LPT: Trying to learn a new language? Replay old videogames under different language settings.

Submitted by PovWholesome t3_10m9x81 in LifeProTips

Dialogue-heavy games like RPGs and visual novel games in particular can provide endless examples of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation in action. Dialogue boxes can also be read at your leisure, should you need to look up an unfamiliar word.

Of course, it's not a perfect solution; most games with multi-language support will only have the mainstream ones covered. Likewise, it won't prepare you for conversational use as well as the real thing. Having said that, it's still an efficient way to consolidate new lessons with familiar 100-hour w/ NG+ stories.

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RigorMortis_Tortoise t1_j61vj81 wrote

While in the marines, we got a new guy from Venezuela who had taught himself English by playing Final Fantasy 7 with an English/Spanish dictionary. His first time in the United States was to go to basic training in Parris Island, where everything is called something else (windows are called portholes and pens are called ink sticks, etc).

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PoochusMaximus t1_j62id3h wrote

Jaysus fuck I can’t imagine the mind guck that might have been

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blancaloma t1_j61wsis wrote

I like this idea. It would certainly be a helpful little immersion to compliment something like Duolingo

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andrepoiy t1_j6252co wrote

I did with Minecraft. Crafting Table is apparently translated as "tracé" in french and not a direct translation

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Jordan_the_Hutt t1_j63n66p wrote

I've been doing this to practice my italian. Assassins creed 2 has been great for it as well as skyrim.

Skyrim is especially helpful because there's so much contextual learning without translating. For example you see and apple, the game calls it a "mela" the word apple never appears so you directly associate the image of 🍎 with "mela" without ever translating it to english.

Combined with duolingo and some books I think my Italian is coming along pretty well.

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cyaveronica t1_j62essf wrote

I used to do stuff like this by changing the language on my phone, listening to music and trying to translate and write out the lyrics myself

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-taromanius- t1_j64maf2 wrote

That's genuinely great advise! The same works for rewatching shows where you almost know the dialogue by heart.

I learned English by reading Anime subtitles, playing video games and swapping my OS to English, too. Lots and lots of vocabulary, metaphors, pronunciation and grammar all the time, from all sides.

This is called immersion; trying to incorporate something you're learning into as many things in your daily life as possible. Give it a shot, you'd be surprised by the results after only a year!

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amberwench t1_j66xxdn wrote

Thats a pretty decent idea. I've watched a couple of my youth/old movies -I'm talking Back to the Future old, not Casablanca old- in Spanish and it was pretty helpful.

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keepthetips t1_j61thba wrote

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DingoZoot t1_j62wtnu wrote

Yeah, great if you want to really struggle learning a new language only to speak said language very badly.

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