05.09.08
Posted in Translation, Game Talk at 4:40 pm by claire
I’ve been playing Okami on the Wii for the past couple of days; the art style that the developers used is great, it really lends to the feel of the game, and I really enjoy that that game never takes itself too seriously, keeping a nice lighthearted tone throughout. I think the ‘brush’ skills are very creative, and definitely help make the game more immersive, but sometimes it’s hard to make the strokes exactly right, and I find myself every once and a while having to redraw the strokes several times over until it’s right. It doesn’t always give me problems though, and when it works it’s really fun, so I won’t complain too much.
I’ve also got the next (very short) little segment from the Xenosaga DS game mostly translated. I need another kanji dictionary, or someone who can read these less-than-common kanji, because I do come across ones that I don’t know AND that aren’t in my dictionary, so if anyone would like to help me out, I’d really appreciate it! As it is, here’s what I’ve got so far:
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05.08.08
Posted in Game Talk at 4:05 pm by claire
103. We have a total number of 103 video games here, with the majority on the PS2. For a while we had 98, then I got two for my birthday the other weekend (Folklore PS3, Persona 3 FES PS2), bringing us to a nice even 100. Then I spent a good chunk of an old paycheck on the collector’s edition of Final Fantasy 12, Bioshock, and Okami for the Wii. 103 is a bit less fun than 100, so I might have to pick up two more games sometime in the new future. We’ll see. But below I’ve got a list of everything we have in alphabetical glory. Asterisks mean I’ve played the game, Exclamation Points mean I’ve beaten it.
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05.01.08
Posted in Translation at 5:11 pm by claire
Alright, so the translating’s going pretty well. Slowly, but well. I purchased a wonderful little Kanji dictionary, that has three indexes by which to find the kanji you’re looking for: by radical, by stroke count, and by reading, which is amazing. There’s still some kanji that I can’t find, though, since it only has the ~2,000 common kanji, and Xenosaga is very much a technical/political/religious game, so certain terminology’s kanji are not exactly considered ‘common’. But I’m finding about 9 out of every 10 kanji I come across, so I count that a success in my books. But anyway! Here’s the first ~40 seconds or so.
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04.09.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:20 am by claire
I just bought the Xenosaga I & II game for the DS. It’s all in Japanese, though, and while I know a fair amount, there’s still a lot of technical talk going on, and LOTS of kanji that I haven’t been exposed to in classes yet (and probably won’t, since a lot of them are probably not words that I will need to know on a regular basis). So, if anyone has some suggestions for a good kanji dictionary, preferably one that I can search through by radicals rather than by the hiragana spellings (seeing as the game doesn’t see fit to add those), I would much appreciate it.
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01.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:05 pm by claire
I wonder why I’m so bad at keeping journals, of any sort? Well, in any case, my spring semester at college has started, I’m teaching myself Korean on the side, I’m still editing videos, I bought a Playstation 3, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Devil May Cry 4, among other things, and I have started my new job in the Audio/Visual department at my university. I also entered several videos in the AMV contest at Ohayocon a few weeks ago, and even though I was (not surprisingly) disappointed in the choices the general audience there makes, it was still pretty awesome to see my videos on the big times. So overall, pretty good times.
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09.25.07
Posted in Japanese at 1:17 pm by claire
Going Somewhere with a Purpose: Using the Particle に to Express Purpose
肉を買いに行きました。
- She went to buy some meat.
In this form, に roughly corresponds to to or in order to in this form. It expresses a purpose, a reason for going. In this form, you will always use an action verb at the end; to go, to come, to leave, etc.
Conjunctive form of a verb (ます form) + に +
テニスをしに行きませんか。
- Shall we go to play tennis?
本屋へざっしを買いに出ます。
- I left to buy a magazine at the bookstore.
うちへ日本語勉強しにかえりました。
- He returned home to study Japanese.
We’re about ten pages from the end of our textbook. I’m incredibly excited. I do so love new books.
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09.24.07
Posted in Japanese at 8:19 am by claire
Making If-Then Statements: The たら Conditional
Verb = past plain /positive/negative form + ら + resultant clause
i-adjective = see above
na-adjective = see above
Copula = see above
雨がふったら、ハイキングに行きません。
- If it rains, I won’t go hiking.
買い物からかえったら、勉強しましょう。
- Let’s study after we return from shopping.
お金があったら、いいコンピューターを買いたい。
- If I had money, I would like to buy a good computer.
もし often comes at the beginning of the sentence, meaning ‘if, supposing’, and basically just emphasizes the hypothetical nature of that first clause.
もし暑かったら、まどをあけてください。
- If you are hot, please open the window.
もしもっとげんきたったら、みんあ山へ行くんですが。。。
- If I were healthier, I would go to the mountains with everyone.
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09.22.07
Posted in Japanese at 2:33 pm by claire
I’m starting to like this whole. ‘lesson’ thing. Now if only there was someone I could work together with on this…hint hint. エミ！どこでいるんですか。
Indefinite Pronoun の
The indefinite pronoun の is always used after adjectives or relative clauses, and replaces a noun or refers to a person/place/thing/concept/etc., that is clear from the context.
- i-adjectives = plain form + の
- na-adjectives = dictionary form + な／だった + の
- Verbs = plain form + の
わたしはその赤いのが好きです。
明日来るのはカワムラさんと林さんです。
- The ones who will come tomorrow are Mr. Kawamura and Mr. Hayashi.
あまいのがいいですか？
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09.21.07
Posted in Japanese at 4:38 pm by claire
I was given the idea that going over lessons (particularly Japanese) in lesson form would help me remember them better. So, let’s see if this helps any, shall we?
時(toki) form: when something happens
- Noun = Noun + の + 時
- i-adjective ＝ Dictionary form + 時
- na-adjective = Adjective + な + 時
- Verb =
- Non-past/plain form + 時
- Past/plain + 時
学生の時、ドイツ語を勉強しました。
- When I was a student, I studied German.
ひまな時、また来ました。
- When I’m free, I’ll come here again.
その時、何をしていましたか？
- What were you doing at that time?
とうきょうへ行った時、ち下てつにのりました。
- When I went to Tokyo, I rode the subway.
And although the kanji for ‘toki’ is used here, it is also very common for the hiragana とき to be used whenever it means ‘when’ or ‘in the case that’.
The phrases どんな時 and どのような時 are used to ask ‘when’ less specifically than いつ。
Anyway, maybe this’ll at least make me keep up on review.
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07.29.07
Posted in Anime at 10:14 am by claire
- Mushi-Uta (ムシウタ）
- http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/sneaker/mushiuta/animation/
- http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/members_videoinfo.php?v=147144
- my own contribution to the awareness effort
- The first episode was pretty good, but the second and third were disappointing. The fourth definitely picked up the slack, though. I’m waiting for more to come out. Impatiently, I might add.
- Death Note (デスノート）
- http://www.ntv.co.jp/deathnote/
- Quite a wonderful thing. The anime is completely finished (all 37 episodes of it), as is the manga (12 volumes), and I am very satisfied.
I am finally home, safe and sound, after orchestrating a daring (and brilliant, if I might add) escape from my grandparents, and am now back where I belong, surrounded by video games and macaroni. Life is good. I am currently playing Suikoden III, and it’s not, by any stretch of the imagination, great, though I went into it with hopes placed somewhere several miles beneath my feet, so it’s not nearly as bad as I’d expected. The fifth installment in the Suikoden series is supposed to be amazing, and I plan to work my way up there eventually. It won’t be anytime soon, of course, and since the final .hack//G.U. game is being released sometime in September (if my memory serves me correctly), Suikoden will just have to sit back and be patient. I’ll get there eventually.
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