Learning new language with WoW

[Chipies]

I've been thinking... I dedicate a lot of time playing WoW, so maybe there's a way to learn a new language while playing, I've been thinking German, by installing the German language package and learn some new words by translating some I know in game, for example Ironforge might be translated into "Eisen schmiede" (don't know if they actually translate the city names, in spanish they do).

So, I wonder if there is a type of addon that allows me to translate text in the go?, for example in Twitch chat via a download you can install in your browser an addon that by double clickin' the comment it translates it.
Because I'm bound to not know what the hell the quest is sayin' and translating a few words might give me an idea.
Or maybe Blizzard can do something about it?, that'll be a great way to make people learn new languages in their game

Have a good day!

[Baine]

I learned english, thanks to english language integration in NA WoW client (french being my native language).

[BarosanuNr1]

WoW has certainly helped improve my English, there's a huge difference between when I started this game and now (well, English is also everywhere in our lives, so there's that). I think German might be a little harder to learn, especially if you haven't followed at least some basic training in it (it has many more grammar rules than English, for example), but if you want to go for it it might be most efficient to just roll an alt on an actual German realm (with the related client). Talking to an seeing people talk in a new language is the easiest (and best) way to learn it (I've tried to learn German in the past by myself but it just didn't work because I didn't encounter it enough on a daily basis unless I went out of my way for it).

[Deleted]

Unless you already know a lot (enough to understand quite a bit) learning a new language is not going to work.
You will be more busy translating then anything else and it will learn you nothing.
Games in general really helped me with my English, but i needed some basics first.

[Deleted]

As someone who's studying Japanese in college, I can say that learning a language isn't the same as just being able to translate a bunch of words or sentances.

Yes, you might be able to develop a pretty nice German vocabulary doing something like that, but then what are you going to do with it ? If you're not familiar with the grammar, you won't be able to put it to any use. I would say that such an activity should be complementary to another kind of education (courses, college, etc, self education even, if you can/have the will for it) rather than the "main course". If you're already learning a language "properly", then learning vocabulary this way would certainly help.

[Deleted]

I think it’s a bad idea, actually.

While the German client uses correct grammar most of the time, it also contains a lot of fantasy-specific words that aren’t common in regular German.

The difficulty in learning German isn’t learning German words, so you won’t learn German by learning some words. The difficulty of German is its complex grammar, its conjugation and its declination.
You wouldn’t even learn proper German by reading Germans, because a large part of Germans can’t and don’t use proper grammar, either.

[shise]

Unless you already know a lot (enough to understand quite a bit) learning a new language is not going to work.
You will be more busy translating then anything else and it will learn you nothing.
Games in general really helped me with my English, but i needed some basics first.

My basis in English was "Hi, my name is Diego, I'm from Spain" and a few more random things like my age or my favourite music. I couldn't understand anything, in fact my first raids were with Skype open for direct translate...

Over the last 8 years WoW has been able to teach me English and now I live with it in both, WoW and RL.

In my opinion it is all about going bananas with something and forget about the language, just transate for the sake of understanding and, eventually, you'll notice how much you are learning.

[DeleteThisThanks]

It will be easier with English than other languages, which D-angeL already stated. It might work for some languages, of course depending on the words being translated. You might learn some basic stuff from it.

[Stormspark]

I think it’s a bad idea, actually.

While the German client uses correct grammar most of the time, it also contains a lot of fantasy-specific words that aren’t common in regular German.

The difficulty in learning German isn’t learning German words, so you won’t learn German by learning some words. The difficulty of German is its complex grammar, its conjugation and its declination.
You wouldn’t even learn proper German by reading Germans, because a large part of Germans can’t and don’t use proper grammar, either.

It helps though that German, English (and Dutch also) are very closely related and in the same language family. Their grammar is not identical, but it is very similar. It's much easier for a speaker of one of those 3 languages to learn another of them than it is for them to learn a language in another family entirely.

[Primalthirst]

Don't expect it to happen overnight. If it isn't supplemented by other exposure it will take a long time.

[Velaryia]

This is an excellent idea actually, and I'd love to do the same. I attended German classes a few months ago and I've got to grips with the basics and some of the grammar so it would be nice to learn some additional words and phrases through WoW.

[Nahuun]

Surprisingly enough, English is the hardest to learn language. I have heard of people learning this way, yes. But it does take time. If you play every day, for a few hours a day, you should be able to catch on quite well.

[Deleted]

I grew up with games, and particularly games in the english language.

I never had to study for english-class because of that and my english is FAR from perfect.

THE best way to learn a language is to go live in the county they speak it, everything else is just good or ok.

[Tackhisis]

Surprisingly enough, English is the hardest to learn language.

What an absurd statement.

[Shuji V2]

What an absurd statement.

I have to agree with this.

[Deleted]

It helps though that German, English (and Dutch also) are very closely related and in the same language family. Their grammar is not identical, but it is very similar. It's much easier for a speaker of one of those 3 languages to learn another of them than it is for them to learn a language in another family entirely.

While I can’t judge Dutch I know that German and English have very different grammar, even basic sentences differ a lot, especially through cases which English doesn’t have. While both languages have a SVO order in really basic sentences, it can already differ including indirect objects: “I (S) gave (V) the gift (IO) to you (DO)” will translate to “Ich (S) gab (V) dir (DO) das Geschenk (IO).”
There are 12 different ways to translate “the” alone, dependent on meaning, case, and gender of the word. Yes I said gender. Basic example: “Der Baum” (‘the tree’ – male)
“Der Baum ist schief.” (the chair is lopsided).
“Der Stamm des Baums ist hart.“ (the trunk of the tree is hard).
“Der Mann lehnt an dem Baum.” (the man is leaning against the tree)
“Der Holzfäller schlägt den Baum” (the lumberjack chops the tree)
That’s the 4 cases, for a male subject/object. However there are also female ones and neutral ones.
As you could see above, the tenses also differ (simple present and present progressive all translated into Präsens).
German has the following tenses that are all separated into active, progression passive, condition passive as well as indicative and conjunctive mode in addition to the perons (personal pronouns) (I, You, He/She/It, We, You, Them):
- (nichterweiterter, erweiterter) Infinitiv Präsens, Infinitiv Perfekt
- Präsens Aktiv, Perfekt Passiv, Gerundivum
- Imperativ
- Präsens
- Präteritum
- Perfekt
- Plusquamperfekt
- Futur I
- Futur II
Meaning the average German verb can have up to 200 different forms (if I didn’t miscount).

EDIT: however like I said, most Germans can't speak proper German either, so if one is trying to learn it from them, they will probably learn it wrong.

[Deleted]

Surprisingly enough, English is the hardest to learn language.

That explains why nearly the entire world population has a basic knowledge of English... You should try Icelandic, I once heard that was actually one of the hardest languages to master. Don't quote me on it though, I don't remember where I heard it.

[Zka]

Surprisingly enough, English is the hardest to learn language.

English is easy to learn but extremely hard to master.
Language difficulty is greatly influenced by your native language. It's easier to learn a language that is related to your native one.