Uploaded January 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What do Pac-Man and learning English have in common? More than you think. In fact, there is a learning philosophy behind the game that can be applied to anything you want, including learning a new language. In this exciting lesson, you will learn about the importance of being flexible and confident as you learn English. You will also find out about the learning blocks you need to avoid or overcome if you want to be successful and get to the last level of the game. Ready? YOU CAN DO THIS! Wakka wakka wakka.
engvid.com/learn-english-with-the-pac-man-method
TRANSCRIPT
[Pac-Man noises] Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this educational philosophy video on how to learn English with the Pac-Man method. Pac-Man? Educational philosophy? Huh?
Now, before we start, we should learn a little bit about Pac-Man and his history. First, Pac-Man was originally a 1980s arcade game, a very popular one, as you can see by the t-shirt. And the goal of Pac-Man was to eat all of the pellets in a maze. Now, a pellet is a compressed, little ball. Think of something you can feed a bird or something you can feed a fish, or think of a pellet gun. In Pac-Man, these pellets represented food for Pac-Man to eat. Now, in the 1980s at the arcades, a little pellet, a little dot on the screen, it could have represented anything.
So, it is a 1980s arcade game. The goal of Pac-Man is to eat all of the pellets in a maze. The difficult part about eating all of these pellets is that there are ghosts constantly chasing you, trying to kill you, attack you, eat you, and you have to avoid them. Now, you can fight back. How to fight back in Pac-Man is you need to eat a power pellet. And this power pellet turns the ghosts blue, and allows you to chase them and eat your enemies.
What was really difficult about this game is that it had 256 levels. 2-5-6. Can you think about a game today that has that many levels? It's ridiculous. So, this was something that was really, really difficult to master, and it had a ton of levels, a ton of patterns and mazes and content that you had to memorize. Does this sound familiar to you? So let's see how this relates to English.
Now, imagine for a moment you are Pac-Man. I'm Pac-Man. Every level, every maze in Pac-Man represents an element of the English language that you have to learn. So, a Pac-Man maze could represent an academic vocabulary list that you're trying to learn, it could represent a grammar tense, it could represent a pronunciation point that you are currently studying. For example, a Pac-Man maze could be the present continuous tense, it could be how to use "will" in many contexts. Now, what you have to do in mastering this vocabulary list, this grammar tense, this pronunciation point is complete the level by eating every single pellet of information in that level, before you can continue and do other things.
Now, the ghosts, what do they represent? What does this guy represent? This guy, this guy, and this guy? These are blocks to learning. These blocks could be bad experiences you have had with English in the past. These could be fear about not knowing enough. A block to learning could be a negative person in your life who tells you: "You'll never learn this language." Avoid those people, just like you avoid the ghosts in the game. Now, a block to learning could be a bad teacher, someone who gives you bad information about English. And a block to learning, similar to fear, could be just your own low self-confidence. You know that feeling where you think: "I will never learn this language"? And I understand that feeling, because I am currently studying French, and I feel that way about French, so I'm right there with you.
Now, how can I improve? How do I make sure that these blocks to learning are conquered, that I can destroy them, and get through them? Let's look at that. So, your goal when learning English with the Pac-Man method is to avoid those blocks to learning, triumphing over your fears, and growing in your own self-confidence as you get better, and better, and better with English the more time you spend with it. Just like the more time you spend with a Pac-Man video game... Well, we don't have arcades anymore with Pac-Man in them, really, but the more time you spend playing anything, the better you will be at it. Just like the more time you spend practicing English, studying English, listening to English - the more confident you will become and the more knowledgeable you will become. So, to improve and continue improving, what you need to do when learning something is eat those language power pellets, those things that teach you to study, understand, and practice, and to speak confidently. I'm not scared of you, I'm not scared of you, I'm not scared of you, and I'm not scared of you! I can do this!
What do Pac-Man and learning English have in common? More than you think. In fact, there is a learning philosophy behind the game that can be applied to anything you want, including learning a new language. In this exciting lesson, you will learn about the importance of being flexible and confident as you learn English. You will also find out about the learning blocks you need to avoid or overcome if you want to be successful and get to the last level of the game. Ready? YOU CAN DO THIS! Wakka wakka wakka.
engvid.com/learn-english-with-the-pac-man-method
TRANSCRIPT
[Pac-Man noises] Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this educational philosophy video on how to learn English with the Pac-Man method. Pac-Man? Educational philosophy? Huh?
Now, before we start, we should learn a little bit about Pac-Man and his history. First, Pac-Man was originally a 1980s arcade game, a very popular one, as you can see by the t-shirt. And the goal of Pac-Man was to eat all of the pellets in a maze. Now, a pellet is a compressed, little ball. Think of something you can feed a bird or something you can feed a fish, or think of a pellet gun. In Pac-Man, these pellets represented food for Pac-Man to eat. Now, in the 1980s at the arcades, a little pellet, a little dot on the screen, it could have represented anything.
So, it is a 1980s arcade game. The goal of Pac-Man is to eat all of the pellets in a maze. The difficult part about eating all of these pellets is that there are ghosts constantly chasing you, trying to kill you, attack you, eat you, and you have to avoid them. Now, you can fight back. How to fight back in Pac-Man is you need to eat a power pellet. And this power pellet turns the ghosts blue, and allows you to chase them and eat your enemies.
What was really difficult about this game is that it had 256 levels. 2-5-6. Can you think about a game today that has that many levels? It's ridiculous. So, this was something that was really, really difficult to master, and it had a ton of levels, a ton of patterns and mazes and content that you had to memorize. Does this sound familiar to you? So let's see how this relates to English.
Now, imagine for a moment you are Pac-Man. I'm Pac-Man. Every level, every maze in Pac-Man represents an element of the English language that you have to learn. So, a Pac-Man maze could represent an academic vocabulary list that you're trying to learn, it could represent a grammar tense, it could represent a pronunciation point that you are currently studying. For example, a Pac-Man maze could be the present continuous tense, it could be how to use "will" in many contexts. Now, what you have to do in mastering this vocabulary list, this grammar tense, this pronunciation point is complete the level by eating every single pellet of information in that level, before you can continue and do other things.
Now, the ghosts, what do they represent? What does this guy represent? This guy, this guy, and this guy? These are blocks to learning. These blocks could be bad experiences you have had with English in the past. These could be fear about not knowing enough. A block to learning could be a negative person in your life who tells you: "You'll never learn this language." Avoid those people, just like you avoid the ghosts in the game. Now, a block to learning could be a bad teacher, someone who gives you bad information about English. And a block to learning, similar to fear, could be just your own low self-confidence. You know that feeling where you think: "I will never learn this language"? And I understand that feeling, because I am currently studying French, and I feel that way about French, so I'm right there with you.
Now, how can I improve? How do I make sure that these blocks to learning are conquered, that I can destroy them, and get through them? Let's look at that. So, your goal when learning English with the Pac-Man method is to avoid those blocks to learning, triumphing over your fears, and growing in your own self-confidence as you get better, and better, and better with English the more time you spend with it. Just like the more time you spend with a Pac-Man video game... Well, we don't have arcades anymore with Pac-Man in them, really, but the more time you spend playing anything, the better you will be at it. Just like the more time you spend practicing English, studying English, listening to English - the more confident you will become and the more knowledgeable you will become. So, to improve and continue improving, what you need to do when learning something is eat those language power pellets, those things that teach you to study, understand, and practice, and to speak confidently. I'm not scared of you, I'm not scared of you, I'm not scared of you, and I'm not scared of you! I can do this!
