Playing New Leaf in a different language

[Toeto]

I was just wondering, how many people play the game in a different language?
I play the game in English myself and I'm Dutch, but that's nog a big deal because I understand everything perfectly. I'm going to learn Spanish in september and I was wondering, would it be a good idea to start a new town in my second copy and play it in Spanish? I don't speak a word right now though.

I didn't understand an english word when I played the Gamecube version for the first time because I was still a kid, but I learned a lot from it. Has anyone experience with this?

 

[Fuzzbyroo]

I think that it would an interesting idea because it can help you with learning vocab and grammar in conversations. I've tried it once with a Japanese game (not AC) and it's a lot different since some of the characters are unreadable to me (don't know if you've heard of kanji).

But anyway, I think you should go for it when you've gained a bit of experience in Spanish ^^

 

[Campy]

Just like you, I'm Dutch and play the game in English, as well. In all honesty, I wouldn't have picked Dutch even if there'd been an option to. Dutch in games just looks so wrong to me.

I think I had a lot of trouble with English when I got the GC version, too. But luckily I have a brother who's a bit older than me, so he was always able to explain stuff to me when we were young.

I can safely say that my current vocabulary and understanding of the language can be mostly attributed to games and TV while school only played a very minor part. I'm sure playing AC in Spanish could help you learn the language, especially since you're already familar with the game so you'll have an idea what villagers are talking about. Same goes for names of buildings and stuff.

 

[Reindeer]

I can safely say that my current vocabulary and understanding of the language can be mostly attributed to games and TV while school only played a very minor part.

With how they teach English here, that doesn't surprise me. I came to the Netherlands out of South Africa, being able to speak Afrikaans and English fluently. My English actually got worse in the school system before it went back to the old level (and eventually got better) through playing video games and talking with foreign people online.

Video games do help with learning languages. It's helped me in learning to understand Japanese better, as well as giving some building blocks for some other languages like Russian (MGS3). So playing ACNL in Spanish while learning the language will definitely help, but only if you're actively trying to understand what the NPCs are saying to you.

 

[Melyora]

Wooohooo, so many Dutch people here on the forum! =D

I also prefer to play games/watch movies in English instead of Dutch (the only exception being Disney movies which I grew up with watching in Dutch, and then it just sounds weird in English...). And learning English in school was indeed mwah... I started reading English books when I started middle/high school (aaaargh, different school systems in different countries is so confusing... In Dutch I mean the 'middelbare school') and I think that is when my English started to get a lot better.

Playing the game in Spanish seems like a good exercise to me if you have started to learn it! Also because you're already familiar with the game content and have a gist of what the villagers try to say, it can help with picking it up easier.

 

[Jesusfreakette]

I play Pokemon Y in Spanish to keep my Spanish sharp! It definitely helps. I feel like video games are about as close to regular conversation that you're going to get without involving real people

 

[franzi]

I think you definitley should! I'm German, but I basically watch every movie and TV show in English. Most of the times I read books in English aswell, just 'cause I think that they are so much better in the original language and that the translations to German are horrible.
I've played some video games in English before, and those have helped me, too.
If you only try to use the English skills you're taught at school here, you'd probably be really lost in a foreign country.
But yeah, if I was you I'd definitely choose to play the game in Spanish c:

 

[Sharmista]

I'm german, but everything I do, if it is watching things, playing games, reading books etc. I prefer it to be the original language, which is mainly english or japanese with subs. I just like it a LOT better, because I personally don't like the german translations or voice acting at all, so terrible. It helped me too of course, because I learned the language better this way than I did in school. .... Oh and I have an US 3DS so....

 

[itzafennecfox]

I think you should try it in Spanish. I'm learning German right now, and if I were to get a second copy I would definitely play it in German.

 

[Marlene]

I am Austrian and play in English as well since I joined The Bell Tree Forums, first it was very difficult for me because I didn't understand every word of converstations ect., during the weeks and months my vocabulary got much (I'd say my grammer too) better and I understood most ingame ^_^
Before I played in German which is my first language, it was too difficult to translate every single item and name at auctions/selling therads, this is the reason why I still play in English ^^
Playing in a different language improves your skills, but I think you should already have some vocabulary learnt in Spanish, otherwise you won't understand everything/much (well, it also depends if you can see the sense of a conversation).

 

[Transmundane]

Je jeue en Fran?ais, hehe.
I'm 110% American though. I took about two years of French via school and I'm still educating myself. My French isn't the best, nor do I know it all, but I can play the game at ease. I like it because it helps me learn a lot of new words, and helps me also remember words and phrases that I struggle on.

 

[Lee-chan]

I'm Austrian, and before joining TBT I used to play my game in German c: but since it's easier to buy/sell/trade when you know the names of the items in English, I decided to continue playing in English instead^^ it was hard at first, and so damn confusing xD I felt like it was the first time for me playing the game xD but I got used to it eventually c:

 

[Titi]

I am french, I played WW in french and when I got NL I started in french.
But when I joined this forum I switched to english,
because looking for the translation of villager and item names and stuff like that was getting very tedious.
It took some getting used to, but I actually prefer the dialogs in english.

 

[Yui Z]

I play the game in both English and Japanese. The main reason I got a second game in Japanese (yes, I had to buy a 3ds LL too) was to practice my reading in the language. I find it just as much fun as playing in English, but it is nice to take a break and play in my own language.

 

[estypest]

I used to switch my WW game to Italian every now and then which was really good to keep the language/words in mind and increase familiarity/vocab. At the moment my Italian/French learning is all up to myself which means reading translated books which is really useful -- and so is playing a game which you are familiar with in your own language.

Good luck with your Spanish learning !

 

[Uffe]

I think my options are only Spanish and French. Both languages I don't ever plan on learning. It sure would be nice to have German as an option since that's the language I am learning.

 

[LyraVale]

This is a brilliant idea! I might do this too actually. Considering how many hours I've put into ACNL, I would have been fluent in another language by now! lol...I think it's a great idea, and also, if you every get stuck, you can quickly just look up whatever they're saying online, so I don't even think it'll be too difficult. Spanish is, in some ways, very similar to English, so once you have the basics, it's not TOO difficult to figure out the context of a phrase. Anyway, good luck, and I'm glad I saw this, because now I'm excited to try it out too!

 

[budewarmin]

I'm Dutch and I play my game in English. Because games just look wrong to me in Dutch and if I ever need a tip or tutorial I can find them easily without the need to possible needing to translate names of items and such!

 

[lnvaderZlM]

I wanna play in Japanese, because I hear the animals actually pronounce the characters correctly. And I took a lot of Japanese classes throughout middle and high school. I remember how to read/write hiragana and katakana and some of the common sentence structures, but most of the vocabulary words and kanji just didn't stick, so I'd probably have to play with Google Translate in front of me lol.

 

[aimeekitty]

I think it would be fun to try to learn in a different language?! I wish I had time to devote to it!