Learn Spanish with Minecraft: Part one

Yes and No...

Two years ago I discovered Minecraft.

For a few weeks in late December 2014 it completely enthralled me.

I laugh now at how thrilled I was to find my first piece of iron, let alone diamonds. Or how proud I was when I figured out how to make Jack ´o Lantern just by randomly trying my own recipe combinations.

All really basic stuff but I loved every second of it. Chugging down my posh craft beers, playing Minecraft and pigging out, it was one of my best Christmases ever.

But after I made some amazingly stupid n00b mistakes ( I lost my bed and respawned without knowing where my base was ) I got cranky and abandoned the game.

Two years later, after hearing that some of my friend´s children were now playing the game I began to think about the teaching possibilities of Minecraft.

So can you learn Spanish with Minecraft?

This is the Minecraft title screen after being switched to Spanish.

Un Jugador = One player Multijugador = Multiplayer Opciones = Options Salir = Exit

Jugador comes from an extremely useful word jugar = to play. Juego = a game

There are three different Spanish modes in the game; Spain, Argentina and Mexico.

So what is the difference between these? It may not come as a surprise to you (it surprised me!) but there are many varieties of Spanish, much the same way that UK English differs from USA English.

Idioma = Language

Las traducciones no siempre son correctas = The translations are not always correct

Listo = Ready

Algunas traducciones pueden contener errores = Some translations can contain errors[br]Hecho = Done

Las traducciones pueden no ser 100% precisas = The translations can be not 100% correct Aceptar = Accept

These are all great examples of how you can say the same thing in a variety ways (plus I believe these translations are all ´fan subs´so the quality may vary)

For this article I chose Mexican Spanish.

Crear nuevo mundo = Create new world

Nobre del mundo = Name of the world

Modo Supervivencia= Survival Mode

Busca = Search

Recursos = Resources

Construye = Construct

Y obtén experience niveles = And obtain experience levels

Salud y hambre = Health and hunger

So after generating my ´mundo nuevo´ I immediately got wood (heh heh) and built a crafting table.

Creación = Creation

Mesa de trabajo = Working table (literally ´table of work´)

Mesa and Trabajo are two really useful practical everyday words.

So in part one we just scratched the surface of using Minecraft to learn Spanish and in part two we will explore it further with some project ideas, worksheets and maybe a video of my world.

If you can´t wait until then go and play the Demo of Big Bad Spanish