Yeah. I'm feeling the brokeness already. T_ T

That's good that he's kinda calmed down about it. I hope the same thing happens with my guy. We just won't be getting a joint account right away... >.>

It sounds rather entertaining, those games. I'd probably rather start with one that I don't really know much about I guess. Too bad they don't have like a "My Russian Coach" or something like that. V_V

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It isn't for everyone but I'm personally quite a fan. ^^; But like I said, I usually prefer English dubs myself though most people would criticize me for it. I've never seen a Japanese drama before but I've heard they can be quite interesting.

That's one thing I'm hoping to avoid, student loans. I think I should be ok for now. xD

Haha! Yeah that makes sense. We got a joint account a bit after we got married. So we would get paid in our own separate accounts and then just put money into the joint accounts to pay bills, groceries, etc... It worked pretty well that way I think. :B

Haha. But you said they have German right? Gets it! For Christmas I guess. XD

Yeah I know lots of people that are into anime. A friend of mine used to constantly get me to try to watch some he was watching, but yeah. xD! Yeah I understand that too, about people criticizing for English dubs. I say "PSH!" :P
The one I was watching is called "Tokyo Dogs." It's like a crime/police type drama and it was pretty funny. xD!

That sound like a good way to do it, the joint account the way you used it. I'm not sure if we'll do that but I'll keep it in mind.

I just looked up, there isn't a German coach game, otherwise I'd as for it for Christmas. T_ T

Hm, I haven't heard of that one. There are so many now! I like the dubs because I'd rather focus on the art of the anime rather than reading the whole time. And usually the dubs really aren't as bad as people make them out to be.

Lawl. Well, it's just an idea. :)

Whaaat?! D: Phooey. I don't know what other ones there are besides French and Japanese. XD Spanish, I'm assuming, but eh, not exciting to me.

Haha! I can imagine. I don't think I'm much of a drama person either; so it's still a bit hard for me to get into but at least it's real people talking (hopefully) normally. And I agree, people seem to think so badly of them. And yeah, when you sit there and read stuff all the time, you can miss out. XD I just base what language I watch stuff in on how it sounds to me usually. :P

Yeah, it's something to think about when we get to that point. ^^;

There's French, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese from what I saw online. I swear there was an Italian one too though...

I dunno where you'd really be able to watch those dramas though... Do you just find them online? Sometimes I watch Japanese game shows and stuff on the G4 channel. That's always another option for real life Japanese.

Hmm. I feel like there's more than that too.

Yeah I watch them online. I forget from where since it's been so long. XD
What's the G4 channel?

They might come out with more later too, we'll just have to wait and see. I also hear rumors of like intermediate level games that would be like a sequel.

G4 is just a TV channel... Depending on your TV provider you may or may not have it. It has some interesting programs but for the most part I don't like what they play. It's just a few Japanese shows that I like to watch like Ninja Warrior and Ultimate Banzuke.

allo allo
You are both looking very cute in your new outfits!

Zig, I'd forgotten that we graduated at the same time. I am not enjoying the loans either. D:

I'm glad to hear that the Harry Potter movie was good. Those DS language games sound quite interesting, even with the limited selection. Has the Japanese one been very helpful for you, IkuAki?
I should very much like to own a DS if they didn't cost so much... have either of you played the Professor Layton games? My brother has the Curious Village, which I borrowed and found addictive in the extreme.

(Dubbed anime are definitely the way to go. I started rewatching HunterxHunter dubbed, and even though I read pretty fast, I was astonished by how much of the art I'd missed out on by watching the subbed version.)

@Zig: Intermediate games would be nice. (Not that I'm anywhere near that level.. xD)
Ah, I see. Yeeah, there's nothing like that here. :( Booo~

@Robard: Thanks. :D
The Japanese DS game is fine. I'm not too far along in it, but it has been helpful. :) I just have so many other study items that I use, that I can't really narrow my experience down to just one of them. xD But I do use it, and I do like it.
My husband loooves those games. He has both of them and enjoyed them. I tried it a little (by doing the puzzles with him at times) but puzzle games aren't my thing because I kind of suck at them. Lmao.

I think subbed animes are good if you're trying to practice your comprehension in spoken language (if you're into them), but if you're just trying to watch them to watch them and are interested in the story, dubbed is better, for the reasons you mentioned. -nod-

@ Robard: The 3DS, the new version, will be coming out around Easter I think so the price of the older DS should go down then... You can also get them used for cheaper as well. My fiance has played one of the Professor Layton games and likes them but I haven't tried them for myself. I'm also glad there's another fan of dubs around here. ^_^

@ IkuAki: Yeah, what I saw was only rumors but it'd be pretty cool. They'd probably pick up at the level that the first game leaves you off at so as long as you finished the first game I think you'd do okay on an intermediate one.

Aw, that's too bad. You might not have liked them anyway, I really only watch like 3 shows from that channel and even then I only watch those on extremely rare occasions.

I've started keeping a journal in French. It's really good writing practice and kinda a fun idea since I don't have to worry about anyone reading what I wrote. ^^;

Yeah it would be a good idea to start off that way. XD Otherwise it might be weird...

Haha. I think if we switched over to another like.. cable tv provider and then paid more money we could get channels from Japan, but that's a lot of money to watch something I wouldn't understand.. XD! So I'll stick to online. Murrr~

Ooo! That's a good idea. :D I have a Japanese blog, but because I'm so... well, such a newb at it, I don't write much. I should do one in writing though to actually be able to practice the writing part. XD

Well if you already knew quite a bit of the language already you could probably skip to the intermediate game... I mean if there was an advanced one in French I wouldn't play through the first two but just skip to that one because that's the level I'm at.

The channel isn't from Japan. It's just a channel that features some shows from Japan on occasion. Otherwise they show stuff about video games or internet culture and stuff like that.

I kept a blog when I studied abroad but I wrote it in English so my family knew what I was doing. I've been thinking about starting a blog for translation but I haven't gotten around to it yet. It would be good practice for memorizing the alt codes for the accents but at the same time it's good practice for me to do it on paper so I can't just copy and paste in words I look up. ^^; Different methods always have different benefits.

Well yeah, I figured the channel wasn't from Japan, I was saying that's all I really have here as an alternative. XD

A blog for translation? What do you mean?
And yeah.. I figure once I get better, I'll just... start writing more in the language.

Something for you~
I made your head look funny though. xD

Oh, okay. I guess I got confused by your wording. I'm pretty easily confused sometimes. ^^;

Well... I'd like to get into translation so I thought maybe I could make a blog where I post an original text and my translation of it. The only problem is that I can't use copyrighted material so I'll have to either translate my own writings or find some stuff through creative commons.

Aw! I love it! Zig doesn't often get pretty avi arts! *HUGS* I'm going to go put it in my album right away!

Haha. No big deal. XD I may have gotten confused also.

Oooh I see. I know a few people that just blog in one language and either just translate it right there, or keep another blog where they translate it.

D'aww. Thanks. x3

I found this site: Keyhole TV. You can watch Japanese TV online. 8D I had to download the like... player for it, but it's working good for me. :3

That kind of blogging is a good idea too but I was hoping to do some more like... Practice sort of things I would do to translate for jobs rather than just stuff about my personal life or whatever. I think it's harder to translate something that someone else wrote than what you yourself did.

I really want to get a tablet so I can try my hand at doing some avi arts. I suppose I could draw them and do scans of them but my scanner doesn't really work so it would be quite a hassle to have to move files back and forth from my mom's computer all the time.

Hm... I'm not sure if I wanna have to download the player to watch stuff from the site but I'll take a look at it anyway. ^^; Have you watched and shows on it yet?

Oooh yeah. I see what you mean. Hmmm.. maybe you could just find stuff and translate it without posting it. XD Would suck, kind of I guess. =\

Aww. Yeah tablets are nice. I used to use them to draw and doodle, but now I do it with pencil and paper. xD I went back to the old school style. Lawl. But I do like it to color and whatnot. Which I need to do more of. @~@ So far I'm just working on like headshots... I need to work on bodies alooot more. xD

Yeah I can understand that. Lmao. Yes. There are lots of channels on there, but I just watch either TV Asahi, Nihon TV, Fuji TV, and some other one.. XD

Well I also wanted it to be a sort of testament to my ability to translate. If I wanted to show a prospective employer the quality of my translations, I could possibly refer them to my blog. So it would be a way to practice and showcase what I can do.

I've never had a tablet of my own so I'd really like to try one sometime. I used to do all my drawing on pencil and paper but it would be nice to be able to color things digitally. It would go so much smoother with a tablet I feel. Using a mouse is extremely difficult.

Are the shows any good? Can you understand what they're about?

Oooh. That's a neat idea. :O! Maybe if you just do pieces of texts from lots of various works and reference the hell out of it, it'll be ok. XD

Yeah, coloring/drawing and anything like that is really hard with a mouse. @~@
I definitely need more coloring practice. Lmao. I bought a coloring book with like... very nice pictures to practice on, for like.. digital stuff, maybe I'll do that here soon... xD

Um.. I like to think the shows are nice, but I have no idea what they're about. XD! I just keep it on for the noise mainly and to hear the language.

I dunno. That's all rather sketchy, I really don't want to get in trouble posting copyrighted material online or something. T_T

You can also search on deviantart.com for line art and coloring book pages that people allow you to color. If you save images like that to your computer you wouldn't have to scan in coloring book pages to use.

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. The more you hear it the better. Eventually you might start to pick out words here and there as well.

Well I'm sure you could look online for something about it. -nod- :B

Ooh yeah, good idea. :D Thanks. x3

Haha yeah, that's the idea. Some stuff I can pick out or some things I recognize, but I can't make out what they're saying though, usually. XD

Yeah, quite possibly. I should get off my lazy bum and do that sometime.

Yeah, they have a lot of nifty things you can use on deviantart as long as you credit the artist. There are these dolls that I've been saving images of. They're like bald, nude, anime characters that you can use so long as you credit the artist. You can clothe them in your own pixel designs and add backgrounds and stuff. Some of them provide you with parts to change their eyes or poses too. They're quite fun thought I haven't done any drawings with them yet. I'll probably wait until I get a tablet.

I know "wa-ta-shi-wa" from sound though I don't know exactly how it's spelled or written. There's a few words that I've picked up from watching anime but I don't know anything about the grammar structure to be able to form phrases or anything. I have a phrase book but I've never really studied it thoroughly or anything...

Haha. :P

Hmm.. I feel like I should know that, but I don't think I did. XD!
I hate using other people's work though no matter what, just because I feel like I won't credit it correctly or whatever. -shrug- Aww. I hope you gets a tablet. > 3<

Lawl. Yeah, I think a lot of people think Japanese is super hard and are daunted by it because of the 3 "alphabets." Which I kind of agree, it's a bit hard, but honestly after studying Japanese so hardcore and then going back to French for a bit, I really missed Japanese because it just seemed easier. XD! But I'm sure it varies for things. Pronunciation is easy I think for Japanese, French, not so much. @~@ But I'm rambling.

How was your Thanksgiving? :3

I dunno, I don't mind because I just use it for practice and don't post it anywhere so I don't have to worry about crediting it. ^^; I dunno, it'll probably be a while before I get a tablet unless that's what my fiance is sending me for Christmas. I have those student loans to pay for some I'm trying not to spend money on things. Though I will be buying a book. I just realized there's a third book in a series that I didn't know of until now.

There are certain parts about each language that are easier or harder. So one language that is easy in the beginning will likely get harder later on and those languages that are hard in the beginning will get easier later. At least that's what I was told by a language teacher.

Thanksgiving was okay. It was kind of annoying but that's family I guess.

Well you can always hope right? XD
Ooh what series are you reading?

Yeah, I agree. That's what I was trying to say, but went on a rambling instead, lmao. XD

Aww. Did you eat a lot of food? Ours was pretty good. We put our 3 cats in boarding and brought our 2 dogs with us; so my youngest sister-in-law was playing with them like nonstop. It got a tad annoying to me because she kept toting them around like dolls, but they had a chance to get out and roam around; so it was good for them I think, to get played with and all that attention. :P
We have to get our cats today from boarding. I love my cats, but they're a damn handful. I like sitting around not worrying about the house getting torn up. > x>