How I Learn Languages By Playing Video Games
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could learn languages just by…sitting in front of your computer playing video games? (If this doesn’t sound appealing to you, feel free to ignore the rest of this post!) In fact, you totally can learn languages through video games — I’ve done it with Chinese, and I know people who’ve acquired high-level Japanese and French partially or primarily through gaming. It’s actually not as surprising as it might seem — a multiplayer online game with voice chat is an ideal environment in which to practice your language skills. Any game with voice chat will do, so long as you can easily find native speakers of the language you’re learning. Two free games in particular make this very easy, and helpfully they’re also crazily addictive!
One thing to keep in mind with these games is time zone differences. For instance, you’re more likely to encounter people from Asia in the morning or early afternoon in North America, as it’ll be nighttime then in Asia. Keep that in mind in your hunt for native speakers!
VRChat
I think VRChat is one of the most underrated ways to get language practice, especially if you feeling shy about talking to people one-on-one. VRChat is structured like a game, and it is a game, but it's also just an amazing social experience that replicates the feeling of hanging out with friends in real-life. People from around the world use VRChat to voice chat and hang out in different themed rooms (or “worlds” in VRChat-speak) based on different interests, hobbies, and indeed languages, which makes it an amazing way to find native speakers from all over.
Once you’ve installed VRChat on your VR device or Windows PC — unfortunately it's only available on these two platforms for now! — you can start searching for worlds by clicking on the “worlds” button on the menu screen. Search for the language code of the language you’re learning to find worlds containing speakers of those languages. For example, if you’re learning Chinese, if you search for “CN” you’ll find the main Chinese room at the top-left corner of the search screen, along with other Chinese-themed worlds you can explore!
Once you’ve joined the world (the Chinese one is currently styled as a beautiful Caribbean resort, but this seems to change every few months!), you’ll be able to chat with native Chinese speakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. (Or just listen in on their conversations.) Don’t be shy — in my experience they’ll be more than happy to help you out! And remember to hold “V” to chat!
PUBG MOBILE
This one might sound a bit cheeky but it’s actually a surprisingly good (and fun!) way of practicing Chinese, if you enjoy mobile games. PUBG Mobile is *packed* with Chinese players at all hours of the day and night (along with players from around the world), and with a quick setting change in the PUBG Mobile app (available for Android and iOS) you can start voice-chatting with them instantly. Once you’ve downloaded the app, click into the server selection box in the upper-left hand corner of the home screen.
Then click into the upper-right hand corner for matchmaking settings, which controls you who get paired with. And finally, set your server to “Asia,” your first language to 简体中文 (simplified Chinese, it’s the second in the dropdown), and your second language to 繁體中文 (traditional Chinese, it’s the third in the dropdown). Or do this for whatever language you’re trying to learn. Once you’re in the game, you’ll see options for voice chat — my favorite setting is “enabled by default” so I don’t have to push when I want to talk (which is often!)
Then, as you’re playing in-game, you’ll get matched with people who speak the language, and you’ll be able to chat with them on your team. Cool, huh?
