JapaneseForOtomeGames

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Learn Japanese for Otome Games

Learn Japanese for Otome Games, Difficulty Setting: HARD

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. W’ve got to bite the bullet first (learning Hiragana and Katakana). I’ll share the sources that I used to learn and I’ve also included some practical information about what we will be doing and how we will be doing this.

I call this method the “Learn Japanese for Otome Games” Difficulty setting: HARD

I’ve been trying to learn japanese for a few years now and tried learning the 500 kanji coupled with learning Kana and it just hasn’t worked for me. It seems like I’m not getting any closer to my goal (to read Japanese otome games).

Hey, we all know it’s hard to learn another language and if you’re antsy and impatient like I am let’s learn japanese through another method! Let’s learn through experience! (Aka. the hard way, but that’s okay we’re tough!!!).
Here is a link to another website where I learnt about this method! https://bit.ly/2ZFjpKhOkay yes, the website talks about how to build up you’re vocabulary and I totally love the method! Buuuuut first you’re going to have to learn Katakana and Hiragana (the basics). Tofugu has some good sources to learn (I personally used them as well) so here’s the link for that! Here is the hiragana one https://bit.ly/2b18pix and here is the katakana one https://bit.ly/2mONkge.

SO, now you’ve learnt katakana and hiragana what next? I recommend you download the chrome extension (yes I use chrome, CHROME IS THE BEST) rikaikun, I’ll explain why later. I also recommend that you download Anki. We’ll use Anki to build our vocabulary deck and we’ll use rikaikun (this is the why explanation) to learn random Japanese along the way.

If you don’t know how to use any of these sources please google how to use them (lol I’m too lazy to do a full explanation here plus there are lots of other good sources where you can learn how to use these tools elsewhere on the web).

NOW THE FUN PART! We’re going to be playing otome games and learning vocab as we play! WARNING: This method is not for the faint of heart because we’re going to be struggling (and I do mean struggling) through the first otome since we don’t know too much vocab (in your case you probably don’t know any). And if you’re like me, you’ve learnt a bunch of kanji but kinda forgot it since we don’t use it alot.

I will be using my Ps Vita for this and I’m sorry if you don’t have one but you can probably find these games online as well. I recommend you buy one (yes this is my bias) because there are sooooo many Japanese games and they’re super easy to access when you have a Japanese playstation account.

I’m going to skip how to set up a Japanese playstation account (again there are really good sources online who tell you how to do this) and the whole buying a Ps Vita process. I bought mine from OMG I JUST ACCIDENTALLY EXITED THIS TAB AND HAD A HEART ATTACK BECAUSE I HADN’T SAVES ANY OF MY CHANGES OMGTHANKYOUWIXFORAUTOSAVINGILOVEYOU ehm, anyway, I bought mine from play asia.

From what I gather they’re a very good source to use (I love using them to buy all my Japanese video game stuff). Here’s a link! https://bit.ly/2GUqFuA OH, I just checked the website and it looks like they don’t have any more. Which makes sense because sony stopped producing Ps Vita’s. If you still reaaaallly want to buy one you can probably find them sold at your local version of ebay (If you’re in Bangkok use Lazada or Shoppee they seem pretty legit, yes I’m located in Bangkok don’t try to guess my school please thank youuu) BUUUT it’s still good to know the play asia site anyway if you want to buy anything 🙂
I will be using the game アルカナ・ファミリア -La storia della Arcana Famiglia- Ancora for my first go. Reason being, I’m really bad at katakana and it looks like this game will use quite a bit of katakana so I’m going to do my very best to struggle through it to solidify my katakana. Here is a link to the game on the Japanese Playstation store!https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0003-PCSG00751_00-ARCANAFAMIGLIA00

Felicita from アルカナ・ファミリア -La storia della Arcana Famiglia- Ancora

What if you don’t have/want to get a Ps Vita or if you don’t want to play this game? That’s ok! You can still use the methods I’ve listed and if you want you can still follow this blog but it won’t be as helpful. Reason being that I will be going through the game as well and we can learn together/encounter difficult things at the same time. Which is the main reason I made this blog. So that we Japanese learners with the singular goal to learn Japanese to play Otome (or any other) games can do so in an easier fashion (since I can help you along the way). Haha I think I repeated myself, whatever.

Let’s talk practical information. I will probably (no guarantee but I really will try my best) post about once every two weeks (with the occasional weekly post when I’m on break). This is because I’m a senior (haha there goes the whole safety on the interwebs thing) in high school. Which meeaaaaannnss I need to prioritize school because I need to get into my uni (I MUST GET ACCEPTED TO MY DREAMSCHOOL, BECAUSE IT’S AMAZING). I will try to pre make some posts if I’m approaching one of those deadly times where teachers are cramming assignments so you won’t be left for too long without any updates 🙂
See you later and happy learning!- Mochi (I LOVE MOCHI)

Getting Started With Katakana and Hiragana

Here we go ladies and gents, it is time to get crackin!

First things first, you’ll have to download Anki which is an app that uses Spaced repetition teach yourself how to read Katakana and Hiragana. Remember that my end goal is to be able to read Japanese (my sole purpose) so if you also want to learn how to write it and have conversations this guide will not be full proof for you but I’m sure that you can find ways to tweak it for your own purposes.

Spaced repetition is a learning technique that allows you to review notes/cards over a span of time and as you get better at remembering what is what the amount of time it takes for a card to reappear increases. If you want to learn more about the exact details of the method a quick google search will give you some good results.

I’ll give about two weeks until my next post so I can fully learn Hiragana and Katakana before getting to the game (I just had a break and will be starting classes next week!) Yay!

I would advise to begin with Hiragana and then learn Katakana but it’s always up to you to decide which one you want to learn first. Anki allows you to add decks that other people have created and a google search will give some good decks. I will attach the decks that I will be using the upcoming weeks.

Hiragana: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/722065315

Katakana: https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1374853058

It is possible to learn Hiragana and Katakana in one day so if you’re absolutely ready to go and do that (props to you) spend some time browsing the Playstation store and adding some Otome games/JRPGs/whatever you may wish, to your wishlist. Extra challenge: Try to read the descriptions and titles of the games!

Also friendly reminder to make sure you have installed rikaikun on your computer, it’s really useful!!

Take some time getting used to Anki and see if you can figure out how to make your own deck 🙂

Mochi signing off! Enjoy your week everyone!

P.S. There’s a really good bubble tea store called &Tea in Amsterdam that I would seriously recommend to anyone in the area. They even have Yakult mixes!!! And they have ice levels!!!! Freakin bomb 🙂

New Year New Me Reboot + New Plans

Hi everyone!!

It’s been a while 🙂 A very very long while! Yes I now I haven’t posted in a really long time, heck I don’t even remember the last time that I posted here which says something. I’ll go take a look now.

OK WOW, the last post was November 16 2019, that’s 2 years ago!! Okay not quite 2 years but 2019 vs. 2021 jesus!

I even read back on what I wrote and I was going on about the International Baccalaureate Diploma! A diploma which I have successfully graduated with and now I’m already 6 months into my studies at university! I’m currently attending Hotelschool the Hague in Amsterdam (a study which I’ve been interested in for a while) and on reflection I didn’t even know it existed back in 2019. So much has happened!

So what’s going to happen to the website and the progress?

Well it may be obvious but I put learning Japanese on hold for 2 years because I was focusing on attaining my diploma (yay!) and now I’m back but I really don’t remember much. Okay to be honest I can remember how to read some hiragana but I’ve forgotten most of it and don’t even get me started on katakana.

So guess what? I’ll be starting this journey once again! I have no idea how long it will take but probably a few years (and hopefully a few otome games) until I can read Japanese somewhat fluently. My end goals is just to be able to read it (speaking is a whole ‘nother animal) which I may tackle later on.

The new and upgraded series will take an in depth look at kanji that are encountered and I will also be aiming for sessions of 30 minutes to 1 hour hours every 2 weeks. With a minimum of 1 blog post per month. In the blog post I’ll do a quick summary of what happened (with spoiler warning if needed, but I’ll try not to include any) and also note down kanji that was encountered + pronunciation and thoughts on how they need to be translated. The schedule is because I’ve also got uni now and some other side projects that I want to work on in my free time! + adulting!! (Shopping is so fun now, I love cooking so much!!!) If Arcana Famiglia has any cooking scenes I may attempt to cook the dishes they serve as well!

I am currently preparing for some exams at the end of this month and probably next month as well so may not upload anything this month but be ready for more!

[OLD] E:2 Trudging Onwards

Ooof this is hard, but it’s ok. We got this!!!

At the moment I’ve not had a lot of time to review my kanji and the words so all my vocab has flown away (NOOOOOUUUUUU *scream*).

This is probaaabbbly because I’m currently in my senior year of high school doing the monster known as the IB. Hahaha, If you don’t know it search it up ;), leave a comment if you’re also still in the monster that we know as education, WE GOT THISSS!

And know to the important part! Progress update!!! So far, I’ve made it a few more lines and and at the moment the characters are all introducing themselves. The voice overs help a lot because then you can not only read but also see how things are pronounced in Japanese!

I’m not sure if I shared this already but I am going to share it again just in case. While searching the web for fan translations of certain lines (because some of that Kanji is really hard to read on the screen, like maaaaan why tho). I came across this site! I really recommend using it to make sure that your understanding is correct. It also helps if you don’t understand a sentence because someone (THANK YOU BEAUTIFUL PERSON!!!!!!) has translated everything already! There is also a guide I’ve been following (hahahah, yes I am one of this people) that is in Japanese. Here is the link for that! Following a guide for games is something that I do if I don’t want to waste too much time trying to see where I went wrong (which is most of the time ahahaha). I think it is also a good strategy if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands and just want to enjoy the story!

For me one of the best parts about otome games is the stories (and the CG!). I like reading about what characters are doing and I feel like the medium in which it is conveyed is sometimes more fun than books. Which I like to read as well.

That’s it for now!! Bye and good luck with your journey!!! Make sure to leave a comment below!

[OLD] E:1 Journey Start! Arcana Famiglia

Damn this is hard. Not gonna lie we’re in for some tough times 😦 IT’S OK, WE’VE GOT THIS. THIS IS FOR THE OTOME! ANYTHING FOR THE OTOME!

I didn’t get to play a lot this weekend because I’ve got some work that I need to do but I made a bit of progress. And when I say a bit I mean that I am still working on the first text box.

Ok not the one where the characters are all “ARCANA FAMIGLIA” but the one after that with the picture of the pretty town.

I had a tough time finding some of the kanji with jisho so I went and googled to find some other ones and this one worked! I really recommend that you also use this while playing because it makes finding kanji easier, especially since it has the option of “ignore stroke order” if you don’t know how to write kanji.

There is one kanji bothering me because no matter what I do I can’t find what it means, but that’s ok. There will be times when you see something that you don’t know and it’s okay to just skip over it if you can’t find it after a while.

I really like that this game has voice overs because sometimes I will recognize a character saying something (this makes the reading a lot easier as well for us noobs). HEHEHEEHE It also makes searching for the words easier in Jisho because you can write the kana.

Make sure to add the new phrases and kanji into anki while you go! This way you can review your japanese throughout the week. Since I’m manly planning on playing once a week it means that I will have more than enough time to learn the new Kanji and phrases. I recommend that you do this as well! Or at least schedule a specific date/time when you work on it so that you are consistent because that is one of the key components of this method!

I realize that you might need some help with the setting up of the game especially if you can’t read/understand anything (It’s ok, I’ll help you!).

Start by selecting new game and view the intro (yada yada) then you will come to the character creation part. If you want you can change the name of the characters (Felicita and her owl). If you want to you can but if you don’t want to just click the option that is already selected and it will just proceed. You can also change the voices of each character (this can be done while in the first stage or this can be done in the later stage where you “approve” every change you have made). I changed the voices at the later stage because it was easier. Make sure to listen to the voices as well by using the o button! You can change it with the square button as well if you want to hear the other option 🙂

That’s the set up! NOW YOU’RE READY TO STAART. Click the start button and it asks you “are you suuuure?” click hai and on you go!

The way that I plan to do this is translate each text box (or as much as I can) and add the phrases and kanji to my anki deck. This way you learn and play!

Due to that it may take some time (actually a lot of time) to get through the game because a game of 20 – 30 hours can easily reach 100 hours if you don’t know the language. So be prepared to give it your all and to be spending at least minimum three months on this game (and this is if your quick). I will probably take even longer to get through the whole thing (lol).

Ok BYEEEEE! Conclusion: We’ve set up the game and added new tools to our learning japanese toolbox! Now it’s Game Start!!

Good luck and see you next week!