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I know that to many Fuwans, the learning of Japanese seems to be a huge hurdle, especially considering how different it is from Western languages. However, there are a few reasons why it can be easier than you think. The Obvious No other language has so much of its media overseas, except maybe English. Moreover, the existence of tens of thousands of episodes of subtitled anime gives a near infinite amount of source material to draw from when learning the spoken language. The Less Obvious Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the average person when learning Japanese is that it is so essentially different from any Western language. However, this can actually be an advantage. For one thing, there is little of the confusion you experience when you encounter similar terms in German, Spanish, or French, which can lead to mispronunciations. Moreover, the fact that the Japanese language is so essentially different from a social linguistics perspective means that if you just take the time to understand why and how the Japanese think differently, the language becomes infinitely easier to grasp. If anything, the fact that there is almost nothing in the way of similarities between the American mentality and the Japanese mentalities makes it easier to consciously shift one's consciousness. Too many Americans, when learning Japanese, make the essential mistake of just assuming the Japanese are thinking the same as they are while speaking a different language (this is common to all Western cultures). Let go of those preconceptions and things will be a lot easier for you. The existence of Kanji also serves to make understanding easier, for those who choose to attack initially from the written perspective. By learning kanji and how it is used to form the Japanese language, one can rapidly increase understanding...if and only if this study of kanji is preceded by an intellectual understanding of grammar. A major difficulty for people who can't comprehend context clues Pseudo-anglicanisms. Basically, these are katakana terms drawn from English or other languages that are not used in the same way as they are in their original language. Most katakana terms are essentially the same as their originals, but ones like マンション (which is basically a certain type of rental apartment) really don't mean the same as their original term. About seventy percent of everyone who tries to learn Japanese never fix their understanding of terms like these, so pay attention to things that you think are used oddly, so you can understand how your initial understanding could be wrong. Internalization This is the most important step of learning Japanese. If you are having to logically consider what particles turn a sentence into and transform Japanese into English to understand it, you will never, ever be fluent. This isn't a joke or an exaggeration. Even if your speech is halting, if your comprehension is accurate without the need to translate in your head, you can be said to be reasonably fluent. The best method to reach this stage isn't reading a textbook (in fact textbook learning just gets in the way of this) is immersion, which basically means giving up your original language for a period of one to three months, immersing yourself only in Japanese media. During this period, you should avoid speaking, thinking, or listening to your native language, if at all possible. If you are in high school, I'd suggest just using your summer break for this. If you are an adult, this is harder. It isn't like you can take a long vacation if you have to work or go to college. However, this is effectively the only method by which you can internalize Japanese without your original language getting in the way of understanding at some point. The only other possible method would be to get work in Japan and just live there for a period of time sufficient to create the same effect. Internalization is really a step you need to take to become permanently fluent in any language, not just Japanese. However, it is particularly effective with Japanese, because the language is so distinct form our own. Note: Basic grammatical understanding must always precede immersion if you want it to be effective.

Ok, this isn't going to be pretty, but here are the results, as promised: 80 responders total. The mean and median age was 20, and the mode was 19. There were 59 males and 8 females, and 13 who were inbetween on a linear binary gender scale. Of those inbetweeners, the mean value was 3.92. The most common first language was english, with 38 counts. It was also the most common second language, with another 38 counts. The missing 4 counts are presumably because of the subtext of the question, meaning while they know enough english to have taken my test, they did not know enough to qualify themselves as fluent. The majority of survey-takers are learning japanese (44), and 63 elected to take the fun page. Now the answers start to get a little fuzzy, since none of these questions are required. Remember, we're starting at 63 total people. The ARRAYFORMULA-INDEX-MATCH-MAX-COUNTIF,COUNTIF (read: mode) VN was Rewrite, however there were 32 unique responses (of 60 total responses). The average willingness to accept a shoddy translation was 2.4, but remember that's on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the minimum. Only a single native english speaker put greater than 3 in the box, and that person was also second languaging in english, so.... Most people took the math question, but only 6 got it correct. FYI, the correct answer was 42. While there were a decent amount of fluent JP speakers, none of them seem follow VN staff. The graphing of everyone's political compass was rather typical of young 20 year olds. Also, all the "extreme" responses (Greater than |5| on any axis) were native english speakers. As for everyone's favourite genre's, of course it's Moege followed by Nakige. "Other" consisted of stuff like a couple "Mystery", a few "Kamige", 2 "Chuunige" and a shitton of blanks, and the graphs "Other" takes those blanks into account. And the driving questions had no conclusive correlations that I bothered to look for, but here's the raw data Oh. And can't forget Shitting Dick Nipples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2plZpgOUkj4 Thank you to submitter number 20, it was entertaining

Good luck to everyone who will be participating. Explanation: Christmas hats :xmas: If any of you will wonder how your logo will look like if used on the forum, download and unpack this. In the unpacked folder, replace the file 1LOGO.png with your own avatar. Use the HTML (.htm) file to see the result.

Choices in visual novels are most of times completely useless, they're too obvious and are just here as a pretext for side routes to exist. I have nothing against routes in VN but my three favorites are kinetic, the story is often a lot more consistent and I read them much quickly because the scenario isn't splitted and something always keeps me in, that's a really strong point. But conventional VNs are also good in their own way. In short I think that characters-driven VN are far more suited to work with choices, even if they're obvious (Comyu,Rewrite and all the Key stuff for example) but it's the opposite if we're talking about story-driven (07th Expansion stuff, Muv-Luv Alternative....) G-Senjou No Maou has plenty of useless choices for instance and the side routes aren't that good imo, even though I totally loved the VN I definitely think it would have been better in kinetic format. The only good use of choices I've seen so far is in Tsukihime and FSN.

I don't know, why do people still pay money for books? What a silly endeavor. The "Kinetic" part merely defines the format, what's important is the content, therefore there can be really good Kinetic Novels just like there can be really bad Visual Novels with choices. You can't really generalize them as good or bad since a format does not affect the content, although you can say if you dislike the format or not and in that regard you're more than welcome to say you prefer a format where you have some control over the story. I personally just feel like they're 2 different ways to read a story.

This time they game me this little guy :'D and lloook who's near him Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddd

My favorites are Symphonic Rain, Rewrite, steins;gate and ever17

All for the Oxford comma.

I'm fairly certain that doing my little sister is illegal

http://youtu.be/3nQNSLB3Lpk

Stolen from Scottsune's personal album

Props to Fiddle for making this thread, and for his avatar, I mean look how much painstaking effort he put into adding that Santa hat

Something like this?

Yup. Season 2 Oscar winner right here for Ren's anime group:

To everyone who is a part of Fuwanovel and its many affiliates, Greetings from Japan, and happy holidays to everyone worldwide! As I sit here in my warm room sipping a glass of hot chocolate while typing this message and listening to soothing Christmas music, I can't help but take the time to write a response to Fuwanovel in regards to the holiday season and what it means to me. As many of you are aware, certain countries around the world recently celebrated Thanksgiving last week, and seeing that I wasn't able to enjoy it with the rest of my family being all the way on the other side of the world, I missed an opportunity to give my thanks to the people and things that mean a lot to me and make a huge impact on my life. Thanksgiving is the time of year for many of us to give thanks and be grateful for the many opportunities that are tossed our way, and whether you are a religious sort or a person who tends to keep to themselves, I feel there is always something in our life we can be thankful for. That being said, I want to do a little something different with this post. Before leaving for Japan, I thanked a lot of you for being supportive and giving me an awesome website with which to be a part of, however this time around I want to thank you in a different way. I want to give thanks this holiday season by sharing in the joy of what makes this website a strong foundation for a very supportive family. Without every single member of this site actively sharing in a passionate genre that many people might think odd in the real world, there wouldn't be a place which we call home. While a lot of us have differing opinions on how this site should be run, what makes a good visual novel a masterpiece, or whether h-scenes are acceptable in a game, our driving passion as a community continues to push us forward. States of limbo, lack of progress, and endless discussion are merely parts of the process for making this website what it is today. And so, I want to stop for a moment and give thanks to the many members here on this site for doing what you do. Thank you to all the fan translators, editors, hackers, and group workers who continue to give this medium life, and who continue to make us happy every single day. To us, translating even 100 lines means the world, and without you, there would be no place to call home. Thank you to every single Japanese enthusiast who understands the language and continues to support the genre and provide us with constant assistance in learning a language that many of us believe makes these stories so much more worth it. Learning a language is never easy for a most people, and your passion and helpful advice continues to motivate us in ways you cannot imagine. Thank you to the staff of Fuwanovel who, through all the shit you get daily from hate messages to reports, continue to trudge through the mess of mud slinging and push this site in the right direction. Being a leader is not easy, and while decisions we or anyone makes are not always worth it or have repercussions later on, your continued strive to do what is right moves us along each and everyday. Thank you to the haters of Fuwanovel who continue to despise this site for what it is. While it isn't in my best interest to address this, without you, this site would not grow from its misdemeanors and strengthen itself with each new mishap. You aren't the most healthy members of Fuwanovel, but you do offer advice that on occasion helps us realize our mistakes and move forward. And finally, thank you to every single member of Fuwanovel who make this genre exactly what it should be: a place to not be afraid to share in something we are all very passionate about. Each and every single 1 of you do your best to contribute what you believe will better this website, and while a lot of the things you accomplish may go unnoticed, the things you do are in no way unappreciated. I myself thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this place so much better. We have our social cliques, but in the end as I have always stated, its the family that counts. You are all different, and you all have ways of making this place better for everyone, but in the end every single member focuses on the love of something we all enjoy. So as we come to a close at the end of the year, take a second to stop and think where you stand on this website today. Remember your 1st post, and remember how you as an individual have grown to feel at home in some way or another. With that, I say happy holidays Fuwanovel, and stay safe this season! In addition... What is Christmas without a special surprise? As Rose pointed out, what's a Ren thread without a giveaway? Well, I had originally wanted to wait a day to add this to the thread as part of a special Christmas surprise, but what the hell. Introducing: OriginalRen's Very Merry Christmas Giveaway! No tricks, no gimmicks, and no special rules for this giveaway. As part of the holiday spirit, all you need to do in order to be included in the random drawing is the following: Celebrate the holiday season by adding a "Santa hat" to your avatar. If it already contains a hat, no worries! For the remainder of the month, keep that spirit strong by making something unique and awesome Post in this thread with your new avatar and state your interest in being apart of the giveaway It's as simple as that! One lucky winner will receive a physical visual novel copy of... Clannad Video: During the cold winter nights, enjoy reading a VN that a lot of you feel has left a good impression on the community. The signups will close next week on Wednesday, December 10th @ 11:59pm JST so make sure you join as soon as possible! Happy holidays once again everyone!

There ain't enough Christmas round these parts. The most Christmasy thing I've seen is that background of the main page that I fear shall crash my browser. Therefore, it's time to get into the Christmas mood (if you know what I mean (I actually mean Christmas mood (how could that even be construed as sexual; I even said "Christmas" (jeez, y'all gotta get your minds out of the gutter)))) with some Santa hats! These Santa hats: Pimp out your avatar. Spread Christmas cheer for all to hear. Are uranium-235 free! Just choose a number from the image below and I'll Santa shizzle up for you. Note that: If your avatar is a gif, it'll obviously be a lot harder to edit, so I'll have to be in a good mood. If you write me a poem about penguins in iambic tetrameter, however, I'll definitely do it. If you want another Santa hat that isn't in the image above (because you don't think my Google image clipart is good enough, you persnicketer), then feel free to post it. I'll have to do editing and stuff, though, so I'd prefer that you choose from the above list. Santa hats don't exactly go perfectly with all avatars, usually because whatever person or thing the avatar contains is too close to the top. For example, see that the hat in mine is slightly cut off. I'll still do my best, however. Don't worry about saving your avatars. I'll save all of your original avatars and then post them another topic after Christmas, assuming that I don't hold them hostage in order to make you swear the pledge to the Oxford comma. EDIT: Whoops, OriginalRen just updated this topic to convince people to add Santa hats to their avatars. I might've screwed everything up, but the Santa distribution shall never cease! -_-

It's that time of the year again, time to come up with new logos for the forum! I'm thinking that the best decision from now on is just to have different logos for each season so 4 contests total per year so that's something you can expect. Let's keep it brief as I'm sure you're familiar with things by now The theme for the second edition will be Winter Simple, straightfoward, can't get any easier. Show that winter and holiday spirit on your logos for a chance to be featured as our forums' logo for the rest of the Winter! Rules (Please read): How to interpret the theme is entirely up to you. All entries must explain why they fit the theme (even if it's something obvious like "there's snowflakes therefore winter"). Entries that fail to explain properly why they fit within the theme will be rejected. OriginalRen, Emi and myself are not allowed to participate in this contest due to winning the previous contest. This becomes null in the next contest. Likewise, the winners of this contest will not be able to participate in the contest immediately after. Only one submission is allowed per user. You may change your logo at any time during the submission phase, just make sure to indicate which is your final version (in case you post more than once) so there's no mistakes. To submit an entry you must post the logo you made in this thread or send it to me via PM if you wish to be anonymous. Entries should be around 354px by 90px and must include the title "Fuwanovel" and the sub-title "Make Visual Novels Popular in the West", but font, styling and design are up to the artist. The logo should have a transparent background, it also must be visible when being used on the layout (black letters would likely not be visible without a colored stroke for example) No porn, sexual acts, genitals, female nipples, or excessive female cleavage If you wish to add (a) character(s) to the logo there is no restriction as far as whether that character comes from a VN/Anime/Manga/etc. or whether it's Male or Female. As long as you think it looks good and doesn't violate previous rules it can be submitted We'll accept entries for 10 days after this post goes up Once 10 days pass we'll make a poll where users can vote on their favorite logos There will be three winners per contest: The "official" winner will be the logo with the most votes, the second winner will be the runner-up in the poll, and the third winner will be chosen by a secret logo council run by Tay We encourage people to be creative and have fun making logos, but all logos -- even if they win the popular vote -- have to be approved by Tay before they'll be displayed on the forums We'll cycle through the logos periodically between contests (including the old stock banner and possibly previous contest winners) Submitting a logo gives us the right to use it forever and ever however we feel like it (*evil laughter*) Logo contests will be held semi-regularly If you wish to use the default font template in your submission we have a sample of it here that you may use, there is no penalty for using it. I'll be in charge of handling the contest so any questions you may have can either be sent via PM to me or be posted here and I'll try to answer as fast as possible. I hope you all have fun in this edition of the Fuwanovel Logo contest. Good luck to all participants

I dont know most the bad endings ive ever seen hold no true value to the main story line and they're usually quiet dumb school days for example the bad endings are completely retarded an over the top

I don't really like it when a VN doesn't have choices, but since there are some good ones that I still think are worth playing, I picked the" They're fun, but I wouldn't play them often" option. It also depends on how the story itself works with the format- Planetarian and Narcissu were great examples of the Kinetic format done right, but I think something like Killer Queen would have really benefited from some choices. So it can either add to the experience or detract from it.

Well that's fine except that immersion is wholly impractical for an adult learner who is not in Japan but who wants to learn to read. And I think the ability to read is what most Fuwalings are interested in. If you have the opportunity to be an exchange student or worker in Japan, then immersion is the way to go. But if you're stuck in the U.S., then the traditional grammar method is the way to go. It requires some geekiness, but it works. It is the way people have learned to read for centuries (even dead languages like Latin). Using a computer analogy, it is simply a bootstrapping process by which you download the assertions and rules into your brain so that your natural language processing can boot up in Japanese instead of English. The comparison with English is a necessary part of this learning process, as you learn about any new thing by discovering how it is the same or different from what you already know. What you already know, you learned by studying English grammar in school. So, first you complete this learning period where you assimilate the basic grammar and some essential vocabulary, and read example dialogs and such with the textbook holding your hand. After that, you are ready to dive into reading for real. Perhaps "dive" is the wrong word here, because it's a more gradual process than that. Here is where the internalization happens that Clephas mentions. As you read, your mind will absorb that subtle language information that isn't part of the textbook rules. It is an important step but it happens automagically. The key to making this happen is to read some every day. Note that reading Japanese for an hour out of a day, and watching a couple of hours of anime, in a day otherwise spent using English can hardly be called "immersion." It is just called "practice." But it will be enough--that is, as long as you didn't skimp on grammar learning and as long as you are satisfied with just reading and not speaking.

Since I almost don't care about choices, all VNs for me are kinect Seriously, I read them for the story, not for choices

I think it depends on the novel itself. Both formats have their strengths, enough so you can't judge a priori whether something is bad or good based on format alone.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome The BETA? About Katawa Shoujo I fell in love with Lilly (yeah not joking she is my ideal girl ) that novel got me depressed for a week or so and no I wasn't ready not even Narcissu got me that bad, I'd really like to play it again but I just can't do it anymore, oh and the music!!! It's just a perfect visual novel.

I realized Fuwa has a lot of table flipping enthusiasts so i decided we need a thread. Post all of your table flipping emoticons and such in here. Here have a guide to report this thread in case you feel the need. https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/7552-how-to-report-threads/ remember fun is a bad thing

I dont know if opinions are welcome, but I really really like this one (except that it doesnt have the Fuwa color scheme). I wouldn't scrap it! Stray Cat, fight!

My favorite romance/slice-of-life manga was Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou (His & Her Circumstances). There's some comedy in it too, mostly in the beginning. ^^ It's about growing up, and accepting yourself, etc. mostly from the heroine's perspective, but it sometimes switches. Crossroad is nice too...

Generally my favorites are anything by type-moon because the sex scenes in game while hilarious seem forced or just poorly written. If you liked steins;gate give Chaos Head a shot although vastly different and CH is for some reason ridiculously hard to find. Ever 17 (and remember and Never) are brilliant games and definitely worth reading. Higurashi and Umineko are wonderful but they may make you think...just don't think too hard (umineko in particular probably has a place in my top 10). If you want gameplay in it then Aselia isn't a bad game to check out. Honestly a lot of good all age titles. I've compiled a list below of some of the better ones out there (not necessarily great maybe more mediocre for some). Either way check review scores, read a description, ask around the forum, or whatever there is quite a bit to choose from. Either way hope this list helps. 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (gameplay and 3DS) Aselia the Eternal (has srpg gameplay) Brass Restoration Chaos;Head (licensed by JAST) Cho Degeki Stryker Da Capo Innocent Finale Dysfunctional Systems Episode 1: Learning to Manage Chaos Ever17: The Out of Infinity Eve Exodux Guilty Series Fate/Stay Night (Realta Nua patch) fault milestone one Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ Hatoful Boyfriend Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Hourglass of Summer (US DVD release) If My Heart Had Wings (technically...) Juniper’s Knot Kanon Katawa Shoujo (H-scenes can be disabled in Options) KIRAKIRA All-Ages Version Koenchu - Tale of the Voice Actress Little Busters! Lonely Yuri Moonshine Narcissu 1st & 2nd Never7: The End of Infinity Paca Plus Paca Plus: Minus Paca Plus: Plus Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (technically you need 3DS) Planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~ Starry☆Sky~in Spring~ Remember11: The Age of Infinity Rewrite Rising Angels Rose Guns Days: Season 1 + 2 Sakura Spirit Steins;Gate Steins;Gate 8-bit ver. Sunrider (free vn you can download) Symphonic Rain True Remembrance Tsukihime (H-scenes can be disabled during installation) Tsukihime Plus-Disc Umineko no Naku Koro ni World End Economica vol.1 Yo-Jin-Bo Coming soon?: WAS- The Hourglass of Lepidoptera Nekopara vol.1 huniepop (more of a dating sim/puzzle game) Grisaia no Kajitsu (if kickstarter succeeds) sword of asumi my little dictator Sierra Ops Starlight Drifter Eden Mahoutsukai no Yoru Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro na- Brighter than Dawning Blue kendo Crush Clannad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdFs0pYD5-0 First Western trailer for Atelier Shallie!

Fix'd.

No today is just the deadline. I'll anounce it soon enough when I stream the Lottery.

It's never too early for a Merry Christmas.

I always thought this one was really cool personally. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28tfVb5H140

Surprised these were not mentioned

I have, it was like getting raped by a cactus. I'm surprised rank 1 isn't a big threat this time around though, i've beaten him by huge margins, feels disappointing

Kirby straight to muthafucking business, putting to shame 99% of harem protags: Also, Shirou best waifu smile:

Nah, Unlimited's good on its own, and there's something to be said for experiencing first hand how Takeru deals with his new reality Besides, it's not like it takes an herculean effort to reach Unlimited, with a walkthrough, you can be done with Extra in an hour or so...

This was a really hard choice for me since I have a long list of favorites, but this is probably my favorite in recent memory, so I'll post it for the time being: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8md9dNe37NU

I was born, and am currently living in the United States at the moment. I hope to change that in a few years since I've been wanting to visit Japan for about three or so years now. Mizuha was my second favorite heroine behind Haru. G-Senjou no Maou is currently my favorite VN out of the admittedly small amount I have read so far... Haru's ending made me cry for a little while... Thank you very much, as you have gone through the trouble of making this for me I shall wear my new Santa Hat with pride.

Maybe not the most fabulous but I loved the op for Ef and how it is different for every episode. You eventually get this one from the last episode.

Yakuza 5 announced for the West. HYPE! Also Street Fighter 5 ps4 and pc exclusive.

This one is rather old. The visuals aren't very appealing but the themes that the OP reflect and the song itself both scream fabulous~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuccKeDW8i4

Thanks Run! I wasn't able to fully comprehend the prizes from the pictures. The 9 minute video sure cleared things up for me though.

I have literally no idea what I'm doing, but I've managed to get this far: What we have now: What I managed after an hour and a half of work: If Ouraibaa wants to send me the Moro script, or even the first 10-15 lines only, I'll see if I can actually edit a few full lines. UPDATE: I think I've figured it out. As I'm not a great programmer, I'd be doing it by hand, which means probably at least a day per route even for the side routes, but I'm willing to give it a go if the team is willing to give me a chance.

It went kind of like this: And then I made an account on Fuwa

It will be interesting to compare Fuwa's membership with Lemma's, although I can probably guess the result there. If anyone's interested, Lemma's survey netted these results - http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26915

I mean, I'm translating porn for free. Pretty sure me not being in my right mind is a prerequisite. Also, this idea that I'm just doing it because I'd be bored otherwise strikes me as silly.

Maan, you all write an awful lot. I have to spend my little free time everyday to keep up with the thread haha, and I think it's going faster and faster these days. Also the translation is still going, I'm still discussing various things with the translator, Kosuna, but his days are very busy so that's quite complicated. I really think that this saying really fit the situation, "slowly but surely" !