5 best games for learning English

foreword

Immediately clarify:

• we talk about the most common games, not specifically designed for the study of English;
• our arguments and recommendations are valid only if you play with the original voice acting and interface;
• games are useful for English, provided that you already have at least a basic knowledge of the language. Learn English from scratch exclusively through impossible games.

Why games are useful for your English

1. Games combine business with pleasure

This is not a school lesson, where you are forced to read boring texts and do not know why conjugate verbs. The game has a clear goal - to get to the military base, remove the offender, to solve the riddle of the ancient pirate colony. For the sake of these heroic achievements are not too lazy to sit down and figure out exactly what you want from an unknown language. Put the game on pause and look for word translations. More importantly, the successful completion of the job is the player positive emotions and encourages the continuation of the game and, as a consequence, further study of English.

2. Games teach you new words

New vocabulary is constantly heard in dialogues and flashes in the inventory. Words are easy to remember because of their frequent repetition, but also because they are really needed here and now.

3. Games are interactive

Unlike film or seriesIn the game you willy-nilly have to interact with other characters: to follow their directions, choose a line of dialogue in the branches. Committing any action, you immediately get a response, including verbal. Fired from a pistol on a busy street? You hear the cries of «Call the cops!». Subcategory right at his attacker during a football game? Commentator exclaim: «Oh, what a terrible foul!». In addition, the game usually takes much more time than the movies, on average 10-15 hours. Therefore gamers easier to get used to the pronunciation and the voices of the characters begin to better understand them.

4. Games diverse

Medieval conflicts, futuristic war, detective investigation, shootouts - a list of the subjects you can continue. Language in these games is very different: the accents vary from English uneducated peasants from "The Witcher" to California teens dialect of Watch Dogs 2. Sometimes varies even grammar: somewhere predominant language book of kings, using sophisticated British times, and in some cases - an informal street language, which ignored even the basic rules.

What games to play

The Last of Us

This game Naughty Dog Studios, attended by a huge number of awards and accolades from gamers and critics, is very useful for all those who study English.

Postproduction is made at the highest level, so the characters sound like real people. Takes into account all the nuances of live speech: accent (Joel from Texas, so he says with a noticeable Southern accent), shortness of breath (if the hero just barely fought off the zombie, you will hear a knock the breath), diction (if the hero talks to himself, he does so inaudible). You will hear a real question, which is very different from the one that played on the training records.

In addition to high quality voice acting in The Last of Us has many interesting colloquial expressions, for example:

• Mumbo Jumbo - Chinese puzzle;
• Now we're talking - that's better;
• No sweat - do not worry.

GTA 5

Why a fifth of? Firstly, because there are three playable characters, which means that three language model. Secondly, the GTA 5 - a game of enormous proportions, in which you will meet a lot of secondary characters with different accents and linguistic characteristics. Franklin, by the way, says the so-called Ebonics - American street slang used by some blacks and recognized as equal linguistic variety.

The game has radio with its talk shows, TV, internet, and even movie theaters. But be careful: GTA 5 characters use an indecent amount of profanities. They will certainly be helpful to know, but it is better not to use.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The final part of the adventures of Geralt of interest in terms of the diversity of the English language. Most of the characters in the game speaks with a British accent, but Geralt himself sounds as if he had just returned from the United States. The game has a lot of text: Spell, potions, weapons, answers in dialogues. You will read in English!

Heavy Rain

Currently, an interactive movie. However, very relax, this game will not give you: there are so many conversations in which you need to quickly choose the appropriate answers. Usually the possible response options consist of a single word. However, do not hesitate to put the game on pause and look in the dictionary: too high price mistakes, because any of the main characters can be lost.

Language in the game simple and not very diverse, so the Heavy Rain - an excellent choice for beginners.

The Wolf Among Us

Telltale Games - cinematic history with freedom of choice. Their gameplay is reminiscent of Heavy Rain: action-scenes interspersed branched dialogues. Telltale has released the adaptation of "Game of Thrones», The Walking Dead, Batman, and some other games. However, we recommend the most interesting and adults from their creations - The Wolf Among Us.

History werewolf Bigby, who lives in the harsh, though a fantastic, world, told in ordinary human language, and thanks to a comic style you can always understand what is happening on the screen.

helpful hints

1. Play carefully and actively: try to understand the story, do not miss the rollers, check the meaning of unfamiliar words.

2. It is best to take the English games that you have already passed earlier with Russian localization. So you remember about what was discussed in a given moment, and it will be easier to understand the original text.

3. If you are very hard, you can use Russian subtitles. It will be up to date with what is happening and quickly translate unknown words. Be careful: localization is not always verbatim, some original phrases can be translated not very close to the text.

4. And most importantly: the game alone will not help you to speak English on a par with native speakers. It is necessary to strike a balance between the traditional academic approach (group lessons, performing grammar exercises, etc.) and entertainment. Therefore, the game can only be considered as a nice additional tool for language practice.