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Video Games in Foreign Languages


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I think this is as completely off-topic a random thought as you can get.

 

Anyhow, for the past couple of years I've been trying to learn Spanish.  There have been numerous aids.  Rosetta Stone is good.  Talking with a friend whose parents migrated from Mexico helps a lot.  (Why she puts up with me butchering the language I'll never know, bless her heart for it.)  Google Translate is ever a helpful tool.  Also helpful, and a lot of fun, is playing the Spanish version of Pokemon Sapphire.  I've been playing it on and off for about six months now, mostly lugging around my Game Boy to barber shops and doctor's offices, sinking in a few minutes here and there.  I actually prefer it to the English version at this point - I think everything sounds more interesting in Spanish.  Maybe it's the fact I'm translating it badly in my head and my imagination fills in the blanks, I don't know.

 

I was looking through the pile of emulators I have on my computer too.  When poking through some of the SNES ROMs I downloaded, in particular, there were loads and loads of extra files, including some Spanish fan-translations.  Bless the hearts of rabid diehard Nintendo fans.  Right now I'm playing through Mega Man X in Spanish.

 

Now I'm kinda wondering - has anybody else ever tried to learn a language by playing video games in that language?

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Avatar by Nicholas Anderson (NickonAquaMagna)

My blog: The Jaga's Nest

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I think playing - mainly story heavy - games is a fantastic way to learn languages. Thanks to playing a lot of RPGs, my command of the English language is greater than that of my mother tongue, and I've also used games (the criminally underrated Alpha Protocol, for example) to learn languages whenever we moved to a new country. Player agency I think makes it more potent than watching film or TV in the given language, and I'd wholehearted recommend it as a technique to anyone trying to master a language.

 

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Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

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