New Browser-Based MMO Teaches Mandarin Chinese

Have you ever wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese? (Yeah, me neither.) However, if you suddenly feel the urge to learn how to welcome your new Chinese overlords, researchers supported by Michigan State University and the Office of the Chinese Language Council International have a game for you. "Zon" is a browser-based virtual world, currently in beta-testing, that helps users to learn the Mandarin Chinese language.

Comments

Dialects...

[SomeJoel]

I suppose if you don't like the dialect you're learning, you can always reroll.

Yes, you want, too.

[Hankapobe]

Have you ever wanted to learn Mandarin Chinese?

An acquaintance of mine went to China an she found something rather interesting. Young folks right out of college would go to China for a couple of years to teach English or whatever, the Chinese Government pays them and gives them a stipend (more $$$ if you can speak Chinese too!). They just bank their pay and when they come home, they have enough money to put a sizable down payment on a house and start their lives. And they had an adventure that they'll remember fir the rest of their life.

Considering that the US will be China's bitch in a few years, I suggest you do in fact learn Chinese!

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[QuantumG]

Just don't let them take your passport. No matter how much they say they are required to.

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[Eudial]

Considering that the US will be China's bitch in a few years, I suggest you do in fact learn Chinese!

Back in the 80's they told us that the US would be Japan's bitch and we should all learn to speak Japanese. Heck, maybe we'll be Mexico's bitch and we should learn Spanish? With such confusion as to who was going to be our new overlords, no wonder Esperanto was big.

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[soren100]

You dipshits don't actually think a copy of a passport is worth anything do you?

At one of the western embassy's, yes. To a local cop, nope. That's not true.

  I had a French cop stop me on the streeet ask me for ID (there was some kind of local fraudster that was panhandling, and the cop saw that person talking to me) The French cop said he wanted to see my passport (all I had was my driver's license). When I told him I had left my passport in the hotel room, he wanted to know why I did not make a copy of it and take it with me. He said that it was important that I do this. So yes, copies of passports are important to local cops. Sure, they can be easily altered, but they provide a starting point to prove your nationality and identity.

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[religious freak]

This is for real. China is on the rise. Japan couldn't do it because no matter how productive they were, they still had 1) limited land area/natural resources and 2) limited population, relative to ours

It is a logical fallicy to assume that because this has been predicted before, it is not real this time. The best hope we have of countering a strong Chinese influence is India. So next time you speak to your friendly Indian "code factory" worker, blow them a kiss and wish them good luck.

China has a number of things which makes me think it'll be top dog for only a few decades, but their capacity to beat us is much more potent than Japan's. Believe it.

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[zapakh]

Ho! Konsiderante ke la Usono estos la hundinac^o de Esperantujo en la venontaj kelkaj jaroj, mi sugestas ke vi fakte lernu Esperanton! Mi, por unu, bonvenigus niajn Esperantistajn majstrojn!

Re:Yes, you want, too.

[ShakaUVM]

I have been learning Mandarin for the last three years. It's a lot of fun -- mainly because Chinese people give you these serious WTF? looks when you speak to them.

While the summary is kind of insulting, learning Chinese is actually a fairly pragmatic choice these days (as you rightly point out, China is making the US its bitch) and I actually think this idea of a language MMO is incredibly awesome. When I lived in San Diego and San Francisco I had no trouble finding community college Chinese classes -- but now that I live in Fresno, there's no options available.

ChinesePod is an... okay... web site, but their lessons are all over the place instead of organized in a systematic approach to teaching Chinese, and while its free, you have to pay huge amounts of money just to see what the characters used in the lessons are. It's very expensive for a free site.

Every Chinese software product I've tried sucks (especially Rosetta Stone -- it's terrible), though Fluenz looks pretty good... but I'm not willing to part with $300 bucks to support my hobby though.

I think this is great

[Satanboy]

I welcome any free opportunity to learn a new language.

I might mess with this a bit and see if I can pick up some new phrases.
I hope there are more things like this developed in the future. Games can really bring people together, and language is a huge barrier that could be broken down if things such as this are successfull.

Yah, but

[Anonymous Coward]

But, half an hour later, you just want to learn another new language.

Speaking chinese is good for MMOs

[bugnuts]

Now I'll be able to understand what those chinese gold farmers are actually saying.

Re:Mandarin font?

[Adambomb]

Firefox at least:
Go to Tools, Options, then click on General on the left
click the languages... tab on the right hand side
click the down arrow where it says select a language to add
click add.
then just click the down arrow by where it says "Default character encoding" and pick the language you just installed and confirm it all with ok's.

So finally...

[ricebowl]

...we can all watch Firefly without the subtitles! Is this just a clever preparation for the MMO?

Re:So finally...

[Gulthek]

It's not awful, just a projection of the future of the language. Just as the Chinese of today isn't pronounced the same as the Chinese of five hundred years ago.

Project LRNJ

[Volanin]

There is also Project LRNJ, an RPG game that teaches you JAPANESE.
It is not browser-based, but it is available for every major OS.

Get it here!

And good luck getting rid of all those slimes!

Yes, it is.

[The Iso]

Your passport does not confer the right travel, your nationality does. Your passport is proof of nationality, and you can still prove your nationality by other means. Having your passport's number and expiration date helps. If you have an American passport, turn to page 6. You will notice that the State Department recommends making two photocopies of your passport data page.

Same in Beijing

[ihatewinXP]

I live in Beijing and rarely carry my passport for anything aside from a trip to the bank - but ALWAYS have a copy on me.

In three years the _one time_ I was stopped by an officer and asked for ID he was fine taking the number from a photocopy and understood my (poor) Chinese explaining I just dont want to lose the damn thing.

Same thing though with your housing permits - try not having one of those when the police come by for checks. I got a knock last week at 12:30 AM from two cops making the rounds in my building checking on listed foreigners - I have heard without the right housing permit it would have been much more than a 5 minute affair and more like a 5 day mess with my possible deportation.

Protip: carry a copy, leave the real one at home. If its that big of a mess they will gladly escort you there ;)