Fun games for language learning and WAR!

I was just doing some research on simulation games and language learning, to see what is out there, what's being done with the beginning learners, and WHOA!




I was a little surprised to run across a simulation game being used in military training, available in "Tactical Iraqi", "Tactical Pashto", "Tactical French" (they make a point that it is an African variety, not European... so I guess they can sleep safely in Paris for now), and coming soon in "Tactical Dari"! Tactical is the new "communicative", right?

The simulation game seems to serve its purpose too: some have learned more in one day playing the game than during a whole tour overseas (per the promotional video).

I wonder how we would feel about another country using a "Tactical English" videogame where the avatar is dressed in military getup, and the American responds becomes uncooperative when the rules are not respected.

The game designers made great efforts to respect the culture and individual differences (they mention this in the civilian version, "Mission to Iraq"), but some of us just won't ever be pleased when culture and interaction are reduced to prescriptive actions... But, in reality, some cultural and linguistic features are "fixed", and if this provides a means of learning about the culture and acquiring language, that is certainly a plus.

My main concern is that the learning not be LIMITED to the videogame, and I fear that with the military, the game is IT. By taking language learners out of contact with a teacher, they are only able to learn the set of skills the computer programmers included in the game- there is no dynamic aspect to the learning. The cultural learning is largely facultative to accomplishing the mission, rather than as a real context to language.

This is a decent, developed example of a beginning level language simulation game... with some sticky cultural implications.

obsession with foreign script tattoos

foreign is exotic, cool (at least in some contexts): especially foreign script tattoos, that hopefully mean what you expect them to... People are essentially decorating their bodies with words, letters, that they are unable to read. Can you imagine someone in Japan having A B C tattooed down his neck? on his shoulder?

Here's one tattoo artist who's tired of the foreign language tattoo fad.

Some even point out the flaws in foreign language body art.

Or how about some errors in English language tattoos done abroad?

:)

I guess I'm no one to talk- I sometimes wear a Mah Jong tile around my neck because I think it looks nice. I don't know if I'd tattoo it onto my skin though, especially if I wasn't 100% sure the script was accurate...

A challenge to religious stereotypes?

This New York Times piece on the Turkish head scarf debate presents one side to the Turkish religious and political situation. Here, it is the religious outsiders pushing for tolerance in a secular state, much like what you could imagine in the US. Only this is not the US- and it is not the Middle East either (at least not the one we're used to seeing on TV).

The head scarf is a very political and symbolic issue in Turkey, and even if Turkey boasts its own Starbucks and TGI Fridays, we can't expect Turkey to react the same way we might to a statement. In Turkey, the statement made by a woman wearing a head scarf is charged, and often it is not a statement, but rather characteristic of an uneducated, poor, rural lifestyle. (this is what I've gathered from several conversations with my turkish friend)

so...you can tell what the NYT writer's position is, and that my friend's is quite different. If anything, getting my friend's opinion on the article showed me how colored our "American lens" can be.

Playing with language 101

I've seen this video presented in at least 3 different contexts now (all scholarly- a class, a conference, a lecture), each time interpreted in a different light:




"Isn't it great, they're having fun with language! Better than nothing, right?"

"A jibe at the decontextualized language students get in the classroom."

"What does this say about how the American mainstream views the utility of language learning"

(ok, I admit it, the last one was my own reflection, but I brought it up in one of these contexts)

Not that this video necessarily needs to be over-analyzed, but it presents an opportunity for reflection.

Understanding as Foreign Policy: Social science and Language joins the Army

In theory, giving priority to languages and social science in order to create good will in foreign relations (in this case the Iraqis), is a good idea. The military should have figured this one out a little sooner, like before getting there. It's like buying a ticket to China and figuring out years later you should have brought a guidebook and a phrasebook. Except you didn't take guns on your vacation to China.

So, they finally got the message, now they have to figure out how to integrate some relatively liberal-thinking, educated scholars who appreciate other cultures into the military. Maybe they need to hire a social scientist who can help them integrate these social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists).


Wired article

New Yorker article

New York Times article

Newsweek article

Link to discussion about ethics

Spanish = illegal!

Another argument for English only, folks! (please note the sarcasm!)

MSNBC article

Lithuania v Poland

I stumbled over this video, (completely uninteresting)-



but if you read the comments below it on youtube, the Lithauanian-Polish tension is evident. The person who posted this video of 2 stumbling drunkards under the title "Lithuanian Umbrella" claims to be from Poland- the comments go back and forth (these are just a few, in English):
"typical lithuanian fold"
"THIS IS NOT LITHUANIANS!!!"
"Its not lithuanians. Rated 1* for trying make bad name for Lithuania. Pole I think.(no doubt) Lithuanians could standup "
"these arent Poles...they would walk or lie...these must be lithuanians"
"These are Poles, no doubt. Lithuanians would be able to stand up and walk straight with that much alcohol."
"verdammt polen !Damn polen guys !
these guys are not Lithuanian man u bastard!
pakeisk pavadinima durniau !"
"omg its wasnt in Lithuania :D just polish can be soooo drunk.."

One small reason to get behind Obama

I preface this by saying that I'm not an Obama supporter (and less of a McCain supporter), but here's one thing he got as right as you could expect from a politician:



It would have been nice to elaborate on why we should learn Spanish (or any other language), besides measuring up to our European counterparts. (And we wouldn't want to look bad compared to Europeans! It might destroy our American sense of being the biggest, best, smartest, richest, ...)

Which language is better? Russian, of course!

I found this flyer in the bathroom stall of the language building on campus. Intriguing- someone went to the trouble of creating this document, with images and apparently real quotes from TA evaluations... but who did it? The TA who received these comments? Are they all from one TA (though I'm sure all TAs of Russian 101 are "better")? An enterprising, lone TA trying to sell Russian 101? Or a powerful professor looking to boost numbers? I wonder when they posted this flyer- it must have been a couple weeks ago, at the beginning of the semester. Why did they choose to advertise Russian 101 in the restroom? Did they post similar advertisements in the men's restroom? Were there more in other places? This is the first time I've seen it and I practically live in this building!

I don't quite know what to say about the use of comparatives and superlatives in this document. Better than what? More rewarding than what? Way more fun than what? Other course subjects (math, history, science...)? Other languages?

I guess it's just something to think about when registering for a language...

(does that mean "think about how much more fun, rewarding and better language courses are" or "think about how much more fun, rewarding and better Russian is"? I suspect the latter.)

I wonder why Russian 101 is so much better than the other languages. I guess the Russian language is just... better! ;)

Subtitling...

There's a fad on youtube for subtitling foreign language anything in 'what it sounds like' in English. Example:



I imagine the subtitler is simply being playful- in a way, the subtitler is saying that the sounds of the language he is making a parody of are similar to the sounds of English, even though he knows the meaning is certainly quite different.

If you haven't had enough of the Lega Nord...

I think I might translate some of these, just for fun, but to give you an idea of the Lega Nord's policy towards immigrants:
"Invasion in the classrooms", taken from a document entitled "School: Tower of Babel... about to collapse."

On immigration and American Indians

It's a stretch to compare immigrants to the Italian peninsula to the colonizers of the Americas... Are the people who published this political ad really worried about becoming marginalized like the American Indians?





Or are they concerned that newcomers not be given representation in their political system?
Want more info: see www.leganord.org/

Exoticizing China

One example of exoticizing Chinese food and culture: how are we supposed to see them as anything but abnormal when the media paints their cuisine as "strange"? I thought we were more politically correct than that, or does political correctness only apply to western ideals?