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Did video games help you learn to read?
- Thread starter Mellahan
- Start date
RainbowIslands
Member
Learnt a lot of english vocab from pokemon games when I was younger (ex. "Luster", "Purge").
Gaming is also a huge motivation for learning Japanese. Most notably I really wanted to play 428~封鎖された渋谷で~(428: Shibuya Scramble) and brute- forced my way through that. Now I can go through almost all Japanese media and understand most of it.
Gaming is also a huge motivation for learning Japanese. Most notably I really wanted to play 428~封鎖された渋谷で~(428: Shibuya Scramble) and brute- forced my way through that. Now I can go through almost all Japanese media and understand most of it.
professor denim
Member
For sure. English is not my mother language, growing up learned a lot of my English with videogames. As well with movies, music, comics and books.
MugiwaraCole
Member
Help me learn? Maybe not exactly that, but I suppose they helped with my reading comprehension skills. Some of my earliest memories are of deciphering what the hell I was supposed to be doing next in Pokémon Red lol
NoblesseOblige
Banned
No. But they did teach me that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
Ginger Hail
Member
I started reading very early on, and I imagine Pokemon had played a part in that.
This. EverQuest forged my fingers into the digits they are today.
stenbumling
Unconfirmed Member
It definitely taught me English in a way school didn't and couldn't. Specifically, MMOs had a huge impact on me.
Can I grade this post for spelling mistakes? /s I'm assuming autocorrect was the cause...(don't mean to nitpick but I expect any teacher at any level to have good spelling & check their work
)Great tale though - and while they didn't in my case (I learned to read in the 70s, so used phonics & books) my daughter's reading was assisted by her need to search for Shopkins related YT content.
Then she discovered Siri and I've seen the future as she isn't remotely awkward about talking to the iPad.
primasaurus
Member
Make learning fun and people(kids) will learn faster that they ever had being forced
Seraph_Nicholas
Member
Game Genie did. My folks got sick of reading the codes out to me every time I hit reset (often), so they told me I had to figure it out myself. Learned to recognize letters to punch in the codes, and the finer differences between 'invincibility' and 'infinite' there. Shortly thereafter I was reading entire novels for fun.
nintendork666
Member
I played Chrono Trigger when I was like 6 so probably
Yes I learned English by playing games and reading several videogame magazines back in the day. English is not my first language, but I learned it by reading a lot of legendary British magazines like C&VG, Mean Machines, Sega Power, Edge... and for a long time I read EGM in the 90's. I wish I had done the same with Japanese... ;-)
fabricated backlash
Member
same here, learned the basics while playing Star Fox 64 and Resident Evil. The latter in particular was crucial, as I was deducting the meaning of words by circumstance and what was going on in the story. It basically gave me a robust are vocabulary to later expand upon.
Sure I got some things wrong, but it helped me immensely later in school.
User123456
Member
I'll do you one better: Playing videogames from an extremely early age (I think I was 2 years old when I started) taught me english, which has been an invaluable skill in my daily life and especially my career. Videogames in Spanish just didn't exist in any significant number back then and I'm so grateful for that.
I was also an avid comic and manga reader since I was extremely young. I read these in my native languages and I got really good at reading and writing pretty fast. You might find comics or manga that catch his eye.
I was also an avid comic and manga reader since I was extremely young. I read these in my native languages and I got really good at reading and writing pretty fast. You might find comics or manga that catch his eye.
GankzyMcfly
Member
Helped me learn how to both read and type....had to get those cheats in starcraft active as fast as possible in those vs 7 cpu matchs lol i still remember most of them to this day lol
No. I read tonnes of books from an early age to around 6-7. At that time I was playing primarily on my Uncle's ZX Spectrum one games that had very little text like Harrier Attack.
It wasn't until I was 9-10 that I got my first console (Mega Drive), and by then I was pretty good at reading.
Had I been born later then I could see how they might have.
It wasn't until I was 9-10 that I got my first console (Mega Drive), and by then I was pretty good at reading.
Had I been born later then I could see how they might have.
Possibly, I honestly can't remember.
I got into video games around 94 so I'd of been about 8 years old. You have to read though even to navigate the menu's on some games and understand the instruction manual though I know from watching my kids who are four and six that familiarity about such things are maybe masking there actual reading ability.
I didn't play games rpg's till a few years after which are heavy on dialogue, I probably got around knowing what a few buttons on the SNES did without having to read to much.
I got into video games around 94 so I'd of been about 8 years old. You have to read though even to navigate the menu's on some games and understand the instruction manual though I know from watching my kids who are four and six that familiarity about such things are maybe masking there actual reading ability.
I didn't play games rpg's till a few years after which are heavy on dialogue, I probably got around knowing what a few buttons on the SNES did without having to read to much.
InsaneTiger
Member
No but the keyboard layout card that came with the PC game Time Commando helped me learn to type.
FlutterPuffs
Member
No but trash talking in CS sure helped me type faster.
No, I could read before I started school. I honestly didn't understand what the teacher was doing teaching us letters and making us read along while she pointed at words in a big book during my first year of school.
My Japanese is rusty AF though. My grammar is fine but I forget words, and my Kanji is almost non existent. I can maintain a basic conversation or follow simple conversations in tv/movies, but anything technical or complex is beyond me. Peeps in this thread have inspired me to pick up some Japanese games and manga to brush up. Thanks GAFriends!
My Japanese is rusty AF though. My grammar is fine but I forget words, and my Kanji is almost non existent. I can maintain a basic conversation or follow simple conversations in tv/movies, but anything technical or complex is beyond me. Peeps in this thread have inspired me to pick up some Japanese games and manga to brush up. Thanks GAFriends!
I'm an English teacher, and I almost certainly would not be had I never discovered RPGs. In my experience, it's a very common story -- of all popular hobbies, video games are one of the best for developing academic skills, so they're hugely useful for helping people become interested in learning.
I could read before I found games, but reading was a life skill and nothing more. Reading became a passion once it became fun, and video games were a huge part of that (and a building block: I started reading novels for fun too, eventually).
I'd also like to give a special shout out to pen and paper games. Not too long after I got into video game RPGs, I got into tabletop RPGs, and the language skills and imagination required for those builds a tremendous amount of confidence. For students who don't like writing fiction or reading aloud, TRPGs are an oft-overlooked tool.
Really, people underestimate the value of very simple practice. It doesn't matter that Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is pathetically easy and has a joke of a plot; the child who plays MQ every evening will be a better reader and have better mental math skills than the child who passes their evenings with the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show.
Even as adults, the number of folks who whittle away their reading ability with TV makes me sad. I watch everything, no matter the language, with subtitles on, and I constantly hear family and friends complain that they can't read them quickly enough without taking their attention away from the image. If that's you, then you need more reading practice!
As the medium of video games has grown older, some aspects have improved, but others have definitely fallen by the wayside. I think it's harder for the kids of today to find games that really speak to them; there's too much bombardment from hyper-popular titles. But even so, I believe games can be a force for good. Games are being made every day that can enrich the lives of their players. And of course, old games will never die, never lose their value. Parents: try making positive games part of your kids' lives where you can. Kids have (and need to have!) a sense of wonder that is beautifully compatible with fantastic adventures.
I could read before I found games, but reading was a life skill and nothing more. Reading became a passion once it became fun, and video games were a huge part of that (and a building block: I started reading novels for fun too, eventually).
I'd also like to give a special shout out to pen and paper games. Not too long after I got into video game RPGs, I got into tabletop RPGs, and the language skills and imagination required for those builds a tremendous amount of confidence. For students who don't like writing fiction or reading aloud, TRPGs are an oft-overlooked tool.
Really, people underestimate the value of very simple practice. It doesn't matter that Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is pathetically easy and has a joke of a plot; the child who plays MQ every evening will be a better reader and have better mental math skills than the child who passes their evenings with the Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show.
Even as adults, the number of folks who whittle away their reading ability with TV makes me sad. I watch everything, no matter the language, with subtitles on, and I constantly hear family and friends complain that they can't read them quickly enough without taking their attention away from the image. If that's you, then you need more reading practice!
As the medium of video games has grown older, some aspects have improved, but others have definitely fallen by the wayside. I think it's harder for the kids of today to find games that really speak to them; there's too much bombardment from hyper-popular titles. But even so, I believe games can be a force for good. Games are being made every day that can enrich the lives of their players. And of course, old games will never die, never lose their value. Parents: try making positive games part of your kids' lives where you can. Kids have (and need to have!) a sense of wonder that is beautifully compatible with fantastic adventures.
FunkyDealer
Banned
It definitely helped me learn to read and understand English, as a second language.
-duskdoll-
Member
I think so. They also taught me English and how to understand different accents, which made English class pretty easy for me compared to the other kids.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
No, because I'm old enough that the only language it would have taught me is Engrish.
Sgt. Kabukiman
Banned
I learned english thanks to videogames, movies and comics. And that has helped me more professionally than any diploma I have.