I cannot read japanese...can you?

Started by EricTheEevee September 3rd, 2008 11:25 AM
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  • 51 replies
Seen January 24th, 2011
Posted January 19th, 2011
106 posts
15 Years
Okay so, since Platinum is coming out next week in Japanese, I figured I'd ask this.

I know that a lot of people in America (and other places) are going to import platinum from Japan so they can play it as soon as possible. Well, I don't understand how someone could do this unless they can speak Japanese.
So, if you are going to import it, can you speak japanese? Or is it really easy to guess what they are saying? Or is there probably going to be tranlations around the web?

Mr Briney

Age 29
Male
Newcastle, England
Seen July 15th, 2014
Posted July 3rd, 2014
42 posts
15.1 Years
I imported pearl and diamond when they came out in japan and no i cant read japanese but the story line on all the games are similar and just tried different ways of getting around. I did check a walkthrough a few times but didnt need to that much. So yeah i am going to import platinum and dont expect it to be much of a problem to get through it

Taemin

MOVE

he / they
USA
Seen January 6th, 2023
Posted December 9th, 2022
11,196 posts
17.8 Years
Alot of fansits do have guides up for the Japanese versions, yes, but many fans just trudge through it whether they can read Japanese, or not. I haven't tried that before myself, but my guess is that if you play through in Japanese, then it's just training and going through the battles, while ignoring the plotline.

It might be a little confusing, but it is very possible, as a lot of peope do it, and beat it just as fast as they would if it were in english.


I can't leave this spot that's empty without you
It's an area that no one else can fill
The night's never gonna be the same.

SHINee - Area

paired to Palamon

wakachamo

Seen February 15th, 2020
Posted August 10th, 2019
2,709 posts
17.9 Years
I speak Mandarin which is close to Japanese, so I can read some here and there.

But I've never gotten an imported game.
Wow, Mandarin is a completely different language. Sorry, but no. Besides, the Pokémon games only use the basic Hiragana and Katakana alphabets, and don't use the Kanji symbols, which are the only thing which are only remotely similar to the writing of Chinese. So, regardless of your knowledge of Mandarin, you won't be able to understand.

EdenDecay

・・・あさひな

HaiDian, Beijing, China
Seen September 7th, 2008
Posted September 7th, 2008
49 posts
14.7 Years
That's not true at all. :/

The Japanese language was taken from parts of Chinese. What history books have you read?

Japanese (日本語 / にほんご Nihongo (help·info)?) is a language spoken by over 130 million[3] people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages. There may exist relationships with other languages, but they have still remained undemonstrated. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker, listener and the third person mentioned in conversation whether he is there or not. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. It is a mora-timed language.
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: modified Chinese characters called kanji (漢字 / かんじ), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (平仮名 / ひらがな) and katakana (片仮名 / カタカナ). The Latin alphabet, rōmaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace.
Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by loanwords from other languages. A vast number of words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a considerable number of words from Indo-European languages, primarily English. Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in the 16th century, and then mainly the Netherlands in the 17th century, Portuguese, German and Dutch have also been influential."

-Wikipedia

Hiidoran

ohey

Age 32
Male
Indiana
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted February 4th, 2022
6,203 posts
17.6 Years
Ohhh, I see. XD

I feel dumb now. I thought he meant just in general that Mandarin and Japanese weren't similar.
I've never played an imported Japanese Pokemon game or any imported games, so I wouldn't know.
Well, you may have some kind of an advantage in learning the Japanese language, considering you know the radicals in which Hiragana and Katakana were formed. I suppose that could be a plus if you look at it that way.

Oh, I can read Hiragana and Katakana just fine, however; I do not know the Japanese words in which they spell out. xD
I'm not quite sure why, but in my Japanese learning experience I started with the two Syllabaries and never quite began learning the actual verbal language itself.

I don't find it difficult at all to navigate through a Pokémon game totally oblivious to the plot. To be honest, one can easily understand the basics of what is going on just by the actions performed in game.
(The only time I remember getting stuck in my Japanese Pearl version was at the point in Jublife City where you have to get the tickets from the three clowns.)

From that experience, I learned to just talk to every person in each town and on each route; that way I wouldn’t miss anything!
where I belong
Seen November 4th, 2015
Posted August 10th, 2012
3,472 posts
18.1 Years
I can read and understand a pretty good amount of it, and I have both hiragana and katakana mastered, so I guess I'll do fine. Specially because the Pokémon games use very simple vocabulary.

If anything, I'm going to play Platinum with a dictionary by my side.

~ | there is no need to be upset.

Counterfeit

Rely on me to let you down.

Where people throw ducks at balloons and nothing is the way it seems.
Seen January 9th, 2016
Posted July 20th, 2009
243 posts
14.7 Years
I see a lot of people import not understanding the language, which means they don't know the plotline.
Dosen't that bug you that you don't know what they've just said?
Every creature on this earth dies alone.

Taemin

MOVE

he / they
USA
Seen January 6th, 2023
Posted December 9th, 2022
11,196 posts
17.8 Years
I see a lot of people import not understanding the language, which means they don't know the plotline.
Dosen't that bug you that you don't know what they've just said?
It would bug me, I can sure tell ya that.

xD;

Thats part of the reason why I don't play the imports, I just wait.

But alot people really care less about the plot line, so they manage.


I can't leave this spot that's empty without you
It's an area that no one else can fill
The night's never gonna be the same.

SHINee - Area

paired to Palamon

Age 33
Male
Tempe, AZ
Seen October 19th, 2010
Posted June 27th, 2010
168 posts
14.7 Years
EdenDecay kinda missed wakachamo's point.

Pokemon never uses Kanji (some exceptions, such as 円), only Hiragana and Katakana.
So knowing Mandarin won't be helpful, since the latter two styles do not exist in Mandarin.
Hiragana and Katakana for the win. I hate Kanji with a freaking passion... especially since I am now learning Mandarin and they use almost the same characters for different things. But that's beside the point.

Not knowing the plot to a game would grind my gears. The whole point of an RPG besides training is the story line. So if you can't read Nihongo then either work for a few years to learn it or wait for state-side releases.




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Neko

PC's Traveling Artist

Age 31
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In your best dreams and worst nightmares
Seen August 25th, 2021
Posted May 2nd, 2015
2,108 posts
17.8 Years
I don't know Japanese, but it doesn't matter when it comes to Platinum; I usually just wait for the games to come our in America so I can read and understand what the peeps in the game are saying. x3 Much easier.


-Neko

Kryssi

I think I'm decomposing!

Age 34
England
Seen August 2nd, 2009
Posted September 9th, 2008
54 posts
14.7 Years
I was thinking of maybe importing the game, but being put off a little by the language barrier, I want to be able to know what I am reading.
I've always wanted to learn Japanese, and actually, there's a game being released on the DS in a couple of months that teaches you japanese, so i'll be giving that a whirl.

Cherrim

Age 34
she / her
Toronto
Seen 20 Hours Ago
Posted 20 Hours Ago
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20.4 Years
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. :/


paired with professor plum.
Seen August 21st, 2014
Posted May 10th, 2009
62 posts
15.8 Years
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
Age 35
Belgium
Seen February 28th, 2009
Posted October 31st, 2008
61 posts
15.8 Years
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.
Age 34
Neo America
Seen February 28th, 2009
Posted February 28th, 2009
357 posts
15.2 Years
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.

Help me finish my pokedex legitly:
http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=3385323#post3385323


Just waiting for Arcues