Thread: Pokemon In Japanese

I was just wondering for those countless people who watch read and play Pokemon in Japanese learn any Japanese from Pokemon and if you do, Is it A good source to start learning from?

I wouldnt start learning from it,you will be better of starting at other locations,like a laungage school etc.I learnt it for a while and I could read parts of it.

I haven't played video games in Japanese before but I doubt you can really understand what they're saying in the video games. I meant learn Japanese from a video game. And all that Japanese is in Kana but there might be some Kanji because again, I said I've never played them but I've seen youtube videos of them. I mean I've had friends who played Pokemon games in English yet they didn't know English so they skipped over the important parts and ended up going in the wrong direction, so it seemed kind of tedious for them. Playing a Pokemon game in Japanese when you don't understand or fully understand Japanese will just be the same thing. The person who was confused on English at the time and didn't know it only knew Spanish so he would've done well at the game if the games were in Spanish and games come in all sorts of different languages, just like dubs in anime and TV programs.

well, I can say I did memorize quite a vocabulary from trying to read various Japanese sites (like Pokesho), as well as joining a fansub group. Manga raws are great too, if you can find them. However, this was all well AFTER I learned basic grammar and Japanese kana (which I did more or less the hard way, with devoted internet research and plain old class-taking), so yeah, you're gonna need to crawl before you can learn to walk.

Yeah, if I only knew English now and didn't know Japanese, whenever I'd play the Japanese games, I'd try to play it like it's my English version, but then I might miss something in the game and then having to go back and forward wandering around confused so it feels good to know that you know how learning the language while playing the game works, although it's very hard and almost impossible to do. Pokemon is supposed to be fun, not about reading stuff you aren't able to read yet.

The text in the main Pokemon games isn't important enough to make them great learning tools. Yes, they're fun and help with familiarity/reading speed (if you bother to talk to every one), but books or manga will be better for actually learning the language.

Funny story, a few months ago I was reading through the FAQ for B/W and one of the questions had to do with the point where you backtrack to the desert. I remember thinking "oh, that's not hard; you just talk to the Plasma guys blocking the bridge, and they tell you pretty much exactly where to...oh.

Manga's the easiest place to start, books require some knowledge (and an acceptance that there will be a lot you won't understand, and video games are best for building reading speed and immersion--especially those that require problem solving in the language.

You want something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHfdMIQkSO0 or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ZCI68hiHc or maybe the story mode of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ5-5B6wQHA

I don't recommend scanned manga raws: starting out it really sucks trying to look up blurry words. Spend the money on real print copies and save your eyes and frustration.

Counting this way to learn the language, it might be a good one. Because I learned english way playing Pokémon.. And in Pokémon Japanese Versions, there are no kanjis so learning Japanese is much better and easier.

I recommend Rosetta Stone highly.

Originally Posted by make_it_worse

Counting this way to learn the language, it might be a good one. Because I learned english way playing Pokémon.. And in Pokémon Japanese Versions, there are no kanjis so learning Japanese is much better and easier.

Is kanji the most difficult? Also isn't pokemon in Hiragana?

Originally Posted by Turquoise

Is kanji the most difficult? Also isn't pokemon in Hiragana?

here are certainly more kanji than anything else -- the 'Jouyou Kanji' set, 'common use kanji', is currently 2136 characters. Compare that to the 50 or so kana and you'll see why kanji are difficult.

And yes, Pokémon uses kana, except for a few specific kanji (year/month/day on your trainer card, and yen for money); except in Black and White there's also an option to convert the entire game to kanji (and the credits randomly turn English too).

I think if you've had at least 2-semesters of Japanese then you should be okay with playing the game in kana. Otherwise it might be early because you might not understand grammar that well to enjoy it. It'll probably teach you a lot of words that you don't normally learn in books, (Same with reading manga) but obviously I'm implying a dictionary in hand (you may learn some words by association, but most likely you'll be looking up stuff like crazy in the dictionary, but on the bright side words stick faster. Manga is better for learning kanji in a similar way)

Of course, this is all just companion piece learning to go with watching programs without subtitles and talking to people in the language. It doesn't mean you don't need to have anymore professional lessons.

Watching the Japanese anime without subtitles has only been barely touched on. I've been doing it for a few years now. If you do it often and pay close attention to the dialogue, you'd be surprised how many words you can pick up. The first ones you'll probably recognize are the Japanese names of commonly used attacks, such as denkousekka (Quick Attack) or joumambolt (Thunderbolt). (Please forgive the spelling in all of these.) Off the top of my head, a few of the other words I've picked up from watching the anime are shinjin (beginner), kenkyoushion (lab), san-tai-san (3-on-3), konriki (attack), kawase (dodge), aibo (partner), and kodomo (child).

Originally Posted by Geodude

Watching the Japanese anime without subtitles has only been barely touched on. I've been doing it for a few years now. If you do it often and pay close attention to the dialogue, you'd be surprised how many words you can pick up. The first ones you'll probably recognize are the Japanese names of commonly used attacks, such as denkousekka (Quick Attack) or joumambolt (Thunderbolt). (Please forgive the spelling in all of these.) Off the top of my head, a few of the other words I've picked up from watching the anime are shinjin (beginner), kenkyoushion (lab), san-tai-san (3-on-3), konriki (attack), kawase (dodge), aibo (partner), and kodomo (child).

Thanks for the post, I am really considering watching the Anime in Japanease especially now I know of somone who has lernt from it.

Originally Posted by Geodude

Watching the Japanese anime without subtitles has only been barely touched on. I've been doing it for a few years now. If you do it often and pay close attention to the dialogue, you'd be surprised how many words you can pick up. The first ones you'll probably recognize are the Japanese names of commonly used attacks, such as denkousekka (Quick Attack) or joumambolt (Thunderbolt). (Please forgive the spelling in all of these.) Off the top of my head, a few of the other words I've picked up from watching the anime are shinjin (beginner), kenkyoushion (lab), san-tai-san (3-on-3), konriki (attack), kawase (dodge), aibo (partner), and kodomo (child).

Just to let you know, that's juumanbolt(100000 volts), kenkyuujo(research laboratory), and kougeki(attack).

I've never learned anything from Pokemon in Japanese. I wouldn't start learning from something like that, though, personally. The main thing I learned, though, and this is for anything aimed at kids, is how the speaking of the main characters is mostly casual and anything else, was mostly moves for the Pokemon, which helped when playing the games in Japanese.