How many of you used Shenmue as a resource to learn English?

[Rakim]

I was reading an article about language learning earlier(click here if you want to read it) and in it the guy mentioned using the game as a major stepping stone in beefing up his ability to speak English as a foreign language.

It made me think about all the people in our community from France, Spain, Italy, etc that this might also be true for. Maybe there are even some who got sweet in Japanese playing the original, but they are probably far fewer in number.

Anyone want to share their story?

As for me, I already speak English like a boss and I've never played the Japanese version of the games so I don't really have any cool stories about learning that way.

[BlueMue]

Hey, don't count Germany to etc.

I can't quite match what the guy in the blog wrote but at the base of it I've had similar experiences.
I was already pretty far with English in school when I first played Shenmue so I was able to understand most of the game right away. It still helped me getting better though. That something that just happens if you're "forced" to take the entire thing in English and when you like it, you automatically attach to it and get the best teaching you could ever have!

Years later the internet contributed a hell of a lot more to my English. All the websites, forums and especially online shows like the AVGN helped me to get better and better, way beyond what you learn in school. You just get to know the language much more "natural" that way. Similar to the guy in the blog, I don't think about grammar or verb tenses when I write something, even though I learned that stuff in school many years ago. I just write, it just flows naturally. I don't even have to think in my native language anymore and carefully transalte what I want to express. I just think in English right away.

I also have a little story with Japanese as well. Shenmue II's Japanese dub teached me a couple of words though that's about it. I can barely form sentences in Japanese and reading is even worse, let alone writing. That's because I never cared as much as I maybe should have. I never touched any other Japanese material then Shenmue II, besides the random game that has a Japanese dub where I understand certain words that I learned from Shenmue.

Oh well, hopefully it was interesting enough to read my stuff.

[Crimson Ryan]

The opposite, actually. I used it as a resource to learn some Japanese.

[MechaWumpa]

If I ever try to learn Japanese I'm gonna play the Japanese versions of Shenmue 1 & 2.

[Fenix]

English and Japanese. It was a pretty good tool to improve my level in summers.

[starscream178]

English was my native language, but it helped me find sailors a lot easier.

[Snakiest]

I'm a non-native speaker, and funnily enough, I attribute a lot of my linguistic achievements to video games. Shenmue in particular was an important stepping stone for my listening skills.

[ass_koenig]

it really helped me in writing and orally

[ys]

I was already fluent in English years before playing Shenmue (because of tv and music) so the game didn't really make a difference. It taught me a few things about Chinese and Japanese culture though.

[nskachu]

I started playing this game when I was still a youngin' and I have not a single doubt that this was a reason why I was able to brag with some extra vocabulary at school