You know, one of the easiest ways to help a gamer learn a foreign language is to...right, game. Since my sweetheart wants to learn German and also loves videogames, I have come up with a nice idea to help him: play a great role-playing videogame with lots of dialogue together--in German. I will be there to help him and to translate for him if necessary, but through repetition, he will still expand his vocabulary (and likely his grammar skills). Granted, he won't really learn the right set of words to talk to my parents next month, but his language learning is definitely a nice excuse for me to play more videogames again.
After just a few days of gaming, he is already able to figure out many texts without help. Of course, there is always the odd word he asks me about, or a short text I have to translate for him, but overall, he is doing really well.
So far, we have been playing a round-based game (Heroes of Might and Magic V). This has two great advantages: First, he is able to take his time with any German he comes across, and second, I can use his turns to get some work done. It is fun, and he automatically picks up things like sentence structures and grammar rules--apart from the obvious vocabulary--without having to struggle with it.
At some point, we want to play Neverwinter Nights together, which will require a certain level of German since he can't take as much time as he wants anymore. However, it will teach him more words and language skills due to a larger amount of dialogue compared to mostly short explanatory texts in the game we play at the moment.
Anyway, isn't it just awesome to learn a language by doing something you love?
Language ... the bridge of communication, the magic creator of worlds, the brush and paint of authors. Language is magic. It gives us power. It is something you just have to love.
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