English learning from Civfanatics

[BCLG100]

Yep, I find that speaking gibberish whilst gesticulating wildly is the natural Foreign communication style. So when in Rome...

...pretend like you're the guy in the dolmio advert?

 

[Shekwan]

...pretend like you're the guy in the dolmio advert?

The puppets one?

I can never tell what they're on about. May as well be in Foreign.

 

[BCLG100]

The puppets one?

I can never tell what they're on about. May as well be in Foreign.

The 'Dolmio Day' ones, so yeah, the puppets.

I thought that was how Italians spoke? next you'll be telling me the French do not speak like those in 'allo 'allo.

 

[Shekwan]

The 'Dolmio Day' ones, so yeah, the puppets.

I thought that was how Italians spoke? next you'll be telling me the French do not speak like those in 'allo 'allo.

Please don't threaten my established views on the Outside World by suggesting that the our various European "brothers" don't act according to steroetypes.

 

[BCLG100]

Please don't threaten my established views on the Outside World by suggesting that the our various European "brothers" don't act according to steroetypes.

I'm off to have a tea and a scone, enjoy your potato.

 

[scherbchen]

Hi, scherbchen.

Your teaching method sounds good!
Do you think gaming helps language learning? How?
Gameplay itself, or this kind of beyond-game culture?
Do you have any specific example to share with me?
Can you tell me your history? What's your first language? Did gaming help you learn English or other language?

Thanks in advance

heya, thanks for the compliment there.

I believe that gaming can help in learning a language. just install that Dragon Age: Origins and select "English" when it asks you which language to install it in. that, at first, is not going to beat 2 months of studying but every little bit helps. as an added bonus you will learn what a hauberk is, a dirk, a glaive, a destrier (ok there was no destrier in that game but it was just an example), a hound, a bastard sword, etc. now this is not something you need in day-to-day conversations but it is immensely impressive when you use it in a highschool classroom and that can be very motivating.

meta-gaming is even better, let's assume you play WoW. first of all install the client in English and then really get into it if you want to. visit strategy sites, tips on how to spec your character, guides for certain raid bosses. but check some sites in English. you will become more accustomed to how phrases are constructed without having to bother with grammer lessons. put some feedback in even if it starts with "sorry for my bad English but I was wondering".

for me it was, not surprisingly, fantasy in general some 20 years ago when there was no internet. seeing as there were very few fantasy books around I tackled The Lord Of The Rings and for some reason I bought the original and not the translated volume I. the first 200 pages were pure agony but I wanted to read it, paid good money for it after all and it had orcs and elves and dwarves. after a while I just stopped caring if I did not know a word. reread the sentence and sometimes it made sense then. if it didn't, meh, I'd just assume it was elven and carry on

I then got into roleplaying games along with some of my friends and I was the one who was supposed to run the game. we deemed D&D to be lame (big mistake) and decided on Rolemaster which back then was only available in English. read about 20 source books for that so there is some extra practice. then comes file-sharing and tv shows we did not have etc etc.

my first language is German and I was a less than average student in English back in 9th grade. Tolkien turned that around because after you read The Lord Of The Rings in English there really isn't a whole lot that will baffle you. in my early twenties I spent 2 months in Spain in order to learn the language and picked up a game at a local comic book store there that was called Magic: The Gathering. did not quite get it but loved it. went back to Spain some months later in order to spend a year at the university. enrolled in another spanish class but also noticed there was another, similar comic book store close to my appartment. went there to look for a casual game and to learn more. I was very bad for about half a year but I kept on going. made friends. talked incessantly about that game with anybody interested. traded cards, played, attended tournaments. trumped everything I ever learned at the university and it was so much more fun

sorry for the wall of text but you did ask

 

[ryandryu]

I have to echo Godwynn's question and ask - what is your first language, ryandryu? Of course, you don't have to answer if the question makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, just saying.

No problem, Mirc and Godwynn.
My first language is Korean.
I'm interested in and studying language learning based on gaming in US.

 

[ryandryu]

heya, thanks for the compliment there.

I believe that gaming can help in learning a language. just install that Dragon Age: Origins and select "English" when it asks you which language to install it in. that, at first, is not going to beat 2 months of studying but every little bit helps. as an added bonus you will learn what a hauberk is, a dirk, a glaive, a destrier (ok there was no destrier in that game but it was just an example), a hound, a bastard sword, etc. now this is not something you need in day-to-day conversations but it is immensely impressive when you use it in a highschool classroom and that can be very motivating.

meta-gaming is even better, let's assume you play WoW. first of all install the client in English and then really get into it if you want to. visit strategy sites, tips on how to spec your character, guides for certain raid bosses. but check some sites in English. you will become more accustomed to how phrases are constructed without having to bother with grammer lessons. put some feedback in even if it starts with "sorry for my bad English but I was wondering".

for me it was, not surprisingly, fantasy in general some 20 years ago when there was no internet. seeing as there were very few fantasy books around I tackled The Lord Of The Rings and for some reason I bought the original and not the translated volume I. the first 200 pages were pure agony but I wanted to read it, paid good money for it after all and it had orcs and elves and dwarves. after a while I just stopped caring if I did not know a word. reread the sentence and sometimes it made sense then. if it didn't, meh, I'd just assume it was elven and carry on

I then got into roleplaying games along with some of my friends and I was the one who was supposed to run the game. we deemed D&D to be lame (big mistake) and decided on Rolemaster which back then was only available in English. read about 20 source books for that so there is some extra practice. then comes file-sharing and tv shows we did not have etc etc.

my first language is German and I was a less than average student in English back in 9th grade. Tolkien turned that around because after you read The Lord Of The Rings in English there really isn't a whole lot that will baffle you. in my early twenties I spent 2 months in Spain in order to learn the language and picked up a game at a local comic book store there that was called Magic: The Gathering. did not quite get it but loved it. went back to Spain some months later in order to spend a year at the university. enrolled in another spanish class but also noticed there was another, similar comic book store close to my appartment. went there to look for a casual game and to learn more. I was very bad for about half a year but I kept on going. made friends. talked incessantly about that game with anybody interested. traded cards, played, attended tournaments. trumped everything I ever learned at the university and it was so much more fun

sorry for the wall of text but you did ask

Thanks for sharing your precious experiences, scherbchen.
Actually, I'm studying language learning based on gaming and simulation.
I think you can be a typical example of my research.

How did you learn or acquire the methodology to learn language? By yourself? Or from whom or which?

 

[Cheetah]

I picked up some terms from Civilization while young. It led me to be able to know what they mean and how to spell them, but not how to pronounce them. Made for some embarrassing mistakes in English class later.

Later I joined CFC and found the constant discussion here to be a good place to expand my vocabulary and getting a natural feeling for how sentences in English are supposed to be.

Didn't help much for speaking English though, so I took a year as an exchange student in the US to get more training in speaking English. I had to take a TOEFL test before I went, and scored a 660 of 667 points total if I remember correctly.

No problem, Mirc and Godwynn.
My first language is Korean.
I'm interested in and studying language learning based on gaming in US.

A Korean? Cool. You wouldn't happen to be from Busan, would you?

 

[scherbchen]

Thanks for sharing your precious experiences, scherbchen.
Actually, I'm studying language learning based on gaming and simulation.
I think you can be a typical example of my research.

How did you learn or acquire the methodology to learn language? By yourself? Or from whom or which?

well first of all I would not call it a method. I blindly stumbled into improving or learning my foreign language skills due to having hobbies. from that I much later merely extrapolated that this might work for others as well. find out what they are interested in, give them some pointers and reasons for looking there (you like movies? well, there is a reason jack nicholson gets paid millions of dollars to act in a movie and the guy who does the dubbing only gets a pittance. if you like China Town so much look at the original!) and some basic tips for when they actually have to read something or learn some vocabulary (5 minutes a day only, every other day and delete those vocabulary exercise programs from your hard-drive and don't ever, ever make flash cards) and for some this just works.

I claim full credit for that btw.

 

[Japanrocks12]

So, what did you do last weekend?

It's more of a question of who

 

[ryandryu]

I picked up some terms from Civilization while young. It led me to be able to know what they mean and how to spell them, but not how to pronounce them. Made for some embarrassing mistakes in English class later.

Later I joined CFC and found the constant discussion here to be a good place to expand my vocabulary and getting a natural feeling for how sentences in English are supposed to be.

Didn't help much for speaking English though, so I took a year as an exchange student in the US to get more training in speaking English. I had to take a TOEFL test before I went, and scored a 660 of 667 points total if I remember correctly.


A Korean? Cool. You wouldn't happen to be from Busan, would you?

No. I'm from Seoul, unfortunately.

As you said, these text-based interactions here have limitation in improving speaking.
So, research on Instructional Technology seems to recently move to 3D multiuser virtual environment like Second Life.
But if you'd got such a high score in TOEFL, you must have been a successful example of traditional English learning.
And our limited resources in bandwidth may not support such sophisticated technologies.

So, are you in Japan now? English still makes you troubled? How do you practice your English?

 

[Cheetah]

No. I'm from Seoul, unfortunately.

Too bad. Since this is written communication, I suddenly remembered that I want a written-down version of a Busan-dialect tongue-twister, but I guess I'll have to ask someone else.

As you said, these text-based interactions here have limitation in improving speaking.
So, research on Instructional Technology seems to recently move to 3D multiuser virtual environment like Second Life.
But if you'd got such a high score in TOEFL, you must have been a successful example of traditional English learning.

Meh. The easy thing is that a majority of what young people watch on TV and listen to is usually from the US or UK, so we easily pick up on it.

And our limited resources in bandwidth may not support such sophisticated technologies.

'our limited resources in bandwidth'... Hearing this from a Korean doesn't really carry much meaning!

Unless your research will be limited by not playing games after midnight.

So, are you in Japan now? English still makes you troubled? How do you practice your English?

My English is perfect. Almost. It still looks bad if I translate something from Norwegian to English in a rush, as the word order in sentences and some linguistic expressions are too different, even between two quite related languages. One of the things I enjoyed in the US was to correct American peoples grammar!

I have noticed however, that the quality of my spoken English is deteriorating while I'm in Japan. I use 'maybe' way to often, and my grammar is becoming a bit butchered. Especially if I talk fast - which I shouldn't do, several of my Japanese friends can't keep up with it yet. I noticed the same while I stayed in Korea. I guess it's easy to pick up on the way people around one speak.

Funny story btw:
I live in a guest house with a few other people. Among them, a Korean guy who lived in the US for a while. Since he knows English well, he has tried to get some small jobs as teaching Korean or English here. However, a few days ago, he got a phone call asking if he wanted a one-day translation job - with really good pay.

The job was to translate during a presentation by an American officer to a class of Korean officers who were on a visit/training at a military base near Tokyo. Most of the Korean officers knew English, but they still wanted a translation. So this guy had to translate a military-oriented presentation from English to Korean, without really being familiar with all the military terms, to a group of people who could probably do it better than him.
The pay was good though.

 

[Shekwan]

It's more of a question of who

Oh snap, someone has a great command of the English language anyays.

I genuinely mean this in as complimentary a fashion as possible. Its hard to not seem condescending on the internet.

 

[Kennigit]

So, what did you do last weekend?

I'm sure he did his usual. Worked some, relaxed, then went to church on Sunday to repent his sins and continue the fruitful and not at all imaginary path towards salvation.

 

[otago]

Ka whawhai tonu mātou, Āke! Āke! Āke, the cry from the heterosexual three hundred.

Normally I speak English for every day use but drop into Maori when with other Maori and family.

 

[ryandryu]

Ka whawhai tonu mātou, Āke! Āke! Āke, the cry from the heterosexual three hundred.

Normally I speak English for every day use but drop into Maori when with other Maori and family.

Hi otago,
Are you from Africa?
What's your first language?
Do you think your participation here helps improve your English?

 

[classical_hero]

Hi otago,
Are you from Africa?
What's your first language?
Do you think your participation here helps improve your English?

Otago is a province in New Zealand, so i assume he lives there, since it is his username.

 

[ryandryu]

Otago is a province in New Zealand, so i assume he lives there, since it is his username.

Otago is the name of province??? Thanks for good information.
I guessed he might be from Africa because he did say he would speak to his people or family in Maori. I'm still not sure, though.

 

[onedreamer]

It helps with writing and construction of sentences and improving the vocabulary, but certainly not with speaking the language. It can also be detrimental in part since there are tons of grammatical errors from mother language and foreign writers alike.
I think I have learnt more about past and contemporary History, politics and social behaviors than English on these forums.
Gaming helped a lot, and not just with learning the language.