Learn English by playing Final Fantasy 7! Let's play and learn!

Danh-danh-danh-dah- -nah-nah-nah-nah-nah,

danh-danh-danh...

Aw, 1997 was so awesome!

Hey, guys. I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on learning English with Final Fantasy VII.

So this is one of my favourite games of all time.

I absolutely love it.

Came out 1997, great year. Great game.

I know that a lot of you guys also learn English in this way.

When I meet new students and they have never gone, you know, to school to study English,

I always ask them: "So, where did you learn your English?"

Usually they say: "Movies, music, and video games."

So today I thought it would be a great idea if I took one of my favourite games and one

of the most popular games in history of video games, and taught you English with it.

So that's what we're going to do in this video.

I'm going to play the first 30 minutes of the game, I'm going to show you some screenshots

of the dialogue, and I'm going to explain the grammar, the vocabulary, the pronunciation,

all that stuff.

So let's not waste any time and let's learn English with Final Fantasy VII.

Yes!

Okay, so before we jump into the game, let's talk a little bit about its history and then

we'll set up the story, and then we'll get to the dialogue.

So, Final Fantasy VII was and is a Japanese role-playing game.

So, some of the features, characteristics of Japanese role-playing games are hit points,

there's a world that is dying, there's probably one hero, usually male, who has to save everything,

and everything gets really complicated and weird.

It's most Japanese role-playing games.

Now, this game was released in 1997-great year-for the Sony PlayStation.

And it is now available on PC, iOS, and the PlayStation Store if you have that, and there's

also a remake being planned that's going to come out we don't know when.

All right?

It's coming, though, and I'm pretty excited about that.

Now, Final Fantasy VII, why is it a big deal?

It popularized the JRPG genre in North America.

JRPG, Japanese Role-Playing Game.

And again, it is long, complicated, has a huge story, and it is told with beautiful

at-the-time cinematic cut scenes.

So let's jump into the story now.

What's happening in Final Fantasy VII?

You know, there's an evil corporation, they're called Shinra,

they're sucking the life from the planet.

The life energy in the story is called mako, mako energy.

And this evil corporation, Shinra, is using factories to suck, literally suck the life

from the planet.

So the planet is dying.

It's not a happy time for anyone.

At the beginning of the game there's a rebel group called Avalanche, and they arrive outside

of a Shinra factory.

And they don't like this evil corporation.

All they want to do is kind of just blow up all their factories so that they won't be

able to suck the energy from the planet.

And again, in this rebel group we have Barret, he's a guy with a gun on his arm, and we have

Cloud who's the guy with the big sword.

"I'm really cool."

Yeah, I guess.

All right, so let's jump into the game.

So we start the game at a Shinra factory.

Cloud, Barret, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, they all arrive on a train, and they jump off the

train and Barret says:

"C'mon newcomer. Follow me."

This is the first line in the game.

Now, Barret is talking to Cloud.

Cloud is actually not part of AVALANCHE.

He's a mercenary, which means he works for money.

So he's not really a nice guy at the start of this game.

Debatably not even at the end. I don't know.

So, the word: "C'mon", you see the way it's contracted, here: "C" with an apostrophe,

"mon", it means: "Come on", and this can be used in a variety of contexts, can have different

meanings.

So: "C'mon" can just mean: "Come."

So you can say: "Okay, come, come. Come on. Come on. Come on."

It can also mean: "Let's go."

If you want to leave somewhere, you'll say: "Come on."

All right? "Let's go."

It can mean: "Hurry up!"

If someone is behind you, you can say: "Come on, come on. Hurry up."

Go faster.

And it can also mean: "I don't believe it!" or: "You must be joking."

Now, here the intonation is very important, so you don't say: "C'mon", you say:

"Come on. C'mon.

Really?"

Okay?

So it's a great word, many different contexts, many different uses especially in spoken English.

So repeat after me first, we'll say the: You must be joking.

"C'mon."

It's fun. Right? Say it one more time.

"Come on."

Exactly, it's fun.

So, again, another one.

So we say: "C'mon."

If you want to say: "Come here", you can also say:

"C'mere" very quickly in spoken English.

So, let's say it first: "C'mon!", "C'mere!"

Okay. Now, let's get inside the factory and see what's going on.

So they enter the factory.

Biggs, one of the mercenaries of the group AVALANCHE says:

"Wow!" to Cloud.

He's speaking to Cloud, says:

"Wow! You used to be in SOLDIER, huh?"

And again, "SOLDIER" is the name of a mercenary group or some kind of special military or

warrior group that Cloud used to be a part of.

And Biggs says:

"Not every day" meaning: "It is not every day ya find one in a group like AVALANCHE."

"Ya" just means "you".

Again, this game, they really tried very hard to make the translation as North American

as possible, so there you go: "ya".

And again, Biggs: "You used to be in SOLDIER."

So, if you don't know: "used to" you can use to talk about past truths, past habits, past

situations.

The structure is: "used to" plus base verb.

For example: "I used to work at McDonald's."

I don't work at McDonald's now.

I did in the past.

"He used to be a programmer."

This was his job in the past.

He's not a programmer now.

And then Biggs keeps talking to Cloud, and at this point he doesn't know Cloud's name,

so Biggs says: "I didn't catch your name..."

So, in this sense, "catch" means I didn't get, I didn't understand it, or I didn't hear

it the first time.

So if you're, you know, having a conversation but you're busy and, you know, you don't catch

something, you could say:

"Oh, sorry. I didn't catch that."

I didn't hear it the first time, and sometimes it's because you're not paying attention or

a variety of other reasons.

"I can catch anything because I'm so fast."

Okay, that's great.

Let's keep going.

So they keep moving through the factory, and then Barret starts talking a little bit more

about the situation that's going on in the planet.

He says:

"Little by little the reactors'll drain all the life. Then that'll be that."

So you can see that he's using contractions here: "the reactors'll, that'll", and again:

"'ll" just means will.

So this is very useful in spoken English.

Not really written very much, honestly.

So you could say, for example: "When'll you be here?"

instead of: "When will", "when'll", right?

"When'll you be here?"

And: "We don't know when that'll change."

So, "that will", "that'll".

I wrote a whole bunch of possible contractions that you can use with this construction, so

let's do some quick pronunciation.

Repeat after me:

"who'll", yeah,

"when'll",

"where'll",

"what'll",

"how'll",

"why'll",

"this'll",

"that'll",

"these'll",

"those'll".

Now, by themselves they sound weird and difficult to pronounce, but when you put them in a sentence

and say, you know: "That will" very quickly, you know, it does sound easier and it's smooth.

"That'll change",

"That'll be everything", for example.

So, they keep going and eventually they get to the reactor that they want to blow up.

And then Barret notices that there's a monster coming after Cloud sets a bomb, and he says:

"Heads up, here it comes!"

And this is the first boss fight in the game.

So: "Heads up" simply means to pay attention or to look out.

So, you know, if you notice something like maybe there are some people playing a game

of soccer beside you and you notice the ball is coming towards you and your group of friends,

you're the only one who sees it, you say:

"Heads up!" so everyone can look up and, you

know, hopefully avoid the soccer ball.

Next, the reactor and the bomb is set.

You have 10 minutes to escape after destroying this, like, red scorpion machine monster thing,

and you're running back and Cloud sees one of your team members, Jessie.

Jessie says: "My leg got stuck."

So this means she is unable to move because of an obstruction.

How did her leg get stuck?

Who knows?

So, for example, you could say:

"I'll be late. I'm stuck in traffic."

So, here we go.

They go inside the factory, they defeat a like scorpion monster thing, they run out,

Jessie somehow gets her leg stuck.

You run out of the factory, there's a big Hollywood-like explosion, and the whole team

escapes, and now let's keep going and see what happens next.

After escaping from the factory, Barret says:

"Rendezvous at Sector 8 station! Split up and get on the train!"

So, "rendezvous" from French just means to meet.

And it is mostly used in English in military or strategic contexts.

For example: "Rendezvous here in five minutes."

You could say this with your group of friends, but it sounds a little bit formal and military.

All right?

"To split up" means to separate.

So, for example: "I lost my keys.

Can we split up and look for them?"

Like look for them together.

"You go here, I'll go here. She will go here."

So to split up is to separate, go into different directions to look for something in this situation.

Okay, so they get on the train, they escape, but before that Cloud runs into a girl, this

is Airis, one of the characters from the game, and here you have the option of buying some

flowers from her or just completely ignoring her and telling her to go away.

So Cloud could say:

"You'd better get out of here", because it's a dangerous situation,

there was just an explosion and it's not a safe place or a safe time to be.

So: "You'd better" this is "had better", this is used for strong obligation:

"You had better do something"

means: If you don't do it, there could be negative consequences.

For example: "He'd better not be late!"

So: He had better not be late.

Or: "Square Enix had better not mess up the FF7 remake."

So this means if this company, the company which made Final Fantasy VII does a poor job

with the remake, many people will be upset because so many have strong ties and a love

for the original game from 1997.

All right, we're almost there.

Let's keep going.

Okay, so Barret, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, they're all on the train and Cloud is not there.

Cloud got delayed by some enemy soldiers, so Biggs is worried and says:

"Cloud... Think he was killed?"

Now, notice that Biggs does not use a complete present simple question in this sentence,

in this question.

He just says: "Think he was killed", like an affirmative statement.

You know?

"Think he was killed?" but with a question.

He means: "Do you think he was killed?"

In spoken English it is possible to remove the "Do you" when you're asking a direct question

to someone, and you could just say:

"Hey. Want a drink?",

"Hey. Need some help?",

"Hey. Feel like eating?"

Instead of: "Do you want a drink?", "Do you need some help?", "Do you feel like eating?"

Okay?

So you can remove the verb "do", remove the subject "you", and jump straight to the verb.

All right.

And then suddenly there's a knock on the train.

[Knocks]

And there's another knock.

[Knocks]

The door opens and Cloud jumps in like some kind of ninja, and Barret is pissed at him.

Barret says: "Cloud, havin' everyone worried like that.

You don't give a damn 'bout no one but yourself!"

He's calling Cloud selfish.

Now, at this point I feel it's important to mention that in 1997 the character of Barret

was written as square-viewed black men to speak, so someone from the street.

So you see: "Havin'" and you see "bout", and: "You don't give a damn", so "give a damn"

means you don't care.

Okay?

Now, again, in speaking, you know, we do often cut off the ends of words, especially "ing",

like: "havin'", "bein'", "goin'", "stayin'".

In this case: "about", you could just say "'bout".

So instead of "having", you say: "havin'", or "bein'", or "goin'", or "stayin'".

So let's just practice this so you are able to, you know, understand it when you hear

it in movies, TV shows, or even if you see it in a comic book or a novel.

So, repeat after me:

"havin'",

"bein'",

"goin'",

"stayin'",

"'bout".

For example: "Stop bein' a jerk!" instead of: "Stop being a jerk!"

All right, so they're all on the train together, they're going back to their, you know, hideout

where they're going to plan their next mission.

So let's keep going with the story.

So they're all on the train, they walk into the next train car and Jessie starts talking

to Cloud.

She's showing him a computer that has a map of the city, and she says:

"I like this kinda stuff.

Bombs and monitors...you know, flashy stuff."

So, when she says: "I like this kinda stuff",

"this kind of stuff" means stuff similar to

this or things similar to this.

You could also say: "This sort of stuff" or "sorta".

All right? So: "sort of", "kind of".

Again, for a fuller explanation of "sort of" and "kind of", you can check out my other

lesson on this topic.

"Flashy" means impressive, in a showy or obvious way.

So, for example, if something just makes you go: "Wow!" it is flashy.

So, for example: A flashy car, or a flashy necklace.

Has a lot of diamonds, it's very shiny and you notice it very easily.

It's flashy.

Or a flashy soccer player.

For example, someone like Lionel Messi, the best soccer player in the world arguably,

he can be very flashy.

Same with Neymar or Zinedine Zidane was pretty flashy when he played.

So these are flashy soccer players.

All right, so they keep going, Barret looks out the window of the train and he starts

talking about the city as well, the city of Midgar where they're going.

So he says: "If that plate weren't there... we could see the sky."

So, in the world of Final Fantasy VII in this huge city of Midgar there are massive plates

that separate the lower citizens from the higher citizens.

And Barret uses the second conditional, he says: "If that plate were not there", he has

his "if" clause: "If that plate were not there",

using the past simple and the "if" clause,

he says: "...we could see the sky."

So just as a reminder in the second conditional what you are talking about is a present or

future unreal situation.

In this situation there is a plate.

You can't see the sky.

The people who live at the bottom of Midgar cannot see the sky.

All they see is, you know, a ceiling of metal and plates.

And he says: "We could see the sky."

So, in the result clause where he says:

"If that plate weren't there we could see the sky",

you can use: "would", "could", "might", plus a base verb.

So, for example: "If I ever needed help, I would call you."

So I don't need help right now, but if I did need help now, you are the person I would call.

All right, so we're nearing the end of the mission.

So let's keep going and do one more.

Finally they get off at the train station and Barret says:

"Meet back at the hideout! Move out!"

So, he's using an imperative command.

First of all, "a hideout" is a secret meeting place that, you know, you can use for an organization

or a group of people.

Now, again, if he wants to, you know, make sure that their secret organization stays

a secret, maybe he shouldn't be yelling commands to people, saying:

"Meet back at the hideout! Move out!"

You know, there are other people in the area who can clearly hear him.

Now, he's using imperatives.

So, how do we make an imperative?

Like in most languages: Just use the base verb:

"Stop the car!", "Move!", "Study harder!"

Okay?

So if you want to give a command just use the base verb and the rest of your sentence,

and this is how you can guide people.

All right?

So, if you'd like to test your understanding of this material, as always,

you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

And if you enjoyed the video,

don't forget to like it, comment on it, subscribe to the channel.

Check me out on Facebook and Twitter.

And finally, if you would like me to do more videos specifically about Final Fantasy VII,

if this video does 250,000 hits in the first six months, I will do a part two.

If we hit 500,000, I will do all of disc one of the PlayStation original.

And if we do get 1 million hits for this video in the first six months,

I will play the entire game and do a let's play for you with a focus on English.

So spread the word.

On Twitter use the #engvidFF7 if you want to see this happen.

And also if you want to support our website you can always donate at the link found here.

Until next time, guys, thanks for clicking.

"That was really cool."

Aw, thanks, Cloud.

By the way, I never imagined your voice to sound like that.

"Well, it actually isn't. I just think it's much cooler than the voice I have now."

Whoa, did not need to hear that.

[Singing]