EPTLet me start by saying that this is not another one of these topics that focuses on learning Korean through SC2. This is more like a thesis that proposes a different angle to the way you and I view StarCraft - which in the end might help us to better understand and improve how we develop in this game.
StarCraft is mainly regarded as a game and often times also as a sport. But have you ever tried to think of it as a living, breathing language that you would like to learn? What, that sounds weird? Well, keep reading and I'll explain my rationale to you.
I'm pretty sure when someone asks for help on a forum you've all heard or used the phrase "You have to read your opponent", but reading is not everything, you also have to understand the meaning. Now, reading and understanding are two words that point us directly to the topic that I'd like to talk about today: Learning StarCraft is like learning a foreign language.
1) The Assumption
Let me suggest to you the following comparisons: Buildorders and general knowledge are your vocabulary. Macro and multitasking are your grammar, and micro is your spelling and pronunciation. Please keep these in mind, I intend to play with them quite a lot over the course of this essay.
Since you're reading this on TL, chances are you're not necessarily a native speaker of English, so you've learned at least one foreign language to a certain degree. Great! Should English be your mother tongue, however, chances are that at some point your got introduced to learning Spanish or French or German or Korean or some other language. Now, think about that experience and let's see whether we can compare it to what you have already learned and what you are still learning about StarCraft II.
When you start with a foreign language in school you typically first go for very simple sentences that still convey a good sense of progress, such as "My name is X. I'm Y years old. I come from Z." You 'master' them before you even know how to write it, and bingo, you're already able to 'communicate' in that language. That isn't all that different from StarCraft. With buildorders and knowledge being your vocab, as stated above, the first sentence an SC2 player in a 1on1 will usually come up with is "I don't want to die". They turtle, they build static defenses and try to be as safe as humanly/protossly/zergly possible.
While this sentence "I don't want to die" might be easy enough of a concept it's not necessarily the right thing to say if you actually intend to beat your opponent. I mean, even the city of Troy only held out for about ten years before they eventually fell prey to a nydus-worm.
2) Evolving
This is why many aspiring students look for another easy enough phrase to say, until they eventually discover: "I want to kill you quickly". Now this sentence comes in as many variations as there are stars in the sky and range from "I want to snap your neck" aka cheese to a variety of 1-base pushes/all-ins à la "I wish you a swift death". All of these are pretty easy, but they don't really make for good conversation (aka fun) especially when you and your opponent are saying the exact same thing.
As our hypothetical student gets bored and stuck in his learning process, he starts to look for other ways to improve his language skills. In the real world you can find help in books, TV, music, and the likes. In StarCraft we have something similar in the form of forums, replays, and streams. But as with foreign languages, you do not right away understand what you see and hear. A long and complicated sentence from a pro like "I will not die to your early aggression and instead aim for an upgrade advantage, so that I can keep you on three bases while I myself take a fourth and a fifth" is very abstract when you're a beginner and your vocab and understanding of grammar are limited.
With enough listening and reading practice, however, the good student will pick up words like expansion or advantage, like tech or upgrades - and through repeated exposure the vocabulary slowly grows.
Now, try to fit one of those new words we just learned into the sentences we already know. Try to put the word "expansion" in "I don't want to die" or "I want to kill you quickly". No matter where you try to put it, it doesn't really fit. At the very beginning your sense of grammar might not tell you this yet, but after saying it a couple of times you'll notice.
3) Understanding
This is where you become suddenly aware that vocabulary alone doesn't make for good language skills. You also need some grammar if you want to decently talk to people. Once again, vocabulary is something you can directly teach yourself and/or read about: in SC2 that would be buildorders and general knowledge. Grammar needs practice and experience, it is our macro and multitasking. If you don't know the grammar, you are going to have a hard time to correctly formulate a longer sentence. Just as any buildorder will have a hard time to be successful if you don't keep up with the necessary production. Am I starting to make sense here?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RyniJ.jpg)
Once you reach a point where you know a satisfying amount of vocab and got your basic grammar sorted out, you can start to enter a real conversation with someone, and you can actually answer to what the other player is telling you. If your opponent now says: "I want to kill you quickly", you reply by saying: "I will not let you kill me early AND I'll secure an expansion on top of that." Congratulations, you're making real good progress. You're now able to out-talk anyone who uses simple sentences. You'll probably also acquire more vocab, try to vary your phrases a little, and of course learn to answer appropriately to whatever sentence your opponent presents you with.
4) Obstacles
Every once in a while, however, you'll probably run into someone who's at about the same state of knowledge as you are concerning vocab and grammar, and you are basically on a par with them, but in the end that guy will be smoother and cleaner. His sentences look better than yours - even though both of you are saying the exact same thing. You'll just notice that his spelling and punctuation (think micro skills) are better while he still manages to keep the same grammar and structure as you do. Sometimes it's not about who types the fastest but who writes the cleanest.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RozPW.jpg)
I could spin this wheel further, go into more details, give more examples, but I feel the core elements of my hypothesis here have been clarified. Think back to when you started to learn English or whatever you first foreign language was. Think about the hard-ships and the improvements. Think about the mistakes you're still making today. Isn't it pretty much the same as your development in StarCraft? Try to determine at what level your "language skills" for StarCraft II are right now.
5) So?
Now, let's face it, as with other foreign languages most of us will never get to a native level of SC2 - where you would find MVP or DRG for example. That's why our beloved SC-term "foreigner" fits so very well into my little line of arguments here. The natives, aka high-level pros, they talk with puns and wordplays and double-entendres, while we still struggle with our accents and the right pronunciation.
There is more to learning other languages than just vocab and grammar, as there is more to learning SC2 than just buildorders and macro/micro. There's understanding and a feel for the respective language. There are dialects and accents. Not he who posses all the knowledge will be the most successful, but he who uses his vast knowledge in the most fluent and natural way.
So tell me, is StarCraft still just a game or a sport, or is it a living, breathing language like the ones we speak? And how can we use this new point of view to improve our skills and understanding?
About the author:
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My name is Neiki and I'm a German Master League Terran on EU and US playing for clan Nine Knights. I'm a translator, living abroad, and I speak four languages. That's how I came up with the initial idea for this blog.
You can find my stream in TL's stream list whenever it goes live: http://www.twitch.tv/neikiwww.twitch.tv/neiki. I also announce my streaming times via Twitter: @nKNeiki. Usually I stream in German but also switch to English if someone in the chat asks for it.
You can find my stream in TL's stream list whenever it goes live: http://www.twitch.tv/neikiwww.twitch.tv/neiki. I also announce my streaming times via Twitter: @nKNeiki. Usually I stream in German but also switch to English if someone in the chat asks for it.
