Let’s face it. I’m a dork. I love computers and gadgets. I am a devout gamer. I also know entirely too much about the story lines of dragonball Z and sailor moon to ever hope to not be considered a dork. However, when it comes to anime, I came to enjoy it in what I would consider a very roundabout manner.

Like many fascinations of mine, this one too has its roots in video games. As a kid, I fell in love with RPGs. Among my favorites were the final fantasy and dragon quest series of games. After a while, I discovered that there were games in these series that were released only in Japan. I vowed that I would one day play them.

Then one day I discovered that people had written emulators for the PC that could play ROMs of NES and SNES games. I quickly hunted down ROMs of all the unreleased games I always had wanted to play. It became rapidly apparent that I was not going to get far without knowing Japanese. So I promptly enrolled in Japanese 101 at college. This was the beginning of my love affair with Japanese language and culture. This is also the point at which I finally start peeking into the world of anime. While most people decide to want to learn Japanese because of anime, I wanted to watch anime because I was interested in Japanese.

I ended up taking all the Japanese courses they offered at college, and following that up with private lessons after that. However, after I moved to Colorado, I sort of fell out of sync with my Japanese studies. My recently re-sparked interest in anime once again stems from a bubbling desire within me to begin studying Japanese again. The problem with this is that I am sort of on my own, and learning a language like Japanese without using it in actual conversation is difficult if not impossible.

I am on the lookout for a copy of the Japanese rosetta stone software. I figure it would be good for rebuilding my eroded vocabulary and possibly for hearing those words used in sentences. This is where anime comes in for me. I always watch it in its original Japanese, not because I am an elitist snob, but because it is one of the best ways to help solidify your vocabulary.

I also discovered this nintendo DS software. I think it wounds pretty amazing. It is basically a kanji dictionary with lookup functions that allow me to look up kanji using Japanese or English. It also can apparently translate to/from Japanese/English. I have no idea how good it works, but that is incredible functionality for such an affordable product. For those wondering: The Nintendo DS has no region lockout on software for it, meaning that American DSs can play foreign games and software on them without use of any modifications to the system.

I also need to brush up on my kana. This wont be hard, but one thing that many books gloss over is proper stroke order when writing kanji/kana. This website solves that problem quite nicely! It provides movie files of every kana, illustrating proper stroke order.

I am seriously considering taking the Japanese courses offered at the local college here in town. Not only would it be a GREAT refresher, but it would also provide me with social links and possibly introduce me to someone willing to give private lessons. If I am serious about learning Japanese, there is no substitute for actually holding a conversation with someone in the language.

This entry was posted on Thursday, 14 June 2007 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Aimless Rants. You can leave a response, or Trackback from your own site.