Immersive Language Learning in Minecraft -- Clongcraft

[@clongcraft]

Remember: NO META!

[@livedandletdie]

You lot are insane, 10/10, levels of insane, much approved. I had a similar idea back in 2011, but you lot really went through with it, hosting a server, and even managed to find enough people to join for it to be an actual worthwhile experience. I congratulate you all on such an achievement. After all, Minecraft is a great environment for learning through interaction. Via the game itself, and by the means of social interaction.

[@geckwwo]

no meta milk™

[@Curvyfeets]

Got it

[@taube637]

I need to say, thank you for existing, the existence of this server has changed my life (more like social life)! I am eternally grateful for your presence.

[@Frau_Brotchen]

@@geckwwo No orthography juice™

[@rainbs2nd]

I joined the server and it surprised me, it was the most fun I've ever had with Minecraft. In the beginning I was really confused, I'm autistic and I struggle with voice intonation and stuff like that, but after a few hours, I was already asking questions and understanding about 70% of the conversations I was listening to. I created my own Romanization based on my native language and some slavic languages and started organising all the new vocabulary in spreadsheets. I definitely recommend checking out. And a quick funny thing that happened to me: I needed to use the bathroom so bad, I was almost peeing myself, but I didn't know how to say "bye" or "I'll be right back", then I just kept on for more 30 minutes, thankfully I didn't pee myself.

[@Curvyfeets]

Yeah the server is sick I only joint yesterday but I already have tons of audio records for a lot of vocab and what I didn't record I have written down

[@rojnx9]

THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL!!!!! At first I thought it was that you would just speak any conlang in the server, I almost fell off my chair when I realised that the language in the server 'naturally' evolved. It is so FUCKIŊ COOL! (and is a way more ethical way to study of the origins of language than locking 100 newborn babies in a warehouse without any outside interaction until they create a new protolanguage... but its not like *I* would have had that idea) #NoMetaMilk

[@rojnx9]

Ok, I would love to see something like this, but with people who don't know much about linguistics, and not fully realising what they are doing. Like a reddit April fools event, maybe some simple *cooperative* (to promote teamwork and communication) survival game, but the only way to communicate is by using a series of like 7 glyphs (So that a whole new set of rules and words have to be made for a language, other than just an English cipher), and with a HUGE map with millions of people, so you can see the different pseudo-languages that evolve in different areas of the map. Maybe some system to stop people from creating a single information source, like while the glyphs always translate consistently between players, every single person has different symbols that will show on their screen for each of the 7 characters. Then of course make the full recording of the April Fools event public, so that you can go back and get cool information about the variations in pseudo-langs that evolved across the map. Even if you didn't want to learn every single dialect of the pseudolang's that evolve you could still extract data like which characters were used the most in different areas and that could show you the relation between different pseudolangs. OH Then you can also include variations in climate and stuff, so maybe the north part of the map is freezing, and so up there words that describe that environment will evolve. Then the south side is a desert, and so a different set of words will evolve. Maybe in the cold regions you can read what people are saying from much further away, but you are limited to a maximum length sentence. This would create even more variation in the pseudo-langs for the different requirements placed on them. Maybe in the desert there is a random chance of a character coming out as blurry, so longer words would evolve to be able to still communicate even with the missing data. You could also add things like mountains and rivers that are hard or impossible to cross, which would split the languages on either side, like the Swiss alps did. I spent a long time writing this. But it seems sick. Unlikely to ever happen, but SICK. Also Minecraft is a really good choice for anything like this because it has such good body language cues, as well as a good list of things that you need to communicate about in game, as well as a base level of knowledge that every player has about the world, as well as a huge assortment of mediums for communication to use: like voice chat, banner patterns, blocks, item frames, items in a chest, music, all that good stuff. All of these will aid in learning and evolving the language.

[@LinguaPhiliax]

7:24 Figuring out deixis is a cruicial developmental milestone for children learning their first language

[@alsy6813]

You have just singlehandedly changed my whole summer plans in 96 seconds that it took me to learn the basic info of this server existing.

[@evfnyemisx2121]

I actually kept my Minecraft in Latin for quite some time, made me learn common use words like "hama" (bucket) which I wouldn't have encountered otherwise

[@artiomboyko]

Minecraft is one of several things that incredibly helped me with English and Esperanto. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Japanese and Bulgarian since Japanese has kanjis (I'm not going to look up every new kanji I encounter throughout the game) and Bulgarian just isn't an option for Minecraft rn 😢

[@evfnyemisx2121]

@@artiomboyko Do you play on Bedrock? Because Java totally has Bulgarian as one of the options, but it is understandable that many cannot afford that luxury

[@artiomboyko]

​@@evfnyemisx2121 oh no, I have Java (I'm Ajno btw, one of the admins of the server haha) Tbh I just never checked, I supposed it is not there since all the Bulgarian Minecraft youtubers play in English and the approval percentage of Bulgarian translation on Crowdin is pretty low. Thanks for letting me know!

[@evfnyemisx2121]

@@artiomboyko Oh, I assure you, Minecraft has been translated into the most languages out of all games, so if a language is official in at least one country, it's probably there

[@artiomboyko]

@@evfnyemisx2121 yeah I know, community translation goes brrrrr I am pretty disappointed at how many companies (including Mojang/Microsoft with the Bedrock version of the game) refuse to accept community's help on translating their product, and ending up with "professional" transators who transate into less languages and do that poorly since they often don't actually use the product or play the game

[@reelrunner949]

I hope this video has a nice Clongclusion

[@winkydinky1436]

lmao

[@Lizard-813]

oh my god. This is absolutely incredible. I don't know if I have the time or brainpower to try to join, but this is cool as hell. At the very least, it has inspired me to switch my minecraft language to a natlang to help immerse me. But this is fucking awesome. I have so much respect for this.

[@valkeakirahvi]

I've been using Minecraft language setting to learn new vocabulary in minority languages (in North Sámi and Nahuatl), but this is a super cool concept too! :D

[@samuelvancik3762]

I am so happy that you did this video at such a time. I'm finally gonna have a break off school and I was scared that my summer would be spent unproductively, but this would be a great thing to do over the summer. I hope it'll still be of the same welcoming nature as now, so that I can join later on ☺️

[@AgmaSchwa]

They are going strong as of today, this video boosted activity a ton and apparently everybody is learning and teaching really well!

[@paper2222]

this sounds like viossa all over again

[@thevelarnasal]

I hope whatever language it is has a Velar Nasal 👀👀

[@volvagianintendo6465]

I also hope it to have a velar nasal stop consonant XD

[@Somebodyherefornow]

Uvular nasal!

[@konokiomomuro7632]

Just velar nasal is not enough, it must be allowed as AN ONSET mwahaha

[@volvagianintendo6465]

Oh, @@konokiomomuro7632, namely, at a WORD'S BEGINNING 😂

[@mollof7893]

*Ŋ*

[@SheikahMapping]

This video will be amazigh!!!

[@bananacraft69]

Interesting idea but I'd have to interact with other humans

[@winkydinky1436]

this is so fun. i love being a nerd. NERDS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@electra_]

I'm glad I got recommended this video. While I was never really a language nerd, watching Jan Misali vids on conlangs and similar but never actually "getting into it" myself if that makes sense, I have always enjoyed grand puzzles where you must decipher a system. Some of the best examples of these sorts of puzzles are in games like Fez and TUNIC, where there is a fake in-game "language" (that's usually just a new set of symbols that just encode English) that you need to figure out. The process to figure this sort of thing out for yourself is incredibly satisfying, and I always wondered if there was a game that could more purely encapsulate this kind of process. I figured it would be especially neat if what you deciphered was "real" in such a sense that it wasn't just based on English (especially cool since it would mean the game would work even for people who spoke different languages.) In many ways, seeing this immediately reminded me of this idea. The multiplayer nature also seems to lend itself to a form of cooperation in learning that is quite interesting - in singleplayer games, if you were to expect a player to figure out something on this scale, it would be very easy to "get stuck" and give up. But here, you always have other players to help you along when this happens, to the point where you almost get to play two roles - both the player of the game and the designer of the game, first the learner and then the teacher. Figuring out how to explain something to someone who's stuck is a whole different type of puzzle. Anyways, all that is to say, I stopped watching this video like 8 minutes in as soon as it started to show any of the "process" by which anything is taught, because I wanted minimal spoilers as to *anything* if i was to try it. And here I am really enjoying things so far, about 5 days in. Not sure how long I'll keep playing on here, but it's been pretty neat so far. A lot of the multiplayer dynamics are things I didn't consider much going in, but are actually really interesting. For instance, it's neat to see how certain people use slight variations in words, pronunciation, or grammar, to where there are almost several different dialects, which can reveal themselves when multiple people disagree when explaining something. Being able to talk to people who might not even share a natural language (literally no way to know unless I look at their Discord account) is also just an interesting thing to think about, and in general having another multiplayer / social thing to do is something that fits well with my needs right now. But yeah. there's my random rant about this lmao. If anybody is interested in trying this, I would say to give it a go if you have the energy. The biggest downside I think is that you need to have the energy to both put into the puzzling out of meaning and into having an always-on proximity voice chat. I can definitely see some people finding the concept neat but not having the social energy to talk that much. But it's definitely possible to enjoy this without having found success learning languages or being a big "conlang nerd" or whatever. If you enjoy puzzling out systems (especially if you like games where you need to take notes), you got this.

[@jan_Masewin]

Peeps, this is a perfect thing to do yourselves with the toki pona translation! The tiny vocabulary makes it possible to work out most of it using context

[@volvagianintendo6465]

¡Dou! ¡Nuevo “dakimakura” de Lapis! 😮😂❤🎉 Además, ¡esta introducción con el trombón estuvo divertidísima!

[@gigonio]

I can show you the world!!! 🎵

[@hexlart8481]

Oh god this sounds so cool, I really wanna try it out but unfortunately I'm just very busy and also actively learning a language atm so idk how much extra brain bandwidth I have. Gonna bookmark this tho and maybe one day.

[@yoinki_sploinki]

Okay so this is boutta be a really long winded story but just bear with me. So I'm making a conlang for an alien species who uses base 18, and I was working with awkwords because of course. So I need 18 one syllable words for their numbers, and I put in all the letters to see what their numbers sound like. And now, their word for IIIIIIIIII is now nguh. I kid you not. for those of you who actually read this, remember that this just goes to show that nguh is a 10/10.

[@SeoDeadeHenn]

35:35 real [ʔyː˩˩˥] moment

[@JohnReaper-zd9ds]

I love that one of the banner symbols is just the English flag

[@Curvyfeets]

You should play the server That banner has a real meaning which is not anything to do with the English I am not allowed to tell you but I do recommend joining

[@EchoLog]

BRASS PLAYERS UNITE Trumpet here.

[@AgmaSchwa]

Ayyy, maybe I'll do trumpet as the intro for the next video, haha

[@EchoLog]

@@AgmaSchwa brass conlang o_o

[@joshuachan6317]

#NoMetaMilk ❤ Joined the server since this video is published (4 weeks) All the players are really nice Now I can say some clong and read basic banners Now the “thought that ‘thank you’ means ‘meat’ ” part is just hilarious to me 😂😂😂 But don’t worry, because everyone goes through this phrase of learning

[@olympiadeverre]

Minecraft and language learning are such a surprisingly great combo, it seems like every time I turn around I see something linking the two! This is amazing, what a unique and fun-looking/sounding experience

[@abendregen5211]

Oh I remember this! I had joined like 2-3 years ago, maybe more. Was tons of fun, shame I left when I did

[@devofficialchannel]

When you played the trombone, I am happy.

[@deusexmaximum8930]

The caps lock thing shows true commitment. Respect.

[@reelrunner949]

NO META MILK

[@digital_matt]

much respect for pulling out the trombone

[@Doormin]

Found this video relatively late but I joined and am having so much fun! Honestly one of the most mindblowing experiences ive ever had in a game.

[@captainyulef5845]

#NoMetaMilk

[@gigonio]

#NoMetaMilk

[@volvagianintendo6465]

Oh, no! I realised that there's THAT dog face at the right upper corner at 1:06 LOL 😆

[@thekingofcats27]

If I joined this server or there was a similar one I joined, I would start sounding like that one DJ Khaled clip when I learned the phrase for, "what is this?"

[@noahisunknown]

Okay! Just drop the trumpet, nobody has to get hurt!

[@the_unforseen8224]

Current favorite conlang channel is a tie between you and mr. Quimby currently

[@SeoDeadeHenn]

#NoMetaMilk

[@pallasproserpina4118]

i am so excited to join this server

[@soIzec]

Me on my way to make my own dialect like

[@dooreric6362]

solzec istg, ik im 4 months late but istg (prof)

[@Frau_Brotchen]

solzec istg, ik im 9 months late but istg (azi)

[@yefr8r]

this reminds me of viossa. i love it

[@volvagianintendo6465]

#NoMetaMilk

[@aro4cinglife]

[insert non-shadowbaned hashtag] nometamilk

[@lizoliver3021]

you look like a villain ranting with the glasses and gestural trombone

[@VelaiciaCreator]

The volume mixing is making it hard to comprehend anyone speaking. The music overpowers my focus hardcore. Speech is complex, music is simple, lowering simple sounds to register will allow one to shift attention to the complex. Much like how your internal monologue takes a back seat to when other people are talking around you.

[@DoktorBeta]

this looks cool. i want to join but i see this on my day of Dizziness And Sickness... :(

[@AgmaSchwa]

It'll still be here when you're better! (get well soon btw)

[@LinguaPhiliax]

#NoMetaMilk

[@anak_kucing101]

We need a mod of Minecraft that emulates professions, so we learn vocabulary from every day activities.

[@rogercruz1547]

I wish I had free time to code one

[@hmnsdnssx]

I joined after seeing this last night and to be honest it was so daunting and scary I almost decided it wasn't for me and I didn't think I did very well bc I didn't end up learning a single sentence but after rewatching this video I feel a lot better haha

[@shana2820]

Conlang obuge? *are they speaking a conlang?*

[@artiomboyko]

Yesssssir

[@the-bruh.cum5]

This truly is one of the clongiest moments of all time

[@alexanderd8398]

Very interesting video. Keep up the good work my man! #nometamilk

[@iwaju9227]

lapis body pillow?????

[@Langwyrm]

I got tripped up by 'bye bye 2012'

[@dipie197]

I hope you show the world my little Caribbean village

[@artiomboyko]

Unfortunately, it's unprobable since he had already played when you started building it, it seems :(

[@dipie197]

@@artiomboyko damn :(

[@namaenamae1]

manna lak majlak.

[@qarmiau]

Can I join this without speaking?

[@Frau_Brotchen]

Am late, but you can kind of, I went many many weeks without speaking outloud, it is inconvenient, but completely do-able.

[@trafficcat]

literally such a fun and whimsical server

[@Alex-mm7tb]

Amazing video and an awesome server

[@asignificantspek]

#NoMetaMilk Edit: I joined the server a while ago and it's so much fun, everyone on there is so helpful and it's such a fun experience to be in a situation like this where you're learning a language without being able to communicate back or anything. Thank you so much for making this video and I would love it if you made another so that you can introduce more people to it as well. Edit: Amagous

[@rosemarygardiner4085]

I just wanted to add a little context on season 1 - im Ursa (Gwi's "first teacher"). I also wasn't there from the beginning, i joined about a similar time to Gigonio, but i started speaking Axjel, not Pifdofwaś. Also, although these languages while related, they diverged at such an early stage, they were not mutually intelligable - at least between languages like Axjel and Pifdofwaś (Taapotawaś and Pifdofwaś were tho). Pifdofwaś actually still exists, me and gigionio have kept speaking it, in the same way, developing it naturally. The rules for translation have been loosened, so i can talk about it, but when i teach it I still do it entirelly in Pifdofwaś. Its gone from being a language on a minecraft server with maybe a few hundred words, to a language that just exists in the world, with maybe a few thousand, and the crazy things that grammar can do in 3 years! I havent been on the new server, but id really love to, it was such a lovely place :)

[@lilyofluck371]

I fricken hope this server exists next summer. Would be an amazing thing to do with my free time

[@Frau_Brotchen]

I know I seem to be a bit late, but we are always happy to receive newcomers! Also, we have no plans on ending any time soon haha

[@Illogical.]

This sounds awesome! I want to experience this!

[@volvagianintendo6465]

Me encanta ese sistema de escritura junto con los dibujos que aparecen en la pantalla de la computadora en el minuto 30:33. ¿Qué lenguaje usa esta escritura? Además, me encantaría pasar por esta experiencia en la que estuviste.

[@AgmaSchwa]

Esa es una lengua creada por Maaz, se llama "Nixlo" (si eso sí es cómo se lo escribe, lol)

[@volvagianintendo6465]

¡Muchas gracias, @@AgmaSchwa! ¿Dónde están los documentos que describen este lenguaje? ¿Están en Reddit?

[@ZetaPrime77]

This is rad

[@sharonrollin9035]

#nometamilk

[@Vedertesu]

#NoMetaMilk

[@martinhartecfc]

Someone's going to get a linguistics PhD looking into this some day. Fascinating!

[@szlanty]

#NoMetaMilk

[@PrimordialRoseberryBush]

Why do you have what seems to be a Lapis Lazuli body pillow

[@axolotl706]

#NoMetaMilk

[@carsonpiano1]

Tio estas mojosa! That is cool!

[@burrdid]

Seems like villager speak

[@blueless3380]

I have a skill issue and couldn't get past myam

[@volvagianintendo6465]

¡Sí!

[@Ghi102]

I mostly learned english by playing Runescape back in the day, so it makes a lot of sense that you could use Minecraft for this!

[@nameless4637]

#nometamilk

[@Clover298]

Clong

[@SHRUGGiExyz]

Omg the fact that there isn't any romanization allowed makes me wonder if you got a bunch of Clongcrafters to compare notes: how they would type a sentence? What would be the same/different? Would most romanization follow the same rules as a speaker's native language? How different would the ideas expressed be for each Clongish word be for each speaker? How different would the written bannerlanguage be between each speaker Obviously, #NoMetaMilk so I would imagine each speaker could send their notes to an outside observer rather than actually sharing between eachother. This is so cool, honestly, I'm starting to think I have to boot up Minecraft and get Clong with it!

[@cifge_404]

#NoMetaMilk

[@metaphonyenjoyer4386]

#NoMetaMilk

[@UnderTheRated]

#NoMetaMilk

[@callmemackeroni]

Hoowy, hy hoolah moonah y makoolah y koolany. #NoMetaMilk

[@mollof7893]

Clõcră?!

[@sanneoi6323]

What language is Ajno's interface in I just wonder

[@dooreric6362]

This video got me into clongcraft, and I've gotta say, thank you so much love that server and the people. NO META! (milk)

[@blueless3380]

I don't understand why there aren't dictionaries in book and quills, that would be naturalistic and it wouldnt be that unfair as you would need to know the language to read it

[@dooreric6362]

it's because books and quills use natlangs letters and creating a new alphabet that works in minecraft woudnt be naturalistic

[@mt.penguinmonster4144]

#NoMetaMilk

[@AFrenchEnderman]

#NoMetaMilk

[@asignificantspek]

#NoFrenchMilk

[@jacobedwards83]

ESPERANTO MINECRAFT INTERFACE!!!!!!!

[@the-bruh.cum5]

Yeah Ajno is an Esperantist.

[@flittermouse1233]

The Lapis pillow makes me sick. Just sayin

[@tuesdaymartesvr1942]

do you understand what a swadesh list is

[@Curvyfeets]

Interesting concept #nometamilk

[@Bahrta_sai]

It sounds like gibberish to me... or simlish. I think I may know what "ŝafo" means though, assuming it's the same as the Esperanto word.

[@kilobucket]

none of the words are (intentionally) related to a preexisting language. though i speak this language and couldnt figure out what word you're trying to transcribe olol

[@Curvyfeets]

420 likes