroge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eroge): Though it may sound a bit silly, there is nothing better than having the text, voice and being able to follow at your own pace, unlike anime.
-Rikaichan (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rikaichan/) will let you read Japanese words on your browser which is great but doesn't work in games, sadly.

Forever Zero
Jan 29, 2012, 10:28 PM
Here are a few websites I use to help learn:

http://thejapanesepage.com/

http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/

Kazzi
Jan 29, 2012, 10:55 PM
I'm on my third year of Japanese and I'm struggling with some of the kanji like crazy. But as people have recommended, learn your katakana and it'll make your life so much easier. If you want to learn properly look for classes in your area and pick up a copy of "Japanese for Busy People".

Zyrusticae
Jan 30, 2012, 12:51 AM
I find Kanji Damage (http://kanjidamage.com/) is an excellent site for learning kanji, as it uses an intuitive system that focuses on radicals and the way they form "words" in individual kanji (so you can, for example, learn a handful of radicals and learn dozens of kanji that happen to use those radicals).

But with over 1700 kanji to learn, it is not fast or easy, but it's the easiest I've found so far. (Obviously, you should probably learn to speak the language before you learn to read it.)

Poubelle
Jan 30, 2012, 04:55 AM
i don't know why theyre telling you to learn katakana before hiragana :confused:

i personally believe its not possible to learn japanese without a teacher,i couldn't imagine doing it without learning how to write properly,pronunciation, and whatnot.

learning kanji is an endless process, so you should start with basic communication and memorizing the hiragana/katakana "alphabet"

SuKKrl
Jan 30, 2012, 11:43 AM
i don't know why theyre telling you to learn katakana before hiragana :confused:

I think that's mostly because PSO/PSU items and most options are written in katakana, so once you know that you should be able to navigate through them.

When I started in jp PSU I focused on katakana first (I'm still not that good in hiragana and kanji =x) and except comunications, which you have to know hiragana and some basic phrases and words, it was good enough.

shiink
Jan 30, 2012, 02:10 PM
Yes these are all very good first steps. As said before 90% of the menus and item names are in katakana and are either English words or unique phantasy star related names like "monomate" that is certainly a first step. however at that point you won't be able to read item descriptions and various other things, but I found that some things can be figured out in context. I had bought a kanji and kana writing book from good old Barnes & Noble that has served me very well. Try practicing writing common English words and names in katakana to get a solid hang on it.

Neith
Jan 30, 2012, 02:39 PM
I'm learning hiragana at the minute (so I can understand most item-related things in the game since I already know katakana) and it's surprisingly easy. I'm using an App on my iPhone that has really easy ways to remember the hiragana symbols. I guess I won't know if it's worked for a few weeks though.

burende
Jan 30, 2012, 02:41 PM
Just got Rosetta Stone Ver.3 Japanese, gonna start it today after work if all goes well i will stay with the Japanese ver of this game :)

mane7777
Jan 30, 2012, 02:47 PM
Just got Rosetta Stone Ver.3 Japanese, gonna start it today after work if all goes well i will stay with the Japanese ver of this game :)

report back here if you like it or not

burende
Jan 30, 2012, 03:01 PM
report back here if you like it or not

You got it :D

Reksanden
Jan 30, 2012, 03:29 PM
Heh, a simple question turned into several helping one another. Truly amazing stuff.

Spellbinder
Jan 30, 2012, 04:56 PM
Just got Rosetta Stone Ver.3 Japanese, gonna start it today after work if all goes well i will stay with the Japanese ver of this game :)

I wish you luck. I tried Rosetta Stone about 4-5 years ago before I seriously started learning Japanese and wasn't happy with the method of learning.

BIG OLAF
Jan 30, 2012, 09:31 PM
Yeah, I still need to learn. I tried a while ago, but I couldn't even get the hang of the vowels. For some reason, my brain has a very hard time processing non-English words. I have a really hard time learning new languages, especially Japanese, since it doesn't use the Arabic alphabet.

Like, I go to the PSO2 website to download the Alpha client, and I have no idea what to click. I'm at a loss.

soulpimpwizzurd
Feb 1, 2012, 10:49 PM
TEREPAIPU

テレパイプ

this made me lol

best suggestion is to get acquainted with using anki its a flashcard program.