Comments

Connecting With Japanese World of Warcraft Players — 4 Comments

  1. Heyy again!
    I was waiting for your new post.

    I’m very excited to try this, but I better wait a few months until entering in a Japanese Guild. Since I’ve been studying for only 4 months, I feel like I won’t understand most of the things they’re going to say. But until there, I will be practicing a lot, to be prepared to do so in a month or two.
    I know it might be a huge experience to practice Japanese!

    What level would you say is theoretically good enough to enter in a Japanese Guild? I believe I’m currently between level 8 and 10, and I feel like I have a huge gap in vocabulary.

    Thank you again for sharing your experience!

    • Thanks for your interest! =)

      This is something I’ve given a lot of thought to. I’d estimate my level somewhere in the low 30’s right now and it’s quite challenging for me, but part of that is just pushing my limits to try to have more complex discussions. I think you could still have a good experience even at a lower level.

      I’d say that more than vocabulary, the big thing you want to have going into this is a solid handle on grammar. Even with a dictionary to help with unknown words, if you can’t parse the grammar you’re really going to struggle.

      For me, I don’t think I began to truly feel comfortable with grammar until I’d wrestled with J-J for a while. Getting used to the process of explaining things in Japanese builds vital connections that make complex sentences feel way more intuitive. So if I had to give a recommendation, I’d say the point where you start to “get used to” J-J is a great starting point for being able to actively participate in a JP language guild. That probably falls somewhere in the level 20-25 range.

      I will add, though, that many guilds will accept you regardless of your language ability. There’s a guy in my guild who’s still early in his studies, and for now all he does is read chat and try to build up his understanding. I imagine he’ll start to contribute once his abilities grow and he feels more comfortable talking. That’s totally OK to do if it appeals to you =)

      Hope that helps. Good luck in your studies!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>