What language is pokemon in, and what would be the best way to learn it?

Question

I have played some Japanese Pokemon games, but i don't understand what the words said. I heard that there are different dialects to the Japanese language and i don't know which one is the one used in the Pokemon Games. Also, what would be the best way to lean that language/Dialect? Any links or book tiltes, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I can almost guarantee that the text of any game (I assume you mean that you are playing a Japanese-language version of the game) would be in Hyoujungo - standard Japanese (also referred to as Kantou-ben or Tokyo-ben if you happen to be from a non-standard Japanese speaking part of Japan, such as the Kansai region). However, dialogue in the game may be written in the dialect spoken by the characters - but as a general rule, the majority of characters in games/movies/shows/etc. tend to speak Hyoujungo, with dialect-speaking characters acting as amusingly "different."

However, the dialects are not terribly different, and the majority of vocabulary is the same - dialects tend to differ in the structure of their conjugations, and some choice phrases and words. However, the language itself is more or less the same. Speakers of Hyoujungo from Tokyo will complain at times that they can't understand speakers from Kansai or Kyuushu, for instance, but this tends to be more of a prejudice against their "different" (and thus, "inferior") mannerisms and ways of speaking and such. As a student of standard Japanese who has studied abroad both in Tokyo, where Hyoujungo is spoken, and Kansai, where the Kansai-dialect is spoken, I found it exceedingly easy to understand my host parents in Kansai (who spoke Kansai-ben through and through) in spite of the fact that my host parents from Tokyo told me it would be hard. In others words, the language really does not vary very much either way.

But to be brief, the game itself is probably mostly in Hyoujungo - and even if some characters speak a dialect, it should be understandable. :)

If you are referring to the names of the characters, I do not know much about Pokemon itself but I would guess most of their names are borrowed from foreign words and "Japanese-ified," thus making them hard to understand to someone who knows only a small amount of Japanese.

Answer 2

Japanese people can't understand each other's dialects for the most part. Thus television programs are usually in Tokyo-ben, sort of the "King's Japanese." My guess is it's Tokyo-ben which is taught what they teach to foreigners in any book you'd buy or class you'd take.