EnterZon.com Zon MSU Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) for Learning Mandarin Chinese Interactively
Summary
Zon is a cool, new (still in BETA), and (potentially) fun interactive approach to learning Mandarin Chinese online. It is an MMORPG, which basically means you play an "online video game" where you are a character in a virtual world, going about your way exploring and, in this case, learning Mandarin Chinese (rather than, say, killing the latest and greatest bad guys).
This is a sweet idea, indeed. I am looking forward to plowing in and give it a try myself. I will be updating this article with more feedback once I have had sufficient exposure to the game and how one actually learns. For now, I'll just mention some of the more obvious "overall" intriguing aspects of this method of language learning.
The virtual interaction with other people in the Zon metaverse is a way to meet people and make new friends who are interested in learning Mandarin Chinese.
Having a totally virtual environment allows players to experience and navigate through potential real-life situations and become comfortable with them before ever actually being under pressure. Such topics include arriving at the airport and working your way from there to a shopping district in Beijing. Pretty cool. It's the next best thing to doing it for real! Which is why this is so cool - most everyone can't just hop off to Beijing to "have a go at some shopping".
Children will be likely to excel in this video virtual environment. Or, at the very least, be interested in playing for a while.
Be careful, though. This might just make language learning fun for all the naysayers...
Zon is made possible thanks to MSU and its Consfucious Institute.
From Website
Zon is a multiplayer, online learning environment designed to teach Chinese language and culture through gameplay. As a web-based site, Zon provides real-time, on-demand connection to interactive learning activities and authentic cultural information. Zon players are motivated not only by their intrinsic desire to learn more about Chinese language and culture, but also the ability to interact with engaging story-driven plot lines, interesting characters, and fellow players.
Zon is built on the premise that learning is interactive. The game provides the opportunity for players to learn from non-player characters (NPCs), responsive game agents, and other players. Throughout each scene, players can engage with various elements of the environment, but they can also speak with other players in that scene or elsewhere in Zon. This allows for players to learn from both the designed game elements and other players. In this way, Zon is designed to provide social and environmental scaffolds to support player learning.
Mandarin Chinese Language
Submitted by travelinguist on Wed, 2008-03-05 17:48.
Awesome Idea!
Wow, now thats a pretty unique idea to teach a new language! I'm definitely going to have to give it a try. I wonder if we'll start seeing more games like this that teach other languages if this one takes off (I hope so).
-Daniel
Nice post. This is one good
Nice post. This is one good way (or the fun way) of learning how to speak Mandarin. Do you know other video games that teaches you how to speak French (or for English)? I would very much appreciate it if you could provide some information. Thanks for posting this. This is a very helpful and informative post.
Stephen