As someone who knows zero Japanese, this game looks woefully underprepared to teach me

[Darknuke]

Just looking at the trailers, I have no doubt I will not learn much, if anything, from this game. There are no English modifiers that walk through the pronunciations of the words. There's no explanation of how to read or write kanji. If I used this, I would likely learn really bad habits and pronunciations.

There is an RPG that teaches Japanese that goes through all this, way way better: Hirigana Forbidden Speech. I will stick to that one if/when I decide to learn.

This game feels like it's made for people who already know a fair amount of Japanese and want a cute game to walk around in to practice it with.

[highstrunghero]

Why not both?

There's no reason you can't pick up Hiragana Forbidden Speech, and also use this to supplement your vocabulary. The fact that both titles can coexist is a good thing.

[Droopy McCool]

I someone who has studied Japanese for a decently long time I can tell you this game would be a great supplement to your learning, especially as a brand new beginner. You can't become fluent as a native english speaker without 5-10 years of study and immersion. Do some flashcards to learn kana first, and use this game with furigana on and practice reading the words.

You learn bad habits by learning non-native pronunciations, this game uses native pronunciations, so you shouldn't worry about that at all.

Again it's not a replacement for the standard forms of learning but it's a fun way to supplement your learning. Also as someone who has been to Japan this game captures the look and feel of Tokyo really well, so you can perhaps associate the words better when you go there if you plan to go.

[絵名]

i thnk they should add romanji (romanized) to easy learn japanese from zero , if you dont know hiragana/katakana/kanji its hard to learn this way

[Autumn Pioneer]

Originally posted by MaoMao:

i thnk they should add romanji (romanized) to easy learn japanese from zero , if you dont know hiragana/katakana/kanji its hard to learn this way

There is actually a romaji setting in the game, and also you can learn the hiragana/katakana inside the photo album in-game :)

There's also several lessons in the photo album too!

[a.warringa1]

Games like these are not meant to learn Japanese from scratch. You really need other resources for that. For example WaniKani for learning the Kanji, BunPro for grammar, Genki books, Cure Dolly and GameGenko on Youtube, just to name a few.
Sashingo is great when you already know some of the basics and want to (re)learn vocab in a fun way.

[Lightfeather]

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

Games like these are not meant to learn Japanese from scratch. You really need other resources for that. For example WaniKani for learning the Kanji, BunPro for grammar, Genki books, Cure Dolly and GameGenko on Youtube, just to name a few.
Sashingo is great when you already know some of the basics and want to (re)learn vocab in a fun way.

I actually think WaniKani is a bad thing for learning kanji as it often makes you confuse different onyomi's with eachother. I recommend the book (especially if you want to learn all jouyou Kanji) Remembering the Kanji. Learn the primary meaning of the kanji that is presented and then learn a few words with it.

[a.warringa1]

Originally posted by Lightfeather:

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

Games like these are not meant to learn Japanese from scratch. You really need other resources for that. For example WaniKani for learning the Kanji, BunPro for grammar, Genki books, Cure Dolly and GameGenko on Youtube, just to name a few.
Sashingo is great when you already know some of the basics and want to (re)learn vocab in a fun way.

I actually think WaniKani is a bad thing for learning kanji as it often makes you confuse different onyomi's with eachother. I recommend the book (especially if you want to learn all jouyou Kanji) Remembering the Kanji. Learn the primary meaning of the kanji that is presented and then learn a few words with it.

One just has to try what works best, that differs per person. For me Wanikani worked great - finished it in 368 days. The mnemonics and srs system helped a ton in remembering everything. I don't quite see how WK would make you confuse the onyomi's though.

[Lightfeather]

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

Originally posted by Lightfeather:

I actually think WaniKani is a bad thing for learning kanji as it often makes you confuse different onyomi's with eachother. I recommend the book (especially if you want to learn all jouyou Kanji) Remembering the Kanji. Learn the primary meaning of the kanji that is presented and then learn a few words with it.

One just has to try what works best, that differs per person. For me Wanikani worked great - finished it in 368 days. The mnemonics and srs system helped a ton in remembering everything. I don't quite see how WK would make you confuse the onyomi's though.

You know how it teaches you multiple readings and after a few right attempts its teaching you words with it? There are a lot of times where I learn new words and the onyomi shifts depending on the word. For example: 中国 国 is being read as ごく aswell as 天国 but than there is the word 外国 and 全国 where it is being read as こく. Since there is no true rule for it, it becomes easy to confuse and become jumbled in my brain. I'm happy it worked for you but that just doesn't fly with my brain.

[a.warringa1]

Originally posted by Lightfeather:

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

One just has to try what works best, that differs per person. For me Wanikani worked great - finished it in 368 days. The mnemonics and srs system helped a ton in remembering everything. I don't quite see how WK would make you confuse the onyomi's though.

You know how it teaches you multiple readings and after a few right attempts its teaching you words with it? There are a lot of times where I learn new words and the onyomi shifts depending on the word. For example: 中国 国 is being read as ごく aswell as 天国 but than there is the word 外国 and 全国 where it is being read as こく. Since there is no true rule for it, it becomes easy to confuse and become jumbled in my brain. I'm happy it worked for you but that just doesn't fly with my brain.

Yes that was just a case for me of remembering it, reading a lot (I prefer books over manga for a better comprehending of the grammar) helps a ton.
I actually have the Heisig books but for me WaniKani worked so much better, especially with their srs system. It was quite intense doing it in one year, as in doing reviews all through the day to keep the srs going, but that constantly been busy with the Kanji and vocab was also what helped me a lot of cramming them into my brain.

In what way did the Heisig books work better for you in remembering which on/kunyomi to use?

[Lightfeather]

Originally posted by a.warringa1:

Originally posted by Lightfeather:

You know how it teaches you multiple readings and after a few right attempts its teaching you words with it? There are a lot of times where I learn new words and the onyomi shifts depending on the word. For example: 中国 国 is being read as ごく aswell as 天国 but than there is the word 外国 and 全国 where it is being read as こく. Since there is no true rule for it, it becomes easy to confuse and become jumbled in my brain. I'm happy it worked for you but that just doesn't fly with my brain.

Yes that was just a case for me of remembering it, reading a lot (I prefer books over manga for a better comprehending of the grammar) helps a ton.
I actually have the Heisig books but for me WaniKani worked so much better, especially with their srs system. It was quite intense doing it in one year, as in doing reviews all through the day to keep the srs going, but that constantly been busy with the Kanji and vocab was also what helped me a lot of cramming them into my brain.

In what way did the Heisig books work better for you in remembering which on/kunyomi to use?

The wild thing is, that I completely ignored the on/kunyomi part of the kanjis and instead focused on just learning words with the recently learned kanji. After which my brain kinda gets accustomed to a certain pattern which naturally makes me remember their readings. The fact that most compound words are onyomi makes it easy to actually distinguish onyomi and kunyomi from one another.
Idk if that makes any sense to you

[a.warringa1]

Originally posted by Lightfeather:

The wild thing is, that I completely ignored the on/kunyomi part of the kanjis and instead focused on just learning words with the recently learned kanji. After which my brain kinda gets accustomed to a certain pattern which naturally makes me remember their readings. The fact that most compound words are onyomi makes it easy to actually distinguish onyomi and kunyomi from one another.
Idk if that makes any sense to you

Yes that makes perfect sense, after a while you kind of get a feel for which one to use. WK teaches most on/kun readings with mnemonics and that helped me a lot to remember them. After a while you do forget the mnemonics itself but with enough srs and reading most of them will be burned into your brain by then.

That is what I was missing from the Heisig books, learning all the on/kun, but as this discussion shows - you just have to try the most well known systems to see which one you like best.

I couldn't really work with Tae Kim's guide for example, using a combo of BunPro/Cure Dolly/Grammar with Misa worked way better for me.

No matter which method you're chosing, there is just no way aroud it - it takes a lot of effort to learn them all and more importantly - not to forget them again :)