Tips for Using Japanese Language Only Bodies

[11GTCS]

Anyone on here running a GMx with Japanese as the only language? I got one because the price was too reasonable to balk at, fully expecting a challenge with the more advanced text based features, but I figured I’d see if anyone had any tips for learning the words/dealing with the camera. It’s a pity you can’t reflash them with RoW firmware, they’ve been discontinued long enough now that it’s not like people are trying to grey market them from Japan ?‍

 

[Stanga]

From all the years of reading about this issue on forums I understand that the Japanese language version can't be changed to another language. Some owners have resorted to learning to read Japanese in order to get round the problem.

 

[11GTCS]

From all the years of reading about this issue on forums I understand that the Japanese language version can't be changed to another language. Some owners have resorted to learning to read Japanese in order to get round the problem.

Yeah I knew i couldn’t change it, just figured I’d see if any of those owners who did resort to reading Japanese had any tips ? I don’t really want to learn the entire language

 

[Stanga]

You don't need to learn the entire language, just the info on the screen. One way to do that is to look for one of those apps on Google that can read a text string from another language using the camera,and do a translation of it. I saw someone using an app like that to read a menu in a restaurant. It should work on the lcd screen I reckon.

 

[11GTCS]

You don't need to learn the entire language, just the info on the screen. One way to do that is to look for one of those apps on Google that can read a text string from another language using the camera,and do a translation of it. I saw someone using an app like that to read a menu in a restaurant. It should work on the lcd screen I reckon.

Sorry I wasn’t clear on that. The app is a great idea and exactly what I’ll need in the short term, I just meant, short of rote memorization, i figured I’d see if anyone had found some tools to help them learn photographic words, since obviously something like babble isn’t going focus on photographic words and it’d be faster to have a tool of some kind than to make flash cards for the 100-300 words in the various menus.

 

[Stanga]

You see problems, I see solutions. Imagine if Champollion had not bothered to translate the Rosetta stone by learning to recognise symbols. He didn't use cue cards. After a glass or two of Saki you'll be half way there.

 

[11GTCS]

You see problems, I see solutions. Imagine if Champollion had not bothered to translate the Rosetta stone by learning to recognise symbols. He didn't use cue cards. After a glass or two of Saki you'll be half way there.

Well I’ll happily admit I’m not anywhere near as talented as a professional linguist, and when I took Chinese in high school I had to use cue cards ?

 

[edergira]

You could also try downloading the manual in both English and Japanese and comparing them. If I'm not mistaken, the menus are described there.

 

[11GTCS]

You could also try downloading the manual in both English and Japanese and comparing them. If I'm not mistken, the menus are described there.

Yeah that’s an easy way to decode what’s what, I have a GM1 in English so that’s how I’ve compared so far.

 

[PakkyT]

but I figured I’d see if anyone had any tips for learning the words/dealing with the camera.

Do you have an Android phone? If so download the google translate application. It has a cool feature where you can point the camera at text and get a translation. Great for things like signs in foreign countries, but also seems tailor made for pointing at your camera's menu screen and seeing if it can handle the camera-specific wording.

 

[11GTCS]

Do you have an Android phone? If so download the google translate application. It has a cool feature where you can point the camera at text and get a translation. Great for things like signs in foreign countries, but also seems tailor made for pointing at your camera's menu screen and seeing if it can handle the camera-specific wording.

In the short term that’s definitely the way to go. Even on iPhone that app works great for initial setup. Hopefully eventually I can learn the scripts!

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