Learning New Languages

Is there are set rule on how long it takes for a player to learna new language (or how to speed this up)?

I've had some players in my team for 2 or 3 seaons and they dont speak a word of English (I'm playing in England). Now I know footballers arent all exactly geniuses, but I'd think after a couple of years anyone should have a working use of the language...

I'm asuming its related to the 'adaptability' attribute, though this might just be for positions.

Its getting a bit frustrating constantly hearing about my teams communication problems.

Almost related to this I've just finished making a "languages addition" where the languages in a country are changed - for example, before I changed it England spoke 100% English. Now it's 98% English, 32% French, 9% German, 5% Punjabi, 5% Spanish, 2% Somali, etc...

Almost related to this I've just finished making a "languages addition" where the languages in a country are changed - for example, before I changed it England spoke 100% English. Now it's 98% English, 32% French, 9% German, 5% Punjabi, 5% Spanish, 2% Somali, etc...

That's optimistic.

I guess it depends also in the hidden attribute adaptability

That's optimistic.

I agree - I'm sure it must be "basic" knowledge a la "I can order a coffee and ask for a double room". It's not like Brits are particularly good at languages. My French is a million times better than most other Brits, and I'm nowhere near proficient.

a la

You're using French already

What I'm finding odd is, despite the fact that 23% of people in India speak English, barely any Indians speak English on the game. And apparently, there are over 750,000,000 Indian English users in India. No idea what the difference between speaker and user is though.

it took one of my players 3-4 years to learn english (basic).

from one of my previous posts an italian player

spent 205 days in spain can speak spanish

spent 193 days in france can speak basic french

spent 1047 days in england but can't speak a single word of english

Sounds about consistent with what I've seen.

Seems a bit long to learn 'man on', 'to me', 'push up' etc.....

it took one of my players 3-4 years to learn english (basic).

from one of my previous posts an italian player

spent 205 days in spain can speak spanish

spent 193 days in france can speak basic french

spent 1047 days in england but can't speak a single word of english

Both Spanish and French have some similarities to Italian. English on the other hand is very different. Maybe the game takes it into consideration?

Both Spanish and French have some similarities to Italian. English on the other hand is very different. Maybe the game takes it into consideration?

that's the reply i got when i posted this and i'd say it's probably right

they eventually do learn the language though so op doesn't need to get too frustrated

I've been managing Sampdoria for awhile on my save, and I've noticed that for whatever reason players from England, and even more-so Scotland, take two or three years to learn basic Italian. Granted, English is much more different than, say, Spanish or Portuguese that many of my other players speak. Nevertheless, three years is a long time to be able to say "Make run, get ball!"

Almost related to this I've just finished making a "languages addition" where the languages in a country are changed - for example, before I changed it England spoke 100% English. Now it's 98% English, 32% French, 9% German, 5% Punjabi, 5% Spanish, 2% Somali, etc...

What's the point of that then?

So that the regens produced speak what they are likely to. It's boring having every single englishman speaking English and only English, don't you think?

The whole issue with regen languages is that the database loads the languages for the nation and assigns the value, there's no way to actually make it percentage/geographically based so that certain people would speak certain secondary languages(People near Italy would have Italian in primary school over English, people living near Austria German etc.)

I really doubt that it should take 3 years to gain a basic understanding of certain languages. It took me about a year to learn the basics of Japanese and that language is no walk in the park.

I really doubt that it should take 3 years to gain a basic understanding of certain languages. It took me about a year to learn the basics of Japanese and that language is no walk in the park.

Dunno, Tevez still doesn't seem at all comfortable in English, and he's been in the country for yonks now. I mean, my Spanish is better than his English, and I've never learnt Spanish

The whole issue with regen languages is that the database loads the languages for the nation and assigns the value, there's no way to actually make it percentage/geographically based so that certain people would speak certain secondary languages(People near Italy would have Italian in primary school over English, people living near Austria German etc.)

My manager learnt Swedish from managing in IFK Mariehamn, based in the Aland Islands. It was in Finland but he learnt no Finnish.

Dunno, Tevez still doesn't seem at all comfortable in English, and he's been in the country for yonks now. I mean, my Spanish is better than his English, and I've never learnt Spanish

That's correct.

Some players learn quicker than others, some just don't. I think the game represents it quite well (even if it seems annoying).

Alexis Sánchez has been playing in Italy for 2 years and he barely speaks Italian, despite the fact that Spanish is quite similar to Italian. I bet that if he makes it to the EPL he will never learn English.

For players to learn a new language it takes into account the hidden adaptability attribute as a few other ppl mentioned above. I would like to think that determination has some influence on learning languages too as a determined person with i.e. 20 adaptability (hidden) and 20 determination would b someone who learns to adapt quickly and will work harder to learn the new language (as well as train hard etc).

For this reason i disagree that certain countries find it harder to learn certain other languages as an intelligant person (high stats) will be able to learn a new language anyway.

Constructive arguments welcome and if SI could give us some insight would be as usual greatffully appreciated.

Like I posted in the general wish thread for FM:

Learning Languages

At this moment the only differentiation on how easy a language to learn is in the Language Difficulty stat as displayed in the editor.

It's a good start but totally neglects the fact that some languages are easier to learn if one has knowledge of a related language.

As a Dutchie for instance I have not much difficulty in reading Afrikaans as the Afrikaans language is very closely related to Dutch. There are of course more languages who are very closely related to other languages, Czech vs Slovak; Croatia vs Bosnian vs Serbian; Macedonian vs Bulgarian are a few other examples. It would make sense therefore that if a player (or manager, human or not) would get to learn a language quicker if they are fluent in a related language.

This might be best incorporated into the game likewise to the transfer preferences as there is in now.

Advantages can be given on a scale of 1-20 to languages in the same language family or languages who have influenced each other. Knowledge of all other, not listed, languages has no benefit and learning the new language will be at the default difficulty and therefore time period. As advantages are being given to some languages the standard duration for learning a language need to be upped a bit so that in the end it takes just as long on average to learn a language.

Example

For learning Italian being fluent in the following languages could give a bonus to learning Italian:

Spanish 15

Romanian 13

Portuguese 11

French 9

Maltese 4

The first four languages all part of the same language family (Romance) a bit arbitrary sorted in a way the language is related to Italian. The last language has been heavily influenced by Italian and Malta is within the cover area of Italian radio/tv so it's not illogical to assume that when one speaks Maltese it gives a bonus to learning Italian.

thank u giziar for writing what i was thinking but in a more logical way.

I also agree that corresponding language groups should make it easier to learn other languages in that group but you would obviously have to do it by nationality and not language

i.e. spanish ppl could learn french easier cause they are right nxt to each other and exposed a lot

whereas mexico wouldnt get the bonus as there are no french speaking countries near.

I know thats a bad example as there are french speaking nations near them but couldn't think of a good example straight off the top of my head

thank u giziar for writing what i was thinking but in a more logical way.

I also agree that corresponding language groups should make it easier to learn other languages in that group but you would obviously have to do it by nationality and not language

i.e. spanish ppl could learn french easier cause they are right nxt to each other and exposed a lot

whereas mexico wouldnt get the bonus as there are no french speaking countries near.

I know thats a bad example as there are french speaking nations near them but couldn't think of a good example straight off the top of my head

It's not just being next to each other and exposed a lot. If languages are highly related to each other it should be easy to learn that other language no matter where the person is originated from.

I think a person from Argentina being fluent in Spanish, should be able to learn Italian much more easy than someone from Slovenia even Slovenia is much closer but Slovenian is in an entirely different language group. (See also my Dutch / Afrikaans example as Holland isn't exactly located next to South Africa yet I am able to read Afrikaans without having too much difficulties)

Learning Languages

At this moment the only differentiation on how easy a language to learn is in the Language Difficulty stat as displayed in the editor.

It's a good start but totally neglects the fact that some languages are easier to learn if one has knowledge of a related language.

As a Dutchie for instance I have not much difficulty in reading Afrikaans as the Afrikaans language is very closely related to Dutch. There are of course more languages who are very closely related to other languages, Czech vs Slovak; Croatia vs Bosnian vs Serbian; Macedonian vs Bulgarian are a few other examples. It would make sense therefore that if a player (or manager, human or not) would get to learn a language quicker if they are fluent in a related language.

This might be best incorporated into the game likewise to the transfer preferences as there is in now.

Advantages can be given on a scale of 1-20 to languages in the same language family or languages who have influenced each other. Knowledge of all other, not listed, languages has no benefit and learning the new language will be at the default difficulty and therefore time period. As advantages are being given to some languages the standard duration for learning a language need to be upped a bit so that in the end it takes just as long on average to learn a language.

Example

For learning Italian being fluent in the following languages could give a bonus to learning Italian:

Spanish 15

Romanian 13

Portuguese 11

French 9

Maltese 4

The first four languages all part of the same language family (Romance) a bit arbitrary sorted in a way the language is related to Italian. The last language has been heavily influenced by Italian and Malta is within the cover area of Italian radio/tv so it's not illogical to assume that when one speaks Maltese it gives a bonus to learning Italian.

Your post makes sense, but I think it is included in the game in some way, even though I don't think the coding can be found in the editor. It seems Germans learn English quicker than, say, Spaniards do. When playing in Italy, Spanish speakers seem to learn Italian quicker than a German player does.

For example, in my Spurs save, it took Marek Hamsik longer to learn English than it did for a Spanish newgen I got to learn it- neither language is all that close to English, but I think that this does make sense.

I also want to take your example of Czech and Slovak- if you look at the game, most Czech players know Slovak and most Slovaks seem to know Czech. I'm sure if you bought a Czech player as a Polish team he would come along quicker than, say, an Argentine.

Finally, and I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up, I think a player's adaptibility attribute plays a part. That, and, I think playing time helps as well. In my Spurs save, I had a couple Italian youngsters for a year and they didn't even know basic English. I loaned them out to lower-league sides where they got steady playing time and returned to me knowing English- not just basic.

As far as a wish for the future:

When I played FIFA Manager, one of the things I liked about it is it gave the option to add a certain amount to a player's salary that would pay for a language tutor. Interpreters are used by players/clubs IRL, so I think this would be a good addition and would help players to learn the new language and adapt quicker. One of the few things FIFAM gets right!