Skip to main content

(From the archives) Playing games in the target language

 Use Shiritori For Increasing Vocabulary

(Written on 14 July 2013) Lately, I've been playing a popular word game in the italki forums to practise my written Japanese while having a bit of fun at the same time. The rules of the game are to start each word with the last letter (sound in Japanese) from the previous poster. If the person uses a word that ends in -n or Hiragana ん/Katakana ン the game is over and you must start over with "a" or Hiraganaあ and Katakana ア to continue.

Sounds like a interesting way to gather random vocabulary which could become useful later on. It also give you a chance to practise your written skills in the target language as well.

Immersion through gameplay

Who doesn't like playing games? If you can make learning fun then I say go for it! Especially, if it solidifies your motivation in the target language. I'm currently focused on Japanese at the moment.

[In the original post I linked to a site called Vizzed which let you play emulate classic games (ex: Pokémon) and rom hacks made by fans. It looks like many if not most of the games have been removed or much more limited due to copyright reasons and that downloading roms of games and playing them on an emulator is technically illegal due to piracy. The site is still up but if you're looking to play these games online you will have to look them up yourself unfortunately. Since I'm sure if I link to them here that the gaming companies will just ensure these sites get taken down. So if you do find them, you do so at your own risk. I heard Nintendo, especially is really cracking down on emulator sites posting roms of their games even going after fan made rom hacks.]

Which games would you play in your target language?

[In the originally post I referenced the Language Learning subforum that was on Gaia Online but has long since been inactive and is now gone because Gaia Online has been shut down at this point.]
 
There's card, board and word games to help strengthen your abilities. Do you have any recommendations? If so, which ones are the most beneficial for improving your skills in the language? Which games are the most enjoyable to play?

Tell me about the games you play in the languages you're currently learning. Or would you consider doing this to boost your motivation as a supplement to your regular language learning activities. I'd love to hear from you!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

100 Prompts for Writing Practice In Your Target Language

Getting written practice in your target language can be quite the challenge. Especially, if you don't know what you want to write about. Perhaps, your level is not higher to discuss topics you are passionate about yet. That's okay, you can always look up what you don't know and then use websites, apps and tools like HiNative or italki  to get corrections from native speakers. Describe as much or as little as you want depending on your level in your target language(s).  Keep it as simple or complex as you'd like and feel free to revisit these prompts are you improve in your target language(s). Feel free to skip over prompts you don't feel are relevant to you or don't want to do. 1) What did you do today? 2) What are your plans for today/tomorrow/the weekend/this week/this month/this year? 3) Who are you? (Introduce yourself in your target language(s)) 4) What do you like to do for fun? 5)  What do you do for work?  6)  What are the pros and cons of working at y...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lexember 2025: Days 1-8

 Lexember is where conlangers create one word per day for the month of December. I participated in this language on Bluesky last year and it really helped build up my conlangs: Kalovanian, Lubenavian and Vasatulokian. It also gives me a chance to be more active on Bluesky (an alternative to Twitter that isn't as toxic as what Twitter has become). The prompts were created by David J. Peterson (creator of Dothraki, High Valryian, etc)and Jessie Peterson of the LangTime Studio podcast and author of How to Create a Language. I would recommend following them on Bluesky and using the hashtag #Lexember so that your post can be found and seen by fellow conlangers. Without further ado, here are the first 4 prompts for Lexember in Kalovanian, Lubenavian and Vasatulokian: Dec 1: A way of preparing food (e.g. Chop, grind, dice, mince) Kalovanian :  Talia /talia/- To cut, to slice, to chop, to dice, to sever, to amputate, to behead, to separate, to split apart, to tear (apart). Example:...
Post a Comment
Read more

(From the archives) Learning Swear Words in Other Languages. A necessary evil? Discuss

  This is a subject that is almost never brought up when it comes to learning languages. It's because many people are going to be insulted or offended when they've used and could have the potential to lead to violence. I've seen many sites as well as books trying to teach you the "real" language that's actually used. Obviously, swearing is unbecoming and just because you can doesn't mean you should. But let's explore this further, shall we? Random Gibberish? Or "You're Stupid" in another language? Let me share an experience I had in a beginner's Mandarin Chinese class I took in high school. We were trying to learn new vocabulary and structures while the teacher (who is a native speaker by the way) wanted to know something about my friend at the time. (We are no longer friends but it wasn't because of this incident though). He decided to spit out some random gibberish while the teacher immediately picked it up as  你好笨啊 ( nǐ shé bèn...
Post a Comment
Read more