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Looking For People To Learn Japanese through VNs


rainsismyfav

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Edited April 5th, 2014: Beginner's room is now CAPPED. Everyone else who wishes to join from now on will have to be put on a waitlist. Intermediate room is still open.

 

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Hello All,

 

Me and my friends are looking for people who would like to join us in learning Japanese through Visual Novels. We use skype to get together.

How this works:

In general, you might be familiar with Aaeru's post.

http://visualnovelaer.fuwanovel.net/2013/02/how-to-read-visual-novels-in-japanese-in-2-years-time-or-1-year-if-you-are-fast-%E2%80%95-learn-to-read-through-vn-or-anime/

However we'll be jumping straight into reading VNs after hira/kata, a few hundred kanjis, and basic grammar.

(If you're still a beginner, that's no problem, come and hang around with us)
We would answer any questions and help you with your studies.


The setup the majority of us use is VN + ITH + JWPce/Jisho. Others use the wonderful Jparser. Feel free to use any other dictionary. Others supplement with Anki flashcards.

For the near future:

Once the recruitment process is done, people will nominate and vote for a VN to read and learn from.
We would then set a deadline to read X amount of stuff by such-and-such date. The deadline isn't a doomsday time, rather we'll apply some sort of incentive system instead of punishing people who don't meet the deadline. We'll also set up a day to discuss material in group before the deadline. You can post questions in the skype room anytime, anyday. People should see it once they come online and be able to help you. If you want more help, you can always pm or call someone individually for help. This is suitable to fit people's schedules.

The aim is to foster discussion with people asking questions as they read through the VN, and with others trying to help clarify.

Anybody can hop in and join, from beginners, to advanced people (if you want to help).

We just want the following from you:

Be Open to H-scenes since that would keep our options wide. We probably won't be going to the extremes (yaoi-yuri, gore).
To be courteous and respectful of other people's tastes.
To be open-minded in many ways, open to new ideas, open to self-teaching.
To participate actively and don't shy away from asking questions.

If you're interested send me a message here at fuwanovel.
OR skype me "rains90"

 

EDITED MARCH 30th, 2014:

Beginner's room's VN started 2 weeks ago on Koikishi Purely Kiss: http://vndb.org/v7260

Intermediate room's reached the OP movie of Kono Oozora http://vndb.org/v9093

 

Right now I need to know people's japanese skill level (more like what room they want to be in) and split people into the two groups. Everyone would have the option of switching in between the rooms if a beginner wants to tackle the harder VN, or vice-versa. So there're two options when it comes to the VN you want to do.
 

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Ohh, this does seem interesting. I am currently reading VN's with TA +ITH to learn japanese and for fun.

 

I am in. I would love to do this. Been thinking about starting something like it. What level are the founding guys at?  Also, I never figured out how to install Translation Aggregator on windows 8, or at all really...

TA doesn't need to install, simply put a Edict dictionary in the dictionary folder in TA and it will work.

 

I am guessing you are not using the tablet like user interface of Windows 8. This Is how I got it working.

To get the Edict File link: Edict2 This link will open a site with the entire dictionary file in it, so wait a bit until it have loaded. After that use your internet brower menu on the top of your screen. (Depends on your browser how this is done.) and go File -> Save Page as: Then save it as a txt. file. This will download a compressed file, extract it and move the edict2.File into TA's dictionary folder.

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I feel like a tard. I mean seriously I am the most tech savvy person I know and for some reason when it comes to this one set of programs my mind always goes blank. I have no idea what you just said. It is fine though. I probably would not use it even if I could because I hate to have something on my screen other than the game. I always play fullscreen with no distractions.

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Well this is a pretty good idea.

And a pretty clever way to learn japanese.

 

I'm really interested unfortunately I don't have time yet to learn Japanese seriously. Too much going on at the same time.

Had you posted this in 4 months it would have been perfect !

 

Well I guess getting more info can't do any harm.

 

Do you plan on doing this regularly (< F this word) ? When ?

Do people have to attend every single session ?

How will you adapt to the several time zones if that becomes an issue ?

 

It seems the idea is well suited if there aren't more than 4-5 people but you never know until you tried.

 

I'm adding you on skype nevertheless if ever other questions occur (and god knows i'm annoying :P but this is interesting).

Edit : If i manage to understand how the hell skype works, god dammit (I can't find you)

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You can still hang out with us and ask questions as you learn. If you don't mind the possible hundreds of skype message backlogs :)

I think i'll pass on the hundreds of backlogs :P

Honestly i really want to participate i just don't have enough japanese skills to start reading untranslated VNs already.

Maybe some other time if you decide to do this again.

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@ Dark Ariel7: The founding guys are me and two of my other friends. One is a fresh beginner, my other friend is mid-upper level, and I'm ok. I can help explain the basics. I'm not familiar with TA, but we'd like to minimize the use of English (or other languages) to a minimum. It's ok if people want to use it personally to guide their understanding though. We use straight jp --> eng dictionaries like JWPce and Jisho. JWPce has an option that auto-copies whatever you highlight in ITH. If you want to play it full-screen, that's fine. The method to learn or read is very flexible. We encourage people to find their forte when it comes to learning. As long as you help others asking questions, and to come up with questions on your own, it's good.

 

@maefdomn

 

Where to start.. hehe..

I hope this will go on for a long time. This upcoming summer would be the most ideal time to do this. We'll start right now though to flesh out the system, get everybody accustomed, and to create an environment conductive to learning.

The idea is very flexible. As long as you work on your own pace to try to read by the deadline. (Really the deadline is just there to lessen procrastination).

We don't require mandatory attendance. The idea is that even when people's schedules don't match, skype will record the log such that everybody will see what was said once they log online.

As for how well it's suited for x amount of people: I think the more the merry, but not TOO much that it constantly floods the room (if that ever happens we might need to split the skype room). The idea is to have people constantly asking questions and answering questions about japanese. Too few people and it gets too silent, especially when each person has a snail's pace in reading, and busy in real life.

 

@everyone 

pm me your skype name if you can't find me, search "rains90"

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Too late for me - I've started doing what you guys are doing about 1.5-2 years ago. At this point I can probably learn something new only from a native jp speaker, or someone very good like Ixrec. Well, at least I approve your method and guarantee that it works :)

 

Yep,

I personally started this method back in 2008-2009. Back then I didn't even have the option to auto-copy from agth to jwpce so I went hardcore ctrl-c + ctrl+v everytime. Now, I didn't have to study much for JLPT since over half I had already known from the VNs and stuff I read.

 

I have worked with Ixrec a bit in the past, I'm always amazed by how he's always motivated to work.

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I remember those fun times.  I still use JWPce, but not for automatic lookup.

But at the beginning, I did the same manual copy and paste using JWPce.

 

Translation Aggregator by default includes many web translation options.  But it also includes the JParser mode.  Forward-thinking fellow that he is, the author of TA made it possible to shut all that junk off except for the JParser.  And with JParser running, you don't even have to highlight anything.  It catches all the words from the text hooker automatically, if you see an unknown word you position your mouse pointer over it and the definition from EDICT pops up.

 

By the way, this sounds fun to me, too.  My level is intermediate.  But I am completely new to Skype...

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How many members until the group is officially formed? By which  I mean, When do we get to vote for the Vn we will be doing?

 

Around next week. We're finalizing higanbana with my friends at the moment. I'd like to finish recruiting first. Give it a few days, then start nominations.

 

Recruitment should die down after tomorrow or the next day after.

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I remember those fun times.  I still use JWPce, but not for automatic lookup.

But at the beginning, I did the same manual copy and paste using JWPce.

 

Translation Aggregator by default includes many web translation options.  But it also includes the JParser mode.  Forward-thinking fellow that he is, the author of TA made it possible to shut all that junk off except for the JParser.  And with JParser running, you don't even have to highlight anything.  It catches all the words from the text hooker automatically, if you see an unknown word you position your mouse pointer over it and the definition from EDICT pops up.

 

By the way, this sounds fun to me, too.  My level is intermediate.  But I am completely new to Skype...

 

Wow yeah. I think I've seen a friend have that. If I remember correctly, it's like an offline Rikai-chan. I haven't tried that yet but that might be more efficient! Thanks for bringing that up.

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Yea, give it a shot.  If for some reason you can't get it to work, I can .zip up my TA folder and upload it since I already have it working.  On Windows XP that is, other Windows YMMV.

 

Meanwhile when I have a block of free time I will check into Skype.

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Sign me up. I went through about 1200 kanji and a friend decided to get me pokemon X, in which my japanese responsibilities flew out the window.

Right now, I'm mostly just reviewing on my own. Anyways, I'd love to get in on this. I figure if I gotta learn Japanese, I gotta expect to make sacrifices in my free time. I'm hoping having other people will help solidify this idea for me. I'll add you on skype soon.

...or not. Couldn't find you on skype. I'll just handle it tomorrow morning.

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haha, that's okay. I have read some of your posts before. Did you try and get Visual novel reader (VNR) working? It works in fullscreen.

Could anyone please send a download link for the VNR that actually works? I've tried Nyaa torrents and the older pages that hosted it but my browser says it can't find the page. Never mind I found it.

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@everyone: Yeah sorry about skype being buggy. If my avatar shows, I should be the one with an owl picture. Apparently there's three of rains whenever people search for me. If you look at the profile, it should say NJ, USA (where I live).

 

Either way if you can't find me, pm me your skype names. I usually have success when I look for others.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi everyone. I casually decided to give Aeru's "Learn Japanese in 2 years guide" a shot at the beginning of last December. I finished Heisig's RTK about 3 weeks ago and I've been reading slowly through Tae Kim's grammar guide since then. I'm only up to "Honorific and Humble forms" in the "Special Expressions" part of his guide but I decided to start trying to read some VNs (with ITH and Translation Aggregator) to drill in some grammar before I forget most of what I learnt in "Basic and Essential Grammar". As such, I decided to give Koikishi Purely Kiss a go after seeing this thread. Though the starting group is already 2 weeks in so I'm probably too late the party T.T

 

Here are a few lines near the beginning of the game and my extremely clumsy attempt at trying to make some sense out of it. I was hoping someone could help explain the sentences below.

 


要「オレだって何十回も見てる。だから白で合ってるよ」
But I saw it 10 times more (clearly?) than you. So it was white that met/hit.

「絶対、黒だよ!」
It was definitely black!

要「白!」
White!

自分の意見をぶつけ合う俺達。
Our opinions clashed

結局どちらも引かなかったので、ただ疲れただけだった。
Because we both continued to argue, we became tired.

要「せっかく2人いるからできると思ったのに、どうしてうまくいかないんだろ……」
Despite thinking “Coming out (growing up?) from 2 precious people”, I wonder how things went so badly (ended up so badly?)

「………」

要「ねえってば。オレの話、聞いてる?」
Hey. Are you listening to my story?

「あの人、何してるのかな……?」
I wonder what that person is doing.

最初に気づいたのはあの子だった。
As for (noticing from the beginning), she used to be that little girl/he used to be that kid?

(Inside museum)
展示物に目もくれず、大事そうに鞄を抱えて人気のない方に進んでいく大人の男。
Display Items / [target] / eye / not giving(from receiver's point of view)/ , carrying a bag towards seemingly valuable items
An adult male went in the direction where there was no people.

要「……悪者だ」
... A bad person/scoundrel/thief.

 

As for the sentences I'm particularly confused about:

自分の意見をぶつけ合う俺達。
Our opinions clashed

 

Not sure how to break this sentence down.

"自分の意見" = my/her opinion,

"ぶつけ合う" = knock ideas against each other,

"俺達" = us

I'm guessing the verb "ぶつけ合う" acts on the noun "自分の意見" but I'm not sure how the resulting clause modifies 俺達.

 

結局どちらも引かなかったので、ただ疲れただけだった。
Because we both continued to argue, we became tired.

 

ただ: ordinary/usual (not sure what meaning it's meant to take)

疲れた: to get worn out

だけ: only/just (not sure if right)

だった: past tense for a state-of-being. So "結局どちらも引かなかったので、ただ疲れただけ" is a state-of-being?

 

 

展示物に目もくれず、大事そうに鞄を抱えて人気のない方に進んでいく大人の男。
Display Items / [target] / eye / not giving(from receiver's point of view)/ , carrying a bag towards seemingly valuable items
An adult male went in the direction where there was no people.

 

Not sure how to parse this sentence either.

展示物に目もくれず、: Not giving the display items a glance,

大事そうに鞄を抱えて: carrying a bag towards seemingly valuable items. This clause ends in the te-form and I'm not sure how that modifies the next clause.

人気のない方に進んでいく大人の男 : adult male went in the direction where there was no people.

 

I'm not sure if I should continue doing this because I have no feedback on where I'm misreading things. Maybe I should try reading a VN that has translated scripts so I can compare?

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