Learning Languages Through Video Games?

[@RunItsTheCat]

I swear KZbin is better source of education than public education, just because most people using KZbin are here voluntarily.

[@RunItsTheCat]

Too bad about information reliability, however.

[@Abigdummy4life]

RunItsTheCat That's why weeaboos exist

[@zakback9937]

remuv weaboos

[@lancerd4934]

To be fair, it's often not great in schools either.

[@johan.ohgren]

RunItsTheCat that's an excellent opportunity to learn source critisism.🙄

[@hatemnabih]

"I am a teacher, and I strongly support the idea of learning language through games." At least one said it.

[@CarlMarx]

I can inform you there are several of us, we're just far and few between.

[@marcellessharpe4016]

I need teachers like u

[@GD_Yourou]

Not only that I latterly became fluent in English trough video games and I'm Romanian it took me less than a year!

[@SYSyphysDelta]

This guy seems like the BEST teacher ever!

[@metatronyt]

Thank you for that!

[@TheGuardian163]

+Metatron you definitely sound like you'd be a great teacher to have - everytime you come up with a new topic, I see the title and think "oh God... I'm really gonna disagree with him on this one" then either you think the same as me, or you bring points I never heard anyone else mention and you get me to agree with you. You also seem very open minded and don't try to push things on people, you just bring logical points and you don't play on emotions Definitely an amazing teacher to have

[@SYSyphysDelta]

De nada.

[@SYSyphysDelta]

Agreed!

[@BenevoIence]

I have heard of a russian guy who learned english from warhammer40k. During a test he called a radio a vox-caster.

[@SSVjoker]

hahahahahaha I totally believe that story. Good thing he played imperial guard and not orkz, or that exam would have been hilariously great

[@YoBadMama]

Emperor bless that man!

[@YevOnegin]

There's also a Russian on KZbin who started learning English by playing GTA 4 with the subtitles turned on.

[@ShantSafarian]

@@YevOnegin YES that’s how i did it, did not even know what leg meant at that time 🤣

[@bean_ctm724]

@@YevOnegin so he heard it in his language. And subtitles in English. Or the other way around?

[@panzerpanda5334]

The world really could use more teachers like you, my dude. It's not even just about the games, but the clear passion you have for education is both inspiring and heart warming.

[@metatronyt]

Thank you very much for your words!

[@juliahenriques210]

Seriously. You're really good. Congrats. I've incorporated 1 or 2 of your suggestions into my teaching style already. ;)

[@afz902k]

I probably learned like 20% of my English from RPG games, though this was back in the day where games didn't have actual speech, but rather just text

[@derphamsterslicer321]

Most. Badass. Teacher. Ever.

[@metatronyt]

Ahah thanks xD

[@mydloSA]

Sentinel Reed i wish i could become a teacher to teach my students like this

[@johan.ohgren]

Sentinel Reed Yes, my teachers never played Skyrim with me, or any other game .

[@Djorgal]

As a math teacher I also like to use video games to contextualise maths problems. Probability : In Diablo, what's the expectancy of how long I have to farm before I loot this item and what's the probability that it takes me more than two hours? Optimisation : Should I switch one of my item for this new one? Video games are by essence algorithms and written with numbers. My job is to teach maths and algorithmic...

[@vanoven9205]

Sentinel Reed Hell yeah! I completely agree with that statement!

[@ADADEL1]

I had a buddy who learned English from Bugs Bunny. His pronunciation was occasionally.....a bit off. :).

[@rockyfalldownstairs]

ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh what's up doc?

[@byronwilliams7977]

That was HILARIOUS !

[@gabrielbeanidasilva]

I'm from Brazil, learned English trough watching KZbin and Gaming, and that's why I can understand this video

[@gabrielbeanidasilva]

oh and one of these games were actually Skyrim (of course, many others as well)

[@gabrielbeanidasilva]

and also mirror's edge.... by the way,most of the Italian words you showed are VERY similar to Portuguese words with the same meaning, but some are quite different.

[@Ivanotus55]

The Imorrível Plays BR Same in Spanish. Guess that's because Portuguese, Spanish and Italian are very close together.

[@LouisKing995]

The Imorrível Plays BR So how does that work? Do you watch with subtitles or just listen to them in English over and over again?

[@davibourne3856]

Harry Pothead There is a trick that you can guess more than 1,000 word in Portuguese, Spanish, French and inglis. Word that finish with TY like city. In Portuguese is the word + dade Cidade In Spanish is the the word + dad Cidad In french is the word + té cité. Word that english finish with TION such: option, association, imagination. Portuguese is word + ção opção, associação, imaginação Spanish is word + ón Opción, associación, imaginación. Italian is word + zzione assozziacione French is word + tion Opción, imagination, association and on and on. Of course there are exceptions but in a basic daily conversation we normally use around 1,500 word.

[@Simte]

I started learning English when I had to complete PS1 games back in the 90's. Now I am an English teacher and I often recommend my students to create an artificial environment where they are confronted with the language, that includes all sorts of media including video games.

[@maralenia]

I learned English playing games and watching movies in they original language. it's way more effective than school classes.

[@dalibordak]

Lenka me too

[@phoenixoutoftheash]

Watching KZbin tought me so much more than school

[@joemilton9531]

Lenka I learned the hard way what delete meant through a video game

[@Blue.Diesel]

Lenka I'm not sure about the effecitveness of how you learned they original language

[@Psycorde]

Yep, same here. Though it would probably go faster if i did it properly. When IRL you don't have anyone around to practice the language with, internet helps a lot.

[@j.k.6200]

Mostly learned English while playing games in English and watching movies in that language with subtitles. Classes in school were useful when I was learning basic words and pronunciation

[@NutnRoll]

You learn the basics in class, but familiarize yourself with the language with out-of-class materials.

[@modvind]

I've learned 90% of my english through games and chatting with native english talking people. A bit hard when he's Scottish but I did it

[@modvind]

Also watching whole lot of youtube and family guy

[@herbert5585]

Same here. Teamspeak was my online-class :D

[@kaennokage]

I'm learning more and more how easy I had it to be born in an English-speaking country; it seems to be the weirdest mashup of every other language it can get its hands on.

[@SerKharl]

I remember playing Warcraft 3 from a young age, of course at the time I had no chance at all of understanding all the sentences properly, but I quickly started picking up some of the words I recognized from class, and without learning the literal translation of many other words, I started to pick up on the meaning of some words, and understanding them. Also, listening to the cutscenes would let me read the text while listening to the pronounciation would teach me how to talk better than any teacher could over here, so that helped tremendously. I quickly got bored of my actual native language, and to this day I will generally avoid reading a book in my native language if it's available in english. tl;dr I prefer english over my native language and arguably I'm better at english than my native language as well, thanks to games.

[@Dowlphin]

Good point you are mentioning there: Learning a language that way will also train the ability of contextual understanding. That is something I see missing often. (Even in a Metatron video I just saw him having difficulty with it.)

[@Gew219]

As a kid I learnt English by playing RuneScape. This game is perfect for getting used to new vocabulary. Every item in the game is decribed in simple words for e.x. coin, wood, tree, sword etc. and the grammar is simple. When I started with the game I knew virtually nothing and after five years of playing I was one of most proficient students in my middle school.

[@WatermelonEnthusiast9]

How do i get this game, and is it possible to switch the language to Greek?

[@Ghorda9]

@@WatermelonEnthusiast9 it's an mmo so you go to it's website, i don't know if the game is still active thoe.

[@WatermelonEnthusiast9]

@@Ghorda9 thank you

[@Goddessღ]

@@Ghorda9 it’s definitely active lol there is RuneScape (what some call “RS3”) and there is Old School RuneScape ( OSRS). Both are active and have groups of people playing but there are more on OSRS than RuneScape but both receive updates normally and have populations currently on

[@abyssstrider2547]

@@WatermelonEnthusiast9 AND, there is an game for Android which allows you to play it on mobile as well.

[@groobells]

Met a kid who moved to America from Korea last week. He spoke perfect English, when I asked how he learn he said video games and tv. Apparently he didn't study at all his senior year of highschool and just watched American tv and played English video games, but ended up actually fully learning the language in doing so which is now helping him tremendously.

[@catfishrob1]

Non-English speakers are lucky, because they pretty much get to learn English by default because of how prevalent it is. I've struggled to find the same quality and quantity of content in Italian, for example.

[@Dowlphin]

The key to learning is motivation.

[@339blaster]

Wow, I've been playing video games my entire life and I never thought of doing it like this. I've always wanted to learn Japanese (I've started, I can read a bit but I don't actually know how to speak) and I guess I'll be doing this! Thanks Metatron

[@ApocalypticSnake]

When I was a child, I used to watch my older brother play video games in English and later got into gaming actively, which further improved my English skill. Watching KZbin videos enhanced my level of English as well. This method (I think) works at its best when you are young, because the older you get, the more slowly you tend to learn new information passively. I also think, that learning through video games in a foreign language (and other media in said speech) is more of a long term strategy, where you have to spend many hours listening to sentences you barely understand, which could feel frustrating to adult brains, more likely looking for time efficient "instant" progress. Classical method of language learning gives you illusion of exactly that. Lately, I have found an amazing method, which in my opinion, combines both aspects. It is usually referred to as a natural method, which tries to mimic the process of learning a language as a child. These text books tend to contain a story in studied foreign language, which gets progressively more harder and complex, so in order to read the story, you are forced to learn the language as well. I have personal experience with Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Of course, there are many other languages you can learn with this method (French, Italian, Spanish, German, etc.). It gives you a certain level of fluency, even without conversations with a native (which is obviously the best way). Just for my background I am 20 years old man from Czech Republic. Currently, I study Japanese language at university and learn Greek and Latin in my free time. My university uses hard classical method of memorizing loads of random words without context, which never get used during the classes and learning almost mathematical equations of grammatical structures, which is not very effective. After discovering natural method-type text books, I almost cannot imagine studying a foreign language in any other way.

[@Contentrist]

I learnt my entire English base in Runescape

[@zakback9937]

uh shit here we go again...

[@enemysub9057]

All your base are belong to us.

[@Drethy]

terrorist277 Me as well!

[@selenagamya1612]

"dance 4 monny pl0x"

[@TheMootant]

terrorist277 buying gf 10gp

[@Poldovico]

Your students are really lucky to have you. And considering you have them play Skyrim in class, I think they know it as well :P

[@GCurl]

My dad is from Italy and we used to go there to visit my Nonna every year, i always had struggle with the word "Caldo" since it sounds like the german word "Kalt" but "Kalt" means cold and "Caldo" means hot! Everytime when i ordered something and they asked me if i want it hot or cold i said "Caldo" cause i wanted it cold and then my dad had to tell me everytime why they heated it up instead of giving me the cold one! XD

[@adamantiumreaver4283]

Fun fact. Caldo in puertorrican spanish is broth or soup

[@requiemaeternam3406]

I learned english playing TES2 and 3 and i totally approve your methods! Great teacher Raff!

[@voltaicray6328]

I would have been excited to go to class if you were my teacher in school. keep up the good vids Metatron

[@metatronyt]

I'm very glad to hear that mate

[@maximebakleh8052]

Not only I kickstarted my english learning adventure with videogames as a kid, trying to read the game messages and understand the instructions, but my english skills skyrocketed while playing on the xbox live. Those pre and post game chat I had made me activate my English vocabulary so much and so often I basically flew over all the English assignments one could give me. I now have an english MSc degree in my field.

[@VentiVonOsterreich]

Shit, I'm early, uh... A Roman enters into the bar and orders a martina. "Don't you mean a martini, sir?" "If I asked for double I would have said it!"

[@Mortablunt]

It should be martina. Martinum is neuter, so its nom/acc plurals would be martina. Now if it would martinus, you'd be right. ;)

[@VentiVonOsterreich]

thnx for the info

[@Mortablunt]

LOLus.

[@SergioR00]

Girom Christian Calica i don't get it

[@eragonshurtugal4239]

Propaganda Gerbil martini is Plural

[@Destiny1998221]

Honestly, I would like you to be my english/history/whatever subject teacher. you are awesome. There is so much people can learn from your videos. Kepp making them!

[@Yarblocosifilitico]

I learnt my first english words thanks to Ocarina of Time. And I've enjoyed it since probably because from those very first words I understood how useful it was to speak english. (The game has a button map on screen with text on it that changes depending on circumnstances, so it allows you to learn some basic verbs just by playing it). Actually learning english tho, that was mostly through tv shows and films. (Spanish subtitles at first, then english, then none). But games definetely did help too. In fact I taught a teacher of english the verb 'to sneak' x) Hadn't thought of just describing what I see or do in a game as I play it. I'll be using this method, thanks! What I have done is to change the language to the one I'm learning, usually if it's a game that I'm replaying so I have enough context to guess my way around a lot.

[@tiawheeler1153]

Learning a language by describing what you see/experience in video games... That's actually an awesome idea! I wouldn't mind seeing a series like that (but only if it doesn't take too much time from your off-line life).

[@ferworldgt8096]

Goddamn, This isn’t fair man, why KZbin recommend this video to me after 4 years ? 🙄 Edit: just a little bit of context for those people that look at my comment in 2021, I’m still trying to talk in English fluently and this video would have been really helpful when I just started learning the language, maybe at this time I would be able to speak the language. :,)

[@LuPoN7]

WarCraft: Orcs and Humans has been the milestone for me in the improvement of my English, as I was 13 at the time of the game's release. Fully voiced over mission briefings + engaging story and game, did the trick for me, as english teaching was simply abysmal in Italy at the time :P so, here I am, an Italian guy who learned English through videogames and which has zero to none italian accent :D not to mention Zak McKracken and Monkey Island way before... they did the basics for me, while WarCraft helped on the pronunciation. Aftet that, I turned to books and movies and TV shows in English and now I can say I'm really proficient in it :)

[@rodolfosjeronimo9274]

Yep, please do It. Would be awesome more videos like this.

[@CurioNomad]

This was so helpfully informative, and somehow exactly the intersection of my interests *both Italian and Japanese). You're a fantastic teacher!

[@darthalex3]

i learned dovahzul (dragon language) from skyrim does that count

[@hevarnash5036]

I really like this series please continue teaching us your way of learning and teaching people Sensei

[@kikiwako]

I learned english with video games, that's why I was in advanced english class in highschool.

[@WorkDayPegasus]

The 1 disliker is your boss (if you have any). Very good and educational video. From what I see, you're teaching in a more modern and creative way. The world is changing, and so should the way of teaching. If a teacher teaches that adapting to change is preferable, the teacher should also do likewise (adapt) (from my experience none of my teachers did this). If I had a teacher like you I feel I would have been very excited to learn. The teachers that teaches in the "oldschool" way are very different. From my experience, the teacher that shared more personal experiences than the other teachers with his students was the teacher that was most liked. If you like a teacher (not love, but like, have a good feeling towards) you're more likely to learn more from that teacher, than another that you're indifferent towards.

[@ShadowofSun2012]

"Let's get straight to the point ... but let me draw my Gladius first." - What the fuck dude xD

[@ShadowofSun2012]

"I'm a teacher. *waves sword around*" :'D glorious

[@Smackosynthesis]

Sometimes you gotta hold your gladius. Nothing strange there everyone's been there.

[@danieldiehl6063]

Love this aproach of describing stuff to learn language. I develop educational games and other learning objects so I've tried some stuff like that already, albeit only on small projects.

[@Ehtetar]

It would be pretty cool to learn a language on youtube.

[@quetzalphotos5107]

Love your videos about language, I'm learning Spanish in school and I can't retain anything. When I watch you, I remember things I can not remember from a flat sheet of paper and poorly motivated teacher. Thank you so much, this will make learning Japanese/German easier.

[@DrewsLepetit]

Just several years ago I started playing Dwarf Fortress with google translator. Now I can watch videos in English. But for me, it's very difficult to express myself in English. I just don't quite understand how to construct a sentence. From games I learned only to translate from English to my native language but not backwards. Well, I hope, at least someone will understand what I wrote here.

[@MidnightAssass1n]

Andrew Kleiner if you didn't say that it was your second language, I wouldn't have been able to tell.

[@DrewsLepetit]

Thank you, I'm very glad to hear that! But actually, it took me about fifteen minutes to write that comment.

[@FrejthKing]

you had lots of "fun" no doubt.

[@niscent_]

just do it more often, it will get more natural and easier with practice. i'm french and when i could understand english perfectly, it's through multiplayer video games chat that i learned how to express myself in english. i play osu or toribash, peoples are patient and understanding, i would ask them to correct me when i make mistakes and everything goes smoothly, i have fun and i improve my english.

[@iota-09]

i don't have that problem: for me it's equally hard in english and italian.

[@thecrow1988]

This a very interesting video. As french natural speaker, I keep my games in English to maintain a good English. I love how a present learning an other language through games. And from the way you see teaching through something fun, you must a great teacher

[@GCurl]

Mountains are male in German, so does this mean the Alps are the children of German male mountains and italian female mountains? XD (I guess i should keep my weird thoughts for me XD)

[@Betrix5060]

Aww, that's actually kinda adorable. Not to mention romantic as hell, in both senses of the word.

[@ddev0877]

I am Never bored when you talk Linguistics. I believe language and its interpretation and specially its roots are very valuable to express our emotions

[@GCurl]

¿Qué hora es? That's about what i remember from my spanish lessons after having a break for 2 weeks! XD

[@sevenproxies4255]

GermanCurl: I took spanish for 3 year sin grade school. Only remember bits and pieces and I didn't feel very proficient at it when finishing. But I got really good grades in it regardless, because my spanish teacher (a chilean native) fell in love with my pronounciation. XD I have this tendency to parrot words and languages and mimic the way they sound without knowing what the hell i'm talking about. It doesn't really help me understand a language, but it does help pronouncing it a little.

[@gaiusbrutus7174]

Seven Proxies god i had the same - spanish for 3 years straight and now after all the time I remember only que tal/ordenador and same my teacher was a weird guy and we all had good grades there

[@rodrigobasoaltoc.1743]

GermanCurl es difícil hablar el español, porque todo lo que dices tiene otra definición.

[@prasedomaci9264]

Well, that could be useful. But the only thing I remember from spanish lessons is "Erase una vez, una niňa muy bonita que vivia en la graciosa casita cerca de el bosque. Todo el mundo le llamaba Caperucita, porque siempre tenia la capa roja con capucha." Not sure if I spelled that correctly... or if I remember it correctly to be honest. But you probably get the idea how advanced my spanish skills are (alright, I can order a beer in spanish as well, but that's something I can do in more than 30 languages, so it doesn't count).

[@FerPaleta]

Get a gf or bf from a country where they talk spanish :)

[@Zadreko]

I've started English during my 3rd grade way way back, got all info about it, but started to really understand it and be able to like it because of cartoons, later in life, I've refined it with videogames (especially online ones) where I made friends. So yea. I still think learning another language from hobbies is way better then doing it in school. And it really helped my way more then I can imagine, and opened a new gateway not only to knowledge but to interact with other wonderful ppl. Cheers Rapha

[@BernardoSutter]

Series pls! Because you don't have enough series atm :D

[@Pedroccca]

Just passing to leaving my like , i'm one of the people who learned english only by playing video games... and now i have an article posted on a british magazine of educational softwares and can understand all that these amazing content creators have to offer, keep up the good job Metatron.

[@GCurl]

I learned german through videogames, even though i am german! XD But it did teach me more about our grammar then my teachers! :O

[@Smackosynthesis]

GermanCurl Same here but English. Playing jrpgs back in the ps1 days.

[@Tome13Eclipse]

I was browsing through my steam queue while listening to you and for a second i did read "Reiso of tomb raider" Italian is contagious

[@Josiah04]

if you look at it right you can't see his hair and it looks so funny XD.

[@TheAnarchistBeekeeper]

lol his head looks like a pear 😂

[@MB-qo9wu]

I cannot unsee, God damn you.

[@Dredfullart]

This is so true! I learned most of the basics of the english language in school but only after watching movies and playing games in english I started to actually understand and speak the language. Also there is so much more vocabulary to learn in games that you don't learn in school

[@coryredmr2]

You should teach language on you tube, very fun and interesting video

[@Eroamagorath]

your content is getting better and better! a series about describing landscapes and animals would be a great start for me to learn italian. grats raf

[@sirnosferaty]

You should talk about learning japanese watching Animes,Weebs Say that they learned the Japanese because they know some words in one of the japanese alphabets. Make a video talking about it and how viable can be and how much the japanese from anime can be used in real life..

[@metatronyt]

I did talk about it in the debunking video I made about top tenz video on the hardest languages in the world but I could make a separate video about this

[@sirnosferaty]

I think it would be great.

[@sirnosferaty]

I also noticed something you might find curious, but most people who learned English/anotherlanguage playing and watching movies have difficulty expressing themselves in the language they played. Probably because they only practiced reading and listening, as I did, but if they use the technique you showed on the video they will also practice speech.

[@PROkiller16]

Stuff like that only really helps at understanding words, but they'd probably not be able to have a conversation with a native speaker. Speech in anime tends to be quite eccentric so you probably wouldn't get the same grasp of grammar that a more convention TV drama would have.

[@Djorgal]

Watching animes helps but is not enough. I've watched animes for at least a decade and when I finally took some classes, I could learn to speak it somewhat decently in about a year. It helped a lot and allowed me to learn japanese very quickly thanks to that, however this proper academic course was still required.

[@danielleeper8719]

I learned more French in a 10 hr game than I did after 50 hrs in a French class. I learned important things like, Des ole, and the way that they slur words together, I started to understand French, then as soon as I returned to my French class, I felt powerless because I wasn't learning anything that kept me speaking and engaged and I eventually forgot half of it. I have had to learn and relearn much of French through gaming. Oh, and, A Plague Tale: Innocence is a great game, play it.

[@gijsbrans2338]

I learned english through videogames, movies, music, social media and other platforms on the internet. I also get it as a subject at school but it doesn't help i'm way aheadof that level.

[@gijsbrans2338]

It actually has gotten to the point where i even think in english sometimes

[@devinwicaksono1248]

Gijs Brans i think in english all the time, man, 9 years ago i was thinking in indonesian, and now bruh, im ahead of my class, learning difficult words and some grammars through youtube arguments and grammar nazis in replies.

[@Matthew-fj6eu]

@@devinwicaksono1248 Setuju, strongly agree

[@teodoraalexandrafilip8159]

I learned a lot of English by playing all the games in the Sims franchise. Even today, if I hear the word glutton, I associate it with the trait icon in Sims Medieval :D. People truly underestimate the positive effects of video games. Thank you so much for the great video!

[@lytherael2309]

3:10 yeah that's me. Gonna link this video around if you don't mind!

[@metatronyt]

Yes pelase!

[@lytherael2309]

Sent it to one of my former english teachers (just to clarify I did get formal education, only it was much later, when I was already on a decent level) among others and he really liked it. I daresay you've got a new noble one! :D

[@4evabonjovi]

Nice to hear this from an actual teacher! Tales of Symphonia was the game that originally taught me English (that was several years ago but you could definitely see the difference it made in school since I was able to use some fancy words and sentence structures in my essays) after that I learned from YT videos (let's plays etc). Recently I started doing the same with Japanese and I'm so glad the Nintendo Switch allows you to play games in whatever language you want so I ususally just sit there with some paper and a pencil and write down everything that's new and important. Learning entire lists of vocabulary by heart just for the sake of remembering them for the next test is pointless in my opinion if you can't connect the words to specific situations.

[@Stettafire]

Actually, I have a question for you. Do you think that it is more effective for a student to learn multiple languages at a time, or do you think it is more effective if they focus on one language at a time?

[@oldgoblin7312]

Stettafire depends on the languages you are trying to learn, and your first language. Unless ofcorse you are so clever that you can remember it all and not get it jumbled up in your mind.

[@oldgoblin7312]

Example: an italian speaker might have an easier time learning spanish, so he takes french at the same time. But if english is your first, you should concentrate on just 1.

[@edi9892]

I couldn't agree more. The one thing I'd like to emphasise is that you have to find the aspects of a language that you love. Maybe, it's a style of music, or movie, or a character that you like, with a memorable speech pattern (regional accent, favorite words...).

[@jannietfeld4717]

please contact the extra credits channe and have a chat with them you could come up with some seriously groundbreaking shit together

[@HevadeWe]

I love this! I don't quite have a preference for a specific language or subject, but I would love to see you make more language related videos!

[@crashprime9434]

TEACH US MORE SENSEI !!!!!

[@SpyriFRA]

I'm french, and I studied both italian and english, with, at school, lessons of a significantly higher level in italian. And with time spent on internet and video games, i ended up with a better english level. I can only agree.

[@tuckerrichardson2606]

I've learned a lil Italian from gaming lol very little however.

[@IIARROWS]

If it was through Mafia, it was probably with a Sicilian accent.

[@TheAnarchistBeekeeper]

Was your teacher a guy called Ezio Auditore da Firenze?

[@elioamedeo]

Tucker Richardson that's a very bad idea! XD Just to give you an example. Even though I'm Italian I started playing Assassin's Creed 2 in English. I always prefer the original acting in movies and games, and I didn't want to watch the part with Desmond in Italian. Long story short, a couple of hours into the game and I switched to the Italian dub. The original was ridiculous and honestly, a little bit offensive. It was so cheesy! They talked and moved like they do in american mobster movies! They even put in the iconic "capiche", which doesn't exist in Italian! XD

[@IIARROWS]

Elio Amedeo, "capisc" is dialectal, but certainly not Tuscany dialect...

[@elioamedeo]

IIARROWS They actually write it like that, "capiche" XD. Anyway I've never heard of it. It's clear to me that it comes from the Southerners who went to America. I'm from Naples and in my area when we speak Italian (mind you, Italian, not the neapolitan dialect) we tend to not pronounce word endings properly. So "casa" sounds like "ca", "cinema" sounds like "cinea", and "capisci" sounds like "capisc". But it's just linguistic lazyness, not a phonetic rule, and when we want to be understood more clearly you can see that. In my dialect "capisci", in the sense of "did you get it?", is " 'e capit?". In Sicilian is " 'o capisti?". It was mainly people from Campania and Sicily who moved to the US. My guess is that the second generation heard their parents (who were most definitely from Campania) speaking Italian from time to time. Without any school or proper context the kids naturally assumed that what was essentially poor enunciating was a rule, and that "capisc" was in fact a word. Again without school education they didn't know how to write it, so the all american "capiche" was born. Anyway that's just my guess. What I'm sure of is that I've never heard of it in Italy, at least not southern Italy.

[@raykiller545]

A lot of things teachers often lack, is passion. I'm so happy to see Metatron, he's full of passion and he seems like a wonderful teacher!

[@proudtitanicdenier4300]

doesn't cs:go teach you Russian?

[@bicvoj3592]

TheBeetle lol

[@proudtitanicdenier4300]

my jokes are 10/10 IGN

[@0NBalfa0]

TheBeetle with the amount of hours I have accumulated in dota 2 I can safely say that I speak better Russian than a native speaker

[@fatguyfrommy8421]

cyka...cyka...vodka

[@CAP198462]

TheBeetle you'd have better luck with Metro:2033 although you're learning Ukranian, not Russian.

[@reptile8370]

Yo this guy is so goodd at what he does, i mean Skyrim is my favourite game ever and he says you can use it to help you get further in learning a language!? that's so cool!

[@EirikXL]

But in Japanese, if you say "atsui desu", couldn't that also be translated into "I'm hot"?

[@marcosnosta7005]

If want to say "I am" you need to add "watashi ha" so "I'am hot" would be "watashi ha atsui desu"

[@EirikXL]

And informal when you say "Boku", can't you say "Ore" instead?

[@EirikXL]

Yes but I know adding "desu" behind your name it becomes "I am [your name]". I'm applying the same logic here,

[@marcosnosta7005]

This is a little dificult to explain for me becouse I speak spanish, the particle "desu" is almost the same that the verb "to be" and too means "to have" this concept in spanish can have three meanings "ser, estar, haber". The particle "ha" (wa) announces a subject, if you want to say "I am a man" you must to say "watashi ha otoko desu" literally you're saying "I man am" (reverse position)....so "desu"= it's; "atsui"=hot"

[@EirikXL]

Yeah I kind of get it when I'm thinking about it, I have studied Spanish as well by the way so we have some common ground.

[@yukkalie7436]

mind is officially blown. Thanks for the suggestion on usin video games as a learning tool. and I think that it would be quite interesting if you turned it into a series as well.

[@LordVltor]

Annnd I think you're a great teacher, Met. Your language videos are magnificent.

[@HeiniSauerkraut]

exact. I have vastly improved my english by playing comuter games back in the 1980s. I was a below average student, because I was lazy. At this time almost all games were in english, and I liked adventure games early rpgs and strategy. To understand what was going on, I took my dictionary. This vastly improved my vocabulary and I became a good student in english. Today I watch many english yoztube videos related to my hobbies, which are martial arts, firearms, history and politics. I also like your linguistic videos. I learn ervery day a bit more. Fun is the key for learning

[@mr.harkin2041]

Dear metatron, as a college latin student this is probably one of the best advice I've heard to help me learn the language. Please continue this and I would be honored to be a student. Thank you very much!

[@Luigi30011]

A very good way to teach a language!!! I liked a lot the idea of teach vocabulary through Skyrim, also having videogames with a lot of dialogues can help with vocabulary. Also Minecraft can help with it, making students to follow instructions in a simple map.

[@emmaolivas865]

I use to desagree with the idea that students could actually learn english grammar using a video game, but now that I have watched this video it is possible for them to learn grammar as well and not just concepts that can be repetitive during the game. This video was much of help to base the class not just in a conventional class where students get bored, but to have an innovated and fun class.

[@svo4459]

I was already doing this, but there were some nice tips here. I'm sure many more will appreciate them.

[@Fettman501]

I learned the phrase, "Хорошо! я сдаюсь!" by subduing enemies in SOCOM: Combined Assault. Hearing the phrase over and over in an engaging scenario with subtitles made learning it a breeze, even if I have no clue how to write it without using Google Translate.

[@TheXDeathXGod]

I really wish i could have had a teacher like you. I actually love learning, but i hated every year through school because it was so boring just reading from textbooks. It's also very entertaining watching your arms while you talk xD.

[@MrJay1El]

Having learned english through video games I always knew it was possible, but it's still awesome to see such a great linguist as yourself state it out loud (I too am not a fan of the traditional way of teaching). Not only that, but I'm also studying to be a portuguese teacher, which made your video that much more instructive. Thanks for sharing your knowledge =)

[@Spacewolves]

Please do a series language learning series! Pick a popular game, and walk us through the basics!

[@irenedp3980]

I am an spanish native speaker and I agree completely with you. Since i was a child i started learning english mostly with songs and movies, and when i grew up i continued to learn languages with videogames and actually i found your video because i am about to finish my career in Translation and i would love to do my final thesis about this topic. Thank you so much.

[@darthvictor001]

It is effective. My parents encouraged watching English movies with Dutch subtitles instead of voice-overs. That way you match up the meaning of the dialogue with the subtitles. Same goes for dialogue in videogames. When I was playing on my Playstation 1 and 2, I could recognize some of the words. 'Options' is similar to the Dutch 'opties' for example. Also just trying things out and seeing what the consequences were in-game really helps. All of this gave me a head start and I was able to speak English on a basic level when I was 9 or 10 years old.

[@Rvndrkk]

Not only did I learn English from gaming but some history aswell. Ofc history not directly from gaming but many games often have some interesting stuff that has some kind of relations to some history I might be interested in aaand then its google time :D. Even this channel I found out because googling something about some history related stuff and now this is one of my favorite channels :)

[@redchris7352]

3:29, this is something I absolutely agree with Every time I study something that I enjoy, I tend to get really great results, while the opposite is true for when I am not feeling any kind of fun

[@the_lomax]

This video has actually inspired me to learn my own native language of Te Reo Maori (New Zealand Maori) Thanks man!

[@SebaP1991]

Please make a series because this is so cool!

[@henomafia]

paused the video! letting you know that I also learned English by playing online games , Guild Wars, i still remember saying "hello" in "all" chat in an instanced area, and i got a message back saying " nobody hears you" and i had to translate what that means :D , nostalgia... been so long ago. P.S. love your channel just discovered it recently, greetings from Slovenia! :)

[@sethr.c1065]

Man, your English vocabulary is better than most native English speakers. I'm definitely going to do this, thanks for sharing. I think I will use it to practice French, and my own conlang, Holdengradt.

[@BryanKhelven]

I'm seeing this video right now and i've learned english through games since the Super NES era! And is because of them that I'm starting to learn japanese =D And please, make more videos like this! The way you teach is amazing!

[@daswasich1147]

As soon as i started to watch english YT-vids, my learning process of the english language became much faster. I didn't make the same experience with english games, bc when i tried to play Mass effect in English i couldn't advance the story bc i forgot, where i should go ^^ Two years later i can play english games without any problems, but there wasn't a progress i could notice while playing. Please continue this series. I don't think, that i could learn Japanese this way, but the italian part sounds very doable.

[@TheAmbientWarrior]

Haven't installed Skyrim Special Edition yet, but now that I've seen this video, I'm going to install it in another language. I figure since it's a very familiar game, I won't get totally lost and I'm bound to pick up some terms from their familiar context. But having to start a new file again will force me to play through the bulk of it in the language I intend to learn. Thanks for the video, I'm excited! This feels like a whole new adventure!

[@SSVjoker]

I totally agree. I learned English mixing classical classes (which of course are great as long as your teacher likes teaching and you like what you're being taught, if either of those two fails, then classic classes are crap) and also gaming-movies-music, specially story-based games played purely in English which force you to understand stuff, and then multiplayer games which force you to read and write in the chat to do something. It's amazing how many words and expressions (not to mention frasal verbs) I've learned in those games, seriously. Of course you need first to have quite some basics to know what's going on

[@Whathellllll]

This is actually the first time that I hear from a professional teacher that learning languages from videogames can be very productive, it makes me so happy! I myself have always supported the idea because videogames taught me english as I know it now, sono italiano anch'io ciao! ;), since I was little my father encouraged me in playing videogames using english in both subtitles and the dubbing, school only taught me grammar rules, but I did the true learning of the vocabulary and the phonetics on games, The Bard's Tale in particular was the first, it was amazingly funny. Continua così Metatron stai facendo un gran lavoro con il tuo canale!

[@Raptanax]

This is the first time I've heard of anyone else using this method. I also teach English as a second language. To me the idea is simply the logical conclusion from the fact that language is a tool that needs to be used in order to be learned properly, and that games provide an easy context for actually using language.

[@kaelanirevyruun1676]

Holy cow... I came to this video to find out if it's possible to properly learn a new language from video games... and I found a new way to detail landscapes in writing XD

[@Erikaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

Man, I'm digging the new intros you've made. Kudos! Also, you seem like an excellent teacher. I am super jealous of your students!

[@bovrar2nd861]

After 3 years playing Skyrim almost everyday and watching mod showcases and reading their read me on Nexus brought me to the level of understanding in English I have now. The game's books and dialogs are a good source of vocab.

[@takedashingjen4402]

Metatron: you are a damn good teacher. i just came back from a 2 weeks roadtrip from italy. it was beutiful (besides napoli , napoli will follow me in my nightmares) and i want to learn italian. thank you for sharing your knowledge