Language

[Bowser]

If you speak more than one language in real life, is it wrong to be able to communicate to others in a different language if you know it?

[Oasis]

In Cantr, yes.......if your character hasn't had the opportunity to learn it in-game.

[SCUBA]

In Cantr, yes.......if your character hasn't had the opportunity to learn it in-game.

Oasis! Can you please, as a PD member, define "learn it in-game", as this is somewhat the center of the now stopped discussion about the possible CRB when a Swedish character named a raker with a turkish name, after he thought the character had learned enough turkish in-game to do so.

(puhhh, long sentence)

How much learning in-game must a character have done to be able to speak more free, using OOC knowlage like own language knowlage by player or OOC dictionaries or online translation services? Can this be used after a cantr year of living in a bi-lingual location. Maybe ten cantr years? Does it depend on how much speaking it is around the character during the time he live in the bi-lingual location. Must he train the language, speaking it awkardly at start and then better and better. Or? Can he just use the very words that he learned in-game?

[Skulty]

Well, I know nothing about those rules, but I can tell you one thing. If you don't try really hard to learn a language you don't know OOCly, not even ten Cantr years are enough! Well, of course, if the languages are similar, it's not so hard, but I, as a portuguese player, have been trying for a long long time to learn lithuan and all I know is what's in the dictionnaries we made. Of course I have not lost hours a day to learn it or it would be faster but I'm trying to learn it naturally and it's not easy at all...

[SekoETC]

In my opinion, you should keep a list of all the sentences/words you have heard. Though at first you should only be able to use and understand the words that have especially been taught to you by pointing, explaining carefully and such, later it might be ok to extend to using the rest of the words/phrases you have heard, even if you had used a translator (or off-game studies) to understand them. But you shouldn't use words you have never heard ingame, such as that famous kabukluk.

[T-shirt]

I don't agree. A character living door to door with people who speak a different language will learn that language even when the player doesn't. Several Cantr years (5?) would be enough to be able to understand te other language (use a translator to understand what's being spoken) and speak simple sentences (use a translator to speak simple texts).

It is ridiculous to demand from players to learn skills his or her characters learn. When my character learns to speak Latin that's great for my character, but I as a player should not be forced to do so. I should have the opportunity to roleplay my character, not be my character.

[Zanthos]

I have found that translators dont work very well, expecially if your talking to someone who does typoes :/

I remember some pols coming to seatown and I tried to translate what they said using a translator (yes i was bein dumb) and i got like 10% of what they were saying.

[Oasis]

I tend to agree with T-Shirt. Even if a player knows a language other than the one his character is spawned as, they must go through the very same process, having their character learn the language gradually. And it should be the same approximate time frame for this gradual learning curve, depending on how much exposure they have to the language, etc. , whether the player knows the language or not.

So no, a player shouldn't have to learn the language for their character to be able to eventually speak it. However, use of translators isn't very good either, as they give a very poor and barely understandable version of what you want to say.

Time frame? I really am not the one to answer this, as I do not play in other languages, and have had little exposure to any others........only the odd Polish character who has shown up in English towns. In one town, we worked hard to learn the words they were saying, and in this way, it took less than a year to get the basics, with the help of the dictionary they provided us, and adding things we learned along the way. And once you know the basics, it's easy to figure out some of the other in between words and such.

However, when a character spawns in a language zone, even if it is not their language, but is what they hear from the day they start, one would think it much faster, as in real life, to pick up the language. So I do not think it a stretch that a character would know a lot of the language and be able to speak understandably in a couple of years, and should be fluent within five I would think.

I am not going to speak specifically regarding the case in question, though having said all I have, and though they are only my own opinions, it would be extremely difficult for a player to remember what words he had or hadn't heard in a few year span of hearing a language on a daily basis. So yes, as a character starts to learn a language, they should keep track and only use those they learn, but as time goes by, that would be harder and harder to do.

[Zanthos]

well lucky for me i have a polish friend who i had translate some stuff for me to say, though it seems that it is much easier to associate with the one person who speaks english rather than the 5 who are polish. We're leaving soon anyway, gona be the first people with bronze weapons! (if Cantr Statistics are still accurate)

[Sparkle]

Hmm...so how about this...

Would it be ok to make a Spanish character if you are learning Spanish (and not very good at it), but plays your character like it is his/her native langauge and not like he/she is just learning it just because you, the player, are just learning it?

Sorry if this sounds confusing...

[Oasis]

That is a rather gray area, Sparkle. It is preferred that a player only start characters in a language area where they have a good enough grasp of the language so that they do not require the use of a translator, and are able to function adequately within the language without one. So I guess it would depend on how far you are in your studies.

[Sparkle]

Darn. Guess I will learn more first, I do not know very much right now. I am learning on my own and I wanted a more fun way to do it and what better way than from my fellow Cantrians. Oh well, I will try and study more first.

Thanks.

[new.vogue.nightmare]

The way I'd go about it is: If you can function fine, then Cantr is great for smoothing it out and finishing your fluency. Or something.

[Jos Elkink]

Yeah, exactly... it just depends on how good you can get by, and of course you can play a bit less talkative char ...

And I agree with T-shirt / Oasis on language learning ...