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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| geirtbr Groupie Norway Joined 6592 days ago 83 posts - 90 votes  Speaks: Norwegian* Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 18 02 January 2012 at 7:33pm | IP Logged |
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Im wondering if someone have suggestions on any computer games that can be useful when you learn a language.
I am not thinking of learning software as such, but rather, normal games where you get the ability to use and get exposure to a target language. Something that includes at least some text, and maybe some talk as well. I havent played computer games for a long time, so I dont know so much about how games are on the market now. I presume that games now are usually translated to the major languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mikonai Diglot Senior Member United States weirdnamewriting.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4864 days ago 178 posts - 281 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Swahili, German | Message 2 of 18 02 January 2012 at 9:50pm | IP Logged |
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The "Elder Scrolls" games are translated into five major languages I think. Italian,
Spanish, French, German, English, I think. That could easily be looked up. Morrowind (The third in the series of five) is currently only about $10 on Steam (game store, free download, sells a lot of games and has a lot of sales), and if it's not automatically translated you may be able to find a mod that translates it (I found one for Italian). Russian may not be as common of a language to find games in, but Steam will automatically change the program interface and download language files for what games it can -- sometimes with voiceovers as well if available -- if you change the program's language (you can find that under Settings, User Interface or something like that). At the very least you should be able to get subtitles for most games. If you're curious as to exactly what games are available in your language, I would suggest looking up "Let's Play" videos on Youtube. It's a sort of thing where a person records themselves playing a game and talking about it while they play, and they're another good exercise in language learning if you like watching someone else play video games. But if you find a video for a game and it's in Russian, likely that game is available in Russian as well. The only difficulty there is that it may not be for PC, but maybe some other console (in which case you could look for a ROM in that language). As for game recommendations, the Elder Scrolls games have an open world and therefore a lot of dialogue, but so far as I know there's no voice-acting other than English. There's also the Mass Effect series which has a lot of dialogue (should be on PC), the Legend of Zelda games (console only, but Ocarina of Time is probably translated and you could find a ROM) have a decent amount, maybe Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2). It depends on what sort of games you enjoy playing. RPGs will have the most dialogue, and something that has an open world or a lot of alternate endings (Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls) has quite a bit of exploration and replay value, but adventure games like the Legend of Zelda give you a little more leeway if you don't quite understand what's going on. Shooting games tend to have a little less dialogue, but typically in games currently there's at least some. Strategy games vary pretty widely, and would require good understanding of the rules to play them well, which means quite a bit of reading work before you get to play. Sorry for the really long post! Video games in alternate languages is something I keep investigating, so it's all fresh on my mind. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4986 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 3 of 18 02 January 2012 at 10:16pm | IP Logged |
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Last year I played Pokémon in Spanish using a ROM. Way back in the day, my biggest motivation to learn English was to understand all the dialogues in the game. :P
Tropico is a PC game that has been translated very well into Russian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5946 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 18 02 January 2012 at 10:18pm | IP Logged |
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I'm a fan of "point-and-click adventures" for this purpose. I have a copy of "The Dig" (now there's an old game!) in Italian and the "Runaway" series in Spanish. Point-and-click gives you a lot of time, you can have voice+subtitles (same language), and there's a lot of repetition and formulaic language.
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| geirtbr Groupie Norway Joined 6592 days ago 83 posts - 90 votes Speaks: Norwegian* Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 18 02 January 2012 at 11:38pm | IP Logged |
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Point and click adventures is probably a good idea - I know maniac mansion (a classic of my childhood) is translated to many languages.(Edit: I see this is the ase for many of the old lucasarts adventure games).
I suspect that the online games are best when you are quite good. I dont think i would manage to comprehend oral informal talk until i was intermediate, at least. You who have tried this - do you find it a good method of learning? Opinions on this are also welcome. Edited by geirtbr on 03 January 2012 at 12:12am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| joesoefkalla Newbie Indonesia Joined 4647 days ago 22 posts - 22 votes Studies: English | Message 6 of 18 03 January 2012 at 12:20am | IP Logged |
I consider Rosetta Stone as a game, partially 
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mikonai Diglot Senior Member United States weirdnamewriting.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4864 days ago 178 posts - 281 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Swahili, German | Message 7 of 18 03 January 2012 at 1:08am | IP Logged |
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The only difficulty with me is that sometimes I'm tempted to skim over the text and get
on with the game, so I miss the intricacies of the plot and spend more time playing the game. In short, it's still work, somewhat. I have to be willing to take my time and actually read the text. I have a European copy of "The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons" for Gameboy Color, so it's available in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. There's enough dialogue in it that I run into a decent amount in every play session, but it's interspersed with enough playtime that it's still fun. In the end it might not be the highest quality of learning experience, but I still think it's a fine supplement for language learning, particularly if you can find the discipline to look up words you don't understand and add those to your flashcards and etc. I downloaded Morrowind and a translation patch the other day, but I haven't taken the time to play it much. I'll let you guys know either or on my language log how it goes! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5664 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 8 of 18 03 January 2012 at 5:26pm | IP Logged |
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FreeCol, which is a free downloadable game like Civilization, is a good choice. I'm not a gamer, but I downloaded the game to practice languages.
The game can be played in about 40 or so languages. I'm not sure how the translation works, but if parts of the game haven't been translated into the language yet it appears as English. Link: http://www.freecol.org/download.html 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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