How much Japanese have you learnt from playing visual novels?

[Natalieee62]

For those that are learning Japanese or another language through Otome/and or BL games, how much have you learnt from playing them?

I personally love using visual novels to study, especially since you can replay the dialogue and go back if you missed something. (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠) Plus some stories are quite repetitive in their dialogue so it's super easy to pick up on words. I found Diabolik lovers quite enjoyable to read even though I'm probably only around N3, but I'm curious where everyone else is at or any games you thought were easy/hard to read. ^^

Also if you're not actively studying it, then how much have you picked up from just playing? ^^

 

[Daisy Magnus229]

I'm not actively studying Japanese anymore (lol), but I can understand, recognize some kanji, and know how to pronounce them. Otome games really helped me remember their shapes and sounds because certain kanji appear a lot.

But I think manga helps me even more because of the furigana. My siblings, who are at N1 and N2 levels, jokingly say I'm at 'N10' level, and I totally agree because I can't write any kanji! Sometimes I can't tell the difference between ソ and ン too lol

 

[ninnikuryona]

im not learning japanese like, at all LMAO, but i do pick up some bits and pieces of new words here and there. for example, danganronpa taught me words like kibou/zetsubou (hope/despair) and hannin (culprit), because these terms are key to the entire game w
the other fun word i learned is kubikiri, which means being fired i think? but i dont remember where i learned it from..;-;
also, playing gacha games helped me learn various "positions". tabibito (traveler) in genshin, shihainin (manager) in tokyo 7th sisters (rest in peace), shikikan (commander) in azur lane/girls frontline/etc. i generally think that idol franchises and songs are pretty good to pick up some words! lovelive's bokutachi wa hitotsu no hikari is a very cute song, because it uses girls' names in lyrics, so i think it helps to learn their meaning too..
oh and when i was a huge fan of idolish7 and was a yumejoshi for one of the characters, i learned the fun history behind the word "tsunashi"! so yeah, turns out gacha games can force you to learn about interesting cultural stuff too^^
one of the recent ones i learned is akan, which is (i assume) a curse word. thank you hadaka shitsuji

all in all, while im not fluent and never will be, after spending half my life engaging with japanese media, both thanslated and not, i found myself understanding a good portion of japanese speech in audio form. im very bad at reading and distinguishing between kanji (my kanji knowledge is on elementary school level pretty much), but i still can generally understand what exactly is being said to me. this is why voiced games are a godsend..!!

 

[Natalieee62]

I'm not actively studying Japanese anymore (lol), but I can understand, recognize some kanji, and know how to pronounce them. Otome games really helped me remember their shapes and sounds because certain kanji appear a lot.

But I think manga helps me even more because of the furigana. My siblings, who are at N1 and N2 levels, jokingly say I'm at 'N10' level, and I totally agree because I can't write any kanji! Sometimes I can't tell the difference between ソ and ン too lol

Don't get me started with the difference between ソ and ン I just pick one or the other and hope for the best and yeah I definitely use manga too! The furigana is great, I guess since vns aren't primarly targeted towards kids it's very rare to have furigana in them. ^^

 

[Natalieee62]

im not learning japanese like, at all LMAO, but i do pick up some bits and pieces of new words here and there. for example, danganronpa taught me words like kibou/zetsubou (hope/despair) and hannin (culprit), because these terms are key to the entire game w
the other fun word i learned is kubikiri, which means being fired i think? but i dont remember where i learned it from..;-;
also, playing gacha games helped me learn various "positions". tabibito (traveler) in genshin, shihainin (manager) in tokyo 7th sisters (rest in peace), shikikan (commander) in azur lane/girls frontline/etc. i generally think that idol franchises and songs are pretty good to pick up some words! lovelive's bokutachi wa hitotsu no hikari is a very cute song, because it uses girls' names in lyrics, so i think it helps to learn their meaning too..
oh and when i was a huge fan of idolish7 and was a yumejoshi for one of the characters, i learned the fun history behind the word "tsunashi"! so yeah, turns out gacha games can force you to learn about interesting cultural stuff too^^
one of the recent ones i learned is akan, which is (i assume) a curse word. thank you hadaka shitsuji

all in all, while im not fluent and never will be, after spending half my life engaging with japanese media, both thanslated and not, i found myself understanding a good portion of japanese speech in audio form. im very bad at reading and distinguishing between kanji (my kanji knowledge is on elementary school level pretty much), but i still can generally understand what exactly is being said to me. this is why voiced games are a godsend..!!

Haha yeah I definitely feel like my audio side is much better than my reading too. ^^' Kanji is a scary place...but yeah I love when they repeat the same words all the time (like despair in Danganronpa ) you can just naturally learn them through repetition without having to study or do flashcards for it (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠) and if a game isn't voiced I definitely struggle so much more!!

 

[ninnikuryona]

Haha yeah I definitely feel like my audio side is much better than my reading too. ^^' Kanji is a scary place...but yeah I love when they repeat the same words all the time (like despair in Danganronpa ) you can just naturally learn them through repetition without having to study or do flashcards for it (⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠) and if a game isn't voiced I definitely struggle so much more!!

yep!! generally if a word is hammered into my ears the entire playthrough, i will more or less learn it by the end LMAO
might be a bit impractical, but you know. as long as it works!