Monday, October 13, 2008

Universitas Bellum Ars - Learning Latin in World of Warcraft

Learning Latin in World of Warcraft!

(Ya ya!  I know, the title is totally wrong.  No, I did not take Latin and so I used an online translator...and took at guess at which words to use and in which order.)

There have been discussions about WoW as a good place for learning leadership and teamworking skills, and other softskills, but what about learning a new skill set by simply playing the game differently?   Perhaps simply using the game environment to learn vocabulary? 

You know, after a long day of questing you wander back into the tavern (your character wanders back, that is) to regenerate your health and swap stories of valor.  "Uno cervesa por favor?"  Okay, so that's Spanish but you get the idea ;-)

Hey, speaking of games!  We now have The Serious Games Zone programmed and ready to go for DevLearn08.  SGZ is going to be better than ever this year.  Stay tuned for more.

On a similar note, has anyone played Warhammer yet?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting point. I learn vocabulary most effectively in a social and relaxed environment - not when I'm alone, repeating words over and over!

Related to learning language through virtual reality/online games, I came across this article recently:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081009094645.htm

Anonymous said...

I'm not an online gamer and have never visited World of Warcraft -- but this account makes sense to me.

About a year ago, I started in Second Life. After wandering around for a while (and not finding much in the way of corporate or organizational learning) I happened to discover sites in SL for francophones.

Just by chance, and by choosing among wide options, I've used French more (in typed chat, and via in-world voice chat) in the past 10 months than in the previous 15 years. Thank God I studied some French back in high school; I can almost feel the pathways being cleared of debris, potholes filled in, new linguistic asphalt being rolled out...