Game News Terra Alia vocabularies its Release

[KeighnMcDeath]

I see myself failing repeatedly until frustration and throwing computer into a wall.

 

[Monolith]

I'm all for gamification, but eh - not so sure how reliable it would be to teach someone a little of 10 languages. Maybe a lot of a few languages or a ton of just one new language would probably lead to greater retention. I seriously doubt there is any science behind this approach to language learning, and I doubt playing this game would lead to substantial long term retention.

What I'm saying that using games to teach things does work, but not when the idiots designing it decide to try to "teach" 10 languages at the same time. There is no science behind that, and there is a reason nobody teaches 10 languages at the same time.

The 100 word principle is not a bad one. If it's the 100 most often used words it allows you to get along as a tourist in a country. As such, learning those 100 words for 10 languages seems like a worthwhile endeavor to me. In regard to retention, yeah, it really depends on the repetition cycles.

 

[Daemongar]

The 100 word principle is not a bad one. If it's the 100 most often used words it allows you to get along as a tourist in a country. As such, learning those 100 words for 10 languages seems like a worthwhile endeavor to me. In regard to retention, yeah, it really depends on the repetition cycles.

Learning 100 words in German before going to Germania makes sense. I can see that working. You can play it over and over before going over there, but you'd be better served focusing on 100 words in German instead of trying to learn 1000 words in total spanning 10 languages. It is true that learning one new language can make it easier to learn others, but this isn't what we're doing. We're "learning" common words all at the same time from multiple languages. Sounds neat, but it's a gimmick.

I don't doubt the creators of this game could fund a research study that has 100 random people trying to learn 100 words on their own in an hour vs. 100 random people playing this game for an hour, then testing each group shortly thereafter on the 100 words. I'm sure the people playing the game would end up better immediately after playing, but after two weeks I'd expect the groups to be even. But hey, it would be a scientific study with a randomized control group and such, and they could put it in the findings in their ads, pay to get the paper published, then sell the application to schools. Actually... that's not a bad idea.

 

[Burning Bridges]

As long as it's the right words, learning 100 words in any language makes a lot of sense and allows you to understand and communicate a lot of basic stuff already.

100 arbitrary words do not make any sense though, it has to be the most common ones that make up half of every sentence.

You would also need to learn how to pronounce them correctly - just learning by heart will not do much good. If I imagine the average American pronounce German, let alone French words after a few hours of self-training, it would actually just hinder conversation. Just as the uneducated German saying "I want become a beafsteak and my wife want become a hamburger"

Learning 100 words in German before going to Germania makes sense. I can see that working. You can play it over and over before going over there, but you'd be better served focusing on 100 words in German instead of trying to learn 1000 words in total spanning 10 languages. It is true that learning one new language can make it easier to learn others, but this isn't what we're doing. We're "learning" common words all at the same time from multiple languages. Sounds neat, but it's a gimmick.

If you are an Anglo or American and you speak some German you will also be the center of attention, even with women.There was 1 English guy in my university and basically everyone wanted to be his friend and teach him German.

I have also seen some Anglos making very quick progress, because it's actually an easy language to learn for them just as it is for us in the other direction. At least on the basic to intermediary levels. Then it gets much harder, like every language.

Anglos also get worked up over the grammar and the articles for no reason. If you are Anglo and you speak Germany you can simple ignore articles, I have seen only a very few who get it right anyway so why even try. Whether they say Die Mädchen or Der Haus doesn't make a difference at all and to be honest it's completely illogical.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Not gonna Liao: I learned more English through playing Crescent Hawk's Inception than in school.

A game doesn't necessarily need to be educational to be able to teach us things.