#interactivity in contrast to immersion. specifically. and like. eh

[camellia-thea]

sometimes your heart wants to doodle old men rather than write your academic essay

[lalisatheackerman]

Key Advantages of Learning Canadian English Through Online Courses

In today’s globalized world, mastering English is a crucial skill, especially for those aiming to communicate effectively in business, education, or social settings. While many non-native speakers opt for traditional English learning methods, Canadian English language courses online have gained significant popularity in recent years. These online courses not only help learners achieve fluency in Canadian English, but they also offer several distinct advantages over other language-learning options. In this article, we’ll explore the key benefits of choosing Canadian English language courses online and why they are the ideal solution for anyone looking to improve their language skills.

1. Flexibility and Convenience

One of the primary advantages of Canadian English language courses online is the flexibility they provide. Traditional classroom courses often require a fixed schedule, which may not fit into the busy lives of modern learners. In contrast, online courses allow students to study at their own pace, from the comfort of their homes or anywhere with an internet connection. This convenience makes it easier for working professionals, students, or anyone with a tight schedule to find time for language learning without sacrificing other commitments.

Online courses typically offer pre-recorded lessons, live sessions, and interactive tools that learners can access at any time. Whether you’re an early riser or prefer late-night study sessions, Canadian English language courses online can accommodate your personal learning preferences.

2. Tailored Content for Canadian English

Learning Canadian English language courses online provides a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in Canadian-specific vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar rules. Unlike other forms of English, Canadian English blends elements of both British and American English, but it also has its own distinct characteristics. By enrolling in online courses designed specifically for Canadian English, students can gain a deeper understanding of the language used in Canada, including spelling differences (e.g., “colour” vs. “color”), Canadian idioms, and pronunciation.

For example, learners will be exposed to common Canadian phrases like "eh?" and the unique use of certain words such as “toonie” for a $2 coin. This specialized focus on Canadian English ensures learners are not only mastering grammar and vocabulary but also gaining an understanding of the local culture and context.

3. Access to Interactive Learning Tools

Another significant advantage of Canadian English language courses online is the use of interactive learning tools and multimedia resources. Online courses often incorporate videos, quizzes, podcasts, and games to enhance the learning experience. These resources help make language learning more engaging and effective. Interactive elements like pronunciation practice, interactive dialogues, and quizzes enable learners to practice their skills in real-time, helping to reinforce what they have learned.

Moreover, many online platforms use speech recognition software, providing learners with immediate feedback on their pronunciation, which is particularly beneficial for mastering the distinct sounds of Canadian English. This level of interactivity and feedback is often difficult to achieve in traditional classroom settings.

4. Cost-Effectiveness

For many people, affordability is a key factor when deciding on language courses. Traditional English courses can be expensive, especially when you factor in the cost of commuting, textbooks, and other materials. Canadian English language courses online are often more affordable than their classroom counterparts, offering a variety of pricing options to fit different budgets. Many online platforms also provide free trials or payment plans, making it easier for students to commit to their learning without a hefty financial investment.

By choosing Canadian English language courses online, learners can access high-quality lessons at a fraction of the cost of in-person classes, making it an accessible option for a broader audience.

5. Personalized Learning Experience

Each student has a different learning style, and Canadian English language courses online allow for a more personalized approach to language acquisition. Online platforms often include adaptive learning tools that cater to each learner’s specific needs. For instance, students can review difficult concepts multiple times, skip over material they already know, and tailor their study plans to focus on areas where they need the most improvement.

Many online courses also offer one-on-one tutoring or small group sessions, providing personalized guidance and support from experienced instructors. This level of customization ensures that learners progress at their own pace, without feeling overwhelmed or held back by the pace of a traditional classroom setting.

6. Global Accessibility

Whether you live in Canada, the United States, or anywhere else in the world, Canadian English language courses online provide access to high-quality language education. This global accessibility is particularly beneficial for people in countries where Canadian English is not commonly taught. Online courses break down geographical barriers, allowing learners from all over the world to study Canadian English with native speakers and expert instructors.

For international students planning to move to Canada for work or study, learning Canadian English through online courses offers a head start in understanding the language and culture. Additionally, online courses often cater to students from diverse backgrounds, offering multilingual support and making the learning process more inclusive.

7. Improved Career Opportunities

Proficiency in Canadian English opens up numerous career opportunities, particularly for those looking to work in Canada or with Canadian companies. As Canada is known for its diverse economy and strong business environment, many employers require employees to communicate effectively in Canadian English, both in written and spoken forms.

By enrolling in Canadian English language courses online, students can enhance their business communication skills, improve their CVs, and increase their chances of securing a job in Canada or with Canadian firms worldwide. Mastering Canadian English can also help individuals gain confidence in interviews, meetings, and professional correspondence.

8. Supportive Learning Communities

Most Canadian English language courses online offer access to vibrant learning communities. These communities allow students to interact with peers, ask questions, and exchange knowledge. Online discussion forums, social media groups, and live chats with instructors foster a sense of belonging and provide opportunities for learners to practice their skills in a supportive environment.

Being part of a learning community can boost motivation and provide valuable opportunities for networking, especially for individuals looking to connect with others who share their goal of mastering Canadian English.

Final Words

In conclusion, Canadian English language courses online offer a wide range of benefits for learners looking to master Canadian English. From flexibility and convenience to tailored content, interactive tools, and global accessibility, online courses provide an effective, affordable, and personalized approach to learning Canadian English. Whether you're preparing for a career in Canada, planning to visit the country, or simply looking to improve your language skills, online courses offer the tools and resources you need to succeed. By investing in Canadian English language courses online, you can unlock new opportunities, improve your communication skills, and gain a deeper understanding of Canadian culture.

[dysphoric-affect]

The Unrecognized Potential Of Voice Recognition In Games

          Imagine, for a moment, you are playing an RPG - perhaps the next Elder Scrolls, for example - and you go into a weapons shop. Inside, you approach the shopkeeper. The usual prompt to press “A” or “X” to interact pops up on the screen...but there’s another way. Your headset is on, microphone at the ready, and instead you say “Hello.” The game recognizes you are targeting that NPC and recognizes the word you said as an expression of greeting. “Hey there. Welcome to the Broken Shield, home of the finest weapons in the city. What can I interest you in?” You are interested in getting a new weapon, but, as is often the case with characters in RPG’s, there is a specific focus to your character’s playstyle: in this case, let’s say they only use axes. “Show me your axes,” you speak into the mic. The game recognizes you are wanting to buy from saying “show me,” then recognizes “axes” as a specific search interest, such that you are taken to a screen showing the shops available wares to buy, but pre-filtered to only show you the axes they have in stock, eliminating the visual clutter of searching through every other item they have. You spot an “Axe of the Tempest” which does some solid lightning damage with every hit. You have enough coin and decide to buy it, so you tell the shopkeeper “I’ll take the Axe of the Tempest.” “Take” is recognized as meaning you want to purchase something, and “Axe of the Tempest” clarifies the object of interest. With the game understanding this, the screen clears to a confirmation screen with just the Axe of the Tempest displayed and to the sound of jingling coin as you pay the shopkeeper replies, “Alright, here you are. Spill some worthy blood with it, eh?”

          Intrigued yet?

          Voice recognition to me has the greatest untapped potential of all the existing forms of immersion tech, yet confusingly has been largely disregarded in favor of motion controls and virtual reality. If you find my supporting immersion tech like this seemingly contradictory after my last article, allow me to clarify here: I do support the development of immersion tech and their implementation, I only caution developers and gamers against unrealistic expectations of what they can accomplish and in the case of developers specifically, ask that they show restraint in spite of whatever hype surrounds a technology and implement it intelligently.

          As long as expectations are grounded and immersion tech is integrated intelligently where it can truly enhance the experience, however, I strongly support development in immersion tech. There is one addendum I should add to that, though, which is I also feel too much stock has been put into motion controls and virtual reality at the expense of ignoring voice recognition, which has more to recommend it as an area for focus when it comes to immersion tech in gaming. That is the point I’m here to make today.

          There are three different costs imposed on gamers when it comes to any form of immersion tech which create barriers to such forms of immersion being embraced. The first is the “acquisition cost.” This is the literal cost to buy whatever hardware it is necessary to have in order to be able to use the tech in the first place. The second is the “effort cost.” This is the sacrifice that is imposed on the gamer in the process of using the tech, from the energy needed to use it, to the limitations on what they can do while using it. The last cost is the “training cost.” This is the time that has to be spent using the tech before using it becomes second nature, at which point the first two costs become more justified in the minds of players. In each of these, voice recognition is in a superior position to motion controls and VR.

          The acquisition cost for voice recognition is the cost of a gaming headset, or a more basic set of headphones that has a built in mic. While there are more expensive gaming headsets one can get, that is just an option among many more cost-effective ones. This is a sharp contrast to motion controls and VR - the latter especially - where the hardware cost is in the hundreds and for a singular option. Notably, headsets and headphones are typically hardware agnostic as well, so a set acquired could be used across all the various gaming consoles, giving them a more diverse utility that makes their cost of acquisition a better deal. Further, while headsets may be used for voice recognition, this isn’t the only or even the primary function they stand to be useful for, as they are an indispensable tool for voice communication between gaming friends and for coordination while engaged in online multiplayer gaming. This connects directly to the last and most significant point: cost is relative, because many gamers already possess the hardware anyway. That means for a gamer considering playing a game using voice recognition, the perceived cost will often be that it is free, as they are simply repurposing something they already owned and used for something else in a different way; this is a stark contrast to the other forms of immersion tech for which you most certainly won’t have the hardware you need laying around, making for an unavoidable perceived cost to engage with them.

          While more open to debate than the other two types of cost, I believe the effort cost is most agreeable with voice recognition over the other forms of immersion tech. With motion controls, the demand for physical action from players to engage with it can be a turn-off for those who are looking to game after an exhaustive day and looking to physically relax; this isn’t purely speculative, as we’ve seen precisely that be born out in the past with the Wii and PlayStation Move and Kinect. Virtual reality presents a different kind of problem but a problem nonetheless: the sense of constraint. When engaged in VR, because of its fundamental nature you are visually locked in and unable to do anything else unless you disengage from the experience entirely. This is what makes it so dynamic, to be sure, though it does also present a level of necessary disconnection from everything else around them that players don’t always want to have.

          Voice recognition imposes no such constraint and the physical effort is merely using your voice, which isn’t perceived as demanding in the first place to the extent the other forms are. Some of this is the inherent amount of effort required in speaking, but part of the equation is familiarity those playing games have with the process involved. Most are used to using headsets in their online play already, as many are also now familiar with using smart devices that utilize voice recognition as well, whether as simple as using the speech recognition option of the Google app on their phone or something more comprehensive, such as an Amazon Echo; there is some cross-over between the two things already even, as Xbox has some capability for voice control built in with the Cortana digital assistant and more recently the addition of support for Amazon’s Alexa. Collectively, these facts mean there is a sense of ease of approachability to using this tech that creates a solid foundation of support to be able to build integration into gameplay mechanics off of and be confident they will be embraced, if designed properly.

          All that remains to consider is the training cost as it applies to voice recognition and we hardly need to consider it long, because as alluded to in examining both the acquisition and effort costs, the majority of gamers have both already adopted the hardware necessary and are well versed in using it, which even in the first instance is never a very difficult thing to learn to make use of. With that being the case, there is no training cost at all for most, but in what few cases there are those interested in using such tech in gaming who don’t already make use of a headset, the training cost that they stand to face is so minimal as to be an irrelevant factor in speculation on the adoption rate of games which were to make use of voice recognition.

          What I’ve presented should make it evident, if it wasn’t self-evident enough already, that the costs of voice recognition as an immersion tech are low where they can be said to exist at all, and therefore that there is strong reason to consider focusing on integrating this kind of immersion tech into our gaming experiences more as far as consideration for how likely it would be to be supported is concerned.

          What I’ve addressed thus far only addresses the question of whether the tech can be justifiably supported for development. The question remains, I grant, “What can we do with it in gaming?” I’ve given an example at the beginning, but let’s take a deeper look at the potential now.

          As I see it, there are three different levels of sophistication voice recognition in gaming stands to achieve. The first would be what I call the scripted level. At this tier, player interaction would consist of reciting predetermined words, phrases and statements. For example, if multiple dialogue options were available, you could read off the one you wished to say and the game would register it; the option would still remain to press a button to select a highlighted option traditionally, though. This would further the feeling of roleplaying as the player character, with players being free to “act out” the delivery of the lines as they read them, though that wouldn’t be necessary and wouldn’t affect the nature of responses given by the NPC’s spoken to. Options like mentioned in the example at the start would be possible at this level, though in more simplified form than that. For instance, saying “filter” while shopping would trigger the filter option among the items, then saying a category to filter for among the limited pool of potential options in the game would narrow it down further still. Though this level could greatly increase a sense of immersion and ease of access to game features, it is also conceptually the most limited.

          Next, there would be the dynamic level. At this level, there would be a large pool of keywords in the game’s voice recognition library and it would be able to pick these specific words out of any larger statements the player made to understand their intent and respond appropriately. Words of greeting would be known to be used to start dialogue, names of specific characters, places and items would be understood to initiate quest-associated dialogue and in bartering scenarios, words expressing intent to buy or sell would engage the appropriate transaction type and further descriptions would quickly engage transacting on the appropriate specific items. They key concept to understand with this level is that players would be free to improvise their own lines of dialogue. This level is the kind referenced in the beginning example.

          In the case of quest-associated dialogue, which isn’t discussed in that example, let’s suppose you are given a quest by an NPC to kill a troll outside the city for a sum of gold and are told you can meet with their friend, an elf named Tolund, before doing so and he’ll aid you in the task. At this point there are many questions you could ask. The critical aspect here is that the game is only going to focus on key words and phrases, not everything you say, so you’re free to express yourself how you like in terms of the specific wording. So if you are wanting an exact location of Tolund or the troll, it will look for “where” being in your question, then look for one of those two subjects being said. If you say “where and “troll” in whatever statement you make, it will understand the player is wanting an exact location of the troll, and the NPC will respond appropriately in conversation as well as give you a quest marker on your map; similar results will occur if you named Tolund. If you want to know what the reward will be exactly, saying “how much” along with another word like ”gold” or “worth” will confer your intention to the game, and the NPC will respond by giving you an exact answer.

          Let’s say you then go and meet Tolund. He’ll otherwise treat you as a regular passerby, but if you mention the quest-giver’s specific name, the game will recognize you are wanting to trigger the quest-associated behavior from him and he’ll greet you accordingly, which will trigger new dialogue options with him and will trigger his following behavior in turn when you conclude the conversation with him. The possibilities beyond this are many, but would all use the same basic key terms framework to understand player intent. This is where the potential of the tech becomes much more fully realized and very immersive, as it takes away constraints on dialogue performance and allows players to speak more naturally.

          There would remain one limitation in the dynamic system, however: word choice would be recognized, but tone would not. This is where the emotive level would be different. At this level, not only would key terms be understood to trigger responses organically, how you spoke to someone would matter. This would coincide undoubtedly with a greater pool of words that would be recognized, including derogatory terms and names or terms of endearment. The simplest example of where this would make a difference would be in expression of sarcasm. Anything said sarcastically would be misunderstood if interpreted only based on the words in the statement. For example, if you told a guard “Thanks for everything you do” and only the words were understood, he’d have a positive reaction every time. In a dynamic system, it’s the only kind of response he would know how to have. In an emotive system, though, the intonation of the statement would be interpreted as well. If spoken sincerely, there you’d get the aforementioned positive reaction, maybe a “Thanks, hero” if your deeds were well known. If the game understood you meant the statement sarcastically, however, the guard would react negatively, maybe saying something like “The people may love you, but that doesn’t mean I do. I’ve got my eye on you.”

          Volume of tone is something else that would be interpreted and accounted for in this highest level system. If you were moving through a market and called “out of the way” normally, the first person in front of you might respond, but if you shouted it urgently or aggressively a whole swatch of people in front of you would turn to take notice and then part way for you. In a scenario dealing with an enemy encampment of some kind, you could lie in wait past the perimeter tree-line and call out to get a patrol’s curiosity up and lead him away to your position where you could take him out secretly. Or, if out wandering and not looking to have any surprises attack you without their approach being noticed, you could call out and instigate anything in the area to come attack. The possibilities for more realistic NPC interactions and new organic sound-based gameplay elements are only as limited as developers’ imaginations. Combined with the existing and improved upon elements of a dynamic system, these elements stand to collectively deepen immersion in a truly profound way well worth the effort to develop and support such systems.

          It should be noted, for the record, that though I only mention RPG’s as the backdrop for imagining the execution of these concepts, they certainly aren’t only applicable there; I mention that genre just because that’s where the greatest variety and depth achievable with such systems is possible in my estimation. There is great potential elsewhere, however. Imagine playing a future God of War, for those familiar with the latest entry in that series, and being able to issue a command to your son yourself, capped with your own grisly enunciation of “...BOY” and seeing that command be followed, furthering the sense of being Kratos. Any game with a strong component of interaction, whether with an ally in combat gameplay or NPC’s in “society” gameplay could benefit from its inclusion. It’s also not difficult to see the potential for stealth games with this, particularly where the volume of voice element is concerned. That alone could provide entirely new ways of approaching encounters that wouldn’t exist otherwise, or even in cases where they could, making them feel far more engaging and intense.

          With everything I’ve mentioned considered, I think the merits are readily apparent to why voice recognition is a form of immersion tech that deserves further development. What I’ve mentioned as examples above scarcely scratch the surface of what is surely possible if explored deeper. I say it’s time we start digging.