Yman

Since I started playing those Japanese language learning games I posted about before, I gradually got sucked into going all-in on trying to learn Japanese. To that end I started playing language-learning games, reading books about Japanese, and immersing with podcasts and anime. I've tried learning Japanese in the past, and at one time I even had a streak of over 50 days on DuoLingo, but I never got the results I wanted, and it never lasted. I always felt like I hardly made any progress and lost interest after a short amount of time. The many years that I spent watching anime didn't help much. I developed a bit of an ear for Japanese and picked up a few words and phrases, but that's it. This time I'm determined that it should be different, using an "all of the above" approach to how I'm going to acquire this language. Apps Here's a rundown of apps I've tried and abandoned: Bunpo, LingoDeer, Mondly These apps are similar to DuoLingo, but only a few ...

Following the previous game review, I bought several Japanese language-learning games on Steam and tried out a few of them. The one I ended up sticking with the most is Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle. It's a cute game with mechanics that remind me of Chrono Trigger. When navigating the world map or inside a specific region, the player has a top-down view of the world and his character. Battles are turn-based with a side view. The story of the game is that an evil Japanese wizard has come to conquer your country by using Japanese-based magic, and the only way to counter this magic is by using Japanese yourself. A Japanese emissary teaches you the language, guides you on your journey, and fights as part of your team of four. The main challenge comes from fighting the Hiragana warriors, enemies that are characters in the Japanese. They are everywhere and you keep bumping into them, and the only way to damage them is by saying which character they are. That is the main dif...

Islamo-Nazis in Samaria prostrating in front of Israeli soldiers   As anyone with at least two brain cells to rub together knows, The Gaza Strip is a colony of about 2 million Hitlers stuck in the middle of the Jewish homeland. Any leader who isn't suicidal would make it his priority to remove this threat as soon as possible, knowing that if he didn't, sooner rather than later the horrific atrocities of October 7 would be repeated. And yet, the Israeli leadership has instead opted for a hostage deal, agreeing to release dozens of convicted genocidal death-cult maniacs for each civilian or soldier who is released. Worse, it agreed to pause the war for 42 days, a pause which Hamas hopes and reasonably expects will become permanent, until it breaks the ceasefire at its own convenience. Has the Israeli leadership lost its sanity? After over a year of standing up to one of the most anti-Israel US administrations in recent decades, have they lost their nerve in the face of one of the...