Hi,

It was almost a year since I came here in Japan and like many people here, I'm also studying studying Japanese without classes. But, even though I'm in Japan, I'm surrounded with english speaking people.

Here's my current routine everyday that I want to change to let me learn more Japanese as I'm trying to set-up my immersion environment:

Work 9 hrs.
SRS 2 hrs.
Internet 2 hrs
Game 2-4 hrs.
Sleep 6-8 hrs.

Weekends let me watch Jdramas.


I completed RTK 1&3 and Core Vocabs in JLPT order up to N3 moving to N2 after a month. I also browse the internet mostly in their Japanese version, Facebook, Email, etc.

I don't have/read language learning books but I read Manga if I don't play games.

I also bought The Sims 3 here in Japan. It's a good game to know many actions and object interactions in Japanese. Do you think it's a good game to learn Japanese, or should I get a Japanese made game in Japanese instead? By the way, I like The Simulators and I don't find many here in Japan.

I doubt you'd get the kind of benefit you want from dedicating that amount of time to games. Even dialogue-heavy RPG's leave you spending much more time battling, exploring and messing around with menus. I spent something like 20 hours playing FF3 on my iPod, and it didn't benefit my Japanese even slightly. I guess if you had some Japanese friends on Xbox live or PSN you could play games that allow you to chat, but it doesn't sound like you're into those kind of games.

You'd be better off changing that 2-4 hours to 'having a life.' Try meeting some Japanese people and getting out there for some hands-on language experience. This is the one thing that can only really be done in Japan, so why not make the most of it? Language exchange sites and meetups organised online are a great way to start making friends. Failing that, split the time between games and TV. At least with TV you know you'll be getting exposure for 80-90% of the time you spend watching it.

Visual novels are great for learning the language.

watch gamecenter CX =)

i don't know what you mean by "the simulators" but there are a ton of simulation-style games. they just tend to have these scenes where girls get naked and you have sex with them for hitting certain statistical milestones...

anyway you can start at wikipedia for a list of popular simulation games.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B7%E...C%E3%83%A0

LorenzRas Wrote:I also bought The Sims 3 here in Japan. It's a good game to know many actions and object interactions in Japanese. Do you think it's a good game to learn Japanese, or should I get a Japanese made game in Japanese instead? By the way, I like The Simulators and I don't find many here in Japan.

The Sims game is translated into Japanese right?? Then it's fine. As long as its made for native Japanese person then you can use it/read it/watch it and learn Japanese from it.


Also, I would have Japanese TV on all the time. 24/7 if you can. Or Japanese youtube...so you can hear Japanese as well.

Or you could go to a ファミレス and listen to the conversations at the other tables... I'd also second the notion to cut back on games and explore Japan instead.

What I recently found very beneficial, for my listening comprehension as well as my output, was listening to tons of Japanese web radio (like ほめられてのびるらじおPP) on nico nico douga. It's native level colloquial speech, so its perfect for practicing listening comprehension and the comments on nico nico douga help you understanding what the hell is going on most of the time.