Nintendo DS - MY WORD COACH

JaneEyre · Post by **JaneEyre** » Thu May 20, 2010 11:15 am

Hello,
I have just bought at Asda this Nintendo because there was a promotion. But now, when checking the commentaries on amazon, I realised that some people wouldn't buy this game for children brought up in the UK because of the American words and American spelling used in this game (commentaries of two years ago).
However, there is a logo of Cambridge University press on that game!

It is sure I don't want my DS becoming weak in spelling because of a game badly chosen

... But I need to be sure that this game is unsuitable for British children before asking for a refund...

What is your advice in this matter??? Are the new games also with American spelling or this issue has been adressed?

Thanks a lot!
Jane

Post by **hermanmunster** » Thu May 20, 2010 11:26 am

Haven't seen this game but CUP is an international organisation... I suspect that there is a far greater market in US english than british english

although, as I had fun explaining to russians, we are all essentially bilingual, I would much prefer my kids to have British English as their first language.

I would doubt if the company have felt it necessary to alter the game for a small market.

dinah · Post by **dinah** » Thu May 20, 2010 10:07 pm

What is British English?English is English surely?

moved · Post by **moved** » Thu May 20, 2010 10:16 pm

There is a reasonable difference between the English spoken/written in US and UK and also in other parts of the world. Spelling is different

Spelling
UK centre
US center
UK grey
US gray

Vocab
Aubergine/egg plant
courgette/zucchini
pushchair/stroller

Grammar UK got, US gotten

puntuation
a serial comma in a list before and in US, no comma in UK

Pronunciation
pecan in UK has the stress on the 1st syllable peecn and on the 2nd in US picaan.

Post by **hermanmunster** » Thu May 20, 2010 10:27 pm

dinah wrote:What is British English?English is English surely?

oh that it was

"... went like a bomb" in the UK means wonderful in the US means a disaster

Sidewalk, trash, trunk, named for, garbage, cookie, hood, windshield, majored, happy holidays, etc - just a few of the vast numbner of words that have different meanings.

There is also different use of grammar in particular tense and sentence structure. I always find american scientific papers more difficult to read.. they do not seem to flow though I sure it is what I am used to. On the whole as a significant proportion of out television comes from the US we have become quite used to the colonial variant

as Churchil said : "two nations divided by a common language"

Minesatea · Post by **Minesatea** » Thu May 20, 2010 11:01 pm

My 10 year old DD has this game.

Although there is some spelling involved it is mainly a game for learning the meanings of words, so expanding their vocab.

It would be of more use for VR exam prep than english.

I had not noticed the american problem (but my spelling is I admit dreadful). I have just checked (she has not unlocked all words) but it does have aubergine and courgette and uses the english spelling of grey.

For many words it seems to have the american and the english - garbage and rubbish; cookie and biscuit etc.

The "program" that the poster on Amazon complains about is complicated as program and programme are different words in the UK which are both spelt the same in the US. The first is correct for computer instructions (the definition in the game) whereas the later is for eg TV.

dinah · Post by **dinah** » Thu May 20, 2010 11:03 pm

And I still say there is an English Language as there is a Welsh Language and you can deviate and manipulate it all you like all you like but it's accepted spelling and grammar are as they are. There is an elegance and complexity about English that is lovely and difficult and joyful.

Post by **mitasol** » Fri May 21, 2010 8:55 am

I agree with Minesatea, this game is most useful for expanding vocabulary. I thought it served its purpose well, which was getting DC interested in words generally.

sherry_d · Post by **sherry_d** » Fri May 21, 2010 1:31 pm

Are these games any useful? I am a skeptic of how useful they are and last month there was a programme I watched on BBC that really the brain training games did nothing to help.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... arter.html

I really think its one of those fads and a way or marketers selling their stuff. Nothing beats pen and paper on spellings IMHO.

JaneEyre · Post by **JaneEyre** » Fri May 21, 2010 2:59 pm

Thank you for all your replies!

So there is a possibility of choosing British English over American English... This is what I needed to know!!! Thanks for your time replying to me!!!

I do love this quote of Churchill: "two nations divided by a common language". How do you call this figure of speech? An oxymoron?

Jane