Learning a Foreign Language with The Sims

JavaTHut writes "The Journal Language Learning and Technology has a new article describing how The Sims can be modified to teach a foreign language. With this and other efforts at U.S.C. and M.I.T., could simulated immersion within video games become an effective way of acquiring a foreign language? Also of interest in the article are suggestions for using spatialized translation layers in foreign language songs and a Firefox extension for learning foreign vocabulary words."

Audio narration availible

[JavaTHut]

For anyone who would prefer to listen to the article, there's an audio version availible at:

http://www.langwidge.com/llt/not_studying.mp3

Re:for the new generation

[JavaTHut]

> How about foreign language sites on the Internet
> as well? Any recommendations?

Another article in the same Journal deals with that:

http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/emerging/default.htm l

Re:for the new generation

[Walrus99]

Here are some German Language sites from a site I set up for a German class at my university. Most of the sites have other languages also. (Would link to it, but don't want to get slashdotted, so I just copied the code over.)

German Language Web Sites

leo.org [leo.org] German-English dictionary. Just enter a German or English word in the Search Term box. Note the 3 symbols following the word entered:Press the1stfor grammar information, the 2nd for definition and sample uses, the 3rd for spoken pronunciation.

german.about.com [about.com] Everything you ever wanted to know about the German language. Includes grammar and vocabulary guides.

travlang.com [travlang.com] Click on the German Flag for German words for travel, shopping, dining, directions, etc. Click on a word for pronunciation.

webgerman.com [webgerman.com] A collection of links on the German language as well as comics, music, and games in German.

freetranslantion.com [freetranslation.com] Type or paste a word or phrase into the box for a free translation between languages by a computer. The computer translations are somewhat crude, but you can also pay for a human translation.

Well, finally :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

How do you think most people from countries with a "small language" can speak multiple languages (read northern European countries). Because you had to read either German or English magazines on computers (or for watching tv aswell, as dubbing was too expensive, so everything needed to be subtitled). And it was the earlier games as pizza tycoon, civilization that made me grab for the dictionary constantly and could speak English before it was taught at school.
But this language-mod is great, it looks like a more fun learning tool than an expensive (but excellent) official learning tool like rosetta stone (though that was a fun as I know of them)

Re:when I was a kid

[pe1rxq]

I learned a lot from subtitled TV....
Pretty much anything aimed not at children is subtitled in the Netherlands.
Its great to have the original audio together with the translation.

Another great way once you know the basics is watching the BBC with teletext page 888 on. (subtitles for the deaf) You also learn some spelling and sometimes its actually clearer than some guy talking with a terrible accent.

Although re-synched can also be great if it is not your own language... I learned to understand german pretty well by watching an our of StarTrek each day.

Jeroen

Re:for the new generation

[stupid_is]

The BBC [bbc.co.uk] are hosting a series of language courses that look quite good. French [bbc.co.uk], Spanish [bbc.co.uk], German [bbc.co.uk] and Italian [bbc.co.uk] feature, as well as some basics in other [bbc.co.uk] world languages

Re:Portugese

[Anonymous Coward]

Esperanto has a very strong Latin base, but I think it's inaccurate to say that it's similar to Portuguese. You can also say it's just as similar to Spanish and Italian but maybe not as much to French, Romanian and other Latin based languages.

Re:Another way to do it...

[FreshMeat-BWG]

You have to install a MUI [microsoft.com]...

Re:anyone notice

[snap-hiss]

The same type of thing WETA used in the LOTR films. On a grander scale of course.

Re:Halo 2 in French?

[GAlain]

I dunno how you do those accute accent things on the e of sacre

like this: 'é' :-)

the french (and my belgian) keyboards use the shift key to output those numbers above the letters. without the shift, it ouputs a special characters. exemple: 2:'é' 7:'è' 9:'ç' 0:'à'

anyway, accents should not be considered 'pointless foreign pretension'. in french, that's not very important, we can guess, but try for example to write vietnamese without accent and you will end up completely incomprehensible. letters with accent may be a completely different letter/meaning.

Sacré bleu!!! ;-)

Re:Children learn English this way now

[amabbi]

The 10 and 13 year-olds could also speak German and French. Needless to say I felt like a stupid/ethnocentric American the whole week.

In large parts of America, children speak both English and Spanish. It's learned/taught as a matter of necessity, not luxury... the same as in Europe.

Re:for the new generation

[Raemond]

I can't recommend enough the http://www.bbc.co.uk/learnwelsh/ [bbc.co.uk] Learn Welsh section on the BBC site. They have whole radios series of structured lessons at different levels available for download, online forums with proper Welsh tutors, games for kids, loads of stuff and all for free. The Vocab feature gives a gloassary of Welsh vocab on other sections of the BBC website like the Newyddion (News) section, so you can look up the words you don't know just by moving your cursor over them. The Scots Gaelic and Irish sites are similar but from what I've gathered aren't quite as extensive.

Re:Learning by Tech Immersion

[Anonymous Coward]

Indicentally, I am also using the Pimsleur course this guy recommends. I'm on level 1 lesson 21, and so far it has been great. My friends' eyes bug out when I start speaking Japanese to them. Now if only I had some Japanese friends to practice on...:P

Chances are, real Japanese people's eyes will also bug out when you blurt out your incoherent broken Japanese to them.

Using Pimsleur alone in the beginning stages is dangerous. You need to have a native massaging your pronounciation or extensive listening of native pronounciation (tv, radio, whatever). If you screw up the pronounciation at the beginning, it'll be extremely difficult to fix the mistakes later.