I’m currently working my way through modern, conversational Japanese, through the Genki textbook, Renshuu, and Duolingo as supplemental practice (I know, Duolingo; but it’s just something extra).
I’m still a long way off, but eventually I would like to, say, play *Ghost of Tsushima* in the Japanese dub without subtitles, just for fun. However, I’ve seen clips, and I can already tell it’s a very different Japanese than I study. Similar to how Shakespearean English is pretty different from Modern English.
Now, of course, a lot of my lack of comprehension is probably because even my conversational Japanese is still at a very basic level. So my question is: assuming a decent level of competency in conversational modern Japanese, can one piece together older-style Japanese of that type? Thanks!
2 comments
one can make inferences but it’s different enough to be confusing for sure
here’s a primer. this site gets very technical and linguistic so ymmv:
[https://www.imabi.net/introtoclassical.htm](https://www.imabi.net/introtoclassical.htm)
The language in Ghost of Tsushima, barring the poetry sections, are still very much almost entirely in modern Japanese. It has samurai yakuwarigo, but it’s still modern Japanese, all the same.