New Browser-Based MMO Teaches Mandarin Chinese

Have you ever wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese? (Yeah, me neither.) However, if you suddenly feel the urge to learn how to welcome your new Chinese overlords, researchers supported by Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International have a game for you. "Zon" is a browser-based virtual world, currently in beta-testing, that helps users to learn the Mandarin Chinese language.

Yes, you want, too.

[Hankapobe]

Have you ever wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese?

An acquaintance of mine went to China an she found something rather interesting. Young folks right out of college would go to China for a couple of years to teach English or whatever, the Chinese Government pays them and gives them a stipend (more $$$ if you can speak Chinese too!). They just bank their pay and when they come home, they have enough money to put a sizable down payment on a house and start their lives. And they had an adventure that they'll remember fir the rest of their life.

Considering that the US will be China's bitch in a few years, I suggest you do in fact learn Chinese!

I think this is great

[Satanboy]

I welcome any free opportunity to learn a new language.

I might mess with this a bit and see if I can pick up some new phrases.
I hope there are more things like this developed in the future. Games can really bring people together, and language is a huge barrier that could be broken down if things such as this are successfull.

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[budcub]

Considering that the US will be China's bitch in a few years, I suggest you do in fact learn Chinese!

Back in the 80's they told us that the US would be Japan's bitch and we should all learn to speak Japanese. Heck, maybe we'll be Mexico's bitch and we should learn Spanish?

Someone please

[porcupine8]

Someone please create something similar for the DS! For a learning environments design class, my partners and I designed something along the same lines, only not an MMO, to teach Swedish (one guy happened to know Swedish) on the DS. Just the bare-bones outline of a design, no programming, but something like that would ROCK. Everyone in the class agreed we wanted one - some people would even buy a DS to get that kind of a language-learning game in preparation for a trip.

The DS is the perfect platform - multiple types of possible input, including typing, writing, and voice (which could be turned off if you're on the go), portable, affordable. Create a game where you're a tourist in some foreign city and must complete little missions like finding a hotel and eating in a restaurant, along with something more out-there for the fun factor. In addition to language, you'd be able to get some cultural info (like currency, etc) as well as a map of part of the city if that's where you'll be visiting. Sure, the stores etc won't be accurate but it could incorporate major tourist landmarks like museums and historical sites.

SOMEONE PLEASE STEAL THIS IDEA AND MAKE IT. Please. I have no idea how to go about making a video game.

I hope there won't be a quiz!

[Protoslo]

I managed to escape the airport and get to my hotel in the game, but I wouldn't put much money on my remembering many of the specific words that I 'learned' in the airport in an hour. Without some sort of review mechanism, I don't see this being very effective. Of course, perhaps if I play this eight hours a day I would just soak it in by immersion, but I think that it is more likely that I would kill myself from the boredom first. Not that learning languages is that horrible, but this is more painful than just reading a book (well, a book and a 'set of tapes'). As it is, it seems the point of the game is to not starve to death. A noble goal, to be sure...

I think that the game would greatly benefit from a 'journal' function or something that lets me revisit past vocabulary and grammar lessons (and pinyin reference!) if I feel so inclined...then it really would be like an interactive language program, but with avatars that starve to death. I suppose that the big benefit would be getting to try out your stuff with other players...I imagine that at this point in the beta, everyone is too embarrassed by their hideous accents and word pacing to try out their Mandarin on the other players (that is my excuse).

Ah, one last observation. When you 'observe' the conversations, it seems to me that sometimes the two people involved have different accents, and pronounce certain words slightly differently. A heads-up as to what accent everyone is demonstrating would be nice, so I don't end up speaking a mixture of Beijing-accent, Shanghai-accent, and ignorant farmboy accent (for all I know).

Overall, a pretty good effort for a beta, I suppose. Actually, I used to play FFXI in the middle of the night to try out my Japanese--not a very good way to learn kanji, I'll admit, but at least there was more to do in the game than starve to death. Perhaps some sort of happy medium between these extremes is possible?

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[soren100]

You dipshits don't actually think a copy of a passport is worth anything do you?

At one of the western embassy's, yes. To a local cop, nope.

That's not true.

  I had a French cop stop me on the streeet ask me for ID (there was some kind of local fraudster that was panhandling, and the cop saw that person talking to me) The French cop said he wanted to see my passport (all I had was my driver's license). When I told him I had left my passport in the hotel room, he wanted to know why I did not make a copy of it and take it with me. He said that it was important that I do this. So yes, copies of passports are important to local cops. Sure, they can be easily altered, but they provide a starting point to prove your nationality and identity.

How about playing a real MMO ?

[Saffaya]

Seriously.

Having played a number of MMO betas in chinese language, due to the fact they were the only versions available on the planet besides korean, I do recommend such option for players looking forward to learn the language.
Even more helpful would be to play a chinese version of a game you already know in english version, so you have a working knowledge which would make your first steps easier.

Examples : RF Online, Granado Espada (aka sword of the new world), etc ..

A ceveat though, would be the recent and very annoying trend from companies to dictate that all other licencee companies exploiting a particular MMO restict their player's access by country IP. Even though the MMO maker itself never intended so.
This is very annoying and should not be allowed to be, it may force you to look for a proxy service in the country where the servers are located.