Challenge Learn a Language, Play Pokemon!!?

Because who even needs Rosetta Stone??

Being a good ol' Canadian I took french in elementary school till I was in 6th grade. I haven't had much reason to know the language since then, but I remember enough- so I'm thinking, with the 6th gen's options to have the games in multiple languages- would anyone like to start a foreign language challenge with me?

All you really need is a new game and an online dictionary.

I would start with French and then if it goes well try my hand at German (took a year in high school) and perhaps Spanish (Cus "Hola Que Tal?"). I'm aware that it's a little ambitious- but if I was just going to farm leftovers anyway, I might as well educate myself a little.. TAKE THAT MOM!!

So, who's with me??
 
i played through in spanish and had a very tough time at first, but after a while its instinctual just like playing in english!
 
I like the idea of reading through the story to a game for children in another language to learn it but for the battle system, I'm probably not going to need to learn Hydro Pump for another language. Maybe if there was a mod game where "Bus Stop" was a viable move this would be a great idea.
 

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Sounds like a cool idea! I did this in Yellow years ago, back when I was 8 or 9 I think, and it was very fun. Needed a dictionary to get through the more uncommon words we hadn't learnt in school yet, but after a while I got a grasp on the language and have been playing the games in English ever since.

Mainly because the games don't exist in Norwegian.
 
I like the idea of reading through the story to a game for children in another language to learn it but for the battle system, I'm probably not going to need to learn Hydro Pump for another language. Maybe if there was a mod game where "Bus Stop" was a viable move this would be a great idea.
I was thinking the same thing but "Hydrocanon" the french version of HydroPump tells me (with some dictionarying) that Hydro- is going to be the same in French and "Cannon" can be used as either "Gun" "Cannon" "Barrel" or probably in this case-- "Spout"
 
Alors mes amis!!
I began Pokemon Y in French, and I've got to say it's started off pretty well. The easiest part has actually been the story, while the hardest has been battle. Some of the names of attacks even whilst translated make little sense, also some fairly hilarious translations have been found
One of the more crass/lewd ones that I've discovered early on is the attack "Lick" which in French is "Lechouille"
A quick google search led to the discovery that the suffix "ouille" is like adding "y" to the end of a word So Lecher (Lick) + Ouille (y) = Lechouille (Licky)
Academia at it's finest- now for the lewd part. Lechouille is apparently common french slang for the act of going down on a lady :p (see what I did there!!?)

All sexual references aside, I think the best part of the game has been how "magical" the universe seems. As if it was meant to be played in French.
I also quite like how certain pokemon's names are the exact same (Pikachu, Skitty, Azurill, Flabebe) and then some are different but pretty cool like "Bulbizzare"

TL,DR: 1) French game designers/ the language team have dirty minds 2) Kalos seems more organic and magical when played in French
 
New development!!

Ralts in French is called "tarsal" which was sort of bizarre because that means a foot bone in English (If I'm not mistaken)
I noticed however, that it's a loose anagram of Ralts.. But is also an anagram of ASTRAL
Wow origin of Ralts' name wow crazy.

EDIT:
Bulbadpedia's Ralts "other language" names
LanguageTitleMeaning
Japaneseラルトス RaltsFrom astral, relate, and waltz
FrenchTarsalPossibly an anagram of astral, as in astral body.
SpanishRaltsSame as English name
GermanTraslaPossibly an anagram of astral, as in astral body.
ItalianRaltsSame as English name
Korean랄토스 RaltosTransliteration of its Japanese name
 
I've been doing this for years with the Japanese versions. Get to play the game early + learn a language = win win. Pokemon is pretty easy without knowing the language though. Just look at the base power and type of a move and you can tell what it is.
 
I'm thinking of doing this with a Japanese Platinum. I've been wanting to learn the language, and with summer coming soon I'll have plenty of time! Should I do it?!?
 
I'm thinking of doing this with a Japanese Platinum. I've been wanting to learn the language, and with summer coming soon I'll have plenty of time! Should I do it?!?
Absolutely!!!

Perhaps keep a log of it here with witch to document your foreign language travels- travails?
 
I tried it in Korean a few months ago, and gave up because it was really disconcerting :/ Recently, though, I played all the way through one in French. It's a fun way to improve your knowledge of a language; however, I feel like you have to know at least a little of the language before you start, so you can infer the rest of the words. Now if only they had a Chinese language option...
 
Definitely have done this before. I bought a copy of Pokemon Black while I was in Germany a couple years ago and used it to keep in practice for a little while after I went back home. Very neat experience! Though I'll admit, eventually I fell away from the game because it became too tedious to make it through that game's numerous cutscenes while having to read at such a slow, elementary reading level. To this day, I've never finished Black 1 for that reason; I've finished White 2 in English, and that's it.

Fun fact: since that was my first time playing through the Unova region, I actually got attached to a lot of the German Pokemon and place names before I ever got around to engaging with Gen V in English. It was kind of sad when I realized that cool names like "Stratos City", "Septerna City", and "Avenitia" were "Castelia City", "Nacrene City", and "Nuvema Town" in English. Also I will never get over the fact that "Terribark" -- THE BEST NAME FOR A DOG POKEMON EVER CONCEIVED -- is just "Herdier" in English. Sadface. :(
 
i think one of my favorite pokemon names in another language has to be germany's name for charmander: glumanda. it just sounds so nice. glumanda.

anyway, wish i had a game to spare to play in another language, but if i were to do that, i'd be playing in spanish since it's my second language and i'm more or less fluent in it. chaostothemax is right though, it's good to augment your language studies but it won't help if it's your first time trying to read that language. in that case, i really wish the games were translated to swedish, because that's what i'm studying at the moment. and i'd be interested in seeing what names they come up with for all the pokemon, lol
 

dialganet

Banned deucer.
This is a great idea.

As someone who speaks three languages (Italian, Spanish, English) very fluently, I'd like to appoint that playing Pokemon really helps your vocabulary, especially with the Move names and the Dex pages. God, how many words I've learnt just by reading the smog and the Pokedex pages of foreign guys, how many plants and animal species... unfortunately here in Italy, unlike French and German versions, we have the same English name for Pokemon (and I think it had a reverse influence on some names, like Vaporeon, Umbreon... "vapore" means steam in italian, "Ombra" means shadow).

Here are some pieces of advice if you'd like to start a new game to widen your knowledge of a language:
-have at least a basic knowledge of the language you're gonna play with, like the most common expressions.
-read the Dex. That helps, really. You'll have an etymology lesson like, every day.
-use a language that uses our alphabet. I'll never try in Japanese or Korean, unless some day I'd learn at least the Kanjis. If someone is brave enough to do it, congratulations.
And, last but not least, unless you speak a perfect Spanish, do not try the game in Italian, believe me. The grammar is way more complicated than every other language that uses this alphabet (only German can rival, up to a point) and the pronunciation/accent, albeit in some point similar to Spanish, is a total nightmare, especially for English born people.

I might actually try ORAS in German or French now that you gave me the hint, I know some expressions and basic words. If someone, when November comes, might be interested in taking the game in italian and has a wide comprehension of French or German, please contact me, we could play together throughout the game and help each other!
 

Cresselia~~

Junichi Masuda likes this!!
I'm from Hong Kong and had always played pre-XY games in Japanese... and then I played XY in English.
I don't think you need to know much of the language for playing Pokemon.
Lots of people in Hong Kong who don't know Japanese are capable of playing Pokemon in Japanese.

Back in those days when we played GSC, people who know Japanese just teach the others how to count the number of rows, or look for characters that look like "L"
For example, "save" is レポート in Japanese, and we tell people to look for something that starts with an L.
"You know the line that looks like L 木 一 卜? That means save!"
 
i actually got heartgold in french as a valentine's present from a friend of mine a few years ago, to help with my french skills.

my eyes rolled back into my head as i tried to read it. i could understand maybe half of it at best. i put it down for a while [~four months-ish] after the second gym and came back when i'd taken more lessons [both formal and online], and i breezed through it like nobody's business, probably with at least 90% comprehension. it helps if you've played the game before because you have additional context to look into if it doesn't come to you right away. i asked the same friend which language i should play y in, and boy am i glad did i pick french. it is /so/ easy to find foreign 'mons for masuda/dex entries, and it's still a great tool for learning.

battling isn't too difficult, in my opinion, because even if you don't recall what the name of the move itself means, you can read the description and check its type/pp/etc and you should be able to figure it out. when npcs mention a certain species or move and you can't check a reference it could be annoying, though.

however, i wouldn't say that these games are really things that you just plop into without knowing any of the language to begin with. i mean, you could, nobody's stopping you, but personally, i find stumbling like a toddler lingually like that rather stressful, especially [but not only] in more demanding real life situations. the vocab in the game is made for kids, but it's not made for babies - they plan for about six-to-eight-year-olds at the very least to read it, so keep that in mind. i'd take a few lessons on duolingo [it's free, and set up in a game format] to set you up with basic syntax and such first. looking things up in the dictionary is acceptable, sure, but it's tedious, and better if you already know some to start you up.

i'd very much encourage it, though. i'm all for people learning languages, especially in a fun way like learning with pokemon. heck, i'm sure enough people in this thread learned to read in english with pokemon, or at least they were helped by it [i know i was, even though i started when i was about nine, later than most people], so it's definitely a cool way to learn.
[my sibling got a y game but stole my ds to play it and thus accidentally set his game to "español" at the language select screen due to my ds being in spanish at the time {ps: change your console language to the language you pick, too, if you can - i find it really helps}, so i've been thinking about improving my spanish that way since he can't play it whether i touch it or not... can't find the cart, though]



also, the foreign names of some mons are /great/. take lickitung - in german, it's "shlurp," which is funny as hell. pidgeot also took a level in badass for his magical baguette audience [that's french, by the way], and so took the name "roucarnage," - snatchin' yo' people up.

sorry for the essay and a potential necro [it's still on the front page, though, does that count as a necro?] but either way, this project deserves more attention!
 
I would do this if Pokemon had the game in Ancient Greek, which would force me to go through more of my book on it. Also there ARE major differences between Ancient Greek and normal Greek.
I'm also learning it as my second language so the only people that could translate the obscenities I'm yelling at tournaments would be an archeologist or a museum curator that did the translations on the artifacts in said museum. And the language itself has shown me how boring English is compared to freaking Ancient Greek.

Anyway, cool idea to help people learn mortal languages. +1!
 

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