So for those not in the know. There is a book series called “legends of localization” written by Clyde “tomato” mandelin. Most famous for making the mother 3 fan translation. These books are all about the localization details from translating these games from Japanese to English and for the newest one: Undertale, English to Japanese.
He releases these bonus things alongside the books called “passports” that are basically little guides that will let you play and understand these games in Japanese. They teach you kana and a little relevant kanji.
The Undertale one is coming out soon and I wanna pick it up. A side note, the Undertale passport is much, MUCH bigger than the ones for the other two books, Zelda and earthbound. It’s a game I’ve already beaten multiple times and a game I love. I thought that this sounded like a really fun way to start my learning journey. Even if it takes me a long time to get through the game and I have to look a bunch up. Obviously I plan on learning past this with other material and this won’t teach me everything. Plus I plan to learn the kana first.
But what do you think? Do you think this would be a fun way to start?
2 comments
Define start. As in ‘start learning Japanese’? Then no.
I’m guessing the purpose of those ‘passports’ are to allow people who don’t know the Japanese to have a chance of brute-forcing their way through the games, but if I’m being honest, I doubt you’re going to get far if the goal is actually learning the language.
There’s a whole load of grammar, a whole load of vocab, and a lot of cultural background knowledge (that especially would be hard to pick up here, seeing as the game is American) that goes into learning long term, and I doubt this is going to work as a replacement to foundational level.
(Also, side note; why is he releasing a passport on Undertale? That game has had a Japanese translation for years)
It’ll definitely be tough if you’re starting from zero, but it could be fun to try anyway. I have found having some sort of “goal” work/material is a good way to keep yourself motivated. For example, when I started Japanese, I really wanted to watch One Piece, so every so often, I “check-in” and watch some episodes in Japanese. Being able to check-in on it gives me a sense of my progress and keeps me motivated to improve. Perhaps Undertale could be that for you! If you think of it in this way, then you might be less likely to lose motivation when you encounter the enormity of native Japanese materials. Let us know how it goes!