Games for Language Learning?

[vinesse]

I recently just got my Japanese copy of ACNL for a Japanese 3DS that a friend picked up for me overseas! I was wondering, though, since I know only a little Japanese if it would be helpful to play. I was thinking it would be at least good for reading practice, since my katakana is rusty, but I wanted to hear the thoughts of others!

Have you used ACNL (or other games) to help your language learning skills? What are your thoughts on the process?

 

[Burumun]

My boyfriend tried the same thing with Pok?mon, but it didn't work very well. He already doesn't play video games very much, and since reading was so exhausting, he's barely played it at all since he got it. Compared with that, I think ACNL is a perfect game, though - there's isn't much of an overall story, and if you don't feel like putting that much effort in, you can just focus on stuff like catching critters and landscaping, so it allows you to practice without needing to really understand it, if that makes sense. When you do have to read something, it's usually in little blurbs, rather than a longer cutscene that you have to understand for what's going on in the rest of the story to make sense, and it's forgiving. If a villager asks you for something and you don't realize until you hear the little jingle, you can just ask them what they want again, and they'll also say it somewhat differently.

 

[Alienfish]

The gen 1 Pok?mon would probably work if you indeed have patience reading and maybe looking up a few kana here and there. I managed to play I think Green for some time doing it and I'm pretty rusty but then again I love to read.

 

[Warrior]

The lack of furigana in pokemon makes it infuriating for me. hiragana just goes on for ten thousand years.

Games are a good reading tool, but only in so far as they are suitable for your skill level. For example it's not going to be worth someones time trying to play a game if they can't understand all basic japanese grammar. I'm in a japanese class, and seem to be the only person in my class who reads japanese content outside of class, as my reading speed is much faster, so yeah, it will definitely help with that, but it completely depends on your skill level. If I tried to play a phoenix wright game, I'd probably be pretty lost, and some games where characters seem to talk strangely (in botw some of the npcs have a really strange speaking style) that time would 100% be better spent in my textbooks. I think games are a fun thing to do, but not an effective use of time with language learning. I would see it more as the goal, rather than the means if that makes sense.

I don't know where you are with your language learning, but personally I would say you need atleast N4 level to play animal crossing comfortably, N5 if you're ready to look up grammar points and words as you go

 

[vinesse]

My boyfriend tried the same thing with Pok?mon, but it didn't work very well. He already doesn't play video games very much, and since reading was so exhausting, he's barely played it at all since he got it. Compared with that, I think ACNL is a perfect game, though - there's isn't much of an overall story, and if you don't feel like putting that much effort in, you can just focus on stuff like catching critters and landscaping, so it allows you to practice without needing to really understand it, if that makes sense. When you do have to read something, it's usually in little blurbs, rather than a longer cutscene that you have to understand for what's going on in the rest of the story to make sense, and it's forgiving. If a villager asks you for something and you don't realize until you hear the little jingle, you can just ask them what they want again, and they'll also say it somewhat differently.

See, that's the exact line of thinking that I had when I was considering what game I would like to get for my first one; ACNL also has furigana, which is extremely helpful as I only know about 50 kanji off the top of my head. I figured that something without much of a story would be good because I don't have to UNDERSTAND it, but I can just read it and remaster recognizing hiragana and katakana.

The gen 1 Pok?mon would probably work if you indeed have patience reading and maybe looking up a few kana here and there. I managed to play I think Green for some time doing it and I'm pretty rusty but then again I love to read.

I feel like the pokemon games would be useful as well, especially since I've played them enough that I don't really need to understand every word of the story, I know generally the timeline and where I'm supposed to go. The only thing that really concerns me is how many moves there are, which would definitely be a lot of looking up since they're not very common words.

The lack of furigana in pokemon makes it infuriating for me. hiragana just goes on for ten thousand years.

Games are a good reading tool, but only in so far as they are suitable for your skill level. For example it's not going to be worth someones time trying to play a game if they can't understand all basic japanese grammar. I'm in a japanese class, and seem to be the only person in my class who reads japanese content outside of class, as my reading speed is much faster, so yeah, it will definitely help with that, but it completely depends on your skill level. If I tried to play a phoenix wright game, I'd probably be pretty lost, and some games where characters seem to talk strangely (in botw some of the npcs have a really strange speaking style) that time would 100% be better spent in my textbooks. I think games are a fun thing to do, but not an effective use of time with language learning. I would see it more as the goal, rather than the means if that makes sense.

I don't know where you are with your language learning, but personally I would say you need atleast N4 level to play animal crossing comfortably, N5 if you're ready to look up grammar points and words as you go

That was the other con I had against Pokemon, that I knew ACNL has furigana and pokemon does not. I have a basic grasp of Japanese grammar, I have taken a year of college-level Japanese classes, but to be honest my katakana is super rusty since I've graduated. I feel like reading is really the only way to get good at katakana and hiragana (at least for me), so even just sitting there and sounding out the sentence would be helpful, even if I might not understand the words themselves.

Like previously mentioned, the biggest draw that I see in ACNL is that it really isn't story-centric, so that if I don't understand something, it won't impede my enjoyment of the game. ACNL is a fun game regardless of if I actually read what's happening (which most of the time I don't, when I'm trying to get my tasks done for the day before I start to interact with the animals to try and do errands).

 

[Alienfish]

I can't remember much of how they wrote the moves but if you act them out a few time you will learn, and iirc tm's were katakana(correct me if i'm wrong) so the moves shouldn't be too advanced.

 

[Bcat]

back when I played pocket camp I played it in french sometimes

 

[vinesse]

I can't remember much of how they wrote the moves but if you act them out a few time you will learn, and iirc tm's were katakana(correct me if i'm wrong) so the moves shouldn't be too advanced.

Very true! The only thing that concerns me is that if I do play pokemon, there are just so many moves to learn, and the fact that I would actually want to beat the game... But I might see if there's a copy of UltraSun that I can get my hands on and try it! At least then I could get the version exclusives, lol.

back when I played pocket camp I played it in french sometimes

I didn't even think about using Pocket Camp! That's a good option, though I don't really play too much now either... Mobile games just can't hold my attention, even when it's a game with as many events as Pocket Camp.

 

[Alienfish]

Yeah, Ultra Sun you can play in English though even if you have a JP copy plus they have a hell lot of dialogue. But yeah you will learn with moves even if you don't know 100% of the kana in game. The items can be a bit tricky to tell apart except for balls in gen 1 but yeah I think one can manage. And gen 1 dont have that many moves and stuff either. And I think I played Wario Land 3 in Japanese once. That one got kanji though but if you played it in english you will know what place is what anyway.

 

[RedTropicalPeachyFish]

I was kind of reverse version of you. My first language is Japanese and I barely spoke English when I made an account on this site years back. Quite limited phrases that are frequently used for trading purpose, that was at most I was able to understand. And I decided to improve my English because I was trading nuts at the time and wanted people feel trading with me was fun.
Fortunately I had 2 supervisors around me. One was very special friend in NL at the time (I miss you Mayor Raven!) and the other was, well, so-called bf thing at the time. Both weren't hesitant at all and would immediately point it out when I use wrong words/expressions. And also had patience to it whenever I ask them questions regarding language. Both spoke very beautiful English, and one was also... quite used to speaking casual phrases - so called slang/internet slang.
By talking with these 2 not only in NL but also in SNS thing everyday, my English improved to a good extent, I think.

So... getting back to the topic, my game is JP version, and I see kind of weird conversations between villagers or in their words to my maor a lot of times in there. Also there are words that are specifically used in this game. So I personally don't think it's very good way to learn language. The best way is to talk with living human, who has certain amount of patience.
You're welcome anytime to private message/visitor message me in Japanese as a practice. I mean it!

 

[vinesse]

I was kind of reverse version of you. My first language is Japanese and I barely spoke English when I made an account on this site years back. Quite limited phrases that are frequently used for trading purpose, that was at most I was able to understand. And I decided to improve my English because I was trading nuts at the time and wanted people feel trading with me was fun.
Fortunately I had 2 supervisors around me. One was very special friend in NL at the time (I miss you Mayor Raven!) and the other was, well, so-called bf thing at the time. Both weren't hesitant at all and would immediately point it out when I use wrong words/expressions. And also had patience to it whenever I ask them questions regarding language. Both spoke very beautiful English, and one was also... quite used to speaking casual phrases - so called slang/internet slang.
By talking with these 2 not only in NL but also in SNS thing everyday, my English improved to a good extent, I think.

So... getting back to the topic, my game is JP version, and I see kind of weird conversations between villagers or in their words to my maor a lot of times in there. Also there are words that are specifically used in this game. So I personally don't think it's very good way to learn language. The best way is to talk with living human, who has certain amount of patience.
You're welcome anytime to private message/visitor message me in Japanese as a practice. I mean it!

Oh! See, I'm mainly using the game as a fun way of literally just getting the sounds each hiragana and katakana character makes! I'm not exactly using it for vocabulary per say, but just sounding out the characters. I have a hard time keeping ケ、ソ、ン、and ヲ straight in my mind, and I learn best just by repetition! I have actually textbooks for kanji, grammar, and good useable vocab, but just going over the practice sentences they give aren't too fun.

Also, thank you so much for the kind offer, I might take you up on it! Now that I'm no longer in college, I've been thinking about getting a pen-pal to continue my learning since now it's not a structured class.

 

[Sweetley]

I used to play New Leaf in English back in the days, as I wanted to see how good I understand it and it
actually worked pretty well. It helped me a lot to understand certain words better.