I know I'm a bit late to join the boat but I just wanted to say that as an Italian (born, raised, and still living in Italy sadly) RPing in English I fully understand where Ilwe comes from. And to think that I own all my English knowledge to Final Fantasy.. it's actually kind of a funny story.
![[Image: fymjd.jpg]](https://i.imgflip.com/fymjd.jpg)
Back when I was in middle school (we're talking of the good old 90s here), I was horrible at English. Like, I was so bad, the teacher had given up on me and just didn't even hand me tests anymore. It was always an automatic uh... I think the equal grade to "Gravemente Insufficente" is F over there? I just didn't care to learn.
Anyways, at some point I receive my Play Station one, and with it, FFVII. Italy never bothered translating this game, so it was in English. I played fine until I got to the part where I had to cross-dress. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do. No things to fight, no items to pick up, just a bunch of speaking that looked all the same to me and gave me no hints at all. I gave up on it. The good thing however, was that along with the FFVII discs came a demo of FFVIII, which I enjoyed, and looked forward to play in Italian once it'd come out.
A year later I get FFVIII, in Italian, and have a total blast. In fact, I like it so much I try to give FFVII another go. I get stuck again.
At that point I said "eff it, I WANT to play this". I grabbed a heavy English dictionary (Computers, internet? what was that?), a pencil, rubber, a blank book, and restarted the game. I handwritten and translated by myself every single piece of dialogue throughout the game, with almost zero knowledge of grammar or spelling. Thankfully I got a good memory, and after a bit, I'd stop having to search for certain words in the dictionary. The thing was so damn heavy, my mind would memorize English words (often of completely opposite pronounce than Italian ones) rather than make me struggle to browse through the damn thing again.
I became the best one at English classes in my school in three months, and I beat the game. My teacher felt insulted (we're talking about the age of "games only make you violent!"), lol but damn was it a sweet revenge.
If I look back at the books I wrote (it took me six of them to get all the dialogues of the game), the translations there are horrendous. But hey, the game couldn't teach me grammar, you know? It was mostly memorizing sentences and guessing their meaning based on the context. Thankfully that's when I got the internet, and with it, came FFXI and meeting people from across the ocean.
My RP experience (a whooping and still ongoing seven years) there was what mostly contributed at improving my grammar and finally being able to not just translate, but also make my own sentences and talk to English people in the game. It would have never been possible if those who invited me to their English RP LS hadn't had the greatest patience and tolerance for my mistakes. I owe them a lot to this day, and I'm glad they're still with me to RP, even in XIV.
I am sorry to read of Ilwe's experiences, and sadly I've had them too. But it's also out there that I've met those friendly roleplayers that helped shaping up my skills at a completely foreign language and made my life richer than any kind of friendship here in Italy has ever done.
Not exactly a vent, and maybe the wrong place for a sappy story, but I just wanted to say his posts touched me deeply. You have my whole sympathy and support, I think RPing with you would be nice one day too!
And a huge thanks to Mae and Blade for being the best English-practicing partners I've had in these seven years of roleplaying!
EDIT: And a side note regarding the categories of languages that are difficult to learn... I still suck at both Spanish and French XD Sure some words are similar in pronounce but the grammar rules are all sooo damn different. English's good side is that it has very very little grammar to learn
It's mostly a work of memorizing the words.
Back when I was in middle school (we're talking of the good old 90s here), I was horrible at English. Like, I was so bad, the teacher had given up on me and just didn't even hand me tests anymore. It was always an automatic uh... I think the equal grade to "Gravemente Insufficente" is F over there? I just didn't care to learn.
Anyways, at some point I receive my Play Station one, and with it, FFVII. Italy never bothered translating this game, so it was in English. I played fine until I got to the part where I had to cross-dress. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do. No things to fight, no items to pick up, just a bunch of speaking that looked all the same to me and gave me no hints at all. I gave up on it. The good thing however, was that along with the FFVII discs came a demo of FFVIII, which I enjoyed, and looked forward to play in Italian once it'd come out.
A year later I get FFVIII, in Italian, and have a total blast. In fact, I like it so much I try to give FFVII another go. I get stuck again.
At that point I said "eff it, I WANT to play this". I grabbed a heavy English dictionary (Computers, internet? what was that?), a pencil, rubber, a blank book, and restarted the game. I handwritten and translated by myself every single piece of dialogue throughout the game, with almost zero knowledge of grammar or spelling. Thankfully I got a good memory, and after a bit, I'd stop having to search for certain words in the dictionary. The thing was so damn heavy, my mind would memorize English words (often of completely opposite pronounce than Italian ones) rather than make me struggle to browse through the damn thing again.
I became the best one at English classes in my school in three months, and I beat the game. My teacher felt insulted (we're talking about the age of "games only make you violent!"), lol but damn was it a sweet revenge.
If I look back at the books I wrote (it took me six of them to get all the dialogues of the game), the translations there are horrendous. But hey, the game couldn't teach me grammar, you know? It was mostly memorizing sentences and guessing their meaning based on the context. Thankfully that's when I got the internet, and with it, came FFXI and meeting people from across the ocean.
My RP experience (a whooping and still ongoing seven years) there was what mostly contributed at improving my grammar and finally being able to not just translate, but also make my own sentences and talk to English people in the game. It would have never been possible if those who invited me to their English RP LS hadn't had the greatest patience and tolerance for my mistakes. I owe them a lot to this day, and I'm glad they're still with me to RP, even in XIV.
I am sorry to read of Ilwe's experiences, and sadly I've had them too. But it's also out there that I've met those friendly roleplayers that helped shaping up my skills at a completely foreign language and made my life richer than any kind of friendship here in Italy has ever done.
Not exactly a vent, and maybe the wrong place for a sappy story, but I just wanted to say his posts touched me deeply. You have my whole sympathy and support, I think RPing with you would be nice one day too!
And a huge thanks to Mae and Blade for being the best English-practicing partners I've had in these seven years of roleplaying!
EDIT: And a side note regarding the categories of languages that are difficult to learn... I still suck at both Spanish and French XD Sure some words are similar in pronounce but the grammar rules are all sooo damn different. English's good side is that it has very very little grammar to learn
It's mostly a work of memorizing the words.
To be an interesting, intriguing, well-written character, there needs to be something to allow the audience to relate to them. That is what the problem is with who wants their character to be "perfect". Perfect characters will never be strong, and strong characters will never be perfect, because WE (those who read, who watch, who RP) are not perfect.
"What makes a strong character is how they deal with their flaws, their fears, their turmoils, their troubles that get in the way. That's what makes them relatable." -- N.C.
"What makes a strong character is how they deal with their flaws, their fears, their turmoils, their troubles that get in the way. That's what makes them relatable." -- N.C.
