And like most artists I reply with:
It‘s true.
All kids draw with a wonderful freedom until somebody shoots them down.
Can you remember that day? Somebody laughed at your picture...
And you stopped drawing.
And it‘s probably the same with languages...
“Drawing is for artists... languages are for smart people.”
Stick with me here for a minute...
6 years ago I met a Spanish girl and I suddenly found myself flying to Spain every few weeks to see her.
Murcia is really rural and NOBODY speaks English.
So I frantically began to learn Spanish.
I tried everything: books, apps, audio courses, websites... anything and everything.
I memorised set phrases and studied verb tables. I practiced day and night and made good progress.
But when I‘d go to Spain I kept putting off trying to actually speak Spanish!
Until one day my girl decided NOT to help me. She threw me into the deep end. I was pushed out of my comfort zone...
I scanned the restaurant and had three options...
1) Ask the ‘spaced out’ looking young waiter who probably speaks a little English
I scanned the restaurant and had three options...
2) Go in my trousers (not an option)
3) Ask the kind faced middle aged waitress who probably doesn't speak any English
I was DESPERATE....
So I blurted out my first bit of Spanish to a stranger...
It worked!
At that moment I KNEW I could nail Spanish.
4 Years Pass
I moved to Spain and became more or less fluent in Spanish
One summer we were on vacation in another part of Spain...
While eating dinner I mistakenly asked the waiter for a fork instead of a spoon...
Easy mistake.
Big deal right?
The waiter found this hilarious.
I laughed at my goof too.
But he wouldn't let it go...
It got old... fast
And then I thought “What if this fool was the first person I tried my skills with and not that kind waitress?”
It could have changed everything...
Like the kid who stops drawing, it might have shook me so much that I might have stopped learning Spanish completely.
At that moment I realized that this was the problem with every language learning system...
...the people you encounter or practice with are too friendly or bland. I imagined a course where you have to fight your way through a world of less than friendly or helpful people.
Like the nutjob with the fork.
I imagined a game where a lot of the people you meet are openly hostile and have little patience for you.
And they don‘t stick to the script:
They throw curve balls at you.
The conversations & scenarios branch
like a ‘choose your own adventure’ book
Just one slip up changes everything
I imagined an immersive game where it‘s you versus The Big Bad World.
A game that teaches Spanish FAST and prepares you for REAL world situations... no pussyfooting around.
I began to study every conversation I had in Spanish... dissecting it and mapping it out...
...recording the flow and unique patterns of each particular situation and then distilling the key phrases you would need to survive it
I imagined a game that could prepare a complete newbie to be confident speaking Spanish in mere days. Or just give people that already know a little Spanish the confidence to bust their skills.
I imagined a game which teaches Spanish by throwing you into the deep end and letting you sink or swim.
And now we‘re building it
In Big Bad Spanish you interact with a huge range of characters with distinct personalities, quirks and accents.
You learn by getting knocked down, brushing yourself off and trying again.
And thats why it works.
