Learning English through video games
- Jessica Alcaraz
- Apr 1, 2016
- 2 min read
It must have been early 1999 when my uncle Rubén brought home the latest acquisition for his Nintendo 64 - The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time.
For different reasons, we all lived together then: my three uncles, my grandmother, my mother, and myself. I guess for them it was a really hard time, but the 10 year-old me was delighted! Yes! Finally, my uncle’s video games were available to me at all times, and boy did I take advantage of that.
When he arrived home with his new game, the jewel of the crown, I was very excited. He would always play games while I watched, and then I would play by myself when alone – I wanted to get good before letting anyone watch ME play!
The exception were fighting games: I was good …until I got a thumb injury. Yeah, you can get those when trying the most complex combos over and over.
Anyway...
There was one problem: the game was in English! As a Spanish kid from Madrid, my English was very basic, so I simply watched Rubén play that awesome-looking game, not very sure what the characters were talking about other than the kid in green going “hiaahhh!”.
But then he showed me… the text guide!
SUCCESS. Yassss! Now I could understand everything that was going on, and without noticing it, learn new vocabulary and grammar while having the best time.
I am pretty sure the first word that I learned and stuck was “empty” (anyone remember that empty bottle with the cuckoo lady?). I thought it was funny, you know, so many consonants… I used to try to pronounce all letters: EEM-PPP-TT-Y
Without realising it, my English improved immensely and I started to leave the text guide on the side more and more often. You know how it works with kids, they’re like sponges!
From then on, I dared to play more games in English, and eventually watch movies (with Spanish subtitles to start, then changing to English subtitles and finally none).
Cute story, huh? What I am trying to express with all this is that one can easily (okay not so easily, but you know what I mean) learn a new language if motivated: in the game, you have to understand what’s happening so you can advance. That’s the motivation! You want to play, you need to understand!
It’s not like burying your nose into a book, without any other purpose than to learn new words and grammar rules… This is fun!
So go, give it a try. Get some game you love, and try it in another language!
Works with books and movies too, of course :)
Jessica Alcaraz is a LQA Coordinator and Blogger with CULTURETRANSLATE
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