Hardware NA XL N3DS - Set to Japanese?

[Kayot]

I have a North American New 3DS, hacked of course. I've been studying Japanese for a while now and I'm at that tragic point where I can just barely read sentences, words are no longer translated but rather understood, and most words written Hiragana and Katakana and maybe 30 or so Kanji are starting to look normal.

I'm ready to take the next step! Learning by Gaming!

Some of the advice columns tell me that my 3DS is a treasure for this. However, when I go to change system setting to Japanese I get four Latin based languages instead. I know I can change this in a few games, but why not the system setting?

Is there a way to do this on the NA model?

 

[KunoichiZ]

You need CFW to change the system language. Just note, that the eShop has a very low, low, low chance of working after the region change. But that's okay, because freeShop exists.

Follow http://3ds.guide to get CFW first, then follow https://3ds.guide/region-changing to change your system's region to Japan.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I have a North American New 3DS, hacked of course. I've been studying Japanese for a while now and I'm at that tragic point where I can just barely read sentences, words are no longer translated but rather understood, and most words written Hiragana and Katakana and maybe 30 or so Kanji are starting to look normal.

I'm ready to take the next step! Learning by Gaming!

Some of the advice columns tell me that my 3DS is a treasure for this. However, when I go to change system setting to Japanese I get four Latin based languages instead. I know I can change this in a few games, but why not the system setting?

Is there a way to do this on the NA model?

Just wondering, how are you learning Japanese? I've always been wanting to learn it myself but never put in the effort.

 

[Kayot]

To be honest, I kind of did it out of order and it's been a little weird for me.

I first learned Hiragana (which I kept calling Hiragara due to Homeworlds Higara) I buckled down and just learned them. I figured it was a corner stone, plus Katakana (never messed this one up) is the same thing only with different symbols and usage. For instance, my name in Katakana is タデウス (Tadeusu, Thaddues). Katakana is kind of like cursive in English, used for proper names and foreign words.

I've attached the first sheets I ever used.

The TENTEN which looks like " is only on K (makes G), S (makes z, and ji), T (makes D), and H (makes B). The MARU which looks like a small circle is only on H (makes P). Combinations are just the Y's with with the i version of each symbol as a prefix; except with chi and zi which use ch(last letter of Y) and j (same) respectively. Like kyo きょ is just ki き with a small yo よ. When I do this on the keyboard it automatically makes the yo smaller like it should. N ん is written with nn and to get a small tsu which is a double consonant, I just type the consonant before the next symbol, so kko becomes っこ. With those rules in place, I only had to learn 50 x 2 symbols plus minor rules. I used to write code alphabets when I was younger so this was pretty easy. For the first three days I only learned five symbols each day. Then I suddenly started learning 10 and then the rest in just two days. It took me three days to learn all of Katakana since it was just substitution. I did write a program to help me with it. I can include the source code if you want, but I warn you, it's extremely rough and written in VB.NET.

I used a book call "Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners" but I found it to be all over the place with assuming I knew grammar and I'm now half way through another book called "Japanese from Zero! 1: Proven Techniques to Learn Japanese for Students and Professionals (Volume 1)" which is a bit easier. I made flashcards, but no sooner than finishing them, I realized that I had already learned them all and the flashcards were useless. I'm still not very good at writing ki き, sa さ, and chi ち. I just can't seem to get the bottom loop perfect. For a while I was over doing ma ま by making the loop look like o お but my sister caught me on it and I've stopped doing it. I've started using My Japanese Coach which I'm hoping will help me with my penmanship.

Sentence structure is different compared to English, for instance;

Ringo wa akai (りんごはあかい) Apple is red or Apples are Red (I'm not up to plurals yet) ko sa do a!

However swap wa with no and suddenly Red Apples! Not really. It's like Tomodachi no Mahou, which is Friend(ship) is Magic! Yes, I watch children's cartoons in Japanese. Anime's keep dropping complicated sentence structure that I'm not used to yet. Such as dropping the topic from sentences about the same topic.

For asking questions, you use Ka at the end of a sentence. Ringo wa akai ka. Is the apple red?

When you see wa わ, I'm using the sound. It uses the symbol for ha は. I'm not sure why as of yet though I'm sure it'll be explained later on. I'm looking forward to go ご.

What makes it weird is that books either assume that I've learned both Hiragana and Katakana, or that I haven't. This leads to a book either jumping right into full blown Kana which is a bit over whelming at first, or using Romanji and driving me up a wall once I'm used to using Kana. The hybrid kana/English stuff is just weird.

One Kanji I picked up almost immediately was watashi 私 (わたし) which means I or myself, polite. I've picked a few more up while translating some easy manga.

Nani, and Nan for What. Nan desu ka. Read as Nan des ka since the u is dropped from desu. This translates as What is it? Nani is a flat What?

My sister is also learning Japanese which is helping. We foil our knowledge and while I'm way ahead of her, it's still fun and keeps me interested.

Now I'm moving to some games so I can get used to reading it without translating it to English in my head.

Edit: I suggest getting a dictionary. I have both a physical one and I use zkanji. I can't get zkanji to update it's library. It just hangs. But it's a fine tool for looking Kanji and other words words up.

 

[Angely]

@Kayot Goodluck learning Japanese! I can understand spoken Japanese better than reading it, eventhough I can read hiragana & some Katakana (I need to relearn some of them again & yes I also wished I learned them first at some point, because of games etc.) & Kanji (my personal nightmare as I can't look them up easily when seeing them unlike kana).

It's very tiring because Katana & Kanji often throw me off.xD I sadly can't spell nor speak my complete vocabulary yet, nor create sentences easily. I can translate things from Japanese to English & other languages I'm fluent in more easily though & correct some fantranslations because of my own comprehension.xD

Btw. what you called Japanese cartoon is also called anime in Japan. There's no shame in watching anime aimed at kids as they're easier to understand & follow + it's fun eventhough some characters can seem childish later or depending on the anime, but that's probably how it's meant to be for some hahaha. You can watch anime aimed at older people too, as a lots of words & lines are the same unless it's heavy technical, sf, fantasy, historical, slangs etc. You'll start to understand more & more after hearing same words & questions. Don't let difficulty barrier refrain you from watching! Also be careful with anime as you learn things they consider rude things & would never say normally or are very offensive or non-existent/fictional words they have in manga/books too. So watching drama/news listenening radio might be better if you want more actual sentences later on. As in anime etc. you have also dialects mixed in like Kansai-bann (dialect). Words like Arimasen spoken Arimahen, seya na.(sou desu ne., not sure if I spelled
it well) often used by some characters. Ni no kuni is a nice game with such examples, there's dialect spoken by drippy. I found hard to play on 3DSXL, because furigana were too small.xD & if you don't know much about dialects it can confuse you if you hear something differently than how it's written in standard Japanese or in dialect form.

Ringo ha aka(i) desu= (the depending on context) Apple is red (confirmative, for confirming a question/statement etc. regarding a "red"apple)
Akai ringo desu = Red apple (desu is to state the apple is red)
Kono akai ringo= This red apple
Kono ringo ha akai desu= This apple is red
Akatsuki no Ringo= The red apple

As you see colors can make things very complicated in Japanese. xD aka, akai, akaku, akatsuki can all mean red but context you use them in are different.

Also when questioning try not to leave out, Kore, Ano,Are, Sore, Kono, ga, ka, desu etc. They're very important as not to sound weird or telling what kind of question it is, not using them can make the question confusing & don't forget (?) either or it can be seen as statement etc. depending on your wording.
Is the/this etc. apple red?Kono etc. Ringo ha aka(i) etc. desu ga/ka? depending on context/type of question. Often they start with This that, Is, Are etc. (lots of forms of those words or ways to say those words in Japanese) or even with subject/object at the start of a sentence.

Ofcourse not all questions use ka? The u in desu can be heard it's very soft they don't really drop it completely like with tu/tsu (t is silent depending on words). With Nani they don't always keep the i silent for example l like in what to do? Nani wo suru/Nani o suru? なにをする? or simply Nani? What? Nande?Why? Dousite/Doshite? Why?Dou suru?What to do? they can all mean same depending context & use of words like anata etc. (you)

Tomodati (tomodachi) no Mahou= The magic of friendship if it was Tomodati ha (wa) Mahou then it'd be Friendship is Magic. In this case.

I learned to write romazi (romaji) like this from a Japanese friend as they write romaji how you input/read it japanese not how it's written in english, that can be confusing for some words & why romazi is so confusing & hard later ん=nn/n depending on word like sensei or when trying to spell English loanwords using katakana etc.

Nani desu ka?= What's up? etc. while Are/Sore ha nan desu ka?= What's that?/What's up with that?

This is why I find Japanese complicated sometimes. Some words can change the context a lot depending how you use them.

Dakuten ゛& Handakuten゜if you ever have a kana keyboard without those signs you can type those words to get what you need to type words like

Also haは & wa わboth sound written as wa in english, but their meaning & use is different as ha means is, am etc. depending on the context.While わ is the wa from watashi = I
that'swhy you don't write hatasi (hatashi) haはたしは but watasi(watashi) ha わたしは.
The same goes with o (お) & wo (を). Some people mix them up. Ore/おれ o を nameb

Also about consonant tu (tsu)つ is different that っこ while typing double consonant you don't type tu but just type double kk, tt or etc. you will automatically get when you get the small tsu. Some beginners confuse those. The same with ti(chi) /zi(ji)/じ especially zyaじゃ zyoじょ じゅetc. can be confusing as some people use やよ & ゆ instead of typing zya they type ziyaじや,ziyo じよ,ziyuじゆ etc. ゆうき

Also things like yuki= snow ゆき/ユキ & yuuki = courage ゆうき/ユーキ(Yūki) so spelling can make things confusing because for example long vowels sometimes you use ー(dash) oba-san(obasan)/おばさん(aunt) & obaa-san/おばーさん(grandma) that for both hiragana & katakana & sometimes it's only in katakana simply because of spelling rules.(It's also why I have a very hard time with spelling sometimes) In english they use - for words while they don't use - to seperate for example -san etc. in Japanese.

A lot people get confused while typing/reading romaji because of this my Japanese friend doesn't get the english spelling it's very confusing & hard when he has to read it. Some people argue about spelling with Japanese because of this, telling them that's not how you write it, while it's not wrong. Words like Tokyo my friend write Touhou in romaji. This is also why Kanji exists.

Hope I helped you understand it a bit better. I'm also still learning, so I could've made some mistakes in my explanations.

 

[Kayot]

I've been using AnkiDroid to learn more words. I tried to use a preexisting deck, but the thing assumed that I was already fluent. End result, I'm making my own cards. They have common phrases as well, such as ありがと, こんにちわ, and おはよう. Sentence structure is where I'm at right now in my books. I'm going to avoid audio until I feel confident with written. Granted, I'm already half translating anime's that I watch. Every now and then I just know what they're saying and it's definitely a weird sensation.

I agree that early on my biggest problems was using an English keyboard to input Japanese 日本, but then I figured out that to input small tsu, I just had to write the double consonance. You've pointed this out already. It was big when I stumbled on it by accident when I double typed a t when writing a word. I'm also trying to memorize certain words specifically so I can get their symbols, such as stars ほし ★. To get small ya, yu, and yo, was a lot easier since it's part of the combination. TENTEN and MARU are just parts of letters so that never came up.

When it comes to Anime and Manga, I usually just call them Cartoons and Comics. It serves two purposes. It illustrates what I'm talking about to normal people as well as upsetting the extreme オタク. I just love ruffling their feathers. I also purposely mispronounce certain words like Inu (I pronounce it like 'In•You' instead of 'Ee•New') and Neko (I pronounce it like Knee•Co instead of Neh•co). There's a group of people that take speaking Japanese way to serious. They're the same people that insult game translations because of censorship policies. I'm more pissed that the import changes the character designs or removes quests due to 'sensitivity' issues. Once I get a bit more proficient, I play to play Bravely Default, first in English then in 日本 just so I can fully enjoy the game.

One of my main reasons to learn Nippon is so I can enjoy un-imported games and untranslated cartoons. I've noticed that a whole bunch of the Anime I've been getting is actually hard subbed. Thankfully there are release groups that only release high quality raws. I don't plan on doing translations, mainly because it's time consuming and the whole reason I'm learning the language is so I don't have to use subtitles or wait for translations. It's the same reason I learned to program. I needed things I couldn't easily get so I learned to make them myself. I always hated it when someone would say, "Learn to program and maybe we'll be faster" when someone would ask for an ETA. We get it, it's hard, no need to be a dick about it. Thankfully this internet mentality has been tapering off over the years. Maybe someday I might do translations. Nothing ambitious mind you.

I don't have any Japanese friends, so I'm going to be learning it mostly alone. The good news is, I have absolutely no plans of ever traveling to Japan. I know my local laws and I don't know theirs. That's just asking for trouble. Plus I don't want to be THAT filthy American that reminds them of what ever issues they're having at the moment or in the past. Plus, I can't pack weapons (typically one concealable gun and two small knives) due to Japanese laws and my gear is kind of a security blanket. I've never had to draw them, but damn if it doesn't make me feel safe. I've peacefully defused intense situations through sheer confidence given to me by my possession. I wouldn't of been able to do it otherwise. So, lots of reasons to just stay home. I'm sure the average Japanese citizen would agree with my logic.

 

[Angely]

Lol, so you're judging, bothering & trying to mess/ annoy people that seriously want a good translation or try not to be rude or respectful while speaking a language that's not their native language? Sure some go far by criticizing a translation. But some of those people put effort in learning just like you, but for even more years & see their favourite title they paid for to support the industry get an low quality translation, bad localization, censored or worse totally changed compared to the original while it could've been avoided. They're often pissed about any unreasonable change not only the translation. It's just like how you feel about quest etc. being taken out to suit some westerners that don't even play,read etc., it happens with translation too, but much more than you think! That'swhy they criticize or even make fantranslations if possible, if they don't it won't be known either!

It's also the, disappointment, disonance or annoyance that someone that fluently understands a language feels, especially when it is supposed to be translated by professionals that studied & are fluent in the language. It also gives a bad impression of professionals here in the west/anywhere else that do their job well & take it seriously. So often it's also those people that give the most harsh criticism, not only the fans.

You're learning Japanese niw, but you're also dependant on other people's work too to learn it properly, so you should at least understand why some people get upset if you don't think about that & mock them etc. for taking it seriously & being grateful etc. If you're not careful you can misunderstand a lot due mistranslation & that'swhy most people take it seriously. Not saying you can't joke around, but please be careful & try not to misunderstand people's intentions. As you can get in a fight with a fluent english speaking Japanese otaku, because of mistranslation. They can also get upset seeing the translation being totally off, compared to the original!

I'm a "otaku" too, but don't mind seeing anime/manga being called cartoon/comics by some people that don't know they're called like that in Japan/Asia.

Just wanted point out that'show japanese call all cartoons & comics. 1of my Japanese friends likes US/western made cartoons & some games. He actually calls them anime most of the time at the beginning, but he learned they're called cartoon in the West, so he calls it cartoons now or he just uses the name of the series/show...xD Lol, we're actually complete opposites, when it comes to that sometimes.xD

Often english or people that grew up with both Western & Asian animation/comics, when you mention cartoons or comics they asosciate that with western made artist or company's like Warner bros, Disney etc. That'swhy fans of Asian animation & comics can get upset, because they might not have interest in the Western Cartoons/Comics. On the otherhand fans of cartoons also might feel upset seeing cartoons/comics being called anime/manga. Hence the otaku/fans you mentioned try to keep them seperate to avoid conflicts. So it's not only extreme otaku that do this! Also western otaku can't be compared to Japanese otaku's they're totally different in most cases, with Japanese being the extreme ones while western can barely pass as otaku there. Please be careful with mocking/stirring up people like that, some are really crazy!xD Not all otaku like anime/games/manga!Don't forget there're also the Novels & Lightnovels (that sometimes get adapted into anime/manga/manhua)

Also the US army has a base there, they're used more to US people than other people & some go to US frequently too. They don't care unless you try yo insult them or threaten them or are rude on purpose.Yeah, probably no one carries a knife there for selfdefense, let a alone a gun, that's indeed typically US. o.o There hardly such things like in US, only maybe if you truly seriously try mess with Yakuza or delinquents, which barely anyone does over there? Police will look them up too if caught with weapon etc.!

It's one of most peaceful countries on this planet it's safer to go there than to some parts in Europe.xD Even bycicles are often not locked & primary kids can travel alone there in Tokyo I saw it on YouTube, also read about & asked one of my Japanese friends about it (apparently it's that safe there o.o).

Most of them don't like unnecessary violence or problems, hence they try to be polite in both speaking & action in public. I think they even banned war by law + some dislike/hate Korean & Chinese people much more than US people!

Earthquakes & Tsunami's, which imho much more scary reason for to me to not go there than fear of criminals/being assaulted as most Japanese people aren't allowed to carry weapons either. I want to go there someday if I ever get the chance & money.I find earthquakes etc. incredibly scary, we had a very very small one here where I live & it scared the hell out of me. In my country weapons not allowed either, so I'm used to wandering unarmed/armed with deospray as a woman as even pepperspray's illegal here. xD

So if you ever change your mind & want to visit there you can go unarmed etc., but don't expect that most of them can speak proper english to you! Speaking Japanese gets you further there. Also if you have tattoo's try to hide them as there stereotyped/associated with Yakuza/delinquents! Some bathouses prohibits people with tattoo's from entering.

The handakuten & dakuten used in the TENTEN/MARU was for example a phone or any Japanese kana only keyboards on smartphones don't have it (auto tenten/maru) support & maybe in some old games?(idk) I only remember using a kana keyboard that on my phone & maybe also a game that didn't have it.

 

[Deleted member 412537]

I took the easy way out by buying one from Japan.
Just make sure to have fun like usual or else its gonna feel like an eternal chore.