Waiting for a translation or learning the language yourself. Which one would you choose?

[jakecr]

TLDR; Which one would you choose? waiting for a patch 5 or 10yrs or learn the language yourself even if is hard?.

So the other day I was talking to this friend of mine and he reminded me of this game he wanted to play for years but has never been translated and how there was supposedly a patch that was being worked on but progress on it had stalled, and how he was waiting for it, at the time I told him that instead of waiting he should just study the language because I had the feeling it was going to take a long time or never see the light of day, now fast-forward to today and 5yrs have passed, the patch never came out and AFAIK no progress has been made or published and now my friend knows enough Japanese to play the game from start to finish and enjoy it, he is grateful that I told him to do that, but of course he is the one that put all the effort and thus deserves all the praise.

Funnily enough I told the same thing to another friend too at some point and she got really pissed and told me to fuck off and mind my own business, she's one of those people that would rather wait 10yrs for someone to make a translation than to ever even try to learn the language by herself.

Personally I don't understand this mindset but I'm biased since I went through the same in the early 2000s, in fact the translation I was waiting for never came out and I ended up being the one who worked on it along with other people, but before I did, I checked the website for the project multiple times a month for 8 years! until one day I said fuck it I'll do it myself

Just imagine this, in the time it takes for most patches to come out 2~5yrs (if you're lucky, specially for games with big scripts like JRPGs) you could potentially study 1~3 hrs a day everyday and learn enough to play the game yourself, you won't be like a native but at least you will able to consume media especially simple stuff like a lot of games. Heck given how long these patches take by the time they're out you could even translate the game yourself!

I don't know... this is something that was on my mind and I find it funny and kinda sad too, I kinda want to know what people think too, which one would you chose? waiting or being pro-active and put the effort yourself even if it's hard and you might even quit at some point.

In my case now I've been learning Japanese for 19yrs and is a life-long journey for me, there's always something new to learn and I'm also an obsessive perfectionist and I like to be even above the average native, heck I've been learning English for the past 25yrs since I was child too and now a couple of other languages like Korean since 2020, perhaps it is asking too much to want everyone to learn the language of the things they're interested on, perhaps because I've been learning them for so long I've lost touch with reality lol, who knows.

 

[Logi]

There's very few games that i want that are still japan only so i'd rather wait

 

[popipo952]

For me I'd rather learn, since I basically did that during my childhood with english, it's not our native language and very few people put the effort on learning, due to being a latin country people are more inclined to take spanish classes because "it's easier", takes time and effort but it's amazing to learn another language and consume their media on their native language, also it even helps on improving

 

[Hikari.EXE]

Learning.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll never starve again.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Both, I'm learning while also waiting for the translation

 

[Xdqwerty]

Probably learning for obscure games

 

[jakecr]

Both, I'm learning while also waiting for the translation

This is the best of both worlds for sure and if the translation never comes out you might still be able to play it with what you've learned.

 

[E0N]

Learning the language will always be the best approach. A lot of nuances gets lost in translation and then there's always the issue of bad localization. So I always tell people to learn the language if they fully want to enjoy something.

Another thing that people often don't realize is that if your target is to just consume media (games, books, shows etc.) all you have to learn is how to read and listen. So learning a language is actually rather easier for this purpose.

 

[Taukyrie]

Honestly, I would do both. In some cases, it'll take just as long for you to learn the language as it will for an actual translation patch to be released lmao.

 

[jakecr]

Learning.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll never starve again.

Indeed, learning opens a lot of possibilities and in a sense it gives you independence, you're not shackled to anybody.

Learning the language will always be the best approach. A lot of nuances gets lost in translation and then there's always the issue of bad localization. So I always tell people to learn the language if they fully want to enjoy something.

Another thing that people often don't realize is that if your target is to just consume media (games, books, shows etc.) all you have to learn is how to read and listen. So learning a language is actually rather easier for this purpose.

Yeah that last part is specially applicable to Japanese or languages with very different writing systems than your own, you don't have to torture yourself learning how to write Kanji for example or how to talk/pronounce stuff or using polite language, and just reading practice plus listening can get you very far especially if you goal is to only consume media that might not be super difficult and not academia and research papers and the like.

 

[Hikari.EXE]

To add to my previous comment: I'll still play these games fan translated, even if I know the language, because I know that the people who worked on it would want their translation to be seen, so I'm willing to give them a chance to see what they did to the game's translation.

 

[Wixman]

I'd rather just wait. I already study German and Mandarin, so adding Japanese to that in my spare time would be far too much for me at the moment.
Learning Japanese would be good, but I really can't think of any games that haven't been translated that I want to play.

 

[jakecr]

Honestly, I would do both. In some cases, it'll take just as long for you to learn the language as it will for an actual translation patch to be released lmao.

Yeah that's exactly the point I was trying to make, it really does take that long, I just don't get why people wouldn't just learn the language while waiting at least in their spare time, though let's be honest I do know why... is hard and takes a lot of effort and we're all lazy, well most of us. I guess some people let their laziness completely take over them, they rather leave the hard stuff for someone else while they chill for years. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, I don't know everyone's circumstances and I know some just don't have a lot of free time but I'm sure lots do at least enough to dedicate at least 30m or 1hr a day to learning some vocabulary or something.

Gee.. I'm very passionate about languages ?

To add to my previous comment: I'll still play these games fan translated, even if I know the language, because I know that the people who worked on it would want their translation to be seen, so I'm willing to give them a chance to see what they did to the game's translation.

Oh yeah I do the same too, I also review fan translations from time to time or just play them for fun to see how they translated and adapted stuff, and yeah everybody wants their work to be appreciated for sure, nothing makes a creator/author happier than that.

I'd rather just wait. I already study German and Mandarin, so adding Japanese to that in my spare time would be far too much for me at the moment.
Learning Japanese would be good, but I really can't think of any games that haven't been translated that I want to play.

Oh yeah that's completely understandable, I mean you're already learning a bunch of languages so it makes sense, it is also a bad idea to study too much stuff at the same time because you might end up learning nothing at least not well.

 

[Zarathusta]

Yea It was worth learning japanese l started in highschool and am pretty fluent now.
My motivation was to play Growlanser 1 and all the untranslated ps2 tales of games.
A few of the tales of games are now fan translated but l don't think Growlanser's fan translation is ever going to finish.
Its an incredibly hard language but rewarding

 

[otogirisou]

Japanese people can even still look down on foreigners inferior understanding of their language forever. Even if they've been there for 20 years.

The goal here is to just have enough understanding on the language to play a game, not to get elected as a prime minister of japan.

On topic: i did both. I also just play the games i wanted to play right now even though i don't fully understand the language. It turns out a lot of japanese exclusive games, with exception of games that rely heavily on dialogue choices like visual novels or dating sims, are playable as-is, at least for me. Sure, i don't fully understand the language, but it's enough to satisfy my curiousity, and they're still fun nonetheless. Also, i can replay them once someone made a translation or i am fluent enough in japanese.

 

[ErizaXZ]

TLDR; Which one would you choose? waiting for a patch 5 or 10yrs or learn the language yourself even if is hard?.

So the other day I was talking to this friend of mine and he reminded me of this game he wanted to play for years but has never been translated and how there was supposedly a patch that was being worked on but progress on it had stalled, and how he was waiting for it, at the time I told him that instead of waiting he should just study the language because I had the feeling it was going to take a long time or never see the light of day, now fast-forward to today and 5yrs have passed, the patch never came out and AFAIK no progress has been made or published and now my friend knows enough Japanese to play the game from start to finish and enjoy it, he is grateful that I told him to do that, but of course he is the one that put all the effort and thus deserves all the praise.

Funnily enough I told the same thing to another friend too at some point and she got really pissed and told me to fuck off and mind my own business, she's one of those people that would rather wait 10yrs for someone to make a translation than to ever even try to learn the language by herself.

Personally I don't understand this mindset but I'm biased since I went through the same in the early 2000s, in fact the translation I was waiting for never came out and I ended up being the one who worked on it along with other people, but before I did, I checked the website for the project multiple times a month for 8 years! until one day I said fuck it I'll do it myself

Just imagine this, in the time it takes for most patches to come out 2~5yrs (if you're lucky, specially for games with big scripts like JRPGs) you could potentially study 1~3 hrs a day everyday and learn enough to play the game yourself, you won't be like a native but at least you will able to consume media especially simple stuff like a lot of games. Heck given how long these patches take by the time they're out you could even translate the game yourself!

I don't know... this is something that was on my mind and I find it funny and kinda sad too, I kinda want to know what people think too, which one would you chose? waiting or being pro-active and put the effort yourself even if it's hard and you might even quit at some point.

In my case now I've been learning Japanese for 19yrs and is a life-long journey for me, there's always something new to learn and I'm also an obsessive perfectionist and I like to be even above the average native, heck I've been learning English for the past 25yrs since I was child too and now a couple of other languages like Korean since 2020, perhaps it is asking too much to want everyone to learn the language of the things they're interested on, perhaps because I've been learning them for so long I've lost touch with reality lol, who knows.

i was thinking about that these days
although i like some english patches, i don't like the idea of limiting myself to waiting a patch that coul take Eons
so yes, i agree with the idea of studying Japanese and other languages because i don't want to limit myself.
also, look at this if someone learn Japanese you can do Freely many and one things,
for example: with Japanese there is no Leak that can Trick you

 

[bjork]

I'm not opposed to learning another language, but the idea of doing it solely to play one game seems a bit much to me. I understand that in learning for the purposes of playing the first game, you could then play other games as well, but I'd do it more so that I could travel more easily or converse in public, etc.

 

[homesforgnomes]

Learning is the way. Not only do you not have to wait for translations, but you can avoid bad translations as well. This is particularly a big deal for older JRPGs where translations were often sloppy and constrained by space limits.

So, while there aren't very many untranslated games that I consider to be truly excellent these days, I still don't regret the time I put into learning the language.

 

[Prism_Red]

Both, I'm learning while also waiting for the translation

This is the case for me too, matter of fact is we know that not every single foreign language games are gonna be translated, even if it is, it's not gonna be in my lifetime.
I'm slowly learning Japanese now so I hope one day when I'm old and frail, I know I have unlimited backlogs I can leisurely tackle until the last I draw my breath.

 

[nathman]

TLDR; Which one would you choose? waiting for a patch 5 or 10yrs or learn the language yourself even if is hard?.

So the other day I was talking to this friend of mine and he reminded me of this game he wanted to play for years but has never been translated and how there was supposedly a patch that was being worked on but progress on it had stalled, and how he was waiting for it, at the time I told him that instead of waiting he should just study the language because I had the feeling it was going to take a long time or never see the light of day, now fast-forward to today and 5yrs have passed, the patch never came out and AFAIK no progress has been made or published and now my friend knows enough Japanese to play the game from start to finish and enjoy it, he is grateful that I told him to do that, but of course he is the one that put all the effort and thus deserves all the praise.

Funnily enough I told the same thing to another friend too at some point and she got really pissed and told me to fuck off and mind my own business, she's one of those people that would rather wait 10yrs for someone to make a translation than to ever even try to learn the language by herself.

Personally I don't understand this mindset but I'm biased since I went through the same in the early 2000s, in fact the translation I was waiting for never came out and I ended up being the one who worked on it along with other people, but before I did, I checked the website for the project multiple times a month for 8 years! until one day I said fuck it I'll do it myself

Just imagine this, in the time it takes for most patches to come out 2~5yrs (if you're lucky, specially for games with big scripts like JRPGs) you could potentially study 1~3 hrs a day everyday and learn enough to play the game yourself, you won't be like a native but at least you will able to consume media especially simple stuff like a lot of games. Heck given how long these patches take by the time they're out you could even translate the game yourself!

I don't know... this is something that was on my mind and I find it funny and kinda sad too, I kinda want to know what people think too, which one would you chose? waiting or being pro-active and put the effort yourself even if it's hard and you might even quit at some point.

In my case now I've been learning Japanese for 19yrs and is a life-long journey for me, there's always something new to learn and I'm also an obsessive perfectionist and I like to be even above the average native, heck I've been learning English for the past 25yrs since I was child too and now a couple of other languages like Korean since 2020, perhaps it is asking too much to want everyone to learn the language of the things they're interested on, perhaps because I've been learning them for so long I've lost touch with reality lol, who knows.

Learn the language & then translate it to Gaelic to annoy everyone.

 

[NoctemDead]

I've definitely thought about (and have bought books on) learning Japanese since that's the language that most of the games I want to play are in, but it feels daunting as a task and a time investment. I speak enough Spanish that I could probably play a Spanish game with a lot of help on words I don't know, and I can read enough Russian to make sense of simple labels and such, but I'm not fluent enough in either to truly get the nuance of a game - and that's with a lot of practice and, in the case of Spanish, living in a work environment where I had multiple coworkers who spoke only Spanish. Japanese being more complex on top of that makes it seem like quite the challenge.

 

[for.we.are.many]

Considering the amount of games I wanna play that might never get translated I should probably start learning Japanese ?

 

[Ian Naxieas]

I think learning is truly the best answer. That said, thankfully most of the Japan only games I want to play have translations because I don't see myself ever learning it. I don't mind rough translations or fan localizations, as long as I get to play it I'm satisfied.

 

[Vetusomaru]

There is also the third choice I often use: using AI translators that often do a much better job than official "translations". Even "fantranslations" often get the same, cringe, cancerous treatment that anime and video games American localizations get.

 

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

I lived in the US when I was a kid and now as an adult I live in Japan. While learning Japanese I went back and replayed some of the games I enjoyed as a kid or rewatched some of the old anime I used to like and I was surprised by how different the English versions are. There's a lot of stuff that simply can't be translated due to differences in language or culture, and there's a lot of stuff that gets censored or changed during translation and localization. Or sometimes, the translator didn't understand something and changed it. If you learn Japanese, I recommend going back and replaying some of your old favorites.

--

A lot of people seem to be unaware of this but when it comes to language learning most of the time you spend "studying" will be consuming media in that language. Meaning that in order to learn, you have to watch TV or play games or read novels in that language. It's quite relaxing. So if there's a game you want to play, you won't have to wait until you're fluent to play it; you can use that game as a tool to help you learn the language. Am I really studying if I'm laying on the couch playing Final Fantasy or sitting at my desk playing eroge?

There's very few games that i want that are still japan only so i'd rather wait

There's so many games that have never been (or never will be) translated. By the time you learn the language and play one or two games you'll start discovering all kinds of stuff that you have never even heard of.

There is also the third choice I often use: using AI translators that often do a much better job than official "translations". Even "fantranslations" often get the same, cringe, cancerous treatment that anime and video games American localizations get.

These days a lot of official translation work is done via machine translation and then the "translator" will make changes to the English output. Translation jobs for stuff like games and anime pays peanuts so people who are actually talented as translators tend to gravitate towards stuff with higher pay like the medical field or patents, and then anime/manga/games tend to attract a... Certain type of person ?. Most fan translations are also using machine translation.