Video games and learning a language.

[leahcim132]

Do you think it helps to play a video game in a different language? I personally think that it is a good way of learning a language. For example, when I was learning French, I would play video games in French and it actually helped me improve my French!

What do you guys think?

[viciosomundial]

I learnt so many new words with videogames. The situation I can recall the most was from Start Fox: Assault. There is a scene where Wolf tells Fox,   

" Don't hesitate. When the time comes, just act!".

I had no idea what hesitate meant, but after that scene I looked it up and since then I have never forgotten its meaning. This i just one anecdote I remembered, but there are so many words in English that I learnt from videogames. Maybe that was the reason of why my English class was no as difficult for me as it was for my friends 

[Trellum]

Now that I think about it... yeah, I've learnt a couple of words thanks to video games, but sometimes vidoe games can do more harm than good.  Like when I played COC... man, so many misspelled words (I  had subtitles on), they were misspelled on purpose, plus a lot local (and outdated) slang words were used.  If I had been someone who was just starting to learn english, then this video game would have confussed me even more.  I hate it when the developers do that!  Use proper english folks! 

That wasn't the case with other games tho   I actually learnt a lot playing ''American McGee's Alice''.  So many words I didn't even know, if I'm not mistaken ''Myriad'' was one of them  :grin:

[Beverly]

Yes. My brother speaks not a single word of English but he plays DOTA. If you are a fan of DOTA and DOTA2, You'd know there's a bunch of characters selections with a bunch of skills. He had to memorize all of those skills and what they did ,on top of that when he played with people, they communicated in English with him.

He told me he got yelled at a lot at first because he'd have no clue what they were trying to tell him to do but now he got the basic with 'up' 'mid' 'bottom' ,'pull back', 'come here' , etc.

I introduced him to another friend that plays the game so he can talk to him about it or asks questions. I was surprised that he managed to chat with him using GOOGLE translate. I was teasing him how he is a 'pro' now. He'd call him 'hey bro' ,something he had no clue what it even meant before.

[justusforus]

I think video games or music or music videos..anything that keeps your attention and helps you learn the language is a good idea.  I posted on another thread about music and languages.  I believe anything that makes learning fun or memorable is worthwhile, just don't overdo and lose time on legitimate studies.

[Czarownica]

I've learnt a lot of English from video games when I was a child  I remember Roller Coaster Tycoon being really helpful. It's easy to figure out sentences like "Roller Coaster 1 has broken down" if you see that a roller coaster stopped working at the same time the sentence is displayed, for example

[JessiFox]

If you enjoy video games, then I think they can be a great tool to use to help learn a language. I think it's crucial to immerse yourself in the language and culture you're learning about, and what better start than forms of media and entertainment? Video games, TV shows/movies, news and books in other languages are all great tools to be used and readily available.

[lllllllllllllllllllllllll]

Interestingly, computer games, just like other form of media, can contribute in learning a new language. Some of the English words that I don't encounter in English class are often the ones I have learned by playing games. This is why I love playing games with storylines set in Medieval era as I get to encounter old English words and phrases that is not often used nowadays (or maybe still being used in some parts of United Kingdom?).

I also use a method of which I call Immersion Gaming for learning Japanese. It is a method which means playing games exclusively in Japanese. I use flash card tools like Kanjibox to learn katakana, kanij and hiragana in order to converse with NPC (AI characters). By doing this, not only do you learn the character but it also help build up your vocabulary in order to follow the cutscenes. 

[kristinaw]

Video games, like tv or music can always be helpful. there is however, a limit to the vocabulary you may be picking up. It's obviously not going to include everything you need to learn.

[caparica007]

Video games, like tv or music can always be helpful. there is however, a limit to the vocabulary you may be picking up. It's obviously not going to include everything you need to learn.

This is a fact, I was a big video games addict when I was a kid and that has improved my English I am certain of it. TV shows and music do the same, not only in what concerns to the language, but also in terms of general culture. Sometimes we do learn technical or very specific stuff, but it's knowledge either cases.

[Firelily99]

It certainly can't hurt when learning a language and its a fun way to learn.  I haven't played any games in a different language, mainly because I never really thought that it might improve my ability to learn it.  From now on I plan on doing it from time to time.

[marmunmrhundun]

I think it is a great way of learning a new language as well. I mean who does not love playing video games. Not only are video games a fun way of learning a new Language. It will also teach a lot of people at a young age. I mean most of started playing video games when we were about 7.

[Shamde]

I've thought about using anime to help me learn Japanese, but not video games.

It's obvious really! Especially games where you can read at your own pace. I will have to consider looking into some once I have the basics of Japanese down.

[Denis Hard]

Every medium that uses language can be helpful to a learner if you get to know the meanings of the foreign words you encounters so that the more you come across them, you get used to hearing or seeing the words and in the end, you simply know how to use them. However, for some video games that use swear words [and I know a few] I doubt those would be very helpful.

[True2marie]

For children, I think video games are one way to learn a new language. You already see this in animation. "Dora the Explorer" has aided thousands of kids in learning some Spanish.  She set the platform for later  acquisition of this tongue.

[sidney]

Yeah I'm sure it definitely helps you to learn a new language better, similar to listening to a song or watching a movie in another language. I haven't tried playing a video game in another language yet, but I think I might lose the game faster if I couldn't understand what the characters are saying or the texts that are displayed are in another language.

[Aishe]

I think video games or music or music videos..anything that keeps your attention and helps you learn the language is a good idea.  I posted on another thread about music and languages.  I believe anything that makes learning fun or memorable is worthwhile, just don't overdo and lose time on legitimate studies.

Yes, this is true! I remember really liking foreign bands when I was younger and I picked up a lot of basic language from just listening to their songs and reading lyrics.

I used to play a lot of JRPGs and when I ran out of ones that were translated, moved onto the ones that were in the original Japanese. So for that period of my life I picked up a little bit of Japanese as well.

The thing with this is if you don't constantly keep it up it's easy to lose the little things you learnt, which happened with me.

[Lodismel]

I think that anything that involves doing something you enjoy doing and learning is a good idea. It gives you extra motivation for learning when you want to know what is going on in a video game and you don't understand the language. In a way it's similar to immersion. If you switch the video game to a different language and try to understand what is happening without subs it could plausibly have the same effect.

[fredkawig]

I haven't really used video games for language learning although I'm learning new words through playing video games either through the characters or through other circumstances. I usually focus on the gaming part instead of the reading that's why I don't think it would be effective for me to learn another language through video games although I'm going to try it next time.

[Daimashin]

I never thought about using video games to learn a new language but after playing a lot of Japanese games I'm actually able to read some Japanese words like Options, Stereo, Mono, Save and Load, Continue, and other in words in cutscenes.

[Hedonologist]

I imagine the effect is very similar to that of watching TV. Seeing as English speaking natives are rarely if ever exposed to foreign languages on TV, video games may provide one of the best platforms for this sort of immersion.