7 ms·

Simply changing a game's locale to the target language you are trying to acquire is such an amazing immersion experience with the language -- and this wasn't ev

Simply changing a game's locale to the target language you are trying to acquire is such an amazing immersion experience with the language -- and this wasn't even intended as an educational tool! If playing Skyrim, you hear the target language constantly, utterances are subtitled so written and heard language can reinforce each other, and practically everything you look at is labeled in the target language. Best of all, you needn't feel so bad for spending all that time playing games!

qsort 4y ago
The only reason why I speak English is because I spent my teen years flaming strangers on Slashdot, you insensitive clod.
- jamiek88 4y ago
  I always like reading about, and comments from, ESL people who learned basically Internet English. Subtly different to UK and USA English but comprehensible by all.
  - adeelk93 4y ago
    Subtly different how?
    - qsort 4y ago
      I'm pretty sure even a casual observer could tell I'm not a native speaker given a sufficiently large sample of my writings. GP is right, the correct thing to do is to just embrace that I'll never be as fluent, as natural in English as I am in Italian. Learning English at a relatively young age allowed me to talk to people literally across the ocean. This very conversation we're having right now would have been impossible otherwise. I'm not upset in the slightest. I count my blessings.
    - Hextinium 4y ago
      Internet English has different "regional variety" than real life, for example I have litterally never heard "grok" in real life but I read it here fairly often.
      - egypturnash 4y ago
        "Grok" is not seen very much on the Internet outside of hacker/sci-fi fan circles. And it feels like using it in SF circles is very much marking you as An Old - it comes from Heinlein's "Stranger In A Strange Land", which is not a book that has aged well.
    - barrysteve 4y ago
      The difference isn't all that subtle. Uk and usa english have regional differences in their english that goes beyond putting the 'u' in colour. Emphasis on streams of thinking and constructing sentences in ways that make sense to locals, is different to the formal-ish and almost toneless communication we do online. Internet communication flattens out cultural shortcuts and cultural deepening you can do with fellow speakers in the same nation and locale. Everything has to be expanded out so that you can 'see all the moving parts', whereas local english can be a lot more intuitive and cultural.
- slater 4y ago
  A beowulf cluster of Natalie Portmans eating some hot grits, you say?
thn-gap 4y ago
Guild Wars had the feature of allowing to set a secondary language. This would translate all game text from the main language into the secondary one in real time as long as you hold the given key down. This meant that at any point, you didn't need to fetch a dictionary or translate a word, wasting time and immersion. I'm so sad I haven't found any other game with this feature. I'm trying to play games with another language, and while sometimes it's ok, other times you really need to know the language to understand how understand mechanics that are introduced into the game. City Skylines was a super tough game to play in a learning language, but it would have been a nice learning exercise if I had the above feature.
- lukaszkups 4y ago
  This is really neat feature, I wish all games have such functionality (especially RPGs!)
CapricornNoble 4y ago
I'm trying something similar with Japanese via Ghost of Tsushima (finally started playing it this month). I've lived in Japan 10+ years, only speak conversational Japanese....so far I don't think I've absorbed any linguistic improvements from using the game. I might just need more time with this style of immersion.
- lukaszkups 4y ago
  Totally this. I was never stressed out in terms of English language (I'm from Poland) because I've rarely (never) switched game languages to any other language than English. When I was ~10 years old I've played through whole Final Fantasy 8 which I was obsessed at the time thanks to my older brother with a PAPER dictionary on the desk (I was translating stuff that I didn't understand) and I think that was the most effective way and time when I've learned most of the English language in my life. Now I'm trying to encourage slowly my kids and I switch game languages they play from time to time.
  - nescioquid 4y ago
    That's a neat story! I've read that there is a developmental change that happens in the brain around age 11 that has the effect of "switching off" a child's ability to simply absorb a new language. To the extent that this is true, it is so great that -- from your experience -- videos games could provide enough of an immersive experience for you to rapidly and enduringly acquire a new language. Hope your kids take to it as well!

qsort 4y ago

The only reason why I speak English is because I spent my teen years flaming strangers on Slashdot, you insensitive clod.

jamiek88 4y ago
I always like reading about, and comments from, ESL people who learned basically Internet English. Subtly different to UK and USA English but comprehensible by all.
- adeelk93 4y ago
  Subtly different how?
  - qsort 4y ago
    I'm pretty sure even a casual observer could tell I'm not a native speaker given a sufficiently large sample of my writings. GP is right, the correct thing to do is to just embrace that I'll never be as fluent, as natural in English as I am in Italian. Learning English at a relatively young age allowed me to talk to people literally across the ocean. This very conversation we're having right now would have been impossible otherwise. I'm not upset in the slightest. I count my blessings.
  - Hextinium 4y ago
    Internet English has different "regional variety" than real life, for example I have litterally never heard "grok" in real life but I read it here fairly often.
    - egypturnash 4y ago
      "Grok" is not seen very much on the Internet outside of hacker/sci-fi fan circles. And it feels like using it in SF circles is very much marking you as An Old - it comes from Heinlein's "Stranger In A Strange Land", which is not a book that has aged well.
  - barrysteve 4y ago
    The difference isn't all that subtle. Uk and usa english have regional differences in their english that goes beyond putting the 'u' in colour. Emphasis on streams of thinking and constructing sentences in ways that make sense to locals, is different to the formal-ish and almost toneless communication we do online. Internet communication flattens out cultural shortcuts and cultural deepening you can do with fellow speakers in the same nation and locale. Everything has to be expanded out so that you can 'see all the moving parts', whereas local english can be a lot more intuitive and cultural.
slater 4y ago
A beowulf cluster of Natalie Portmans eating some hot grits, you say?

thn-gap 4y ago

Guild Wars had the feature of allowing to set a secondary language. This would translate all game text from the main language into the secondary one in real time as long as you hold the given key down. This meant that at any point, you didn't need to fetch a dictionary or translate a word, wasting time and immersion. I'm so sad I haven't found any other game with this feature. I'm trying to play games with another language, and while sometimes it's ok, other times you really need to know the language to understand how understand mechanics that are introduced into the game. City Skylines was a super tough game to play in a learning language, but it would have been a nice learning exercise if I had the above feature.

lukaszkups 4y ago
This is really neat feature, I wish all games have such functionality (especially RPGs!)

CapricornNoble 4y ago

I'm trying something similar with Japanese via Ghost of Tsushima (finally started playing it this month). I've lived in Japan 10+ years, only speak conversational Japanese....so far I don't think I've absorbed any linguistic improvements from using the game. I might just need more time with this style of immersion.

lukaszkups 4y ago
Totally this. I was never stressed out in terms of English language (I'm from Poland) because I've rarely (never) switched game languages to any other language than English. When I was ~10 years old I've played through whole Final Fantasy 8 which I was obsessed at the time thanks to my older brother with a PAPER dictionary on the desk (I was translating stuff that I didn't understand) and I think that was the most effective way and time when I've learned most of the English language in my life. Now I'm trying to encourage slowly my kids and I switch game languages they play from time to time.
- nescioquid 4y ago
  That's a neat story! I've read that there is a developmental change that happens in the brain around age 11 that has the effect of "switching off" a child's ability to simply absorb a new language. To the extent that this is true, it is so great that -- from your experience -- videos games could provide enough of an immersive experience for you to rapidly and enduringly acquire a new language. Hope your kids take to it as well!