Learning a new language through games

[Capo Taco]

I've been wanting to learn portuguese, but beyond my ipod enhanced pimsleur language course, I thought it'd be cool to learn portuguese through playing games. I wanted to start with alpha centauri because I know the game well enough to play it in swahili if necessary and because it would teach me the right words to discuss philosophy in portuguese (how's that for aiming high?).

But Alpha Centauri doesn't have portuguese translation, so I'll put that off until I want to learn spanish or German. Right now: Portuguese. Does anyone know good games that have a portuguese version and a method of obtaining it? I live in the netherlands.

Preferably a game with some depth of language to it (I just read halo was translated to portuguese... but that might not really be what I'm looking for). So please! Wow me with your knowledge of games that can be played in portuguese!

 

[Graustein]

Well, there's all those insultingly patronising edutainment games for teaching languages, aren't there? If you don't want to be insultingly patronised (wouldn't blame ya), there's also every JRPG ever, if they have portuguese translations. Play through them with the english script over your knee

Although you might wanna learn the syntax of portuguese first. It'd probably be much easier that way.

 

[Capo Taco]

Yeah, I was thinking about fun games in portuguese rather than boring edutainment. By consuming entertainment in another language, anything will be edutainment anyways.

A JRPG might not be the best way to learn. Even those translated to english are barely intelligible. Maybe something like starcraft in portuguese would be a good idea. I wouldn't mind repaying and replaying starcraft and starcraft brood war.

Any other ideas?

Pimsleur langauge course focuses both on the syntax and function words of a language. I just wanted something to enrich my vocabulary in a fun way.

 

[CyberAkuma]

Heh, this thread remninds me of a very old adventure game released for the PC in the late 1990's. It was called 'Outcast' and the game required you to learn how to speak the aliens language. While it wasn't very difficult it really added some atmosphere to the whole game.

Now if they only could get to work on a bloody sequal already...

 

[Darth Marsden]

Outcast? I got pretty far in that and I don't recall needing to learn... unless you mean character names? They could be pretty confusing.

EDIT: On reflection, are we talking about the same game? Lead character called Cutter Slade or something, jumps to a parallel dimension, needs to save using a GamSaav?

Aren't there a series of 'Teach Yourself...' games for the DS that let you learn different languages? I seem to recall Penny Arcade doing a comic about a French one. Those seem to be pretty good. If they made a Japanese one, I'd be into it.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

if you want to learn how to speak portuguese i'd say do one of two things because not sure there's a lot of games out there with portuguese translations

so i suggest this go rent movies and use the language feature, some have portuguese if not find a niche video store with it or just order them online. my other suggestion is take brazillian jiu-jitsu from a brazillian and get them to speak to you in portuguese

but honestly playing a game won't really help you, as with most translations, they suffer from the difficulty of not being as verbose as english is and no where even remotely close to it. the next closest lang has half the words english does

 

[Shivari]

If you're really into learning new languages get Rosetta Stone or something. You're not going to learn a new language in a video game, unless it's a kiddy language game. And you won't be discussing philosophy in Petey Portuguese: Island Adventure.

 

[ward.]

Prince of persia taught me to swear again, that's sorta the same thing.

 

[Capo Taco]

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have the rosetta stone. I have Pimsleur language tapes. I've been taking capoeira lessons for more than 6 years and picked up plenty of portuguese in action. I've been to brazil for a month and I'm probably going to live in portugal for a year.

It's not like I think I can pick up portuguese from the get-go from games: I've already got a base to build on.

So I thought, maybe someone here would know how I can find out which games are translated to Portuguese.

Side note: I searched for that game outcast, not because it has the portuguese I'm looking for, but because it sounds like fun. Gotta love google: "Did you mean: outkast".

 

[Woe Is You]

You're not going to learn a new language in a video game, unless it's a kiddy language game.

See, that's interesting. Part of the reason why I write English so well is because I learnt English early on through games like Maniac Mansion. One could argue that it only enabled my learning, but in his case, he's got a base to build on, so it might be good way of increasing his vocab.

Speaking of which, Maniac Mansion [http://www.gamershell.com/news_13894.html] has a remake out with a Portuguese translation. Open source games like Battle for Wesnoth [http://www.wesnoth.org/] almost always have translators. Also, you listed Starcraft. That too has a Portuguese version of it.

 

[Capo Taco]

Awesomeness woe is you! I've never yet finished maniac mansion, this might be a good time to do it! I'll also try battle for wesnoth and I'll see if I can find a Portuguese starcraft! Thanks! All three very helpful suggestions!

I too learned English mostly through games. I was 11 and my English vocabulary was better than my teacher's. I'm not a native English speaker, but games have really helped to elevate my English to a really good level. My pronunciation was really bad though, but that came with time and traveling. It was a little embarrassing when I played leisure suit larry and asked my mother for some translations (I never figured out what that censored bar covered until a few years later). To me the game was just a puzzle game.

 

[anicecupoftea]

Erm really, learning a language through games?

Why don't you just play the game you like the most and turn the sound off and have a dvd playing with the relevant lessons from linguaphone or some other type of learning system in the background.

 

[mkb07a]

In order to facilitate my Spanish (I took two years of it three years ago, and now I have to start from scratch in college), my phone and iPod have been switched over to Spanish, and I have Portuguese on there too. As far as games, though, I've never tried to switch over but I'm sure the translation would be butchered on most of them- movie translations are indicative of that.

 

[Capo Taco]

Hmm setting my phone and ipod to portuguese is not a bad idea! Thanks mkb07a!

Too bad windows vista doesn't allow easy language switches. It would really help my work as doing portuguese house-to-house tech support when I'll live in portugal.

Anicecupoftea: You're missing the point. I'm already using language tapes, but I wanted something fun to do with portuguese. MKB's suggestion is awesome because I'll start to use it without thinking pretty quickly.

 

[Uskis]

You're not going to learn a new language in a video game, unless it's a kiddy language game.

See, that's interesting. Part of the reason why I write English so well is because I learnt English early on through games like Maniac Mansion. One could argue that it only enabled my learning, but in his case, he's got a base to build on, so it might be good way of increasing his vocab.

I too learned english through games, warhammer and magic. We didn't really know the rules for warhammer or magic, only what we had been told in Games Workshop, so we spent a lot of time discussing english grammar in order to figure out what a card or a rule meant. Civilization 2 also helped me extend my vocabulary and pronunciation through the videos of the advisors and wonders of the world.

But to the OP:
Listen to Portuguese or brazilian music and read the lyrics at the same time. It gives you an idea how things sound, as well as introducing you to an interesting style of music.

 

[PrISM]

I've learned everything I know about the German language from Wolfenstein.

 

[Capo Taco]

Maybe you should read a little more of the thread before responding mspencer, you would have learned that there's definitely people where a game has helped to learn a language and you would have learned that I'm already trying out different things, this is just an addition.

Very funny PrlSM.

Uskis, it's a good idea, but I'm already doing that. Jorge ben, Sergio Mendez, Jorge Amorim, Antonio Carlos Jobim and dare I say it, some portuguese songs by shakira (she translated some of her songs for the brazilian market). Any other suggestions to add to that?

 

[Capo Taco]

I too learned english through games, warhammer and magic. We didn't really know the rules for warhammer or magic, only what we had been told in Games Workshop, so we spent a lot of time discussing english grammar in order to figure out what a card or a rule meant. Civilization 2 also helped me extend my vocabulary and pronunciation through the videos of the advisors and wonders of the world.

Ha, it's an awesome way to learn isn't it? Glad to see I'm not alone. What's your native language?