Advice on English


Beginner Box


Hi,

I just bought the BB for my son and myself.

I have been playing for 25 years now...

BUT, my son, who is almost 10 years old... We are French from Québec, and (obviously) bilingual. He is not bilingual yet. He can read French fast. Very fast. So he is smart. :)

QUESTION: Any tips on how to go about teaching him PFRPG since there is still a language barrier?

I got tons of images and he watches us play at our monthly game, so he is familiar with some concepts.

Thanks!

Patrick

The Exchange

Teach him verbally by playing. Just start playing and answer questions as they come up.

He will know that the rules to the game are there in the book and that the book is written in English. If he enjoys the game, he'll feel motivated to try and read the book. Then you can help him with that when he gets stuck.


Start with the charactersheet. If you can find one in french great otherwise create one. In reality if he can understand everything on the character sheet, he can at least play a simple character (fighter or rogue ) with some assistance.


Use a french character sheet side by side with an english one. While you are talking to him about how to play, try swapping out some gaming terms with their english language equivalents. You can teach him all of the basics yourself, but for intermediate-advanced gameplay he will need to be able to read the books. What is a good age to a child to learn a second language? I'm sure it won't get easier as he gets older.


Thanks everyone!

Keep'em coming!

It's funny how my son is intrigued, knows we speak English, but is for some reason reluctant to practice and try. Whereas his seven year old sister is all over it like white on rice!

Patrick

PS: But she is still too young... Now if I could just get their mother back into RPGs... Hum..


Hello Patrick,

I'm also from Quebec and even if I have all my books in english, some of my players have difficulties with english. So they come to game and create character with french book. Everything works fine. The only thing that don't fit well is the use of metric system. A square is 1.5m so everybody use 5" instead in my game.

French books are a bit more expensive but they are prety easy tu find in Quebec. Even the beginer box is available now.

Nearly 20 years ago, rpg motivated me to learn english, because I wanted books that were not translated. I think it can be a source of motivation but 10 years old may be a bit young. I was 15 when I start reading novel in english...and my results in english courses realy improved.

Hope it helps. And out of curiosity, where in qc are you?

Dany

Contributor

There's also Pathfinder France website and wiki which is all in French. That should be helpful.

Silver Crusade

Since I am french and play both with english and french rules, let me introduce you to Pathfinder-Fr and its Wiki: you'll find a forum, lots of gamemastering features and tools (character sheets, comprehensive introductions to the game for newcomers, rules clarifications or indexes, homebrews, stats generators... plus a wiki-srd for the Golarion setting and the PFRPG system itself, which was recently updated with Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat (the updates are slower due to an obviously smaller community and the issue of having to translate hundreds of pages).

You will find all the base rules you need in french for a new player; and it may be a good idea to keep d20pfsrd handy if you want to introduce the english language as an integral part of the game.

If you wish to actually acquire the books, Black Book Editions is the editor who will provide you with french hardcovers !

En vous souhaitant beaucoup d'aventures, de dragons à vaincre et de trésors à piller... mais surtout, beaucoup de rigolade et de moments mémorables en famille. ;)


DanyRay wrote:

French books are a bit more expensive but they are prety easy tu find in Quebec. Even the beginer box is available now.

Are the translations reliable?


Wow!

This is great! I'll be back later!

Merci à tous!

Patrick


Ciaran Barnes wrote:


Are the translations reliable?

Yes they are prety reliable. The only thing funny is that even if I speak french, i still mix armor and shield when my players use french name. Full plate, half plate etc, easy... Harnoi, clibagnon, targe, pavois... I had not eard these words before.

Except that not much a great deal...


bullonir wrote:

Thanks everyone!

Keep'em coming!

It's funny how my son is intrigued, knows we speak English, but is for some reason reluctant to practice and try. Whereas his seven year old sister is all over it like white on rice!

Patrick

PS: But she is still too young... Now if I could just get their mother back into RPGs... Hum..

You should make it a family night. That way everybody can learn the game.

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