I don’t think you get enough input from TCGs to actually learn well.
I was able to play the Japanese version of Yugioh video games in middle school, but that was basically because I rote memorised every element of the card game. I learned very little Japanese beyond kana and maybe 100 kanji.
Having to figure out rules and effects from the descriptions is good practice. But you won’t get more than a few hours of reading in total.
There’s a useful idea of “domains” of language – the things you’re trying to do with language determine what vocabulary you need, and to a lesser extent what grammar patterns are more common.
TCG rules are a very specific technical domain, similar to reading motorcycle manuals. The vocabulary is small but it contains words that would be rare in everyday conversation. Technical domains are usually very easy to learn if you’re already familiar with the concepts but you have to choose which ones to study. You probably won’t accidentally learn TCG vocabulary by reading romance-comedy, for example.
(There are some exceptions. 麻雀(マージャン) and its very Chinese vocabulary does tend to show up in a lot of fiction. ロン！)
If your goals include conversational fluency, you won’t learn enough about emotions or daily life *but* if you want to play games, it’s an excellent domain for that purpose. It will give you something to talk about and isn’t a lot of added effort compared to the core of a language.
tl;dr: studying YGO is a great way to end up playing YGO in Japanese but don’t neglect the core of the language. Unless you only want to read YGO cards; if so, focus on that it’s easy.
I think it has very little contribution to your learning but that’s just me personally. All I do is just watch Japanese content and read manga
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I don’t think you get enough input from TCGs to actually learn well.
I was able to play the Japanese version of Yugioh video games in middle school, but that was basically because I rote memorised every element of the card game. I learned very little Japanese beyond kana and maybe 100 kanji.
Having to figure out rules and effects from the descriptions is good practice. But you won’t get more than a few hours of reading in total.
There’s a useful idea of “domains” of language – the things you’re trying to do with language determine what vocabulary you need, and to a lesser extent what grammar patterns are more common.
TCG rules are a very specific technical domain, similar to reading motorcycle manuals. The vocabulary is small but it contains words that would be rare in everyday conversation. Technical domains are usually very easy to learn if you’re already familiar with the concepts but you have to choose which ones to study. You probably won’t accidentally learn TCG vocabulary by reading romance-comedy, for example.
(There are some exceptions. 麻雀(マージャン) and its very Chinese vocabulary does tend to show up in a lot of fiction. ロン！)
If your goals include conversational fluency, you won’t learn enough about emotions or daily life *but* if you want to play games, it’s an excellent domain for that purpose. It will give you something to talk about and isn’t a lot of added effort compared to the core of a language.
tl;dr: studying YGO is a great way to end up playing YGO in Japanese but don’t neglect the core of the language. Unless you only want to read YGO cards; if so, focus on that it’s easy.
I think it has very little contribution to your learning but that’s just me personally. All I do is just watch Japanese content and read manga