Idea: Learning Spanish by Playing World of Warcraft
Published by Joel May 8th, 2007 in DIY, Games. Share ThisI’ve wanted to learn Spanish for a long time. People in my neighborhood speak it, it’s going to be increasingly used in the States, and it would help me eventually more easily spend some time in South America. I even bought a copy of Rosetta Stone a few years back but never got past the introductory lessons.
This morning I had an idea: If I could find a bilingual guild that plays World of Warcraft that would be willing to take me on board, I would have a place that I could spend a few hours each night practicing my budding foreign language skills. Sure, I’ll probably learn how to say “tank” and “fireball” in Spanish long before I learn how to say anything practical in the real world, but it’s a start.
I’m having some trouble locating a bilingual guild, however, probably because most of their information is probably in Spanish, nor am I looking for a European group, since technically I’m not allowed to play on those servers. Does anyone happen to know any Spanish-language guilds out there that would be willing to put up with me while I give this a shot?
I learned a bit of Japanese playing FFXI. While I cant write anything, I can pronounce and read it pretty well now.
Granted its for game terms so its not much use outside of hello, thank you, eat, where are we going, and a few other phrases, but when your forced to have to fumble to learn the language to talk to a good size chunk of the game population, you make do fast.
Interesting enough, the trend in game now is for everyone to speak English. A lot of the Japanese and European players tend to know more and speak more often in English than the other way around. Really strange dynamic.
See, the problem with that is that you’ll be learning informal slang Spanish. It’s like if you were walking around in English ordering things at Starbucks like “Gimme a huge coffee. Thanks”.
It’s an interesting plan, and sounds less tedious that normal language-learning, but it would probably be harder than learning from more traditional sources/more formal speakers. On the plus side, if you ever want to call someone a ganking fag, you’ll have that down cold.
Hey Joel!
Nice idea, but as Greg says you might learn a little bit too much of slang :)
My mates and I have just moved from a US server where we used to play to a Euro one (Sporeggar) I know it is not convenient to you but… hey. We are Spanish or US people living in Spain and our guildchat is a weird mix jumping from one language to the other with ease.
Some things to consider:
- We are very small now, and with growth we will be getting more and more English-speakers as Sporeggar is a UK server.
- Timezones are an issue
If you think it might be worth a try, I believe you can download the Euro client and get a 14-days trial account.
On a related note, I will be going to NYC by the end of the month and will have nothing to do apart of attending to a friend’s wedding and then do whatever tourists do these days in the City. If you want to speak some Spanish with somebody whith an allegedly “pure” accent, you just need to pay the first round ;)
Ah, bummer. I’d love to join you but I don’t want to buy the game again after I’ve already spent so much money on the expansion, etc. Plus I’d be pissed if Blizzard shut me down.
But give me a buzz when you’re in NYC if you want to get a drink!
That makes sense!
They are not very picky about that, we’ve been playing US for a couple years and never had a problem. As long as your IP doesn’t reveal frequent “travels to China” it’s ok with them :)
I will drop you a line before I go to NYC, just in case there’s anything from here you might want me to bring there :)
Hi Joel, im searching exactly for that, i live in Argentina (south America) and my native language is Spanish, and im looking for a spanish guild. Im pplaying in bladefist realm, USA server, if you want go there and we can start a guild¡¡¡ also i will teach you spanish,no problem¡¡¡¡ mi player name is Liju…..
Guild: Amigos de tu hermana
Server: Shattered Hand (PVP US Eastern Time Zone)
I did some searching on the official forums — they say that these servers have a heavy population of speakers of these languages:
Warsong - Brazilian
Skullcrusher - Spanish
– its been a few months time.. would you email me if you found a good bilingual or language learning guild?
You can join us on Blackwing Lair, Alliance Side, we only have one rule, just spanish on /g. Theres a lot of bilingual guildmates that can help you.