Happy Independence Day Indonesia!

Dirgahayu Republik Indonesia

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan ke - 69

Independence can only be obtained and secured by a nation that has its spirit raging with determination: "independence or death"! - Soekarno

Learn to speak Japanese by playing Minecraft

Kotoba Miners aims to teach through play.

James York, an English teacher and PhD student researching language learning in virtual worlds, is teaching Japanese online by using Minecraft.

The class, which he calls Kotoba Miners, takes place on a dedicated Minecraft server which contains several structures built for different learning activities.

Different buildings off of “University Road” contain different exercises that encourage students to read and and speak Japanese together. For example, in the “Ice Palace,” players must communicate in order navigate a series of pressure plates correctly. If they take a wrong step a trap will activate and kill the player.

York told Tofugu in an interview that he became interested in learning languages in virtual communities when he joined a Japanese World of Warcraft guild in 2006. He started the Minecraft server as a tool to teach English to Japanese students by getting them to interact with English speakers, but when the class ended and the Japanese students left, the English speakers stayed and wanted to learn Japanese.

 

“I experimented with a number of virtual worlds and games as part of my research,” York told Tofugu. “I rejected MMOs for lack of control over content and their often extremely specialized discourse (e.g. ‘Prot Warrior LFG SFK pst’). I also rejected a lot of social worlds (i.e. Second Life) for their painful aesthetics, controls and distance between user and content-creator. Minecraft is simple. Controls, aesthetics, and gameplay. This means that you spend less time learning how to navigate the game and more time learning and focusing on language.”

You can find out more about the class and how to join on Kotoba Miners’ official site.

Alice of Singing Duo ClariS Leaves Unit

Member of duo that performed themes for Oreimo, Madoka Magica, Nisekoi leaves group to focus on studies

 

Sony announced on singing duo ClariS's website on Monday that Alice- one half of the duo- will leave the unit on June 4, when the group's third album "PARTY TIME" (cover seen right) is scheduled to be released.

Alice left a comment on the website, saying that she is leaving the duo in order to focus on her studies. She thanked the fans, the staff, and those related to the group for supporting her for the three-and-a-half years since she debuted. Alice described her experience as a part of ClariS as one of a dream world filled with happiness, and that the experience will be a wonderful treasure for the rest of her life.

The duo ClariS debuted in 2010 as middle-schoolers with their single "irony," which served as the opening theme to the Ore no Imōto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai TV anime. From there, they performed the theme songs for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica TV anime and films, as well as the themes for Moyashimon Returns and Nisemonogatari. ClariS also performed the theme song for the Akiba's Trip PlayStation Portable game. Most recently, the duo provided two theme songs for the Nisekoi anime.

The duo has made one live performance, but they were only visible as silhouettes behind a curtain to their fans during the concert. Instead, ClariS is normally illustrated as anime characters by various artists, including Akio Watanabe, Ume Aoki, and Hiro Kanzaki. Alice is portrayed in the color blue, while Clara is represented by the color pink.

Taiga & Miyuki Join Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax

Dengeki announced on Tuesday that Miyuki Shiba from The irregular at magic high school and Taiga Aisaka from Toradora! will join Sega and ASCII Media Works' arcade fighting game Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax as playable characters this summer. Miyuki's support character will be Tatsuya Shiba and Taiga's support character will be Takasu Ryūji.

Both Miyuki and Taiga will be played by the voice actresses from their respective anime, Saori Hayami and Rie Kugimiya.

Dengeki also added some screenshots: 

The game's current roster of characters includes:

Kirito with Leafa as support (Sword Art Online)

Tomoka Minato with her four teammates as support (Ro-Kyu-Bu!)

Asuna with Leafa as support (Sword Art Online)  

Shana with Wilhelmina as support (Shakugan no Shana)

Mikoto Misaka with Tōma Kamijō as support (A Certain Magical Index)

 Kirino Kōsaka with Kuroneko as support (Oreimo)

Shizuo with Celty as support (Durarara!!)

Kuroyukihime with Haruyuki as support (Accel World)

Other support characters include:

Holo (Spice and Wolf)  

Boogiepop (Boogiepop Phantom)

Sadao Maō (The Devil is a Part-Timer!) 

"Innocent Charm" (Hinata no Maboroshi, voiced by Yui Ogura) from Ro-Kyu-Bu!

Kōko Kaga (Yui Horie) from Golden Time

Kino (Aya Hisakawa instead of Ai Maeda) from Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World

Mashiro Shiina (Ai Kayano) from The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

Erio Tōwa (Asuka Ōgame) from Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl (Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko)

Akira of the Virtua Fighter fighting game appears as a boss, and the game has a Sonic the Hedgehog stage.

Publisher ASCII Media Works and game developer Sega announced Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax, their crossover 2D fighting game, in September at the Tokyo Game Show 2013 event. The game is the fourth collaboration between ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint and Sega, and it marks Dengeki Bunko's 20th anniversary.

The game opened in Japanese arcades earlier this spring.

The Horror Of Spending 33 Hours Trapped On An Airplane

Gizmodo Australia's Luke Hopewell was on a flight from New York to Hong Kong the other day. It should have been a long, but comfortable trip. Instead, it became something out of a survival story. The flight from hell.

Having made 99% of the trip just fine, storms over Hong Kong meant the flight couldn't land at its intended destination, so the pilot figured the next best thing would be to land at a nearby regional airport Zhuhai. It was not.


First, the storms soon hit Zhuhai, meaning the plane couldn't move off the runway. Then the crew hit their limit of hours worked before a mandatory rest period kicked in. Then the Chinese government told them they weren't allowed off the plane, because the regional airport didn't have international customs agents, and it was now night-time, so none could be ferried over from Hong Kong.

The Chinese government refused repeated requests to let them even stretch their legs on the tarmac, and even said no to Cathay Pacific flying in a replacement flight.

By now the plane was out of food, water and auxiliary power, Luke having to subside on a packet of Oreos and a single bottle of water for 16 hours. Also note that the aircraft's garbage bins were by now long overflowing.

Two other things running out were passenger's sanity and fresh air. For an hour the front door was opened to allow the latter in, before the Chinese government ordered it closed again.

Surviving on the aforementioned biscuits, water, iOS games and some Doctor Who, the flight eventually took off in the morning, landing in Hong Kong 33 hours after it had left New York. For their troubles, the passengers were handed a compensatory gift of...USD$130. And a dinner party story for the ages.

The next time you're stuck on a flight, and think a sore butt and bad food are the worst of your problems, remember this.