Humble Bundle Thread

crazy has cards what should get 50 cents back. So buy them all on steam for 1 and hopefully get 50 cents in credit or just give a penny and download plant.

and

woooo  my first repeat that type game

 
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BrownDerby said:
They have it on the Humble store where you choose one on the download page, so I think it's 1 of your choice
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a2jwpu5.jpg


(Courtesy of Reddit)

So yeah, it's Influent + 1 language. Dollared in at 4.40something, I'll upgrade to BTA next week.

 
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Bulgarian?  Latin???  And yet lacking more widely spoken languages, like Arabic (300m+) or Cantonese (60m+).

 
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The Sifu said:
New Humble Weekly Bundle - Get Your Learn On:

  • Type: Rider
  • Ludwig
  • Crazy Paint Shop
Beat the Average for:

  • Sokobond
  • Influent + Language Pack
Pay $9 or more for:

  • Contraption Maker
  • The Counting Kingdom
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Had to BTA this one. Even though Influent has mixed reviews on Steam, it's something I've been eyeballing since it first appeared in the catalog. Also Sokobond and the plant one appeal to my inner nerd. I bought Contraption Maker when it was on sale for a Washington the other week, so the $9 tier isn't tempting in the least.

 
asheskitty said:
Bulgarian? Latin??? And yet lacking more widely spoken languages, like Arabic or Cantonese.
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Well, in fairness, it was put together by a fairly small team; they may have plans to incorporate other languages if it sells well on Steam. The absence of Cantonese in particular seems odd, though. Also, Latin is a very weird choice--only clubs full of nerds in high schools speak that.

madjoki said:
Open tabs for enough each language and submit on each... they wouldn't be that stupid, right?
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I would imagine not, but I suppose it's just waiting on an intrepid and morally-flexible individual to try.

 
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asheskitty said:
Bulgarian? Latin??? And yet lacking more widely spoken languages, like Arabic (300m+) or Cantonese (60m+).
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The dev explains:

We do have a few new languages in the works right now, such as:

*Português (European Portuguese)

*Norsk (Norwegian)

*Suomi (Finnish)

*Dansk (Danish)

*Nederlands (Dutch)

*Polski (Polish)

*العربية (Arabic)

*Українська (Ukrainian)

*Indonesia (Indonesian)

No ETA for release as of yet.
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http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/2k4756/humble_weekly_bundle_pwyw_type_rider_ludwig_crazy/clhqosb

 
warreni said:
Well, in fairness, it was put together by a fairly small team; they may have plans to incorporate other languages if it sells well on Steam. The absence of Cantonese in particular seems odd, though. Also, Latin is a very weird choice--only clubs full of nerds in high schools speak that.

I would imagine not, but I suppose it's just waiting on an intrepid and morally-flexible individual to try.
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Yeah, I mean I kind of suspect the Dev is Bulgarian (7m*) or at least one of the team is. But Latin? Arabic is also a huge absence as it's widely used and is in demand in USA.

Anyway this is probably less effective than flashcards, and almost certainly not as good as grabbing yourself a free Anki deck. Phone/tablet based flash cards allow one to review throughout the day.

*in Western European terms, as useful as Danish.

 
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asheskitty said:
Yeah, I mean I kind of suspect the Dev is Bulgarian (7m*) or at least one of the team is. But Latin? Arabic is also a huge absence as it's widely used and is in demand in USA.

Anyway this is probably less effective than flashcards, and almost certainly not as good as grabbing yourself a free Anki deck. Phone/tablet based flash cards allow one to review throughout the day.

*in Western European terms, as useful as Danish.
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Interesting link. Eh, I figure it's worth a few bucks just to try, but I'm not expecting to actually be able to speak a foreign language fluently after playing around with it. I do applaud the concept, though. I think if I were to spend some serious time with something like a Rosetta Stone pack (and who has money for that?!), I could genuinely learn a new language but the rest of these things are just novelty items.

 
warreni said:
Interesting link. Eh, I figure it's worth a few bucks just to try, but I'm not expecting to actually be able to speak a foreign language fluently after playing around with it. I do applaud the concept, though. I think if I were to spend some serious time with something like a Rosetta Stone pack (and who has money for that?!), I could genuinely learn a new language but the rest of these things are just novelty items.
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These are supplemental materials for one already learning a language through other means. Rosetta Stone is quite lacking, speaking from personal experience. For example it never explicitly explains the grammar let alone nuances. Self-learning is a pretty bad idea, especially if one isn't already living among native speakers. You're much better off taking a traditional class.

 
BTA'd the bundle as well. Already have Type:Derper and Derpwig though, if anyone is interested in buying them for 25 cents each.

 
madjoki said:
Open tabs for enough each language and submit on each... they wouldn't be that stupid, right?
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You mean beating the average enough times to buy each language right? If so, it would likely work, but I would imagine you'd have to make a new steam account for each-each copy of Influent comes with the game and a language, meaning the game would already be in your steam account after one redeem-resulting in errors if you try to redeem it again. So, you'd have to make however many alts just to have them all. Still, as long as the BTA is less than $5, you're saving money, so it might be worth it.....

Side note-when I read Infuent+language pack, I thought it meant the game, which has a language included, and a separate pack-so 2 languages total. Based on Foxhack's post, I assume I was wrong?

 
asheskitty said:
These are supplemental materials for one already learning a language through other means. Rosetta Stone is quite lacking, speaking from personal experience. For example it never explicitly explains the grammar let alone nuances. Self-learning is a pretty bad idea, especially if one isn't already living among native speakers. You're much better off taking a traditional class.
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I disagree. Traditional classes will have you learning "x means x in English" whereas RS lets you recognize a scene, object, or action as if you were a child learning your first language. It's how a native speaker would learn the language, getting rid of that inner translation process. That's the only way languages should be taught. Pimsleur can suck it.

 
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asheskitty said:
These are supplemental materials for one already learning a language through other means. Rosetta Stone is quite lacking, speaking from personal experience. For example it never explicitly explains the grammar let alone nuances. Self-learning is a pretty bad idea, especially if one isn't already living among native speakers. You're much better off taking a traditional class.
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I have no personal experience with RS materials; I guess I've just bought into the hype--they're constantly advertising their products on the radio as the way the federal government teaches its employees new languages, et cetera. If they don't work very well, that's disappointing because I hoped to one day be in a position to use that system to learn one or two languages myself.

Just taking Spanish as an example: I had three courses in that in high school and one in college. While I excelled in those classes, I never felt as though I'd achieved a significant degree of fluency. Unfortunately, college classes are about as or more expensive than Rosetta Stone software so I guess there aren't any good options for people who can't afford to go back to school or actually move to foreign countries for a while.

 
Blade said:
I disagree. Traditional classes will have you learning "x means x in English" whereas RS lets you recognize a scene, object, or action as if you were a child learning your first language. It's how a native speaker would learn the language, getting rid of that inner translation process. That's the only way languages should be taught.
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Only a fool thinks words and grammars have exact equivalency across languages.

Adult brains and small child brains are quite different. I choose the approach that has higher empirical metrics of success for adult learners.

 
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warreni said:
I have no personal experience with RS materials; I guess I've just bought into the hype--they're constantly advertising their products on the radio as the way the federal government teaches its employees new languages, et cetera. If they don't work very well, that's disappointing because I hoped to one day be in a position to use that system to learn one or two languages myself.

Just taking Spanish as an example: I had three courses in that in high school and one in college. While I excelled in those classes, I never felt as though I'd achieved a significant degree of fluency. Unfortunately, college classes are about as or more expensive than Rosetta Stone software so I guess there aren't any good options for people who can't afford to go back to school or actually move to foreign countries for a while.
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Community colleges have quite cost-effective offerings ($200 for one class/term in my area).

 
Blade said:
I disagree. Traditional classes will have you learning "x means x in English" whereas RS lets you recognize a scene, object, or action as if you were a child learning your first language. It's how a native speaker would learn the language, getting rid of that inner translation process. That's the only way languages should be taught. Pimsleur can suck it.
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I have children in "immersion" style classes in which they learn part of the their subjects (Math, Science, etc) fully in Spanish. They are not allowed to speak or write in English for those classes. I'm seeing mixed results, and I'm certainly seeing the older one struggling as he's now expected to understand verb conjugation and other grammatical rules that are not always picked up and understood without explanation.

The bottom line is this: it works better for some than others. It's better for children than adults. Most importantly, it leaves giant, gaping holes in the complete understanding of the language.

The idea that "it's how kids learn" is a bit of a misnomer in that we DO teach kids the rules of the English language. It works up until a point, and then the mechanics have to be explained.

 
hal said:
I have children in "immersion" style classes in which they learn part of the their subjects (Math, Science, etc) fully in Spanish. They are not allowed to speak or write in English for those classes. I'm seeing mixed results, and I'm certainly seeing the older one struggling as he's now expected to understand verb conjugation and other grammatical rules that are not always picked up and understood without explanation.

The bottom line is this: it works better for some than others. It's better for children than adults. Most importantly, it leaves giant, gaping holes in the complete understanding of the language.

The idea that "it's how kids learn" is a bit of a misnomer in that we DO teach kids the rules of the English language. It works up until a point, and then the mechanics have to be explained.
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Yeah, but I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that kids' brains are a lot more "flexible" when they're young; by the time you reach puberty and certainly by the time you're middle-aged (like me), your brain finds it more challenging to assimilate language.

 
As someone currently studying abroad to improve my French, Influent kind of interests me. I'm guessing it really couldn't do anything for my French, but I'm looking to start teaching English in either Japan or Korea next year, and I know neither of those languages. But I tried Rosetta Stone for a little while and found it really to not do very much, so I'm iffy on learning a language outside of a classroom environment. Has Influent been out long enough for anybody to really say if it's worth it or not? I could do so much with those 5 bones if I don't get the bundle for this "game." Then there's the problem of which of the two languages I'd choose. I'm more interested to learn Japanese because vidya games, but I'd rather go to Korea.

 
Rosetta Stone is pretty bad for Chinese and Japanese, because they're not developed for those languages. It's just Western languages directly translated. And it teaches phrases no one would ever say.

 
I'm going to Madrid in two weeks' time for a Stag. I intend to be perfectly fluent by the time we land.

Dos cerveza por favor!

P.s. Question to Spanish speaking types. ¿What's with the starting and ending a sentence with punctuation?
 
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I think apps/software are only good if you're planning on going to that country for a couple of weeks on vacation, and you only need to know a couple of key phrases (Where is the __?) that you can plug in your flash-card vocabulary words to. If you actually want to become fluent in the language your only real options are total immersion, traditional classroom instruction, or a combination of both.

 
Flowette said:
I'm going to Madrid in two weeks' time for a Stag. I intend to be perfectly fluent by the time we land.

Dos cerveza por favor!

P.s. Question to Spanish speaking types. ¿What's with the starting and ending a sentence with punctuation?
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I had Spanish for 5 years: 4 in High School, 1 in College.

It lets people know who are reading right up front know - you have a question or exclamation statement coming.

Pronouns often come first no matter what, when they're actually used.

Also, pronouns are often dropped in Spanish.

So, using upside-down questions and upside-down exclamation can totally change the entire meaning of the entire sentence.

Example: You, informal form.

"Tienes el libro" - You have the book. (statement)

" ¿Tienes el libro?" - Do you have the book? (question)

 
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asheskitty said:
Only a fool thinks words and grammars have exact equivalency across languages.

Adult brains and small child brains are quite different. I choose the approach that has higher empirical metrics of success for adult learners.
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You chose the special needs version, apparently. Higher empirical metrics? I think you mean, "this is how almost every language is taught in classrooms, so in my bigoted ignorance I'll assume it's the best way to learn." You know, Common Core Math now has "higher empirical metrics" over more practical methods in America. That makes it better?

You're not right about everything, even though you browse wikipedia 10 hours a day in a chair with a hole in it so your obese ass doesn't have to struggle to get up to excrete body waste.

 
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warreni said:
Yeah, but I also think it has a lot to do with the fact that kids' brains are a lot more "flexible" when they're young; by the time you reach puberty and certainly by the time you're middle-aged (like me), your brain finds it more challenging to assimilate language.
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Perhaps I should have said that all of my children have been in this program since Kindergaren. My oldest is now in sixth grade and we are seeing him struggle in this area. Immersion style (Rosetta Stone) learning -- like I said -- works better for some, works better with young children, but leaves a lot to be desired in the area of language mechanics.

I, on the other hand, had formal classes throughout middle and high school, and can read Spanish well enough. But I would have trouble following a conversation between native speakers.

 
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I work with adults doing immersion style English every day (altho this is Chicago, so not all of them), and usually the ones who've put off learning proper grammar (e.g. ESL classes) have a harder time with it, even when they communicate just fine. Age is a function too. My nieces and nephews that only spoke Spanish before starting school are basically bilingual now. But not sure about their Spanish grammar.

 
I learnt German at secondary school (11-16) which was a fun, harsh, but ultimately useless language. The alternative was French which I tried for a year and hated, such a wishywashy language.

Spanish didn't appear as an option for a number of years after I'd left. You'd think it would be far more important thab German. Although in German's defence they do have fantastic words like Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte.

And "Wie komme ich am besten zum bahnhof?". That seems to be the only phrase that stayed with me.

:whee:
 
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Flowette said:
And "Wie komme ich am besten zum bahnhof?". That seems to be the only phrase that stayed with me.

:whee:
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Wo wohnen in Deutschland Sie? (one of my only sentences remaining)

Yea, my school (in FL) offered about 100000 Spanish classes, 1 French, 1 German, and 1 Latin. Latin was discontinued after Latin I because they could only get 2-3 students who wanted it. French was meh, and Spanish in FL is a bit overdone. So I took German. I figured it'd help me in classical literature (for Philosophy). Boy was I mostly wrong. And it has all been since lost. I went on Duolingo to "relearn" and ultimately got bored and moved on.

 
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