A question for Mr.EX about his Japanese

[NeptuneKai]

I've always wondered to what extent do you know Japanese spoken or written. It seems as though you can pronounce Japanese words and you do sing Japanese songs but there are cases when you can’t read certain Kanji etc.So what exactly is the extent of your Japanese knowledge? Can you understand the Japanese version of Dragonball without subtitles?

[VegettoEX]

I've always wondered to what extent do you know Japanese spoken or written. It seems as though you can pronounce Japanese words and you do sing Japanese songs but there are cases when you can’t read certain Kanji etc.So what exactly is the extent of your Japanese knowledge? Can you understand the Japanese version of Dragonball without subtitles?

I briefly took Japanese back in college. I understand how to actually pronounce things (that's basic and doesn't even require knowledge of the language, itself... you simply speak the [romanized] words exactly as they are, with little-to-no-deviation like the horrible inconsistencies we have with the English language). My hiragana and katakana are terribly rusty, but I can get by, especially if Meri and I are both looking at something . I probably remember only a dozen kanji or so ;_;.

I've been watching anime in Japanese for probably 12 years or so, now. Can I watch raw anime fluently? Of course not. Can I watch DBZ raw and more or less understand just about everything? Of course; I've seen it all before, read it all before, etc. DBZ is very different from other series that that respect, since I can piece together the conversations based on the words I hear them speaking along with what I actually know about the context of the conversation.

[NeptuneKai]

I see, thank you for the speedy response. I can actually do the same while watching raw Dragonball most of the time, although I only understand the show's key words such as Sayajin, Namekjin, Son Goku so on and so fourth. Well that’s one piece of curiosity that’s been put to rest, thanks again.