If you’re not familiar with Steam, it’s a digital distribution platform for games on PC, Mac, and Linux. And it’s available in Japanese. Unlike with many consoles (except the Playstation 3 and PSPs, thank you Sony) there are no region locks of any kind when it comes to playing games in Japanese. It’s simply a matter of changing the language.
One thing to keep in mind though is while many games are available in full, beautiful Japanese, not all titles are. And where some games such as Skyrim have 100% Japanese text and voice acting, others like Portal 2 for example, only have text translated. Then you have the rare Japanese developer, ie SquareEnix, where the titles are actually originally in Japanese. As shown in the picture below, you can always check this before purchasing a title, or even try a demo if one is available.
The * indicates languages that also includes voice acting. Notice that 日本語 is present, but isn’t starred.
This is a really great source of games for people learning Japanese, not only because of the lack of a region lock, but also because delivery is instant. I remember looking in the mailbox every day in hopes of my order of 二の国 for PS3 being in there. With Steam, you can be enjoying the time sucking vampire that is The Sims 3, in Japanese, within minutes.
If you need some titles to get you started, here are a few I’d especially recommend, along with how Japanese they are.
Skyrim (Full voice acting, all text and menus translated)
The Sims 3 (Voices are in Simlish as always, all text and menus translated. You need to do a little hack to get Japanese to show up though.)
Civilization V (English voices, all text and menus translated)
Portal 2 (English voices, all text and menus translated)
The Last Remnant (Demo available, full voice acting, all text and menus translated.)
Being able to get Japanese games on Steam without having to worry about region locks or even shipping has made my gaming time skyrocket. May it do the same for you!
oh oh wait, wrong post….ehem, anyways, for those of us who have been making sad puppy eyes at the lack of tadoku can now shake our tails with excited pride as Tadoku is back. I’m a day late, it technically started on the first, so hurry up and sign in!
Made EASY!
Hey, I’m so into easy. The easier it is, the better. You hear me women! be easy, er no, not really um, anyways, Tadoku is like that girl with the hiked up skirt now, but smart. She’s beauty and brawn. With the great help of the Tadoku people, now there is a nice website app that makes tracking progress and ranking super easy.
Check it out here: TADOKU You must have a twitter account (sorry anti twitterers) and of course, you’ll have to be connected to the internet.
Manual
Don’t have books? That’s fine, you can use all sorts of mediums including subtitles of a movie. Once you sign in with your twitter account there is a manual’s to tell you what’s down.
Ranking
Are you a born competitor? Curious how you compare? Well check out the Ranking pages. And for those who worry about being at the bottom, beginners read slower, so you’ll be lower perhaps, but every moment reading makes you faster!
Update
There is also a tab at the top to update, which makes you not have to worry about any more #’s and what not in making sure you post correctly. Thank the Reading GODS for that. I never much liked that before and now its super fast and convenient.
Read More of DIE!
Tips:
Keep material close by
WIKI the hell out of it
track on a notepad if you need to or on a book mark
make a goal and strive towards it
Take things on the go (print stuff out, look on your phone, download some book apps)
HAVE FUN! Don’t read boring!
70-80% comprehension- reading to high a level can cause burnout or faces, so read within or close to your max level
Stuck on the internet without direction, search for blogs, use a dictionary to random word hop on search engines, or on wiki.
Good luck as always to the participants and lets see who can beat their previous scores and win the game!
Hello everyone, in case you did not realize, or were unaware, in the top menu bar, you will notice a Contest Page. Comment on it to be entered for a chance to win one of three packages!
So, here we are, a new month, a new day to spark up your Japanese learning. While Delenir has been rocking it with his intense studying, Panda just listening to JP music while kicking some engineering butt, and me focusing on some domination of vocabulary mcds focused around kanji; we have all noticed that the blog’s 3 year anniversary is coming up.
I’ll admit that the first year was a struggle to get noticed, year two picked up a lot of steam. However this past almost year has been excellent. With new writers and lots of traffic, we’ve decided to hold a Give-a-way for all your dedicated reading!
Thank you very much for following along with us as we stumble along the wonderful path to fluency.
We can’t decide quite what we would like to do for prizes (except that they will be Japanese or Japanese orientated) so please comment below on things you’d maybe like to see.
On the 15th of October, we will open a page for commenting to enter yourself in the contest, only one entry per person will be assigned a random number, and random number generator will then choose the string, which the top three will get prizes. The top prize will be worth more than the following two of course, and the prizes will be shipped out as soon as the winners are chosen. The eligibility to enter will be closing the 15th of November.
So recap.
Comment between October 15th-November 15th on the Give-a-way page (which will be on the top menu during its open period) in order to become eligible for the 3rd year anniversary Give-a-way!
Good Luck!
(ps, we were unable to get together to plan out the month just yet, so blog posts will be flying in all over the place!)
Hey everyone, I was trying to find a game that my friend and I could play with our limited Kana knowledge (though she’s whooping me bad now and is far ahead of me! Good Job!).
I came up with a concept similar to hang man. However, because we can’t spell full Japanese words, we’re spelling English words with Kana. This may handicap us, but it’s really a game to improve not only recognizing kana, but writing them properly as well.
So, lets begin with the explanation of how you play.
The black is filled in by the person who created the word. The orange is what is guessed by the partner. You can start of using just the vowels, as this example uses, or you can use the more advanced groupings. The creator needs to check that 1) it’s the correct kana, and 2) it’s drawn correctly. If they draw it incorrectly or used the wrong kana, the hangman’s head is drawn, and so forth. When in doubt, (as the creator) look up the correct stroke order.
Take turns being the creator and the one guessing!
Let me know how you enjoy it and any suggestions to improve the game!
This game is more of a learning aid, but it feels like a game to be, testing me and giving me happy music when I am successful. This game is also in Japanese from Japan! What better way to get that good ol’ Japanese in?
DS陰山メソッド 正しい漢字かきとりくん 今度は漢検対策だよ!
Kageyama Method: Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-Kun – Kondo wa Kanken Taidaku Dayo!
I stumbled upon this game a long time ago when I was simply looking for Japanese games for my DS. This game came highly recommended for learners and I couldn’t pass it up. When I first put it in, it was a little intimidating because I didn’t know much beyond kana and some kanji. It didn’t prevent me from doing a lot in the game however, and it has aided my ability to produce good looking kanji and more importantly correct stroke kanji. This game also gives you lots of practice filling in blanks type of questions for kanji and their associated sounds.
You can purchase the game easily in Amazon.jp and playasia’s website. I personally used playasia at the time due to extreme lack of Japanese skills at the time, and must say was very happy. I got the game quickly and had no issues with their site for all the games I’ve purchased so far.
Sporktacular has a great deal of videos about this game and you can find them starting here. His is the older version which has almost 1 thousand less kanji, so I would get the 2nd release linked above. Though from what I can tell about his videos, they still look very similar.
What I personally like about it you get:
Kakitori (かきとり):
This section has all your kana, and kanji from the official jouyou kanji (1,945). I’m sure it doesn’t reflect the most recent changes to the jouyou actually now that I think about it because the game was released in 2008 I think. You come to a calendar that lets you know when you’ve practice last, and the little professor dude says things like hi, take breaks, and study well sorts of things. Then in the main feature you’ll have a grid on the left and tabs filled with kana/kanji on the right. You can see your percentage grade on each attempted kana/kanji with a click of a button.
If you click on a character you will have these options for both kana and kanji. You can write the character from memory, or you can view the stroke order on your left. You can also choose a shadow version on your drawing side to help you out. You can erase the character if you feel you could have done better, if not you hit the button to move forward to grading. It grades based on a lot of things, stroke order, spacing and proportioning, and so on. You can view tips and actions that will improve your writing and choose to redraw or move onto the next character in line. At any time you can leave this section.
The difference between kana and kanji however is that you will see a small book icon on the kanji character’s screens. This basically opens up a little mini menu that gives you helpful information about the kanji. You get readings, meanings, and vocabulary words in sentences. Its a pretty helpful tool if you’re still learning about kanji.
Honestly I’ve used this section more than any other section to start off with, due to the fact that at the time my Japanese was not advanced enough to move onto the other sections. Navigating to this section is really easy and does not require you to know Japanese at all. Fiddling around with buttons will not mess you up in this section either.
Drill (どりる)
I’m not sure if these sections are the same in both versions, so I will be explaining the version that I specifically linked. This section starts off with 6 options.And then within each option you have the chance to get a tutorial, or to begin. From there you will have additional options. They’re basically school levels, the top is the lowest school grade and last in the top school grade. So the more kanji you know (if you base it on school level) the higher student level you’ll want to pick.
Many of them will have the book icon on the right hand side which will give more information about the kanji involved.
漢字（かんじ）- kanji – The explanation is pretty simple, you are given a sentence with a blank, and you will see the kana for it, you write the appropriate kanji. Sometimes you can even have multiple entries in one sentence to figure out.
部首 （ぶしゅ）- radical – Basically this one will show a kanji, and a part of it will be in red. You have to choose the name for the radical. I’m not sure if this is really helpful, unless you’re planning to be a guru of kanji.
類義語 （るいぎご）- synonym – This game is a stretch your mind game, it basically gives you a word, then you’re suppose to come up with a word that is similar in meaning when it only gives you a part of the word and the sounds. Sometimes I cheat and use a dictionary to help me!
対義語 （たいぎご）- antonym – This game is just like the previous one, except it deals with opposites. Lots of fun! These two really help create word combos in your head!
四字熟語 （よじじゅくご） – four-character idiomatic compounds – In this example you’ll be given a 4 character idiomatic compound with a kanji missing. with the provided kana, your job is to figure out the kanji that fits. This is difficult! Regardless if you get it right or wrong, you will get information on the compound.
熟語構成 （じゅくごこうせい） – idiom configuration – honestly, I have no idea what this is about! haha. From what I gather from the game, you choose one of 5 options, アイウエオ, and each are…explanations like, the two kanji’s conflict, or are the same, or so and so forth. Not sure AT ALL…so if anyone has insight on this section of the game, post away. I’ve never really played this section much at all.
Last you have the third option, as if those fun drills and information wasn’t enough!
Measuring Kanken (漢検対策)
This section is kind of a wrapping it up tester. If you select the bottom of the two options available you can set your grade level. Mine I think is set to 1. It basically reduces the difficulty of kanji (in terms of meaning for schooling in the Japanese system) and often has simple concepts. This testing is basically a review. It shows you the kanji in a sentence and you have to figure out the sounds (kana) associated with the red lined part. You can also view stats on the kanji you’ve learned and you can exit out with the bottom green option.
While I suppose some can argue that this game isn’t a ‘game’ I consider it a game since I play it on my ds. Nothing says lets get it on, Kanji! like a ds. If you didn’t know, DS is a non region coded device and can play games from Japan without any special requirements. You can also set the DS into the Japanese language. Overall this game as been a go to for fun. The stylus can be a little awkward if you’re not use to writing with one, but I got over that really quickly early on. I also noticed that knowing stroke order allows me to read calligraphy easier.
Hope you enjoyed this month review of a game for Kanji! Stay tuned next month for a prominent or made up game!
Hello all! On a side note, thank you for all those votes. At the end of the month I will share the results and tell you about the blogs coming up that reflect your votes. Every month I will be introducing a game that I’ve made up that helps me in my learning endeavors. I play lots of games because it makes a lot of fun. While for some the initial start up is a little time consuming, the over all fun in the long run is worth it.
As for this post on this wonderful Friday, its all about a kanji game that I created. Now there is a chance that someone already does this out there and all but as far as I know, I’ve never heard of it outside of my silly brain. So here goes!
Things you need:
writing utensil
something to write on
your brain!
Optional:
graph paper makes it a little easier to write nicer kanji
kanji dictionary
I myself personally use graph paper or scrap paper when playing by myself. When my sister was in town we used her fancy Lenovo Thinkpad and OneNote (which has the ability to make the screen look like graph paper for when you write on it). But neither do you need fancy nor graph paper. I’ve played this game on concrete with chalk even so there is no particular do’s and don’t's when it comes to this game in terms of getting the kanji down. You could even do it in your head or on your hand!
You can play this game as a single person against yourself, or multi-player. There is no limit to the number of people who can play this game.
How to Play! Single Player Mode
Think of a kanji, and write it down.
Say its meaning.
Now you must choose an element. As you can see with the picture to the right of the kanji chant, there are two available elements to use. If you do not follow RTK then it is perfectly fine to think of it in terms of Radicals instead.
Once you have the element of choice, (In this case we choose the element: Mouth) you then form a new kanji you know from that element. In this particular case you can either choose to think of it in three separate elements or just two. Either way is fine as long as you’re not dissecting the kanji down too far.
Simply continue this until you stump yourself and can no longer think of anymore kanji. Tally your score of kanji written down and pat yourself on the back. Try to break your score next time!
Here is an example of how single player may look when starting out.
As you can see, you simply bring an element over to the next kanji in line, and go forth! Sometimes I’ve had to stop playing before I even get to stump myself. You do not need to worry about writing in super cool fashion but do try your best to follow correct stroke order. I’ll write a post on why I feel this is important for your journey in learning Japanese later.
How to Play! Multi-Player Mode
Decide by whatever method possible, who goes first, second, so forth and so on.
Player One: Think of a kanji, and write it down. Say the meaning.
Player Two: Pick an element from the kanji that player one wrote down. In this case both mouth and sun are acceptable options to choose from.
Player Two: Form a kanji from an element Player One used, write it down, and say its meaning.
Player One/Three: Pick an element from the kanji that Player Two wrote down. In this case there are two elements to choose from: Sun and Moon.
Continue to cycle through players until someone gets stumped. The player who stumps the other gets a point. See who can get the most points!
Here is an example of how multi-player with two players may look like when starting out.
As you can see, simply bringing an element over to the next kanji is all anyone has to worry about. You don’t have to be simple, but you don’t have to be complex either. Again, don’t worry about your handwriting as much as you worry about stroke order. When Pandachan and I play, we often do help each other out if our order or kanji is wrong, rather than being meanies who doesn’t accept the kanji.
I also highlighted the elements each of us used in the first 5 to help you if you’re still not seeing how we used elements. Pandachan has a significantly less amount of knowledge when it comes to kanji, because of that, I tend to make sure there is always an element in my kanji she can use. It doesn’t stop us from having a lot of fun either, so don’t worry if you and your friend aren’t at the same speed of kanji learned.
Dreaded Rules of the Game
No Repeat Kanji! If your game gets long (like mine) its especially important to not repeat. Its all about stretching those brain muscles.
Kanji should be written in correct stroke order if at all possible. (looking up stroke order is fine, since its a learning process, but if you can help it, try not to!)
Modification of elements allow. Here are some examples of what I mean:
There are more modification than this, but its just a handful to think about. Pretty much its a modification as long as the element is used in the story of the next kanji. (Heisig people know what I’m talking about, as for those doing official Radicals, I’m not sure how those are set up, and may be slightly different. Just keep consistent with your mod rules.).
You can also use drops and lines even if they are part of other elements
In the case of One (floor, ceiling) and the vertical line (walking stick) you can carry them across many kanji.
Have fun! And questions or comments about the game, post below!
I suppose I really shouldn’t probably openly admit it, but I’ve been fail boating Tadoku so far this month. Its almost halfway through and I feel really disappointed in myself.
In one way though, I don’t! I’m back in school for those who can’t remember or don’t know. I’ve not been in school in lets just say a long time, so a lot of studying must be done to keep up with the young bloods in class and I guess I’ve just made it more important than reading here or there. Lately I’ve been having some more fun times with my daughter. I must figure out how to incorporate Japanese into outdoor play time too. I’ll think really hard, test some stuff out, then post up!
I’m thinking….chalk kanji time! I’ve devised a little game that I’ll talk about in another post, so stay tuned. Other than that I’m at a loss as to when I’m suppose to get reading in. I even woke up at 6:30 this morning to give myself some time and Vivian decided to wake up early too! Still getting in some Japanese shows with her, but she’s a bullet train and energizer bunny rolled into one!
So my plan is to humbly finish out the contest with much more modest goals, that are perhaps a ton more realistic given my situation.
I can’t wait till Vivian is old enough to start cooking. I have devious plans for Japanese good fun for you guys at that point!
This session of Tadoku was way more successful than my previous ones. As my daughter is getting older she doesn’t want to participate in reading Japanese with me. She doesn’t seem to mind English as much, but she likes to pretend to read herself or pulls the books from me mid way through to say she’s done reading that particular book. I enjoyed this round more though and I found that I could read a lot faster than before. This was kinda of encouraging and made it so that I read more I think. I think I also did my best to not read to difficult text and not get hung up on things I didn’t know. Finding out though that I knew more than last time was also a great boost.
I was really surprised by my enjoyment of this really ugly drawn gory manga. I just happened to stumble upon it and decided to read it for kicks and giggles. I think the genre was more comical to me than it was intended to be, but I enjoyed it a good bit. There is still a lot left but it is really heavy in the kanji department and takes me time.
Lately it has been a lot harder juggling the balance of playing with my daughter, getting things done, wanting to study, and now soon school stuff to boot. I’m not sure if I’ve lost my mind trying to do all this, but I’m going to try haha! I’ve also decided that I wouldn’t teach Japanese to my daughter. While I’ll still use a phrase here or there with her, I decided it would be best for her to learn from more native sources. She might learn a handful of vocabulary but that will probably be it. I’m kinda sad that a good portion of the videos my daughter liked to watch on youtube have been removed. They were her favorites and there has not been any other versions of the same nursery songs that she’s liked as much as those. I think I’ll try to find them through amazon, since it was apart of a series or something to that effect.
January 2012 Contest:
Placement: 52/99
Current Tally: 228.81
Goal Tally: 75
Yay! Not only beating Tadoku goal, but made it more constant part of my daily dos!
Read More or Die! 2011
_2011 End Results_
Total read for Tadoku:
__433.3 pages!__
Placement: 115/188
October 2011 Contest:
Placement: 97/120
End Tally: 59.2
___________________
July 2011 Contest:
Placement: 86/142
End Tally: 195.6
Best yet. Woot.
___________________
April 2011 Contest:
Placement: 62/106
End Tally: 154.5
___________________
January 2011 Contest:
Placement: 84/99
End Tally: 24
Way under goal...horrible!
___________________
August 2010 Contest:
Placement: 20/41
End Tally: 160
Beat my goal! Woot!
faces, so read within or close to your max level
(
I have devious plans for Japanese good fun for you guys at that point!
