Playing videogames may not strike you as the best way to learn Spanish.

Nonetheless, while learning a language the active ‘learning’ part of it is just one part of the equation.

There are millions of people out there (including me) that owe most of their English speaking skills to videogames, movies or music.

Read ‘Watch Narcos and learn Spanish‘

Spanish Travel & Learn

 

It was either that or die from boredom, remember we grew up with no wifi 😀

There is actually no magic formula for it, because we all learn in different ways.

But one thing is for sure, the more you are exposed to a language, the more familiar your brain gets to it.

That doesn’t mean you will understand it just like that, of course, you still have to do your part.

Read ‘Save tons in your travels by learning a few Spanish phrases‘

But there is evidence showing that passive exposure to a language increases the likelihood of processing that language if a conscious effort is made.

That means that even if you listen to a podcast or a radio station in your target language in a passive way your brain is still trying to figure out what all that means.

Passive Learning is not a substitute of active learning, and no one is becoming fluent by just listening to thousands of hours of recording while sleeping.

Read ‘Shocking truth about passive listening‘

Nevertheless, our brains are always trying to process all the input that they receive.

When playing a videogame the objective is not really learning a language.

You are only trying to kill the boss or reach the next level.

Therefore your brain is not actively trying to understand the language.

The recommendation would be to stick to easy games with obvious objectives at first.

Read ‘Language learning with video games: how to make games an effective learning tool’ from Eurolinguiste.com

The more you develop your language skills the more complex games you can play.

This is by far the most interesting and engaging way of ‘studying’ a language.

Why is it good to Learn?

You will learn in context which is one of the most important things while learning a language.

You will use that knowledge right away, which counts as practice.

The spaced repetition will help you remember everything you learned.

Plus there will be no fear of making mistakes since no one will be watching you!

 

Keep in mind that some languages will be easier to grasp than others.

If you are doing it with a language that has similarities to yours, as in, the same alphabet, the same branch of languages it will be easier of course.

Doing a much different language like Arabic or Mandarin would require better previous knowledge before you can start using this tactic.

But given enough time and knowledge, it will work as well.

I can’t really think about a better way to get familiarized with a language than this.

So next time you start a game you know what to do to improve your language skills.

If you are still interested to learn more about this topic read Cristopher Timothy’s article ‘Can you learn a language playing videogames? What the research says‘