Invitation to English Voice Chat on PS

[Bantam]

Hello, everybody. I hope I found the right spot to post this:

The question: Do you or someone you know need to improve their English conversation and might like doing so while playing on PlaneShift?

I am the player of Bantam, and I would like to start a voice chat group which meets online in Yliakum. Studies have shown that language classes conducted in virtual realities can be both fun and efficient, and -- being a language instructor in RL -- I would like to move this approach from academia into the real world. Language practice of this sort could be of help for those who can't afford the substantial expenses of time and money to attend brick and mortar evening schools or hire an in-home tutor. It could help those whose RL shyness prevents them from engaging in conversation in RL, and those who are already so overworked they need to get in some R&R time (voice chat while gaming would combine English practice and R&R). I think this idea has real potential, but finding the first participants is hard.

This could also bring new players to PlaneShift which seems it could use a few more. So, everybody would win. 

So, if you are -- or if you know -- someone who could benefit from this, contact me in-game, or by answering this post, or send your non-playing friend to this little contact site I slapped together on Weebly: http://virtual-immersion-english.weebly.com/

Thanks, everybody. 

[Illysia]

It sounds like a good idea and free language practice in a setting you already use is valuable.

[Volki]

But I already speak English.

[Rigwyn]

It sounds like somebody has made an account just to advertise their product.

Do you really want people with no interest in the game joining just so they can learn English?

RolePlayer: You there! Did you see which way the bar wench ran?
Noob: ^V
Noob: ^C^V
Noob: putain!
Noob:
""Hello fellow gamer. I don't role play or grind or anything, I'm just here to learn^M English. I prefer to speak with native English speakers only." "Do you mind if we^M voice chat so you can correct my English and help me to speak without an accent?^M""

[Demagul Riwe]

I agree with Rigwyn. This advertisement was this person's first post. It might be different if it was someone who was more known and experienced in the PS world and forum. It's a good idea and all, but I wouldn't do it unless I knew that this was an actually PS player trying to help others rather than someone who's doing this to advertise their service rather than RP. Also, as Rigwyn said, it would bring in people who don't have any interest in RP and just want to learn English, which completely defeats the purpose of PS. Besides, I'm a native English speaker, so I don't need it.

[LigH]

I am not a native english speaker. But while roleplaying in PlaneShift, I already learned a lot about common and casual English. Even without voices in my head...

Typing may be slower, but written English is a very important part of learning it correctly, spoken English is not always sufficient to distinguish similar sounding words. Even though pronouncing requires listening to a good speaker, I believe you can't learn a language by listening only. You may know issues like "could of" instead of "could have" (and I find it amusing that "native speakers" possibly make this kind of mistake more often than foreigners).

[Jawir]

It sounds like somebody has made an account just to advertise their product.

For the sake of truth, I have to say I have seen quite often a character named Bantam playing in the last few months. I remember once to have seen him at a dev meeting.
I remember him because bantam is a (very light) weight category in some martial arts and if I'm not wrong the character was a Kran.

[Demagul Riwe]

Still, this could cause people to join PS for the sake of learning English, which isn't exactly what it's for, and it wouldn't help with encouraging RP. I'm sorry for sounding rude, but I'm not the biggest fan of this idea. This isn't the right environment for learning English, in my opinion, or at least not for joining just to learn it.

[Illysia]

I'm sure there are plenty of people already playing who can type in english but not necessarily converse in it.

[Demagul Riwe]

I understand that, but if PS becomes a game for people play for the purpose of learning English, then it might get in the way of RP.

[Illysia]

Not likely to be any worse than the people who come to grind and not RP. And the people who are there talking won't be filling up main with OOC conversations as the English learning has to involve speaking and hearing. As long as it stays between people willing to participate in teaching others it shouldn't be a problem. And I've seen bantam running around for some time now so I doubt he's trying to take anything from the game.

[bilbous]

A lot of people have used Planeshift to better their English skills. A post on this forum does not strike me as much of an advertising opportunity as it is an extremely niche market. How is this thread particularly different than previous posts trying to get teamspeak and other voice or video chat users to connect?

Does anyone remember Janner? He used PS to improve his English and went on to become a GM. I am sure others from the team didn't let their unfamiliarity with the language stop them from contributing and gained proficiency in English on the way.

[Rigwyn]

Does anyone remember Janner? He used PS to improve his English and went on to become a GM. I am sure others from the team didn't let their unfamiliarity with the language stop them from contributing and gained proficiency in English on the way.

Learning English isn't the issue. It's great that we have members who speak various languages and a community that is warm and welcoming to those who are learning. I just don't think that promoting planeshift as a language learning tool is such a good idea.

[LigH]

* LigH started in Janners Way...

[Illysia]

I would think any kind of promotion would be a good thing at this point.

But, not wanting people that come to learn English kinda ends up sounding more like, "we don't want anyone else to come if they might not be here for the *exact* same thing we are." There isn't any real reason for this to impact the game play of people who aren't participating in this, and, truth be told, many players join the game having no intent on RPing anyway, but they end up becoming RPers after time. It's what happened to me.