English with Kirsty – episode 317
Board game localisation and how games can help us to learn languages 1/2
You can listen to episode 317 here:
This two-part episode came out of a discussion at one of my meetings, when Harrie shared about her work as a board games translator. I thought this was interesting, both to learn more about this work and to see how people are using board games for language learning – in terms of adults improving their skills, parents with multilingual children, and teachers in the language classroom.
It’s not a topic that I know a lot about. As someone with a visual impairment, it’s hard to find accessible games for me in English, my first language. It’s even harder in my additional ones. So I put up a poll on LinkedIn to see what others thought about the topic and then asked if some of them would like to come on the podcast for a group discussion. In the end, we had 6 people who wanted to take part, so I made two groups. This is the first one, with Harrie, Gabriela, and Raquel.
You can listen to group 2’s episode here.
We talked about:
- Experiences of playing games in additional languages
- Localisation choices that are made to improve the user experience and how those choices can be affected by attitudes toward the original language
- How playing games with multilingual children can help them to develop their language skills and discover more about language and culture
- The balance between localisation and keeping terminology consistent for player discussions online
- How to manage cultural references and deal with names in games
- Links between board game and video game localisation
- What to do when an English word is already being used, but not in a way that makes sense to an English audience
- Why it’s important to encourage children’s curiosity and give them access to other languages, even if you are monolingual and can’t give your children a multilingual experience
How about you? Have you played board games in a language that wasn’t your first language? What did you learn? If you’re a translator, have you done any work in this area?
Recommendations
At the end of our conversation, I asked each guest to give a recommendation of a game or activity that we can try.
Harrie recommended a game that she’d worked on, which is called “Canal Houses”. The objective is to complete your four houses with cards, meeting specific criteria, and before the other players get the roofs on all of their houses.
Gabriela recommended a book with a difference – you have to assemble it and put the pages in the right order. You can read about it on Wikipedia in French or English.
Raquel suggested making our own Dungeons and Dragons character and going on an adventure – something that you can do in any language if you find the right group!
Who are my guests?
Harrie Cooper is a board game translator. She started as a freelance translator around six years ago and she’s been translating board games for most of that time (from French and German into English). She also does proofreading and copy-editing of other people’s game translations. Harriet chose this specialisation because she enjoys playing games too, both with her family and with her gaming group.
Gabriela Kouahla lives in a multilingual and multicultural environment and has many games in different languages in her home (including Romanian, French, English, and Arabic). She has been a certified bilingual translator since 2010 and loves her work in localisation. Gabriela is also the co-host of the PM vs Vendor – team play for success podcast.
Raquel Espada works in video game localisation and has been a freelance translator for over eight years. Over the last 10 years, she’s been playing more and more board games in various languages (Portuguese, English, and Spanish) and is interested in the topic both professionally and as someone who enjoys playing games.
How you can get in touch with me
I love to hear from my listeners! If you have any comments or questions, you can contact me using my contact form.
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