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Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

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Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#51

Post by morjom »

voidUpdate wrote: post #48

> "...and “Damage” (ダメージ, dameeji) until..." I only have a basic knowledge of Japanese, more from a linguistics standpoint than a language learning standpoint, but it's interesting to me that "dameeji" is written with katakana and sounds like a loanword, instead of sounding more distinct from the English, which I'd expect from a word that has existed for a long time in Japan. Is this because it's more like a game-spe…

dameeji is a loanword, no? I have no ability in japanese but from a quick search 損傷 Sonshō (injury), which includes 傷 Kizu (scratch, wound, scar, weak point, hurt) seems like the words for "Damage" in a transliteration sense.

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#52

Post by ngruhn »

kwar13 wrote: post #44
ngruhn wrote: post #11

Cute premise but reads like a LinkedIn post (or maybe just AI).

Suppose you saw the em dash in the first line and drew that conclusion

No. But I admit I stopped after these:

> actually “owning” a language

> I found my answer in the one thing I had loved for over a decade

> Following is a detailed, step-by-step breakdown of how I did just that

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#53

Post by voidUpdate »

morjom wrote: post #51
voidUpdate wrote: post #48

> "...and “Damage” (ダメージ, dameeji) until..." I only have a basic knowledge of Japanese, more from a linguistics standpoint than a language learning standpoint, but it's interesting to me that "dameeji" is written with katakana and sounds like a loanword, instead of sounding more distinct from the English, which I'd expect from a word that has existed for a long time in Japan. Is this because it's more like a game-spe…

dameeji is a loanword, no? I have no ability in japanese but from a quick search 損傷 Sonshō (injury), which includes 傷 Kizu (scratch, wound, scar, weak point, hurt) seems like the words for "Damage" in a transliteration sense.

I'm just surprised there is no native (non-loanword) word for "damage" in japanese

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#54

Post by jdmoreira »

hnfong wrote: post #33

I have a similar story. Growing up in a place that's mostly not English speaking, I owe a large part of my English vocabulary to Magic the Gathering. Many of the cards use somewhat obscure words to impart a fantasy theme, and I learned them naturally when playing. Cool game. I kind of tried to return to it after like a 2 decade hiatus, but the game these days doesn't feel like the one I played back then.

I recommend you search "Premodern MTG" and "Oldschool 93/94 MTG" ;)

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#55

Post by TheDong »

voidUpdate wrote: post #53
morjom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dameeji is a loanword, no? I have no ability in japanese but from a quick search 損傷 Sonshō (injury), which includes 傷 Kizu (scratch, wound, scar, weak point, hurt) seems like the words for "Damage" in a transliteration sense.

I'm just surprised there is no native (non-loanword) word for "damage" in japanese

There are a ton of words where the loan-word is commonly used even when there's a native word.

For example, there's both "desuku" for desk, and also "tsukue" (the original japanese word). They're both in very common use. The loan-word has an ever-so-slight vibe of a western-style desk, while tsukue has an ever-so-slight vibe of a schoolroom desk.

Languages change over time, and english has had a large influence on Japanese.

Of course there's a word for damage in japanese ("higai" is probably the best fit for Magic), but there's also "dameeji" now, and it feels mildly more western-fantasy like to use it.

There isn't always a logical or obvious reason why a loan-word is used over a native word, as is true for a lot of linguistic changes (like in english, why does someone say "soda" vs "pop", why do some people call it a "pillbug" and some a "rolly-polly"?). Just accept that loan-words are used in some cases, and there's not always a reason other than "people just say it that way".

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#56

Post by voidUpdate »

TheDong wrote: post #55
voidUpdate wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just surprised there is no native (non-loanword) word for "damage" in japanese

There are a ton of words where the loan-word is commonly used even when there's a native word. For example, there's both "desuku" for desk, and also "tsukue" (the original japanese word). They're both in very common use. The loan-word has an ever-so-slight vibe of a western-style desk, while tsukue has an ever-so-slight vibe of a schoolroom desk. Languages change over time, and english has had a large influence on Ja…

I'm happy to accept it, I just didn't expect it. Like I say, I don't know foreign languages enough to speak them or know their culture, I find them interesting from a linguistic point of view. (also its a "soft drink" and a "woodlouse" :P )

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#57

Post by TonyStr »

voidUpdate wrote: post #48

> "...and “Damage” (ダメージ, dameeji) until..." I only have a basic knowledge of Japanese, more from a linguistics standpoint than a language learning standpoint, but it's interesting to me that "dameeji" is written with katakana and sounds like a loanword, instead of sounding more distinct from the English, which I'd expect from a word that has existed for a long time in Japan. Is this because it's more like a game-spe…

Almost every word written in katakana is a loanword, and most of them come from English. There are many different words in Japanese that can be translated to "damage"/"harm"/"injury" etc., but I guess none of them carry the exact connotations that ダメージ does. I've noticed that loan words are very common in Japanese video games, sometimes for words that to me appear to have an exact match in Japanese. I don't know why they do this. There are also some writers that make an effort to avoid loan words and use more traditional Japanese, but this is not so common.

An example which I find amusing is お金ゲット！(okane getto, money get). There are perfectly valid Japanese alternatives to Getto, and to an English speaker, this sentence doesn't even make sense. That's not how "Get" is used in English grammar at all. But in Japanese it's kind of a playful way of saying you acquired something.

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#58

Post by TonyStr »

ngruhn wrote: post #52
kwar13 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose you saw the em dash in the first line and drew that conclusion

No. But I admit I stopped after these: > actually “owning” a language > I found my answer in the one thing I had loved for over a decade > Following is a detailed, step-by-step breakdown of how I did just that

I read the whole thing, but I was questioning whether this was heavily AI-assisted or just very linkedin-coded. For me the biggest AI indicators were "From “arcane” to professional", "The results: From the playmat to the professional world" and your "actually owning a language" example. I can't imagine anyone writing those sentences, even long-time linkedin users.

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#59

Post by TonyStr »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #30
sureMan6 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure an AI write up

You couldnt tell the difference between a LinkedIn writer and a up and AI, they are both comparably generic.

At this point, I assume most LinkedIn users use AI to assist in generating posts anyway, so the distinction kinda becomes pointless. Nobody likes reading AI generated posts, and nobody ever really liked reading LinkedIn posts either.

Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency

#60

Post by gpderetta »

thierrydamiba wrote: post #29
simonjgreen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly AI editorialised. I wonder if this is because English isn’t their first language, and they are confidence compensating. I’ve worked with a lot of folks also from Philippines and the Tagalog/English mix leads to some confidence challenges sometimes.

Recommend everyone take this test: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/09/business/ai-w... You might be surprised…or you might not. I’ve found it’s a good barometer for whether you actually don’t like AI writing or you just don’t like bad AI writing.

It seems I chose AI 5 times out of 5. I'm not a native speaker, so I might have preferred a slightly more straightforward text.

On one side, I think this suffers a lot from selection bias: short AI snippets specifically chosen by humans for their quality and they do not necessarily reflect the average experience of AI text. On the other hand, AI generated text does not preclude human editing.

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