fyi Zon - MMO Teaches Chinese

[agentzi]

a newsblub (I didn’t see mentioned yet here)

MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) Teaches Chinese Language and Culture

.........Zon - The New Chengo Chinese is an experimental MMO which is meant to allow students and instructors to interact and role-play while learning Mandarin as well as Chinese culture and history. Currently being developed in partnership with the Chinese government-sponsored Confucius Institute, Zon is a five-level course designed to prepare students for participation in Chinese advanced placement offerings in MSU’s virtual high school program............

......consisting of four virtual worlds: "villages", "towns", "cities" and "cosmopolitans". The four virtual worlds will progress with increasing complexity........the design for the game claims it will have ‘1000 learning activities’ comprising the equivalent of a ‘3000-hour Chinese language and culture learning contents.

design doc: http://www.gamepolitics.com/images/legal/chengo.doc

http://gamepolitics.com/2007/01/21/mmo-to-teach-mandarin-chinese-culture/

http://www.qj.net/New-MMO-aimed-to-teach-Chinese-culture/pg/49/aid/80204

http://confucius.msu.edu/news.htm#zon

hmm... should be of interest to some when it comes out... (given some gamer’s addictions)....

[Toffeeliz]

hey - this sounds fabulous! You'd better keep us posted on this one!

[nubix]

neat!

[imron]

Michigan state university has released a new online game for learning Chinese - Zon. From the website:

Zon is a multiplayer, online learning environment designed to teach Chinese language and culture through gameplay. As a web-based site, Zon provides real-time, on-demand connection to interactive learning activities and authentic cultural information. Zon players are motivated not only by their intrinsic desire to learn more about Chinese language and culture, but also the ability to interact with engaging story-driven plot lines, interesting characters, and fellow players. Zon is built on the premise that learning is interactive.

I just had a quick look at it now. You start out as a tourist at Beijing airport and go from there. It seems quite an interesting concept, but very much geared towards beginners (at least in the few minutes I played it).

[BrandeX]

Thanks for the heads up, will check it out. I remember looking at this a while back when it was still in development, and wishing it was done. Guess now I can try.

[ipsi()]

Not sure if you guys have seen this, but http://enterzon.com/.

It's quite interesting, though it's really slow to load for me, not sure how well it will work for those in China. It's still in beta, but it's good fun. If it was faster, I might even enjoy it

[roddy]

Imron posted about it a few days back, and when I went looking to find it to merge, I discovered there was also a post from last year. So all merged.

[ipsi()]

Hmm... I obviously don't pay as much attention as I should .

[roddy]

Yeah, we should probably delete your post so that Imron doesn't realize you didn't read his . . .

[roddy]

Actually if this is MMO we can all go and play. I'm signing up now, same user name as on here - who's joining me?

[roddy]

Ok, given up now - had some fun trying to walk over Chenpv and managed to buy a coffee, but it's far too slow to actually use at the moment. Looks promising though.

[ipsi()]

EDIT: Agreed on the far to slow bit. As am I tonight...

[chenpv]

Also give it up. I didn't have a choice on my hair color upon setting up, nor was able to change it later on at a barber's or a salon kind of place. Earned 40 dollars at the ATM machine, and one of the questions 'in that machine' provided no collect answers. After refreshing myself with a cake (3 or 4 dollars), I tried to break out of custom, unsuccessfully though. Also tried to chat up a few guys, but the voice chat seemed dead. Traded with Xiao K successfully, though I didn't receive anything, nor pay a dime from my deposit. Anyway, it's fun to wander about.

[imron]

I signed up the other day to give it a whirl. I noticed that the bank at the airport let me continually change traveller's cheques, but I got bored once I reached RMB 30,000. Not sure what I'll do with all my cash, there doesn't seem anywhere to really spend it.

[BrandeX]

I got bored before leaving the airport, it need to be more "game" and less "sequential lessons with an overlay resembling some games" I'm thinking something like your WoW/EQ type MMO that is actually something you want to do, and not realize your learning in the process. Not sure if that is possible or not though.

[roddy]

Has anyone tried this lately? I was going to take a look, but the news section doesn't mention any updates so I lost enthusiasm.

[來撒母耳]

Just signed up, It looks like something I've really been looking for, yes It is slow, but as a beginner I've already picked up a few new words. I'll see how it goes

[來撒母耳]

Ok, now I'm stuck at the loading screen, and now I'm on a different PC and still stuck at the loading screen, oh well... good things come to those who wait?

[來撒母耳]

Ok, well I just upgraded my ubuntu to 11.04, and decided to try to log on again, and viola! It works, I haven't left the airport yet, but so far I'm finding it fun, but maybe that's cuz I'm still at the newbie stage, and this is far more appealing to me right now than making new flashcards for anki

EDIT: As a side note for anyone running into the same problems I have been, it seems under the new ubuntu 64bit, that large flash applications are having a problem displaying correctly in Firefox 4, but I got it to work very nicely under chromium

[Meng Lelan]

So what does the game have so far - bank, airport, barber, anything else like a post office, school for the deaf, etc?