I cannot read japanese...can you?

[Cherrim]

It actually miffs me a little that the Pokémon games don't use kanji. XD; If you just have a kanji dictionary, it's much easier to look up a word since once you find the right kanji, you can get the meaning of the word. You may not be able to get the exact translation of the sentence, but if you get most of the words, you'll have a better idea. <_< I find that when I read Japanese with no kanji, it's SO much harder for me to split up the words since I just don't have enough practise reading the language and I can't differentiate the words. D: Not to mention a single word in hiragana, assuming you split it up properly, could mean many things instead of the fewer meanings of one kanji.

Anyway, it's just Pokémon. It doesn't have a mind-blowing plot and it'll just be a basic spin on D/P's plot. You'll probably have no problem getting through the game. I'd suggest teaching yourself katakana so you can easily pick out foreign words (because they're almost all English and you'll have some idea what people are talking about) and writing down the basic items/moves and whatnot so you know what you're doing for gameplay. Otherwise, you're probably fine importing if you don't want to wait.

I import and play some games in Japanese. I still tend to stay away from big RPGs if I haven't already played them in English but I'm going to be starting a few DS RPGs in Japanese soon that I haven't played before and hopefully I'll be able to stumble through well enough. :/

 

[shadowrep]

well i can read only because half jap here/half pakistani weird... anyhow does not take the brightest person to get through my mate got diamond Jap if he got stuck with moves or Tm's he asked me or went onto forums but this was only for caves mainly cause the victory road can be confusing XD

 

[Hikari318]

They should do like in Zelda Phantom Hourglass : use kanji but make the hiragana appear when you push on the kanji. Only-hiragana text is annoying.

As for the question : the first time I played pokemon was in english when I was around 10, and didn't know a word of the language. I didn't have any problem beating the game. So yeah, if you want to play Platinum next week, don't worry about the language, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[22sa]

It doesn't require complex knowledge of Japanese, like others said, because of the absence of Kanji. You'll do fine if you know the basics of Japanese ;)

 

[ShadowofTime01]

Wow, I should get the import then if it's only hiriganan and katakana. The last import I bought was Gundam 00, and it was cluttered with Kanji, so it was hard for me to understand. I took 4 years of japanese in high school, but my vocabulary isn't the best. I like to think in japanese at times, or take notes in it just incase someone is looking over my shoulder.

 

[ShadowofTime01]

I think the greatest part about katakana is that usually as long as you sound it out, you can figure out what word it suppose to be. Like purido is pride. Nice and easy.

 

[Cherrim]

I think the greatest part about katakana is that usually as long as you sound it out, you can figure out what word it suppose to be. Like purido is pride. Nice and easy.

That's the reason I learnt katakana first. I knew so few Japanese words that being able to read hiragana would be near useless to me and it was much easier to pick out basic basic BASIC meanings of sentences by seeing the English words in them. XD;

 

[Hikari318]

I think the greatest part about katakana is that usually as long as you sound it out, you can figure out what word it suppose to be. Like puraido is pride. Nice and easy.

fixed =)

But sometimes you have to repeat it 5 times before you get what word it's supposed to be xD
That's part of the fun<3

 

[Cherrim]

XD Man, I know. I especially hate when you sit there trying to figure it out and eventually look it up only to find out they got lazy and only converted half the word into Japanese. (I know that's not the case but shh. ;p) Like, I think sandwich is one. sando just makes me think you're eating sand, not an actual sandwich. 8|

 

[ShadowofTime01]

fixed =)

Thanks :embarrass I said it in my head as pu-ra-i-do, but I must've missed the a. haha, I'm so embarrassed.

That's the reason I learnt katakana first. I knew so few Japanese words that being able to read hiragana would be near useless to me and it was much easier to pick out basic basic BASIC meanings of sentences by seeing the English words in them. XD;

For some reason it took me longer to remember all the katakana characters. Hiragana is easier for me to remember for some reason.

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried Rosetta Stone software? I hear it's a helpful aid in learning a foreign language.

 

[Cherrim]

I hear the exact opposite, though I wouldn't know first-hand. :| I've never used any sort of self-teach software. There's apparently a "My Japanese Coach" game coming out on DS though. Again, dunno how good that series is either.

 

[Jorah]

Since it's only the 3rd game, I think it'd probably be better to wait because it's mostly the same. Anyway, I've started to learn to recognise a few katakana and hiragana characters (mostly the smily faces XD) which is really something to me since English is the only language I understand XD

I hear the exact opposite, though I wouldn't know first-hand. :| I've never used any sort of self-teach software. There's apparently a "My Japanese Coach" game coming out on DS though. Again, dunno how good that series is either.

Cool, I hope that comes out in the UK. The lazy way to learn a tiny bit of a language XD

 

[the bitter end.]

Since it's only the 3rd game, I think it'd probably be better to wait because it's mostly the same. Anyway, I've started to learn to recognise a few katakana and hiragana characters (mostly the smily faces XD) which is really something to me since English is the only language I understand XD

It actually has a lot of changes in it, like with gyms and stuff.

 

[God Magnus]

Like everyone else says it's basically the same as the Diamond and Pearl games, but if it helps I can read Jap. so if you wanna know something hit me with anything you got!

 

[Wish]

I'm playing Platinum with ease just because the text is all Kana. Plus, due to the knowledge of pokemon games in the past it's not that hard. Just need to break the language barrier.

 

[Sheena--Fujibayashi]

Most of my family members are skilled in calligraphy and they can read and write it.
So when I found out the same about kanji and chinese characters, I began to be able to read Japanese more (in Kanji). Lol, so I know quite a lot and I'm surprised that I've memorised more. So by learning to read in chinese characters while growing up, I can also read some kanji.

 

[Eon-Rider]

I started Pokemon Platinum but ended up quitting it. I am able to real hiragana and katakana because I'm currently learning Japanese at school but it doesn't necessarily mean I'll be able to understand what I'm reading.

 

[chanchimi]

No, I wish I could read it, but I can't. I am only able to read some Katakana. But like a few others, I have played and beat Platinum, only I can play it because I've played all the other pokemon games before and are familliar with how to play them.

 

[Snivi]

I cannot read Japanese - I would like to learn but I am too lazy to bother XD

 

[>Feelings<]

I wanna learn to understand, read, write, and speak in Japanese. Too bad I can't. But I'm planning to start learning from this Jan (2009). Anybody knows how long might it take to fully learn Japanese?