For the kinds of games most Nintendo gamers are interested in, Japanese is a lingua franca (not literally, of course). Nintendo games are often released earlier in Japan than in other regions, if they even get to other regions. The same is true of third-party stuff: so much weird and interesting material never makes it to the West. Therefore, learning the Japanese language is a great way to expand your gaming possibilities.Given our (my) own level of Japanese proficiency (which falls between novice and mute), we thought it would be interesting to poll the rest of you. Who has studied Japanese expressly for gaming purposes? Have you taken formal classes? Picked up some books? Are you a dutiful Japanesepod101.com listener? Or have you just learned some katakana from the web, for navigating menus?
We'd love to hear about your experiences and your self-assessment of your progress. No need to feel embarrassed about slow progress; language learning is hard. At least that's what we tell ourselves.
