Last night I read a guide to all the changes made to EarthBound (one of my favourite SNES games of all time) from its original Japanese version, MOTHER 2. It was an amazing experience; I learned the reason for some of the stranger, seemingly out-of-place jokes or lines in the games. After 20 years, I have answers to so many things that I've been wondering. It's such a new look at this yearly adventure that I take. The reason I say "yearly adventure" is because every summer, I start up a new save file of Earthbound and play the game through to the end. It's been a yearly tradition for me since I was in high school! I'm 35 now, so I've been doing this for a long time. Being able to see the game differently and understand why certain jokes are a little puzzling, or certain lines might seem a little 'off', is really quite an exciting feeling.
I'm trying to think of a better word than 'exciting'. Something a little more specific than that. But I'm at a loss! Some writer I am. :P
I'm trying to think of a better word than 'exciting'. Something a little more specific than that. But I'm at a loss! Some writer I am. :P
Anyway, the guide was written by an official translator who actually worked on MOTHER 3. In the guide I was reading, he provided hundreds of screenshots of Japanese dialogue, so I got to read it all! The dialogue in MOTHER 2 is all in kana; you'd think that would make it easier to read, but I find the lack of kanji actually makes it more difficult. I'm sure to a native speaker it's easier this way; I mean, if you think about it, books aimed at small children, for example, are written entirely in kana as they haven't learned kanji yet. But as a non-native speaker who has learned over the years how to read many kanji (and I've got a looong way to go!) and gotten used to seeing them, it's so jarring to see 100% kana all of the sudden, and rather confusing. It actually slowed me down a lot. Sometimes I wasn't sure where a word ended and the next one began, for example. I've gotten so used to kanji being used for most nouns and verb stems, and I find it much easier to read that way. I wonder if native Japanese speakers feel the same.
ANYWAY. I read the entire guide and it took me over 4 hours. It was amazing though. In addition to being able to understand the game and its seemingly random quirkiness better (hmmm...random quirkiness...it's EarthBound. It THRIVES on random quirkiness! But some lines are just TOO quirky and now I know why), I got to practice my Japanese and realize that it's improved even more lately. I understood so many of the jokes in Japanese. For anyone who's reading this who studies other languages--you know how damn exciting it is when you start to understand jokes in another language. Jokes, plays on words, sarcasm, and little nuances...well, all of that occurred last night while I was reading the guide, and it was exciting as hell. I've understood some jokes and plays on words in Japanese for years now, but never so many, all at once, and never at this level. It was super motivating, and it definitely urged me to keep reading through to the end.
What do I mean by nuances? All kinds of little things. For example, I could tell by the way some dialogue was written that it was supposed to be a country bumpkin kind of guy saying it. Or an old man. I could hear people's voices in my head as I read it--I could imagine what the characters' voices would sound like if they were actually speaking. The translator explained all this, but when I turned to read the Japanese myself, I could understand it on my own. I could picture an old man voice, an older lady, a creepy old monster, a mechanical being, etc. The voices jumped out at me off the page, because of the way the Japanese was written. And I understood it. I don't think I would have been able to understand it to this level a few years ago.
Many years ago I was worried I had plateaued in my Japanese, but I've made a lot of progress these past few years. I know this sounds kind of terrible, but while I was sick, I had a lot of free time to do nothing but hang out at home (or at the hospital!), especially while I was neutropenic, during which I was pretty much under house arrest. So I watched a LOT of anime during that time. Like, a lot. Constantly. And I noticed after that time, my Japanese listening started to improve a lot, after it had stagnated for so long. So, as gross as this sounds---silver lining? :O
(Hey, if you can find the good in the bad--it's great, right?)
