Learning Language from Movies, Anime, and Games
これは前回の記事で書いたものの英語で書いたバージョンです、
Looking back at my past, I realized that my language learning journey began and grew with movies, anime, and games. The first time I knew about English was through Western films. Eventually, I discovered anime, and that’s when my interest in Japanese started to grow.
At first, I watched anime with dubbed audio and one of it is called Cardcaptor Sakura. But since the broadcast time overlapped with my cram school schedule, I couldn't watch it anymore, therefore I used my own allowance to buy the anime on CD. This was the first time I spent my own money on something like that, and I had no idea how much of an impact it would have on me.
The CD only had subtitles, and the audio was in Japanese. Watching the subtitles while listening to the Japanese audio made me notice expressions like "suki" (like), "aishiteru" (love), "baka" (idiot), and even "kun" and "chan." I found these expressions fascinating (and, honestly, I wanted someone to call me "kun" too! But, of course, reality isn’t that sweet… Maybe someday, right? lol). This fascination led me to start studying Japanese on my own.
However, the biggest turning point in my language learning came not just from anime but actually from games mostly. During the PlayStation 2 era, voice-acted games became more common. Typically, Japanese games translated into English had both the text and audio dubbed in English. But one company stood out for me which is called NIS America. Their games allowed you to select between English and Japanese audio, while the text remained in English. For me, this was revolutionary.
If you’re a Japanese gamer, you’ve probably heard of Nippon Ichi Software, famous for titles like Disgaea. NIS America also localized many other Japanese games, including the Atelier series. Among these, my personal favorite was Ar Tonelico.
These games weren’t just entertainment butthey became my language teachers. Through them, I learned both English and Japanese grammar, pronunciation, and meaning. But looking back, I never had anyone to properly teach me whether I was learning correctly or not. Most of the people around me weren’t particularly interested in Japanese itself, so I didn’t have anyone to study or practice with. So, I just practiced on my own over and over again. For example, I would listen to the pronunciation of characters on TV, record my own voice, and compare them multiple times.
Ten years later, when I finally went to Japan, people often told me, "Your Japanese is so good!" In fact, unless I introduced myself, most people thought I was Japanese. But well, to be honest… Japanese people are usually flattering without real meaning, so I don't know if that's true or not. Lol
After living in Japan for about eight years, I now use Japanese in my daily life. However, I’m still continuing my studies. I know my grammar is still a bit rough, so I would really appreciate any feedback from my readers! Please be my practice partners! And although I lived in Japan, I still use English in work and practice it in my daily life so that I can still use it anytime.
anime "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni"
Now, here’s something I learnt from my experience that I want to share.
One of the biggest mistakes I made was by not actively try to speak with native speakers. I learned English and Japanese through movies, anime, and games, but since I didn’t have anyone to actually practice speaking with or taught me, my progress in learning was slow. Nowadays, it’s easy to connect with people online, so if you’re planning to learn a new language, I highly recommend finding study partners or native speakers to connect with.
Also, the reason I’ve been able to continue studying for so many years is because I practice through the things I love. If you’re learning a language through something you enjoy, like movies, anime, or games, I recommend tying it to practical exercises whenever you can!
That's it for now! I guess I have written a bit about myself so next time I might write something different!
自分のことはもう結構話しましたので、次回は他のことを書くつもりです！
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