Cute premise but reads like a LinkedIn post (or maybe just AI).
Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
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Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#12Cute premise but reads like a LinkedIn post (or maybe just AI).
For sure an AI write up
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#13Cute premise but reads like a LinkedIn post (or maybe just AI).
For sure an AI write up
Certainly AI editorialised. I wonder if this is because English isn’t their first language, and they are confidence compensating. I’ve worked with a lot of folks also from Philippines and the Tagalog/English mix leads to some confidence challenges sometimes.
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#14Can't imagine using MTG to learn a language. But it does seem intuitive in hindsight. Back when I played in the junior super series and nationals I could recall almost every card and what it did. So I can see how that leap would be tantermount. Kudos.
> Can't imagine using MTG to learn a language. Note that he's starting from N2 Japanese, which is already a high level of Japanese proficiency (although it does not test writing/speaking at all, so it's very feasible to have N2 yet be terrible at conversation). He's not exactly learning hiragana from M:TG. The M:TG competitions are giving him a framework to practice that conversation, which believe it or not can be h…
Yup, super important point. None of the JLPT exams test output, only comprehension. It’s a really interesting gap!
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#15Cute premise but reads like a LinkedIn post (or maybe just AI).
I love this new future where every post has comments about whether AI was involved or not!
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#16Contraversial opinion perhaps, I don't think the cards or the game itself took him to fluency. Probably the social contact. I mean N2 (JLPT levels run from N5 competent beginner to N1). Is really quite advanced. Being N2 is far further than many will ever make it into learning Japanese. To arrive at N2 is very impressive. I think typically N3 is minimum for work on Japan (outside of lower end jobs or things like TEFL…
> CEFR B2 which is fluent That certainly is controversial. I don't think many people would consider anyone who is fluent to only be B2.
Fluent means different things to different people (and in different languages!).
As I understand it, B2 means one has a solid, functional proficiency in the language. They conversate/listen/read/write in diverse situations, without needing to switch to a different language or to prepare in advance.
They're very likely, however, to make mistakes, say things in non-idiomatic ways etc. although this is expected to be minor enough to not affect the ability to understand them.
In order to get to C1 and above, one needs a deeper understanding of the language - phrases, idioms, connotations, registers, etc. and a broader set of situations they can handle, e.g., a philosophical discussion. An of course, errors are expected to be rarer.
So, literally speaking, B2 is rather fluent, since the language is "flowing" out of them and they're not stopping to think every other word (which is, as far as I understand, a common interpretation of flüssig in German).
But as "fluent" speakers should know, words come with expectations beyond the literal meaning :P
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#17Contraversial opinion perhaps, I don't think the cards or the game itself took him to fluency. Probably the social contact. I mean N2 (JLPT levels run from N5 competent beginner to N1). Is really quite advanced. Being N2 is far further than many will ever make it into learning Japanese. To arrive at N2 is very impressive. I think typically N3 is minimum for work on Japan (outside of lower end jobs or things like TEFL…
My Japanese isn’t good enough (I feel like I could pass N3 if I wanted to, but I do not find exams fun, and it won’t benefit my career, so I don’t) to comment on how the MtG rules text reads in Japanese, but I can say that English MtG rules text is so grammatically constrained that I’d say it barely qualifies as English at all, so I could easily imagine someone who could read MtG English rules text perfectly but be totally unable to even hold a simple conversation in English.
And if anything, Japanese isn’t even worse for this. Natural Japanese is a highly contextual language, and so I would expect card rules text to stray even further from natural language due to requirements for total unambiguity.
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#18Contraversial opinion perhaps, I don't think the cards or the game itself took him to fluency. Probably the social contact. I mean N2 (JLPT levels run from N5 competent beginner to N1). Is really quite advanced. Being N2 is far further than many will ever make it into learning Japanese. To arrive at N2 is very impressive. I think typically N3 is minimum for work on Japan (outside of lower end jobs or things like TEFL…
I agree. Magic-ese is a language on its own. It's close to English, but not quite. What is an "intervening if clause" in English, for example? Learning the rules of Magic will leave you confused about a natural language if you didn't know any better.
However, gaining the linguistic mastery to explain such complex rules systems, let alone practice small talk with the person across from you allows you master a real language.
Re: Magic: The Gathering took me from N2 to Japanese fluency
#19Contraversial opinion perhaps, I don't think the cards or the game itself took him to fluency. Probably the social contact. I mean N2 (JLPT levels run from N5 competent beginner to N1). Is really quite advanced. Being N2 is far further than many will ever make it into learning Japanese. To arrive at N2 is very impressive. I think typically N3 is minimum for work on Japan (outside of lower end jobs or things like TEFL…
Also N2, even N1, is generally not remotely fluent. Plenty of Chinese can pass N1 and still failed to have a conversation.
Further, it's easy to pass N2 and/or N1 and still not be able to read most novels or listen to most movies when they get to things like legal proceedings, military strategy, science. All things that people can easily do when actually fluent