Need help translating part of video game (Secret of Mana)

[Lachdahnan]

Im learning Japanese and love video games. So why not do a little of both? I know this is not the best method for learning japanese but it helps keep me interested.
My goal is to try to decrypt and learn 1 speech bubble per day. I run the game in both english and japanese, the english version is to help me make sure I am translating it properly or close enough.
I started yesterday and it was going fine until today. Here is what I have so far.

JAPANESE GAME
(Speech 1)
あんだい(my characters name)の グズ！
ボヤボヤしてたら 見つかって、
村長に またおこられるぞ！
(Speech 2)
そうだよ。 村のおきてじゃ,
ここにきちゃ いけないんだぜ。
何でも、オバケがでるとか。。

MY TRANSLATION
(Speech 1)
Andai you clumsy.
careless you are be found
village elder again be angry
(Speech 2)
Yeah. Village the law is,
here *not sure about the rest of this line*
*have not attempted this line yet*

ENGLISH GAME
(Speech 1)
Shh! Be quiet!
The elder will find us
here and he will be mad!
(Speech 2)
Yeah. We're not
supposed to be here.
There's a ghost around!

So I am stuck on the lines "ここにきちゃ いけないんだぜ". The most I have so far is that ここ can mean "here" or "this place" and いけない means "bad".
I can't seem to figure out what the にきちゃand んだぜ parts mean.
Here is a little background on what I know of the japanese language and the resources I use to help me learn and find definitions.
I know full hiragana and katakana and a very very small amount of kanji.
いけない - Wiktionary
Free Online Bidirectional English-Japanese Dictionary
Find kanji - Denshi Jisho
Jslang.com - The World's Largest Japanese Slang Database for slang words)
Any help is welcome.
Thanks

 

[Mike Cash]

So you haven't learned standard Japanese yet, but expect to be able to figure out highly colloquial stuff like this?

Why not put your time and effort toward some productive Japanese study?

But here you go:

ここにきちゃ = ここにきては
んだぜ = のだぜ

Now we just have to teach you the て form of verbs, the universally puzzling のだ, that ぜ is a sentence-ending particle, the function of に, then go back to the parts you think you managed to translate by substituting words out of a dictionary and teach you the past progressive ～ていた and conditional ら and how not recognizing them caused you to mistranslate it, at well as cover the passive tense of verbs so you can see how you mistranslated おこられる as おこる.....then we should be just about all set.

Attempting to decode (what you're doing is not "reading" by any stretch of the imagination) stuff like this is an exercise in futility. It makes as much sense as saying, "I have decided to rebuild my automatic transmission....blindfolded, with one hand tied behind me, and using just a Swiss Army knife with half the blades missing." You'll get about as far learning Japanese with this method as the guy rebuilding the transmission would get. Waste your time all you want, but don't be surprised if very few people here decide to waste their time answering your questions. Basically what you're asking is for us to write up individualized lessons, totally out of any sense of logical order, for your sole benefit....when all of what you need to know in order to do this already exists in countless textbooks and guides.

Seriously....we're very happy to help with answering Japanese language learning questions and we'll be very happy to help you with reasonable stuff....but this exercise in futility and frustration you're embarking on doesn't fall under the heading of "reasonable".

Now, I realize full well that you and probably half the people who read this are going to think me a total jerk for what I have said here. That's fine; I'm used to it......But before you decide how big a jerk I am, why don't you wait and see just how long you manage to keep up this little project and how much you actually effectively learn from it.

Please, please, please consider buying a proper textbook and learning the basics of standard Japanese before you dive headfirst into the deep end. You'll have better results in the long run.

 

[Lachdahnan]

No problem. I use the internet often so I have a lot experience dealing with jerks.

Looks like I'm going to go back to learning the proper way.

Thanks for the help

 

[Mike Cash]

It's boring at first; there's no denying it. But it is the best course to take.

Don't give up hope, though, or judge the entire site by me. Somebody is almost certain to come along and take a crack at the game stuff for you.

 

[Toritoribe]

Somebody is almost certain to come along and take a crack at the game stuff for you.

Just like me?


～てはいけない is an expresson for "must not".
Using 「だめ」, 「いけない」, and 「ならない」 for things that must not be done
Expressing "must" or "have to" | Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese

ん in んだ is the explanatory の/ん.
The 「の」 particle as explanation
Noun-related Particles | Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese

ぜ is a manly way of saying よ.
「よ」 sentence ending
Adverbs and Sentence-ending particles | Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
Gender-specific sentence-ending particles
Review and more sentence-ending particles | Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese

 

[nekojita]

Games can be fun, but really you want to be doing contextual reading with them ( ESL Reading Lesson - Using Context for Reading Literacy - this is about English but applies generally to any foreign language learning).

If you sit there trying to understand every bit of speech - let alone translate it into something resembling natural English - you'll never finish the game. Also, you can't trust that the English version literally translates the Japanese; in your example, the English version drops "村のおきて" (probably because a direct translation would be too clunky; they might also have character limits to stick to or something).

A good word to know for anybody who is interested in games: 攻略, or walkthrough. Instead of trying to play the game and translate as you go, google the Japanese name of the game + 攻略 (should get you to a site like this: 聖剣伝説2 攻略 ). Then use that to learn the basic vocabulary - it's easier via that way as you can copy/paste - and look up things you need help with. Explanations in the walkthrough sites also have the advantage of generally being written in more straightforward language compared to dialogue. You'll still need to study, but a site like that will make better practice material then the game itself.

When you play the game, just play. Don't worry about the meaning of every little thing, do make a mental note if there's a word or phrase that makes you think "if I knew what that meant then everything else would make a lot more sense" or "I keep seeing that word, what did it mean again?".

If you're really patient, you could always play the game through in English (so you know the story and generally how things go), and then have a go at it in Japanese.

The good news is that if you play several games in the same genre, then you'll find a lot of repeating vocab. There's only so many ways to say "attack" "defend" "heal" and "you can't get to RandomVille until somebody fixes that bridge".

 

[Lachdahnan]

@Toritoribe
Thanks for clearing that up for me BTW the you linked is great. Ive been going through and following his tutorials. I started from the beginning to make sure I didnt miss anything important.

Thanks

@nekojita
I have actually played through this particular game before and loved it. If you like games you should try it
I noticed what you said about only so many ways to say certain things. I was toying around with a few different RPGs and saw a lot of the same words used for the menus and options.
I think the walk through method is a good idea as well ty